Anna Nicole Smith's Rise to Stardom - Part 1

Now, one thing about me, I love to cite my sources as we go along.

There is so much source material for this episode.

I would say the big materials that really informed my research, there's a Netflix documentary called Anna Nicole: You Don't Know Me.

There's a 20/20 episode on her life that was released in February of 2021, and there's also an episode about Anna Nicole on a show called The Final 24.

All of these, I think, have very different tones, and of course, there is so many tabloids, so many interviews.

We have a lot of information about Anna Nicole directly from her when she was alive.

And thankfully, because of the time, so much of that is digital and accessible.

High level, I think the Netflix documentary, Anna Nicole: You Don't Know Me, feels a little bit like exploiting her legacy.

Like, there are things in this documentary that are alleged about her that she would not have the opportunity to refute.

There's an interesting mix of people that are interviewed for this documentary that are not featured on other specials about her life, so I don't immediately assume that these are people who are, like, very, very close to her or necessarily, like, had her best intentions as they are sharing their personal stories with her.

So I wouldn't necessarily say that I don't recommend this because I do think that there's a lot of good, like, first-hand material, like home videos of her life with J. Howard Marshall, but I don't love the tone of this one.

The 20/20 episode I think is fabulous, honestly.

Anna Nicole's life story is being woven into footage of a trip being taken by her daughter, Dannielynn, and Larry Birkhead, Dannielynn's father.

It's filmed the summer of 2020, and they are going to different locations that were important to Anna Nicole, like her hometown, Los Angeles, et cetera, and they're meeting with people that were close to her.

And actually, speaking of the 20/20 episode, 20/20 made references in this 2021 episode to previous interviews they had had with Anna Nicole while she was alive, so there's a lot of really good, like, archival footage baked in.

The episode of that show, The Final 24, I was not familiar with this.

I found this on Tubi.

I thought that this was really good.

It obviously focuses on the final 24 hours of her life.

It does tell her life story as it's getting to the point of her passing, but the day of her passing, the 24 hours leading up to her passing, is the focus of this episode.

Now, one thing about me, I love to cite my sources as we go along.

There is so much source material for this episode.

I would say the big materials that really informed my research, there's a Netflix documentary called Anna Nicole: You Don't Know Me.

There's a 20/20 episode on her life that was released in February of 2021, and there's also an episode about Anna Nicole on a show called The Final 24.

All of these, I think, have very different tones, and of course, there is so many tabloids, so many interviews.

We have a lot of information about Anna Nicole directly from her when she was alive.

And thankfully, because of the time, so much of that is digital and accessible.

High level, I think the Netflix documentary, Anna Nicole: You Don't Know Me, feels a little bit like exploiting her legacy.

Like, there are things in this documentary that are alleged about her that she would not have the opportunity to refute.

There's an interesting mix of people that are interviewed for this documentary that are not featured on other specials about her life, so I don't immediately assume that these are people who are, like, very, very close to her or necessarily, like, had her best intentions as they are sharing their personal stories with her.

So I wouldn't necessarily say that I don't recommend this because I do think that there's a lot of good, like, first-hand material, like home videos of her life with J. Howard Marshall, but I don't love the tone of this one.

The 20/20 episode I think is fabulous, honestly.

Anna Nicole's life story is being woven into footage of a trip being taken by her daughter, Dannielynn, and Larry Birkhead, Dannielynn's father.

It's filmed the summer of 2020, and they are going to different locations that were important to Anna Nicole, like her hometown, Los Angeles, et cetera, and they're meeting with people that were close to her.

And actually, speaking of the 20/20 episode, 20/20 made references in this 2021 episode to previous interviews they had had with Anna Nicole while she was alive, so there's a lot of really good, like, archival footage baked in.

The episode of that show, The Final 24, I was not familiar with this.

I found this on Tubi.

I thought that this was really good.

It obviously focuses on the final 24 hours of her life.

It does tell her life story as it's getting to the point of her passing, but the day of her passing, the 24 hours leading up to her passing, is the focus of this episode.