Return of the King: The Fall and Rise of Elvis Presley

On June 5, 1956, at NBC Studios, Elvis left his guitar backstage and created a sensation when he paused in the middle of “Hound Dog,” waved his arm for the band to slow down, and exaggerated his hip gyrations. Girls in the audience screamed and fainted. Community leaders were shocked and upset. Ed Sullivan declared Elvis “unfit for family viewing.”

At the soaring height of his popularity (and controversy) Elvis was drafted in the U.S. Army in 1958 and disappeared from the cultural zeitgeist. Two years later, Elvis returned from military service overseas and started making movies under the controlling direction of his money-hungry manager, Colonel Tom Parker. While Elvis was making one bad movie after another from 1960 to 1967, the music scene in America shifted dramatically. New music with a cultural conscience was taking shape and given voice by a wide variety of gifted artists such as Bob Dylan, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Aretha Franklin, Simon and Garfunkel, The Supremes, and James Brown.

This 90-minute documentary tells the story of the 1968 Comeback Special when Elvis returned to the musical stage, performing music again in front of a live audience. The NBC-televised special was watched by 42% of households watching TV that night, making it the most-watched show of the season. Critics and fans all hailed the hour-long comeback as a revelation, reminding everyone of Elvis Presley’s greatness and why he was alone worthy of the title, the king of rock ‘n’ roll.

On Aug. 16, 1977, a mere nine years after The Comeback Special, Elvis was found dead in his Graceland mansion. The official report said he died of cardiac arrest, but a later autopsy reported eight different prescription drugs found in his system that likely played a role in his untimely death at 42. In the final years of his life, Elvis was obese, exhausted, addicted, depressed, and a shell of his former self. Sadly, we’re all familiar with that story, and no one wants to remember one of America’s greatest musical icons like that.

The Return of the King: The Fall and Rise of Elvis Presley, tells the story of how we all want to remember Elvis—at the height of his fame and talent—coming back to the center stage, wearing a white suit, performing a powerful and passionate song (“If I Can Dream”) inspired by the Civil Rights movement and Martin Luther King’s speech about a brighter future for us all, fueled by “a strong wind of promise that will blow away the doubt and fear.” (Disney+. Rated TV-MA for Language and Smoking)