Eighties and '90s R&B star Bobby Brown has his own miniseries, Biography: Bobby Brown, on A&E. Formerly married to Whitney Houston, Brown's story is filled with obstacles, loss, heartbreak and drugs.
Brown got his start with New Edition as a teenager. After four successful albums, he went solo, From 1986 to 1993, the singer had numerous Top 10 hits, including the No. 1 banger, "My Prerogative." In 1992, he and Houson got hitched.
Between 1990 and 2013, Brown was arrested 15 times. Several were DUIs and subesquent charges for missing court appearances. In 2003, he was busted for battery after assaulting Houston and threatening to "beat her ass." Houston had visible injuries to her face. The couple divorced in 2007.
The big reveal in Episodes 3 and 4 is that Houston was a drug abuser (mostly coke and crack) like her husband. Brown learned of Houston's habit on their wedding day when she snorted lines in front of him for the first time; until then, Houston had managed to keep it a secret. Brown's written about this before in his 2017 autobiography, Every Little Step: My Story.
Infidelity was another issue. Houston had a girlfriend and Brown has claimed to have slept with "thousands of women." The only other woman we meet in the series is Alicia Etheredge, who Brown married after he broke up with Houston. Brown has a total of seven children. His two with Houston - Bobby Jr. and Bobbi Kristina - both died at young ages. Houston was found dead in a bathtub in 2012.
The Bobby Brown we watch on A&E is a shell of his former self. You can hardly see the talented young man who worked his way from a poor upbringing in Massachusetts to become a major in-demand entertainer. He's bald now, no Gumby haircut or diaper pants. Brown tours off and on with New Edition, but mostly keeps busy with his kids. He may have been absent during the peak of his career, but now its all about having a dull life minus the drugs, alcohol and arrests. It seems to be working for Brown. What starts as an exciting "Behind the Music"-style look at Brown's early career turns into a hackneyed Hallmark saga (watch the Every Little Step episodes) about overcoming one's demons with the help of a good wife, cute kids and a commitment to sobriety.
Watch the four episodes here.
