The limited-run series focuses on Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, and other music legends.
CMT appears to have found the perfect show to pair with Nashville in its prime-time lineup: Sun Records, an ambitious limited-run series inspired by the hit Broadway musical Million Dollar Quartet. The period drama premieres at 10 pm ET/PT Thursday, Feb. 23, right after Nashville airs at 9 pm ET/PT.
What’s it all about? According to the CMT website:
“Set in Memphis during the tumultuous early days of the civil rights movement, Sun Records tells the untold story of nothing less than the birth of rock ‘n’ roll. Guided by Sam Phillips, young musicians like Johnny Cash, Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins and Jerry Lee Lewis combined the styles of hillbilly country with the 1950s R&B sound created by artists like Muddy Waters, B.B. King, Fats Domino and Ike Turner and changed the course of music forever. The series chronicles these young artists’ often jarring and sudden meteoric rise to fame in the face of sweeping political change and social unrest.”
In this teaser trailer, you can see a young Elvis Presley (Drake Milligan) and Johnny Cash (Kevin Fonteyne) on guitars, Jerry Lee Lewis (Christian Lees) jamming out on the piano, and Sun Records founder Sam Phillips (Chad Michael Murray) in the studio demanding to hear something no one’s ever heard before: Rock ‘n’ roll!
