ABC’s a Wizard of Ahs for a Brilliant ‘Life With Judy’

Judy Garland’s life unfolded like a Hollywood screenplay: Pushed into show business by a domineering stage mother, young Garland found herself indentured to a studio system that treated her like an ugly duckling even though she was, quite clearly, a rare swan. From then on, the studio, the press and the public molded her into whatever they wanted her to be: innocent little Dorothy Gale, larger-than-life singing sensation, pill-popping has-been, or show-business martyr, dead at 47.

That life plays a little like “Gypsy” and a little like an old-time feature film biography in “Life With Judy Garland,” based on daughter Lorna Luft’s memoir “Me and My Shadows” and airing Sunday and Monday on ABC.

As the young and adult Garland, Tammy Blanchard and Judy Davis, respectively, turn in performances that fall just short of reincarnation, while director Robert Allan Ackerman and cinematographer James Chressanthis come up with reproduction film and newsreel footage--rendered, true to the originals, in either saturated color or rich black and white--that almost feels archival.

Blanchard anchors the first third of the story, as Garland dreams of stardom and is prescribed her first cruel doses of reality. She gets the giddy, galloping rhythms of young Garland’s speech just right, as well as the traces of nervousness and insecurity that made Garland’s otherwise assured early performances so achingly genuine.

This segment includes a meticulous re-creation of Garland’s trip along “The Wizard of Oz’s” yellow brick road, arm in arm with her joke-cracking adult co-stars, and a harrowing look through the camera during the filming of “Girl Crazy,” as overexertion and pills cause Garland’s eyes to dart erratically.

When Davis takes over, Garland assumes the tangled contradictions of her mature life: the uncomplicated beauty shot through with smoldering sensuality, the incandescent energy mixed with an almost desperate desire to please, and the heartbreaking ability to transform even her neuroses and addictions into art.

Davis’ concert re-creations (lip-synced to the real Garland’s voice) include a tearful “Over the Rainbow” at the Palace in 1951 and a hopped-up “Swanee” at Carnegie Hall in 1961. Every time the actress thrusts a hand into the air in one of Garland’s signature gestures, you could swear you were watching archival footage.

Robert L. Freedman’s teleplay presents Garland’s life as the quintessential show-business story, and the many echoes of “Gypsy” seem somehow inevitable when one considers that the executive producers include Craig Zadan and Neil Meron, who were key forces behind the 1993 “Gypsy” with Bette Midler.

Occasionally, the storytelling slips into cliches (as when extras on the MGM lot gather beneath an open window to listen to the young Garland sing), and the energy (though not the emotion) inevitably flags in the closing minutes, as Garland’s flame begins to sputter out.

But this is top-notch filmmaking, from the scrupulous reproduction designs by Dan Davis to the vivid supporting performances of Marsha Mason as Garland’s mother; Victor Garber as Garland’s third husband, Sid Luft; John Benjamin Hickey as Roger Edens, her musical guru and lifelong friend; and Alison Pill as teenage Lorna Luft. The movie may not match the thrill of having been in Carnegie Hall to hear the real Garland, but it’s about as close as many of us will ever get.

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* “Life With Judy Garland” airs Sunday and Monday at 9 p.m. on ABC. The network has rated it TV-PG-L (may be unsuitable for young children, with a special advisory for coarse language).