The career of
The Carpenters, and the lives of its key members, brother and sister
Richard Carpenter and
Karen Carpenter up until the time of Karen's untimely death in 1983, are presented in roughly chronological order. In the duo, Richard is viewed at the primary creative force who knew how best to showcase them, especially Karen's voice, while Karen is the seen vocalist with the recognizable voice who still saw herself more as a drummer first and foremost, despite moving away from the drums during the evolution as an act. Their musical upbringing is presented to what was mistakenly seen as their overnight success in 1970. Although a successful concert act, it was the studio where they shined especially in Richard's decision to overdub their vocals - in part due to their former musical collaborators bowing out due to rejection fatigue in their early career - creating their distinctive sound. Their overwhelming success is juxtaposed against the criticism of their "vanilla" sound. That vanilla issue led to new ways to showcase the act in changing times in the late 1970s and early 1980s where that sound dropped out of favor. Both brother and sister faced issues of addiction or resembling addiction - Richard to prescription sedatives, and Karen's to, the at the time, little known eating disorder anorexia nervosa - during this latter phase, Richard who would be able to emerge, while Karen eventually would succumb to the complications of it.
—Huggo