Dolly Parton Announces ‘Coat of Many Colors’ TV Movie

Less than four months after Dolly Parton announced that she would co-produce several TV movies based on her life story for NBC, one film is now officially underway. Coat of Many Colors, named after a single that Parton released in 1971, will be the first movie to air on the network.

The song "Coat of Many Colors" is based on a true story: Parton was born into poverty, the fourth of 12 children who lived in a one-room house in East Tennessee. When Parton was a child, her mother stitched her a coat made from rags that someone had donated to the family. Although Parton loved the coat, as a child, she was teased by her classmates for wearing something made from scraps.

"This once-in-a-lifetime movie special takes us inside the tight-knit Parton family as they struggle to overcome devastating tragedy and discover the healing power of love, faith and a raggedy patchwork coat that helped make Dolly who she is today," says the project's official description (quote via Broadway World).

Parton will be the executive producer of Coat of Many Colors. It's not yet clear if she will appear in the two-hour movie, but the 69-year-old hints that she may be spending more time in front of the cameras in the future, instead of behind a microphone.

“I’m doing my life story as a musical," she reveals. "I’m also doing my life story as a movie, which also has a lot of music in it. I may possibly do some television and some producing. I’ve got a lot of other business thoughts in mind. I do not plan to do any more touring in the near future.”

An air date for Coat of Many Colors has not been announced.