I’m showing my age, but I’ll add Rich Man, Poor Man and Poldark.
Band of Brothers is IMO not only the finest mini-series I’ve ever seen but up there as one of the best programmes I’ve ever seen across all genres.
Nope, I think if you ask almost any 30-ies American female, The Thornbirds was huge. Mmmmm, younger, hot, before-we-knew-he-was-gay Richard Chamberlain…
No love for CAPTAINS AND THE KINGS or QBVII?
What, no Stephen King’s The Stand?
I think mini-series fall into two categories. You’ve got the Sweeping Mini-series, back when networks were not afraid to stretch the story out over four or more nights, then you’ve got the Mini Mini-series, where they squeeze everything into two nights.
In the Sweeping category, I’ve got to nominate Shogun, although The Thorn Birds and North and South are tied for second. I have a special place in my heart for The Stand, as I’m such a huge SK fan.
If I may nominate the worst, for me, hands down, it’s that TNT abomination Mists of Avalon. They should have made that at least six hours, and the butchery they did to that book made me want to cry.
The Stand was a good one & actually one of the last that could be rightfully called a mini-series.
I thought Mists was OK for what they did show BUT it should have been six hours for sure.
I am glad after that TNT lost ATLAS SHRUGGED. It planned for a six-hour shot whereas I think eight would be the minimum needed.
I, Claudius
This is one of my absolutely favorite British TV shows, but it ran for 5 years. I don’t think it can rightly be called a “mini.”
V.
I would also nominate Brother Cadfael as a series of note.
I majorly agree with Band of Brothers (which should almost be required viewing), Jesus of Nazareth (imo the best film biography of Christ we’re ever likely to see), I, Claudius (yes, I know the historical value is limited at best, but it’s still just very fun) and Upstairs/Downstairs (though I don’t think it’s really a miniseries, is it?).
If documentaries count I’ll add Cosmos (recently re-released to include pop-up notes that correct or update info given in the original), The Day the Universe Changed, and Ken Burns’s The Civil War.
A nitpicking correction to the OP: The Winds of War was actually a huge hit, so much so that the network w-a-y overspent on its sequel, War & Remembrance (budget of more than $100 million as memory serves, though you could see every penny of it). While Remembrance was popular (and had some phenomenal moments, including imo John Gielgud’s greatest performance ever [and he was in his mid 80s!] as the refugee American Jewish scholar Aaron Jastrow) it was too long to get as much of an audience and way too expensive to earn back its cost.
THE ABSOLUTE BEST MINISERIES EVER ON AMERICAN TELEVISION™, however, was one I’ve praised many times on these boards: The Awakening Land. Elizabeth Montgomery starred as Sayward (pron. “Saird”) Luckett, the oldest daughter of a wanderlust stricken father who moves his wife and daughters through the frontiers of what is now Ohio. She falls in love with Portius Wheeler, a “Bay State” lawyer unequipped for wilderness life but incredibly well educated, and they raise a large family as the wilderness turns to farms and to towns over the next 30 years. The casting is perfect, the set design is absolutely world class (the way the Wheeler’s home grows from a one room cabin to a rambling increasingly prosperous farmhouse is fantastic), the dialect (coached by Marge Champion) is unique for historical accuracy, the people ARE NOT 20th century folk zapped back into period settings like in so many miniseries, sex is an important part but not explicit (I don’t remember ever seeing anybody so much as bare shouldered other than Indians), and no character is all saint or all sinner. Unfortunately it has never been released onto video but it has a cult following. It is based on a trilogy of novels by Conrad Richter (1890-1968): The Trees , The Fields and The Town and stays fairly close to the source (changing a few things- the miniseries goes to about 1825 while the book continues to 1860 for example, and the Wheelers have 7 children in the miniseries as opposed to 11 in the book, but no major infidelities).
I’m curious as to why you wouldn’t call Band of Brothers a mini-series?
I have a vague memory of this mini-series. Was there a character named Sulie who died, and a baby was named after Sulie, and the baby eventually died?
Yep. The first is abducted by Indians and the second burns to death.
(In the book, the first Sulie is eventually found as a middle aged woman but has very little recollection of white life, has a large family [who fears her] with her Indian husband and absolutely no desire whatever to return to “her people”.)
All I remember is that I thought they had meant to name her Suzy and named her Sulie by mistake.
I was just a wee lass at the time, maybe elementary school. It’s funny what things stick in your memory box.
Her other children included Resolve, Achsa, Kinzie, Gerda and Hulda- another touch of realism (godawful 19th century names).
This thread, btw, would probably get more viewing in Cafe Society.
I thought Brothers in Arms and From the Earth to the Moon were both excellent, but wanted to put in a vote for the BBC version of Pride and Prejudice. Probably the best adaptation of Jane Austen ever.
D’oh! I meant, of course Band of Brothers.
I, Claudius.
Liked it so much, I bought it twice. I lost the first copy to a girlfriend “divorce”. Current GF doesn’t like it. I’m questioning the relationship.
I, Claudius - I love Livia
As Time Goes By - seems odd after my Livia note, but then again I love power plays followed by romance.