Jonestown
The Holocaust
The Stand
Winds of War
War and Rememberance
Amerika
Roots
The Holocaust
Masada
(all of the above aired when I was pretty young, and I think they gave me a good perspective on racial and religous intolerance)
Centennial (looking back on it, I think this miniseries instilled an early appreciation of both history and the environment)
V (simply scared the bejeesus out of me)
Lonesome Dove – Best miniseries ever!
Roots – First miniseries ever!
The Stand – Second-best miniseries, in my opinion
I, Claudius – I remember watching with my dad and he explaining politics to me! I found it utterly fascinating and grew up to … major in political science :D)
The Winds of War – History was lived by real people. Who knew.
Honorable mention:
North and South (mmm Patrick Swayze…)
[ol]
[li]Band of Brothers[/li][li]From the Earth to the Moon[/li][li]Roots[/li][li]Rich Man, Poor Man[/li][li]Shogun[/li][/ol]
Lately, I’m thinking the torch of quality mini-series has been passed to British TV.
Yeah, that and Japanese OAVs and such. I’m still not entirely sure how those things make so much money, given that in the US, “Direct to Video” is usually a black mark against a movie, while some of the more famous Animes started out as OAVs based on mangas (ie: Tenchi Muyo)
My favorites (showing my age, here):
-original Forsyte Saga way back when on Masterpiece Theatre
-Jewel in the Crown, also from BBC via Masterpiece Theatre.
- Shogun
- The Thorn Birds
- Band of Brothers
- A Town Like Alice
- V (I was the right age for it at the time)
I dunno how critical and public opinions still assess Shogun, but if it aired again I would definitely watch it. Do you remember the early beheading scene? That was a genuinely shocking moment on several levels; all of us kids in junior high were tittering about it the next morning.
Pride and Prejudice (the 1995, A&E/BBC production)
Battlestar Galactica
Dune
Shogun
… and I can’t think of another one.
Lonesome Dove - seriously…NetFlix it if you haven’t seen it yet. Great story, great cast, great score. A true classic. I’d pay some serious money to see it in a theater. sigh
The Stand
Battlestar Galactica
Dune/Children of Dune
Anne of Green Gables (but only the first one)
I fell in love with Robert Duvall as Gus in this miniseries. What an unlikely hero.
You should check out the Hornblower movies. I’m not sure if the first four count as a miniseries or not, but they came out mostly all at once on TV, and were all based on the same book (itself having a rather loose plot, with each chapter basically being a seperate story). The last four movies (Mutiny and Retribution, Loyalty and Duty) were basically two-part miniseries, each based on a different Hornblower book. Basically, if you liked Master and Commander, you’d like this. Somewhat less polished, but mostly filmed with real ships rather than snazzy CGI’d ones.
Plus, you gotta love a series of movies that has Doctor Who, Captain Lee Adama, AND Sir Lancelot mixed in amongst the central cast.