What do you think of this Karen Carpenter interview?

She looks scary thin. She can't just expect the interviewer not to comment on it. Not bringing it up at all is going to look even weirder since it's going to be the first question on anyone's mind when they see how thin she is.

I’ve always thought Richard was creepy, but he does look handsome here.

Both of them trying so hard to pretend that everything was just FINE, no problem, we don’t know what you’re talking about with this “anorexia” stuff! And she was dead less than 2 years later.

She looks like she should have died on the spot.

She could stand to lose a few.

Very sad interview. Clearly, the interviewer knew the score with both Richard and Karen, and she continued to pour salt over the wound. She should have simply said how marvelous it was to have them back, and ask about the new things they were doing. Karen was too damn fragile to be put through all of that. :(

Still the most memorable thing to come out of Downey, California.

He looks a bit like Richard Chamberlain.

Richard was so handsome back then. Poor Karen...truly a gift from God.

If I lived in Downey I'd probably starve myself too.

One of the all-time great voices in popular music. Whether or not you like the songs/style, she had a truly wonderful voice.

If you look up internalized homophobia in the dictionary, you'll find Richard's picture...

R12, he's gay?

It was a time before anorexia was really recognized. I guess it was a weird thing where everyone knew something was wrong, yet no one seemed to know how to approach it.

Did people think she was just emaciated from drugs?

Eating disorders were known back then, but not talked about in polite society. Karen's problems really brought those conditions out of the closet.

Karen Carpenter was one of the greatest female vocalists of the 20th century. Her voice was exquisite. Such a sad, sad story.

That look says Karen’s thinking the interviewer is a few sandwiches short of a picnic. Burp.

It seems like this interview pops up on DL every 6 months. The rumors sound credible.

Richard was always the favored child, and it was no secret. Agnes Carpenter thought the sun shone out of Richard's ass and was nothing but a nasty critical bitch to Karen. It was such a fucked-up family dynamic, and that contributed a lot to Karen's anorexia.

Karen was not an attractive woman

Another 1981 video.

Although Karen was on the verge of death.Joan was likely warned not to discuss her physical appearance.

Did Karen give herself that bad perm?

Poor Karen. She's only 31 there in that photo still at R22, but she looks closer to 51.

the mother was an evil bitch and Karen couldnt just move on with her life. Karen should have dumped Richard and gone solo and shut the family out, period.

R21, Karen was very pretty when she was healthy.

R23, that was "the" hairstyle for women in 1981. Malnourishment is making it look course and frizzy.

I was in college when she died and it was the first time I had heard the word anorexia.

A few years later, Diff'rent Strokes did a very special episode where Kimberly was developing the condition. Then MBB did a TV movie called "Kate's Secret". Later, Tracey Gold went public about her battle with anorexia. On Growing Pains, the scripts had included several jokes about her being fat. Her character was supposed to be the stereotypical "nerd", but she had never been anywhere near "fat".

"Did Karen give herself that bad perm?"

Make it bushy to hide the hair loss.

I thought she was more bulimic than anorexic?

Ironic that the two 'goody-two-shoes' are lying through their teeth. Didn't her marriage last about five minutes? I think Karen was a lesbian, either deeply closeted or deeply denying. Yeah, with 28 guys in their touring party you think she could find a date?

And she played drums. So...lesbian.

She looks like Freida Claxton's younger sister in R22's pic.

Yikes, R22

Their Christmas music is the best, and I'm not really a fan of Christmas music.

R22. In that video, Karen looks like a member of the cast of CATS.

Olivia Newton-John said Karen was always trying to push her brother on her. Olivia often seems irritated at the mention of Richard's name. And she rarely says anything even slightly negative in interviews.

Considering they were "best friends" you'd think they'd have done some projects together. I wonder if Richard stopped them and that was part of Olivia's dislike of him

For Christ's sake people, just calm down.

Karen was fine. She was just POOPED is all.

Pooped!

It was a loss of a great talent. It would have been nice to see how she developed as an artist. Too bad we are deprived of that. What does Richard do these days?

She doesn’t look “emaciated,” she looks like a fucking flesh eating ghoul and like she’s going to drop at any second. She was really fucking sick and no one, including her “fans” did a goddamn thing to help her.

Richard (we've all heard) sexually abused her and forced her to have sex for contracts and gigs all through their career. No wonder she were anorexic.

I don’t believe Richard sexually abused her. He was always into the cock.

[quote] Richard (we've all heard) sexually abused her and forced her to have sex for contracts and gigs all through their career. No wonder she were anorexic.

Her physical appearance and eating were the only things she could control. It was her way of limiting the abuse, but of course it went too far.

The Interviewer, Sue Lawley in the 1st clip wasn't some showbiz hack, she was a proper print journalist and a main anchor of the evening news for many years.

If Richard & Karen wanted a fluff promotional piece they shouldn't have agreed to be interviewed by her.

Her other claim to fame is continuing a broadcast of The 6 o'clock News while a bunch of lesbians invaded the TV studio protesting about the now repealed Section 28 legislation.

RIchard disavowed the TV movie about them

SOMEONE abused Karen.

Parents, brother or someone else.....

Agnes: “Eat your dinner, you little bitch.”

Karen: (massive 🙄 )

Agnes: SLAP!

I'm disappointed that they never wrote a song about Downey.

Well, Louise Fletcher, who won the Oscar for Nurse Ratched, portrayed Karen Carpenter’s mother, Agnes. Miss Fletcher’s stock in trade are the steely, controlling ice cold bitch roles. Whoever cast her in that TV movie must have had background information about Agnes.

Young man, I’m not accustomed to people half my age calling me by my first name.

All this foolishness and conjecture just because she was pooped?

Young Louise

Instantly recognizable contralto voice, smooth and melancholic. One of the greats who only needs a first name, like Dusty or Gladys.

Such a loss.

WHET happened to Mitchell Anderson, who played Richard in the TV Movie?

R52 He went into semi retirement but he was in the series After Forever, which was about a gay couple in their 50s.

Cynthia Gibb would have also made a decent Judy Garland with her big brown eyes. She really starved herself for this role but I would have preferred she lowered her speaking voice more to sound like Karen.

Is this Richard's son?

R42 The interviewer Sue Lawley, was always a rude cunt.

Good detective work, r55! Old Richard can be seen in this collection of photos.

Richard and his wife are first cousins.

More Collin

Collin is definitely fuckable.

Karen moved out of her parents home to live with her boyfriend. Agnes went ballistic and Karen moved back home. I don't think she ever learned how to stand up for herself.

Agnes was one of the cuntiest cunts that ever cunted.

Karen lived with her parents until she was in her mid or even late 20s, even though she was a millionaire. Weird.

I bet Agnes was the kind of mother who constantly nagged her teenage daughter about her weight.

This Agnes lady sounded like a real piece of work.

Karen cried uncontrollably during the meeting. She told them how sorry she was for having put them in a situation where they felt a need to defend her upbringing, and she went so far as to apologise for ruining their lives. "I think Karen really needs to hear that you love her," Levenkron told the family.

"Well, of course I love you," Richard told her unreservedly.

"Agnes?" The therapist tapped the mother's shoe with his own.

Rather than address her daughter, Agnes explained how she preferred to be called Mrs Carpenter. "Well, I'm from the north," she continued. "And we just don't do things that way."

"Agnes couldn't do it," says Itchie Ramone, who discussed the meeting with Karen and Levenkron after the family left. "She couldn't do it… In therapy you're basically stark naked. Then your own mother can't reach out to you? And the way she doted on Richard. Most children would try to dance as fast as they could to make their parents love them, but it was at that point that I think Karen decided it was time to take a step back."

richard married his first cousin, but they were NOT blood first cousins....

personally i just don't think her family DID ENOUGH to help karen. while anorexia and other eating disorders were not widespread known at least a name to it which is true, or how to treat, at the time, THERE WERE experts on eating disorders around in the world if albeit very very few. THE WHOLE IDEA that anorexia/bulimia and so on wasn't known or how to treat by ANYONE in the world is hogwash... IF they had done some digging they would have found actual experts and should have gone to the end of the earth to find them..

i blame the submissive weak father..

the stubborn mean spirited dominating mother (anyone ever watch the interview after karen's death on good morning america? she talks about karen and finding karen dead or dying beyond clinical and unemotional, like she was describing losing a "thing"....

and yes, even the selfish self absorbed richard..

Why did she hate Karen so much?

R68... i'm guessing a plethora or reasons, all nutty...

karen wasn't pretty enough or whatever enough compared to other girls/women her age..no doubt the mother compared karen in every way to other females...

she, the mother, was fixated on her first born richard and he was the original golden child who was tossed aside when it was karen who turned out to be the one in a lifetime talent, something agnes couldn't handle. perhaps old school upbringing that the male should always be deferred to and catered to even when that male is a son and yes over a female child...

simple jealousy of karen.....

saw in karen her own faults...

maybe karen didn't kiss her ass like richard did, as he was thee ultimate mama's boy and she was her father's girl, and yet agnes hated that she was her father's girl.. wanted it both ways, ass kissing from karen AND unconditional love even if that meant taking some of that love away from her own husband, karen's father?..

and so on and so on...

Family photo

[quote]Richard disavowed the TV movie about them.

How weird considering they filmed at the Carpenters house and Gibb wore some of Karen's clothes.

Have you read Little Girl Blue?

The family piano wasn't the only thing he ran his nimble fingers over. (nudge, nudge, wink, wink.)

Karen near the end. Yikes!

Karen and Olivia looking really dykey together.

Despite the disastrous effect Karen's weight loss had on her periods, she had always wanted children and in 1980 she met a handsome property developer called Tom Burris. Two months later they decided to marry.

This set off alarm bells for Karen's friends and as the wedding date neared, Karen discovered some devastating news. Tom had had a vasectomy before he had met her and had neglected to tell her, despite her wishes to have children as soon as possible. He offered to have the operation reversed but Karen decided to call off the wedding.

When she told her mother, Agnes said she would do "no such thing" and ordered her to go through with the wedding because friends and family were travelling especially for it and it had already been paid for. And Karen did.

R56 Sue Lawley wouldn't be regarded as Rude by other British people.

She's from the Midlands ( Dudley, well North of London) and direct. They presented themselves to be interviewed on a serious(ish) news show, she read her research and asked the questions that she thought were relevant.

Watch a few Michael Parkinson shows from the same era. We didn't get into the fluffy 'plug your shit' type interviews until 10 years after Karen Carpenter died.

You really can't judge a 40 year old interview by today's (low) standards.

I've never seen either of the photos in R70 or R73 and have followed the Carpenters forever. What can you say but, "Wow." Especially R70.

Colin is cute.

More dykeyness from Karen and Olivia.

"It would have been nice to see how she developed as an artist."

She didn't. After a couple middle of the road hits in the early 70's, they became an anachronism. Richard, trying to salvage their career as the fresh-scrubbed wunderkinds, nagged Karen about her pear shape and she started throwing up to 'stay young'.

When that interview was filmed, disco and Punk had just expired. New Wave was trying to get a foothold. And there was that awful period (ushered-in by the movie Urban Cowboy) where people like Dolly Parton were having top ten hits(!). Right before the 80s British Invasion and Michael Jackson.

If she'd lived they would probably have ended-up doing cruise sips or Branson, Missouri.

I think if Karen had lived she and Richard would've had a career resurgence in the second half of the 80s when the adult contemporary sound became very popular. Entire radio stations were dedicated to it.

That's bullshit, [R79]. If she had lived, she'd have broken with brother Richard and had a career similar to Streisand and other singers who didn't follow the mainstream style, but had occasional hits. She'd have put out a Broadway album, and then a standards album, a duets album, etc. Just like every other female singer with a legitimate voice. She'd have done TV specials, and maybe a series.

Karen would've been 70 years old this month.

Richard did look really good there OP, I always thought he was pretty hot, even though he seemed like a moody uptight personality. Probably wasn't great for the sibling relationship when he looked still like a blond pretty boy and she looked like she was at death's door. Richard's son is really cute too, looks like he gets his good looks from his mom though.

Didn't they have vitamins in the 80s? If she wasn't getting nutrients from food, vitamins would have prolonged her life without calories.

^^^^^^^ Is an idot...

And I swear to god I typed that missing "i" -I really did!

“Yes but as I said where have you been?”

“We were just pooped!”

“I think it was said you were down to six stone in weight.”

“I don’t know what six stone in weight is.”

Angry eye roll from Karen.

God DAMN, this boy does not know how to take a bad picture. Every one of them on Insta looks really good. Pre-med so smart too.

Jesus, that pic at R73 is fucking frightening! It's like looking at this...

[quote] It was a time before anorexia was really recognized.

Apparently, some called it the Slimmer's Disease.

Richard said it all started because of what he called her "hourglass figure." Notice how w i d e her hips were? Losing weight couldn't change that. She looked in the mirror and all she saw were those hips. It became an obsession and grew from there.

Richard said it all started because of what he called her "hourglass figure." Notice how w i d e her hips were? Losing weight couldn't change that. She looked in the mirror and all she saw were those hips. It became an obsession and grew from there.

Colin is fucking gorgeous -But I'd trade him for his aunt Karen any day.

[quote]Richard said it all started because of what he called her "hourglass figure." Notice how w i d e her hips were? Losing weight couldn't change that. She looked in the mirror and all she saw were those hips. It became an obsession and grew from there.

My daughter always was a bit "hippy."

No, R71. Great title for a book about her life though.

....

A simple vacation might have saved her. She was POOPED!

[quote] "It would have been nice to see how she developed as an artist."

Aside from a Bacharach connection, Karen and Dusty Springfield had some parallels. I imagine Karen might have struggled to build a new sound and eventually found her own Pet Shop Boys-esque connection for production.

Pooping WAS her vacation.

She hid laxatives like alcoholics hide booze. Richard and Agnes would go through the house turning things upside down to confiscate all the boxes and bottles of laxatives Karen had stashed all over the place.

[quote]Richard and Agnes would go through the house turning things upside down to confiscate all the boxes and bottles of laxatives Karen had stashed all over the place.

Um, no.

I think this song could have been at least a Top 10 hit in 1979. Richard thought it was terrible.

Karen should have released a disco album

Karen did make a disco album and Richard told her it was garbage and she was stealing the Carpenter's sound.

Richard was, and is, a prick.

That song could have been a hit. I never cared for disco, but that song wasn't bad.

I still remember their last album cover...Richard's picture was on the front, and Karen's was on the side...

r101 that's a true story.

Sorry...Richard may have been a dick but he was right about that solo album. Except for the four songs he put on the “Lovelines” album, the rest was just not good. Including the disco song.

Being good had nothing to do with being successful in the disco era...

Karen's solo album only had a couple of decent songs, the rest were not all that great. She deserved better material.

I don't know why they'd be "pooped" (childish word). They hadn't had a hit in years. Were they touring the Far East?

Their shtick was becoming obsolete by the eclectic 80s. Donny & Marie were still doing the twinzies thang, but they had looks, youth and comedic chops.

R70 wow those ribs. And she wasn’t even at her thinnest then...

I approve of Colin @ R88.

r74

It takes a mighty thin person to make Olivia look fat

R99 wins.

i think the carpenters COULD have been huge in the adult contemporary charts in the early to mid 80s.. i mean look at dionne warwick, she had a huge resurgence in that category at the time, others too...i do think it would have had them look to other writers and composers and so on besides richard and their usual gang to do this though....

Can someone explain to me like I’m retarded how laxatives would make you lose weight? Idgi.

You shouldn't use that word, R117.

She should have phoned me. I could have guided her on how to get out from under the wing of a controlling asshole.

And I ate anything I wanted to in the seventies! Cocaine kept my body slim.

You're almost there, [R117]. Keep those wheels turning...

Laxatives speed up motility -thats the movement of food through the digestive system. When someone is sick and has diarrhea the food moves too quickly through and as a result nutrients are not absorbed. Overdoing laxatives has a similar effect. The body cannot get nutrients from food, so it turns on itself.

[quote]i do think it would have had them look to other writers and composers and so on besides richard and their usual gang to do this though....

It was Richard that was the problem. He wanted to be the center of things.

For example:

John Bettis, one of the gang of writers for them, had 80s hits, like "Crazy For You," by Madonna, "Human Nature," by Michael Jackson, "Slow Hand," by the Pointer Sisters, "Heart of The Night," by Juice Newton, "One Moment In Time," by Whitney Houston and even the theme to "Growing Pains."

R121... didn't know this about john bettis, thanks..and perhaps stresses even more so that karen needed to be a solo act and richard do his own thing (classical arranging and piano concerts)... course with agnes that would never happen unless karen LITERALLY told them to "F" off and then she would be the "bad seed" who broke up the family.. karen couldn't win it seems....

Richard and Agnes made Karen feel like shit for doing her solo album, like it was a betrayal. Such a fucked up family. The shelving of her solo album and her brief, unhappy marriage was what really sent Karen over the edge and her anorexia got even worse.

Karen was very very selfish.

Always wanting to leave Downey, have children, break up Richard's band.

Shameful.

Damn right, Mrs C!!! What a bitch!!!!

"I'm just pooped is all!"

You were just an ungrateful and spiteful BITCH, IS ALL!!!!

She lied. liar

Love her voice - so many great songs. I didn't know her mother hated her.

I heard Karen once visited a Norwalk taco truck on her own, and Agnes got so mad, she denied her supper for the next three nights.

Good for Agnes! Karen needed to heed her mother!!

Little bitch! Eating those Tacos!

It wasn't worth it, was it dear!?

R76 I'm a British person of a certain age and Sue Lawley was absolutely as an A1 bitch, very bullying in her interviews of women and sycophantic to men. Like her infamous interview of Christine Keeler where she acts the complete cunt.

^ so she’s a DL icon?

R130 Sue Lawley approached her interviews as a Journalist, something that we aren't used to now after 30 years of Jonathon Ross and Graham Norton.

Have you ever seen Barbara Walters or Diane Sawyer do showbiz interviews when they were in their prime, they never took a breath and asked the hard questions. Both also called Bitches.

Karen would have no problem with food scarcity during Corona Virus.

She seems sweet in this video. Something about her mannerisms remind me of my grandmother.

Olivia was beautiful, by the way. With these bangs, she looks like a mix of Heidi Klum and Christie Brinkley when she smiles.

She doesn't look as good as nephew Colin.

Wouldn't she need to worry about her toilet paper supply? Don't forget about those laxatives.

What was Karen Carpenter's favorite dessert?

A tray of ice cubes.

Let's hope Colin doesn't inherit his aunt's eating disorder!

[quote]She was really fucking sick and no one, including her “fans” did a goddamn thing to help her.

What were her fans supposed to do? Kidnap her and feed her Oreos?

If Mama Cass had shared that ham sandwich with Karen Carpenter, they'd both be alive today.

I never knew Olivia and Karen were friends. Back in the 80s I was friends with Allee Willis, a gay songwriter who recently died, and I remember her talking about Tuesday "girl nights" at Olivia's in Malibu. I wonder if Karen was a participant.

Did the "girl nights" involve the lez-lez?

Karen Carpenter jokes, anyone? Please share.

Agnes: Oh Christ, Richard. Your sister and those damn laxatives. She just shit her britches.

Richard: Well, Ma....what do you expect? She's POOPED!

Maitre'd: And what may I get Madame this evening?

Karen: Iced tea. Tossed salad. Industrial laxatives, please.

Richard: Christ, Karen. Hitting the sauce a little early tonight aren't you?

Why did Karen Carpenter’s house sell so cheaply?

It didn’t have a kitchen.

What was Karen Carpenter’s favorite dessert?

A tray of ice cubes.

[quote]Did the "girl nights" involve the lez-lez?

Um, yeah. Not that I was there. But it was talked about. I always wondered why Olivia married Miss Matt Latanzi. Or why she never came out. Kinda sad that Olivia's own daughter suffered the same thing as Karen.

Chloe Latanzi really, um, bounced back.

Karen: I can't beat this disease, Richard, it's too much for me. Richard: C'mon, Sis, it'll be a piece of cake. Karen (horrified): Well, then, I'm history.

[post redacted because linking to dailymail.co.uk clearly indicates that the poster is either a troll or an idiot (probably both, honestly.) Our advice is that you just ignore this poster but whatever you do, don't click on any link to this putrid rag.]

Everyone was concentrating on Karen. Meanwhile Richard was super addicted to Quaaludes of all things.

More Karen jokes, please!

Richard: God, Karen. You're a real asshole, you know that? A real fucking asshole.

Karen: Kiss my ass, you cousin fucker!

First Date with Karen

Maitre D': Welcome back, Miss Carpenter. The usual, I presume? Yes, very good. And for the gentleman?

Karen's Date: I'll have what the lady's having.

Maitre D': Very good, sir. Two large ice waters, coming right up.

R155, Karen always had lemon with her ice water. She considered lemon as a diuretic.

Just FYI...your post was hilarious.

WHAT is with Karen's hair toward the end? Frizzie afro monstrosity.....an abomination, an impossibly horrible perm.

lmao, r145. you idiot :)

If poor Karen wasn’t so pooped she’d have pooped on the interviewer. FYI anorexia/bull a are like alcoholics in that it isn’t caused by something external but rather is a disease inherent in the individual.

I could stand to lose a few.

Is the Slimmers Disease as easy to catch as COVID-19?

Piss of a gypsy, R160.

They need to make a real movie about Karen's life, not some made-for-TV crap. The girl who plays Nancy on Stranger Things can play Karen...

She was body goals.