I just saw a trailer on HBO for this. It’s almost like seeing John Goodman as Ben Franklin… and fitting the part! I guess I’m going to watch for this.
I could see it. Apparently the show is about Adams’s disasterous presidency rather than his service in the Continental Congress during the Revolution.
John Adams is and will always be William Daniels to me, but Paul Giamatti could probably do a good job. He’s got the right shaped head and properly-shrill voice, but he’ll have to cut back on the unsure-sounding waver he does.
Yeah. . .I don’t know what the show has gone through, but last Spring, HBO started advertising it, and I thought they were going to air it in the fall, and then the ads disappeared until about a month ago.
I was worried they had canceled it .
Now, I’m worried they weren’t happy with it, and made tons of post-production changes.
But, that’s just me thinking, having seen that kind of stuff before. That’s not even based on hearsay, just the oddity of HBO’s advertising schedule.
This is based on the popular book of a few years back, I believe, by David McCullogh. Well, they’re both based on John Adams, obviously, but I don’t think that the movie is its own stand-alone biography, but “based on” the McCullogh book, if you get what I mean.
Giamatti is an immensely talented actor and, with a little makeup, could easily pass for Adams. I know he’ll do well. Who’ll be playing Abigail? A friend of mine who read the McCullough book said that John and Abigail’s letters “read like 18th century phone sex.” 
Laura Linney
[“1776”]Is he obnoxious and disliked?[/“1776”]
This starts on Sunday, March 16th. It’s a seven-part miniseries starring not only Giamatti and Linney, but Tom Wilkinson as Franklin, Rufus Sewell as Hamilton and David Morse as Washington.
Have you seen the David McCullough book with Paul Giamatti on the cover as John Adams?
The “making of” show I watched about made me believe that the miniseries covered all of Adams career.
Seven hours of the Adams presidency would not be particularly compelling viewing. And I studied that period of history in college.
“We’re having an undeclared naval war with France! Whatever shall I do Abigail?”
“I don’t know John, how about pushing for the Alien and Sedition Acts?”
“Oh Abigail, I knew you would have the answer!”
Interview with David McCullough about the show. “HBO’s ‘John Adams’ Doesn’t go Hollywood”. He’s pleased with it.
I saw the first two parts this evening, followed by the “Making of ‘John Adams’” special. I thought it was excellent, and quite realistic. With few exceptions, the story was devoid of the typical drama associated with “great events.” Instead, it depicted quite ordinary people caught up in extraordinary events.
I have a powerful urge to hug Laura Linney. That’s probably not what I should have taken from a show about the founding a nation, but she’s just so doggone cute, even when she’s being all prim and historical.
Hi,
We really enjoyed it and anything that can get my boyfriend off of WOW for two hours must be outstanding!
I was confused about the small pox thing- did they get a less dangerous form because of the “innoculation” of pus (YAK!) or did it not work? The daughter looked pretty damn sick.
That cannot be denied.
As the doctor explained, it was a crap shoot. The idea was to cause a mild case. This was before the cowpox vaccination was developed. So Abigail and – what was it, four? – children get the innoculation. One of the set gets really, really ill, probably scarred for life, the others get a few zitty things, but none of them die.
Had they not gotten the innoculation it was also a crap shoot. Win if you never get exposed at all, lose and a high percentage die.