regretted?

I think because it just sucked. It was a cheap made for TV thing. Very poorly done, poorly acted in my opinion.


"In the midst of life we are in death"-Stand by me

It's only hearsay so I can't say for sure it's accurate, but I knew a girl who appeared as an extra in this movie. She said that Richard was on the set and she had talked to him, and he said his involvement was much less than he had been promised and much less than the producers wanted viewers to think--basically they just wanted his name on it to give it some credibility but they gave him no say in anything. He wasn't at all happy with the final product, because they invented entire scenes for dramatic effect and he felt Karen was portrayed as a weak victim, which was not who she was. (Again, this is hearsay, I don't know for sure that Richard said any of that--someone just told me he did.)

There was some unfortunate casting for sure; Cynthia Gibb was completely unbelievable as Karen. Gibb was always more of a soap opera actress--not to say there's anything wrong with soap opera actresses, it's just that a completely different acting style is required to carry a film (even a made for TV film) and Gibb didn't appear to be up to the challenge. She made Karen look a bit like a cartoon character instead of the warm, sensitive, talented young lady who was loved by so many.

One thing they did right was to use tapes of Karen singing, rather than have Gibb try to imitate the inimitable Karen Carpenter's lovely, unique and very distinctive voice.

On the whole, it's good that a movie was made in an attempt to honor and remember someone so special and gifted. It's just a shame they didn't spend a little more money to do a better job of it, and more input from her brother would surely have helped.

I see that Richard even directed some of it which seems quite surprising. After all, Joe Sargent was one of the most successful television directors of his generation, so it makes me wonder where exactly Richard was calling "action" and "cut".