Your five favorite miniseries?

Cafe Society
1

What are your five favorite miniseries? Here are mine:

  1. I, Claudius
  2. The Stand
  3. *Pride and Prjudice *(the 1980 version starring Elizabeth Garvie)
  4. A.D.
  5. Lillie
2
  1. The Stand
  2. Ken Burns’ The Civil War
  3. North and South
  4. Roots
  5. I, Claudius
3

Only three come to mind immediately:

  1. Brideshead Revisited
  2. I Claudius
  3. The Jewel in the Crown
4

  1. The Awakening Land

  2. Band of Brothers

  3. I, CLAVDIVS

  4. ROME (if it counts as a miniseries- especially the DVD with the “history pop-ups”)

  5. Shogun

Notes:

If documentaries count then I’ll strike 4 & 5 and put in Ken Burns’ THE CIVIL WAR and Sagan’s COSMOS. If ROME counts as a series instead of a miniseries then I’ll bump Shogun up a notch and add ROOTS: THE NEXT GENERATIONS (which I liked even more than the original). If any are caught in a sex scandal or otherwise invalidated from filling their duties then I’ll add the original ROOTS.

5

Upstairs Downstairs
Flickers
Pennies from Heaven
I, Clavdivs
The Duchess of Duke Street

6

I, Claudius
Rome
Shogun (disappointed in ending)
Masada
Roots
Rich Man, Poor Man

Wasn’t Upstairs, Downstairs a 5 year series? It was great, though
Band of Brothers was good but I prefer the old “Combat!” tv series. Caje, you take the point. Kirby, you’re on me.

7

First one I thought of. I was a Scout den mother when that show was on, and believe me, the kids got their projects done in record time on nights it was on. (No TiVo back then.)

I’ll add:

Poldark
Elizabeth I (the one with Glenda Jackson)
Henry VIII (the one with Keith Michell)
Shogun

8

The only one I can think of is the** Anne of Green Gables** miniseries starring Megan Follows.

9

[ul]The Six Wives of Henry the Eighth (The BBC series from 1970)[/ul]
[ul]Elizabeth R (also bbc from 1971)[/ul]
[ul]Roots[/ul]
[ul]Shogun[/ul]
[ul]Wisconsin Voices WWII (This is kind of 4 series though done by Wisconsin public TV interviewing Vets from WWII)[/ul]

10

I can’t claim to have seen very many, but I do remember being impressed by Masada and the two Herman Wouk War series when I was little.

11

This is a bit difficult for me. I’m not a fan of miniseries because I tend not to see all parts of them and because I know this I tend not to start watching them. As a result these are all pretty old.

I did like:

  1. Anne of Green Gables as previously mentioned with Megan Follows. In my view it actually improved upon the written version. The most haunting scene, one with Anne in the orphanage talking to her reflection, did not appear in the book at all.
  2. V the miniseries. In my defense I think I was about 12 when it came on. When I saw it again years later I was stunned how ham-fisted the Nazi references were.
  3. Lonesome Dove. And I don’t even like westerns, but it was a “hell of a vision”.
  4. The Thornbirds. Hey, I was a teenaged girl when it aired. I’m not so sure I’d like it now, but at the time I found it engrossing.
  5. and probably a tossup between Roots and Shogun.

So, pretty much nothing made in the last fifteen years. Yep, I’m getting old.

12

Smiley’s People
QBVII
House of Cards (trilogy)
Pride and Prejudice
Tinker, Taylor, Soldier, Spy

13

A&E’s Pride & Prejudice
Lonesome Dove
The Holocaust
Thorn Birds
Anne of Green Gables

14

Band of Brothers
Battlestar Galactica (2004)
V / V: The Final Battle
The Stand
Shogun

Runner Up:
The Blue & The Gray

15

A favorite that hasn’t been mentioned; East of Eden a well done 1981 version of the Steinbeck novel with Timothy Bottoms, Bruce Boxleitner, and Jane Seymour (who was in every miniseries made between 1975 and 1990).

16

Way, way too many to pick just five. But I’d like to be the first to mention The Shining. It was not just faithful to King’s novel, but kept his subtext and helped dull the pain that Kubrick’s attempt had left me with.

17

I’m of two minds on if a two-part show really counts as a miniseries, but a few of those show up here:

  1. Hornblower: Loyalty and Duty. This miniseries basically has the cheerful Hornblower of the TV movies turning into the relatively cold Hornblower of the books, as seen in this bit of dialogue towards the end:

Betsy: “I pity your wife.” Hornblower: “As do I.”

  1. BattleStar Galactica (2003)

This is actually where my list of miniseries ends, so I’ll start tossing in OAVs, basically animated miniseries produced for the direct-to-video market from Japan.

  1. Gundam 08th MS Team

  2. Tenchi Muyo

  3. Area 88: Even if this show was excessively cheesy at times, the combat stuff was just COOL. I mean, how many air combat shows do you see that feature the F-8 Crusader? Also the excessive “Nikon” product placement amused me.

18

Oh, and I suppose “Broken Trail” was a miniseries too, wasn’t it? It’s just cool seeing the mechanic from Wings in a kick-ass serious role.

19

Hrm… I just realized Area 88 is hardly a “mini” series, so yank that out and plug in Broken Trail somewhere in the top 5.

20

I, Claudius
Pride and Prejudice (A&E)
Henry VIII (Keith Michell)
Elizabeth R (Glenda Jackson)
Edward the King (Timothy West)

Honorable mention: Hornblower

Lots of good suggestions here to add to my Netflix queue.