Air Date Announced for ‘Coat of Many Colors’ TV Movie

Dolly Parton's first NBC TV movie, Coat of Many Colors, officially has an air date.

The film, based on the country legend's childhood and named after a single she released in 1971, is set to premiere on Dec. 10 at 9PM ET. It is set in 1955, in the Tennessee Great Smokey Mountains. Coat of Many Colors is not a biopic nor a musical, "but rather a family-oriented, faith-based story about the incidents in her and her family's life around the time she was 9 years old," according to a press release.

Production on the movie begins in Atlanta, Ga., this week (Aug. 17-21). Parton herself is serving as an executive producer, along with Pamela K. Long and Sam Haskell; Long is also the film's writer. Alyvia Lind, Jennifer Nettles, Gerald McRaney and Ricky Schroder have been cast in the roles of Parton, Parton's mother, Parton’s grandfather and Parton's father, respectively.

“What they told me was that Dolly saw my reading and that towards the end of it, she was emotional and moved and said, ‘Yes, that is my mom,’” Nettles recalls of being cast. “So, I love hearing that.”

Coat of Many Colors is the first in a series of TV movies that the award-winning singer will produce for NBC based on her life, stories and songs. During NBC’s day at the recent Television Critics Association summer press tour, Parton revealed that her second made-for-TV film for the TV network will be based on her song “Jolene.” John Sacret Young, who worked on The West Wing, is writing the script.

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