It may not have been in the book, but the scene where Larry sits on the hood of a car singing Eve of Destruction with a burning city in the background was my favorite part of the miniseries.
I’m curious to know what the original, abridged version of the book was like. For one, I would have been perfectly happy not to know about The Kid or the intimate details of his relationship with Trash.
I also liked the vignettes of the aftermath of the 'flu…how the weaker elements were filtered out. The one where the woman kept her husband and son in the basement cooler, then accidentally locks herself in with them, gives me chills.
The last moments of Harold’s life, as he considers the gun in his hand and suicide.
He remembers going up to the edge of the ledge where kids jumped off into the quarry, trying to work up the courage to jump in. He chants the magic talisman that seems to work for all the other kids: “One, two, three!” But his legs lock, and he’s still too scared to jump. And the other kids laugh at him and chase him home, calling him Harold the Pansy.
And he thinks to himself that all of what happened to him might have been different if, just once, back then, he had been able to bring himself to jump.
And then he looks at the gun in his hands.
“One, two, three!”
The gun went off.
Harold jumped.
Add me to the list of people who consider The Stand to be one of Stephen King’s best. I agree that The Talisman (with Black House riding along), The Dark Tower Series, and The Stand will be considered his best works.
I have so many memorable moments from the books (having read them many times over). Stu’s nightmare escape from the CDC, Frannie not drinking beer and Stu figuring it out pretty quickly, Stu and Frannie finding each other after the odds of finding your soulmate dropped so dramatically, Nick’s super-competence, Mother Abigail running home through the corn with the rats chasing, when they all finally come together in Boulder, when Kojak shows up when Stu is expecting to die - I loved it all.
So, The Stand on DVD, eh? It’s about time for me to watch it again, I think.
I liked the last scene with Flagg (when he meets the new people he’s going to work on converting). Can’t beat that.
My favorite scene is when Nick is acting sheriff, and he’s sitting in the jail watching TV. One station is off the air, one is showing “I Love Lucy” reruns, and one station has a sign about “microwave relay difficulties.” I can just see him in the building, flipping through those three stations.
Wassamatter? Don’t like having a .45 jammed up yer ass? 
The original book was written in 1978 but set in 1985, which ironically was the year I first read it. Therefore it had some strange anachronisms, such as using a dime to make pay phone calls (which cost twenty cents by '85) and Larry Underwood reminiscing about his band opening for Led Zeppelin…in 1981.
If I remember right, The Kid didn’t appear in the original version, Trashy just kinda eventually made it to Vegas, and I don’t think we heard much of him between Indiana and there. On the other hand, there also was no ending scene with Flagg and the natives, and I’m pretty sure the opening scene with Campion and his family was quite a bit different, too.
[QUOTE=DrMemory]
On another Stephen King note, can y’all recommend
any of his books written after Pet Sematary? I read everything up to, and including
Pet sematary, and then quit. I did read Delores Claiborn and Insomnia(I think it was called)(?) but would like to read some more. QUOTE]
Read the Dark Tower Series. Starts with The Gunslinger, then The Drawing of the Three, Wastelands, Wizard and Glass, Wolves of the Calla, Song of Susannah (not yet published) and The Dark Tower (not yet published).
His best work ever.
The Talisman is one of my all time favorites. Black House (the sequel) was so-so, but good because I wanted to get back to the Territories.
My sister and I always like to say, “And I can still make m’own biscuits!”
Me too. I have it on tape, but DVD would kicko el asso.
I have to agree with Sauron:
Most of my favorites have been mentioned but here they are anyway. I love the bravery/terror of Glen, Larry and Ralph when they reach Vegas and meet Flagg–Glen’s death in the jail, and Larry and Ralph’s final Stand. Chokes me up just to think of it.
When things start going to shit in Vegas and Flagg becomes vulnerable.
The whole rescue of Stu including Kojak, Tom Cullen’s flight and the search for a car to push start.
All the early stuff about the spreading of the flu and the disintegration of society. How about that takeover of the TV studio and executions?
I guess that DVD is going on my birthday wish list.
Proudest Monkey: I love the scene where the flu turns the Marines turn into loincloth wearing savages and they just start shooting the normal people, good call!
Is that right? I haven’t read it in two years now (I think it’s time again), but really?
I remember the U.S. not telling any other country what the hell was going on and just didn’t care that they got infected. Did they really do it on purpose?
Regardless, it’s definitely time to reread it.
My favorite scene would have to be when Larry is walking through the Lincoln Tunnel over all the crashed cars and things. I’ve been to New York a lot, and every time we go through the Lincoln Tunnel, I always think about it.
Oh yes, I also always manage to mention it to whoever is in the car with me
Ah, I love this book & the movie. It’s the only SK I’ve ever read, that I can recall. My favorite/most effective scenes:
–Fran buries her dad
–Fran & Harold sit and listen to Don’t Dream it’s Over
–Larry gets out of the tent and does something funny but I can’t remember what it is
–Dana kills herself
–Nick visits Tom after he’s dead
–Nadine says “DO IT HAROLD!!”
–crazy gal at the drugstore
There’s much more…
And of course I love Trashy–crazy, lovable Trashy. Ci-a-bola!! Bumpty bumpty bump! My Life for You!!
I read this book pretty much every year, usually in early summer. Which makes it eerie when they’re mentioning dates (especially if I have a bit of a cold), but the only reason I used to read it at that time was because the school year was over and I had time to read.
One way I prefer the original version to the unabridged one is how Stu, Glen, Fran, and Harold meet Dana and Sue. Dana pulls a gun on them and says “Which one is it? The old lady or the dark man?” That just seemed to be such a distillation of her character. I always liked Dana–her “last stand” was just as heroic as Larry and Ralph’s.
One part that always creeps me out is when Harold and Nadine are fooling around and Nadine starts wishing that they’ll just have sex so Flagg doesn’t have a hold over her, and then she looks in the window and sees Flagg’s face. And then it’s gone. I’m always good at scaring myself, so I liked how she wasn’t sure if Flagg was checking up on her or if she was going nuts.
I loved Kojack, too. Often I’ll just reread the part starting with Stu in the canyon and ending with him going to Boulder. I just love that journey–it’s like a repeat of the journey that everyone else made that summer. And Nick and Tom have such a good relationship. I liked how you got inside Nick’s head, and at first he feared the plague took everyone but deaf-mutes. After Tom, he worried that it left only deaf-mutes and the mentally disabled.
Some of my other favorite parts are the breakdown of society in the later stages of the plague (it seems so believable) and the efforts of the Free Zone to try to rebuild some version of society. In the very end, before Stu and Fran leave, I always feel sad. There’s a big Free Zone meeting where they debate whether they should arm their deputies or not. One of the residents makes some comment like “I lived in Miami for 20 years and locked my door every night. That was one of the old habits I didn’t miss.” And Stu’s meditation in the last scene (if you don’t count Flagg’s return). That despite all of this death, that someday it’s going to happen again.
Man, I love that book.
Nadine, with her sunburn and new white hair, ruins Flagg’s plans for the next generation, “And we’ll go up in the air…”
Frannie (I think, it’s been a while) happening to watch the TV station that we just read about and thinking it’s some crazy reality TV show. That whole thing in the TV station was pretty intense.
The scene in the Lincoln Tunnel actually led to a years-long tunnel phobia which I have barely gotten under control.
The vignettes that all end, ‘No great loss’.
Let me just say again, I love that book.
The Stand is probably my favourite Stephen King novel. It’s been a long while since I’ve read it, though. When did the unexpurgated version come out? 1990? I guess I should pick it up again.
When I think about The Stand, I tend to over-personalize it. It’s the one book that I really connected with my late brother on, and for some reason I really identify with Larry Underwood. (The part where, after greeting the dawn with The Star Spangled Banner, he brings his raging erection back into the tent to find… …that part is the part that’s burned into my brain forever.)
What was the short story it’s based on called again? I don’t have a copy of Night Shift anymore. “Just the flu.” Heh.
About the miniseries… I hated it. I wish they’d make a proper film, or more like three proper films. Some of the casting was fine, but often it was so wide of the mark that it hurt. Harold Lauder is not some pretty boy with a few unconvincing spots. And for Christ’s sake, hire a dialect coach. Larry and Stu were embarassing. Jesus.
I don’t think that I can pinpoint just one scene that qualifies as my favorite.
However, I have to admit that I have always felt a strange affection for Larry Underwood. I see A LOT of myself in him.
The Kid was in the first book, but his part was smaller. I still have copies of both.