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A biopic about the DeBarge family is in the works. TV One is prepping the project, titled All This Love: The DeBarge Family Story. Set to air Fall 2018, the film will focus on the story the DeBarge family, one of the most popular family groups in American music history, as told by the family matriarch, Etterline Abney.
[Robert Louis DeBarge, Sr. (1932–2009) was a soldier who served for the United States Armed forces and was of French descent. He met Etterlene Abney, who is African American, in Detroit, Michigan in the early 1950s. They married in 1953, with Robert being 21 and Etterlene going on 18. They stayed together for 21 years before divorcing in 1974. The children claimed that their father sexually abused several of them, which the father denied. Robert and Etterlene have 10 children: Etterlene “Bunny” DeBarge (b. 1955), Robert Louis “Bobby” DeBarge, Jr. (1956–1995), Thomas Keith “Tommy” DeBarge (b. 1957), William Randall “Randy” DeBarge (b. 1958), Mark “Marty” DeBarge (b. 1959), Eldra Patrick “El” DeBarge (b. 1961), James DeBarge (b. 1963), Jonathan Arthur “Chico” DeBarge (b. 1966), Carol “Peaches” DeBarge (b. 1970), Darrell “Young” DeBarge (b. 1970)]
See the network’s description of the biopic below.
After her marriage with Robert DeBarge, a handsome white soldier, goes through a turbulent unraveling, Etterline Abney relocates her children to Illinois. The children begin singing in her brother’s church. Two of the brothers record a demo tape that, with the help of Jermaine Jackson, falls into the hands of Motown founder Berry Gordy – and the rest is history. All This Love is a story whose tale is woven with music, fame, success, romance, sibling rivalry, drugs and bonded by the glue of Abney’s love that strains to keep them all together.
No casting details have yet been revealed.
