CMT Shares Premiere Details for New Show, ‘Sun Records’
Nashville isn't the only TV show that fans have to look forward to from CMT in the new year: The cable network has announced that another music-themed show, Sun Records, will debut in late February.
Set in Memphis and inspired by true events, Sun Records will focus on a chance meeting in 1956 that turned out to be a seminal moment in modern music history (and a Tony Award-winning musical). On Dec. 4 of that year, Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins met by chance at Sun Studio in Memphis, and stumbled into an impromptu jam session. Sun Records owner Sam Phillips was smart enough to record the session ... and the rest is history. The recordings -- aptly titled The Million Dollar Quartet -- have been released in various forms, and ultimately became an unforgettable contribution to the birth of rock 'n' roll.
But it's not just the story of that one fateful day that Sun Records will tell. According to CMT, the eight-part series will chronicle "these young artists’ often jarring and sudden meteoric rise to fame in the face of sweeping political change and social unrest." Set in the early days the Civil Rights Movement, Sun Records will be as much about the historic cultural events of that era as it will the musical events.
Sun Records will star Kevin Fonteyne as Cash, while Drake Milligan will fill Presley's blue suede shoes (he previously played the icon in the 2014 short film Nobody). Christian Lees and Dustin Ingram will take on the roles of Lewis and Perkins, respectively, and Chad Michael Murray of One Tree Hill fame will play the man who brought the Million Dollar Quartet together, Sam Phillips.
Sun Records is set to debut on Feb. 23 at 10PM ET, joining Nashville to round out CMT's prime-time lineup on Thursday nights.