'Sun Records' First Teaser Released by CMT

Drake Milligan stars as young Elvis Presley.

CMT has unveiled its first teaser for the red-blooded, white-hot, born-from-the-blues series Sun Records, premiering Thursday, February 23 at 10 p.m. ET/PT. The all-new scripted series based on the Tony Award-winning musical "Million Dollar Quartet" will join Nashville to complete CMT's new Thursday line-up.

In the teaser, fans get their first preview of young Elvis Presley (Drake Milligan) and Johnny Cash (Kevin Fonteyne) with guitars, Jerry Lee Lewis (Christian Lees) jamming out on the piano, and Sun Records founder Sam Phillips (Chad Michael Murray) in the studio asking to hear something musically he hasn't heard before.

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.

The all-star cast includes Billy Gardell (Presley and Eddy Arnold's manager, Colonel Tom Parker), Jonah Lees (Jimmy Swaggart), Trevor Donovan (Eddy Arnold), Keir O'Donnell (Dewey Phillips), Jennifer Holland(Sam's wife Becky Phillips), Margaret Anne Florence (Sam's assistant Marion Keisker), and Kerry Holliday (Ike Turner).

Watch the teaser below.



Sun Records is produced by Thinkfactory Media with Leslie Greif as executive producer, Gil Grant as executive producer and showrunner, Barry Berg as co-executive producer and Herb Nanas and Colin Escott as producers. Oscar nominee Roland Joffé directs, with Jayson Dinsmore and Julia Silverton as executive producers for CMT. The series is based on the musical written by Floyd Mutrux and Escott, with original concept and direction by Mutrux. Casting done by Fern Champion and Sharon Lieblein.