Favorite Television Mini Series

We were talking about seventies movies in another thread and it got me thinking about the televsion mini series during that time (and other). They really don't do that anymore because of the cost. (I guess you can't pay every star a million dollars an episode. :lol Anyway, what are your favorites?

I remember the following:
Roots (Lavar Burton)
Queen (Halle Berry)
North & South (Patrick Swayze)
V (The Visitors)
The Thorn Birds (Richard Chamberlain)
The Women of Brewsters Place (Oprah Winfrey)
East of Eden (Jane Seymour)

I loved Thorn Birds. I cried so much. I think I had one of the biggest crushes on Richard Chamberlain :cry:

I know, when he dies at the end, I can't watch. Just entirely too sad and just kills my heart. :cry:

Marco Polo was one of my favorites as was the tv remake of From Here to Eternity.

Band of Brothers is another favorite.

I have to vote for Roots. Off hand, I don't remember if it was well-made or not, but it was a life-changing event for me.

I liked he Thorn Birds, too, but I read the book first, and anything in the book beat Rachel Ward. She was a lousy actress, I thought.

My favorite miniseries? Probably something on Masterpiece Theater or Mystery on PBS. There's too much good stuff to pick. Upstairs, Downstairs. I, Claudius. Various Shakespeare plays,. Pride and Prejudice. Brideshead Revisited.

Actually, go for Brideshead Revisited. That's the best fiction book I've ever read. It's in layers, so you discovere something new every time you read it. And the TV adaptation? Oh, my goodness. Oh! But then there's the Jewel in the Crown, with Charles Dance. Gotta checkthat one out.


Say what you will. Public TV in the US has quality programming.

pygmalion said:

My favorite miniseries? Probably something on Masterpiece Theater or Mystery on PBS. There's too much good stuff to pick. Upstairs, Downstairs. I, Claudius. Various Shakespeare plays,. Pride and Prejudice. Brideshead Revisited. .........
........Public TV in the US has quality programming.

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I love Pride and Prejudice as well. You are so right, PBS rocks! Have you seen the Forsythe Saga mini series on PBS? It is wonderful!

Anyone watch Colonial House on PBS? Really good series and quite eduational with history and facts around 1628.

Pride and Prejudice was good! I liked it!

Shogun

Angelo said:

Shogun

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Despite the fictionalizing, it turns out that the Japanese history presented in the novel was fairly accurate, even though he fictionalized major names (eg, the famous Fujiwara and Minamoto families became Fujimoto and Minawara in the book).

Will Adams was the name of the English pilot of a Dutch ship what was shipwrecked in Japan circa 1600 and he became the Foreign Trade Advisor of Tokugawa Ieasu, the first Tokugawa shogun (shogunate lasted until the mid 1800's when Commodore Perry opened Japan to the West). And in the decisive battle that made Tokugawa Shogun, it was indeed 300 (or was it 500?) musketeers that turned the tide.

FWIW, I had taken a class in Japanese history a couple years before reading the book.

History Shmistory........I just like the sword fights and the colorful pajamas everyone walks around in

peachexploration said:

Anyone watch Colonial House on PBS? Really good series and quite eduational with history and facts around 1628.

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No. I missed it. I saw the 1900's house, though. when did that air? About two years ago? Yeek!! You couln'd pay me enough to go back in time. No shampoo? I'd be a goner. :cry:

Me either, Pygmalion. It is interesting how most come out of scenarios like that with a renew appreciation for life. Life was definitely harder then for everyone. It's nice to turn on the switch and presto! The light appears. Well, particularly if you've paid that months bill. :lol: I also know, I will definitely be a vegetarian. I saw a lady kill a chicken for dinner once on a farm. It was awful. I definitely found out that day what the old adage meant by "running around like a chicken with its head cut off". It kept me from eating chicken for a couple of months. I was definitely traumatized. Not to mention the difference in social issues. I was watching Oprah this week and she and her friend Gail spent maybe a day or so there. It was hilarious! She was like "I couldn't even get past the no panties situation" It was pretty much bloomers then. So I guess she didn't like it either. But at any rate, the PBS shows are quite interesting and educational.

:lol: :lol: I hadn't even thought about bloomers!! :shock: That's it. I'm staying in the twenty-first century. :wink: :lol:

Pacion said:

I loved Thorn Birds. I cried so much. I think I had one of the biggest crushes on Richard Chamberlain :cry:

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I vote for The Thorn Birds, with Shogun being a close second. I think Richard Chamberlain was the king of the mini-series. 8)