Monday, February 4, 2013

Mini-Series Mini-History: The Sequel (4CE reprint Nov 2012)



4ce nov stolf's oldies

Mini-Series Mini-History: The Sequel

Last month we asked, what was the first TV miniseries? My answer was The Blue Knight (11/13/1973). It was shown on 4 consecutive nights…but if the episode length of 1-hour disqualifies it in your mind, then the answer would be…

QB VII (4/29/1974)…It's overwrought hoopla certainly dwarfed "The Blue Knight"…getting the full cover treatment from TV Guide, plus a long feature article…the one accompanying "The Blue Knight" was about creator Joseph Wambaugh, not the show. But it was broadcast over 2 consecutive nights, episodes of 3 and 3½ hours. If that means it was really a 2-part movie and not a true miniseries, then the answer is… 

Rich Man, Poor Man (2/1/1976)…The first pair of 2-hour episodes shown back-to-back Sunday/Monday, then for the next 7 Mondays, some 1 hour, some 2 hours, for a total of 9 episodes and 13 hours, spread over a month and a half. And early on, the weekly format was the miniseries format of choice, until it was eclipsed by the consecutive night format. But if that is a disqualification, then we must move on to…

Roots (1/23/1977)…12 hours, 8 consecutive nights, meets all the tests, no? And indeed it is most often cited as the “first.” But perhaps you are a TV maven who knows everything, and you have a different esoteric choice. I’m certainly open-minded, so let’s review 4 more candidates, starting with…

Vanished…NBC 1971…Again, based on a best-selling novel and with an all-star cast, lead by Richard Widmark…and it was a “first”…the first 2-part made-for-TV movie ever, airing for 2 hours on March 8th, concluding with 2 more hours the next night. Granted, the term miniseries hadn't been invented yet, but it all comes down to the question of whether a 2-part movie is a miniseries. After all, "QB VII" was a 2-part movie in its premiere broadcast…then shown over 3 consecutive nights a year later…and to further muddy the water, "The Blue Knight" was rerun in 1975 over 2 nights instead of its original 4. When "The Godfather" debuted on TV in November of 1974, it was shown over 2 nights, oddly Saturday and Monday! Of course, 3 years later, it would be re-edited with "The Godfather Part 2," shown over 4 consecutive nights, and was considered at the time every bit a miniseries as "Roots" and "Washington: Behind Closed Doors," which was the second blockbuster 12-hour consecutive night miniseries, on ABC in November of 1977.

And how do we classify "Jesus of Nazareth" from March of 1977? It had just 2 parts, each of about 3 hours and 15 minutes…but it was broadcast not on consecutive nights, but on 2 consecutive Sundays. So does "Vanished" get grandfathered in or not? It’s up to you…some people today do refer to it as a miniseries. Turner Classic Movies is more cautious…they call it the "first long-form TV movie…which paved the way for subsequent miniseries." 

 The Forsyte Saga…PBS 1969…So far, we've been provincial about it and excluded British shows, even when broadcast on American television. But how do they fit into the miniseries mix? The first thing you must understand is the terminology. For example, we call "The Man from U.N.C.L.E" a series…they call it a programme, because to them "series" means something else…we would say UNCLE ran for 4 seasons, while they would say it had 4 series. In the UK, an open-ended programme could have anywhere from 10 to 40 episodes in a series. But going back even to the 1950s, they also had what could be called a "short form" or "limited" programme, which, like a miniseries, told one story with a beginning and an end, and was planned for a definite number of installments…they call this a "serial." One example was the science fiction adventures of Dr. Quatermass…these consisted of 3 series, broadcast in 1953, 1955, and 1958…each story was told in 6 weekly episodes.

So a British serial sounds a lot like an American miniseries. Still, where do you draw the line? You probably wouldn't consider "The Prisoner" a miniseries…but Patrick McGoohan planned it for just 7 episodes, while his network wanted 26 episodes, and a deal in the works with CBS called for 36. He managed to crank out 17, airing in England starting in September of 1967, and in the US in June of 1968. Still, despite an opening episode that sets up the mystery, and a closing episode that resolves it, each hour really is a self-contained story, albeit with limited references to what's gone on before.

Which brings us to "The Forsyte Saga," a serial consisting of 26 1-hour episodes, based on the novels by John Galsworthy, which debuted in the UK in January of 1967. That might seem long for a miniseries, but don't forget "Centennial"…first shown on CBS as 12 weekly episodes in 1978-79, sometimes on Sunday, sometimes on Saturday, either 2 or 3 hours each night, for a total of 26 hours. Then repeated on TBS in 1984 as a sort-of consecutive night miniseries, with the12 episodes spread out over 17 days, skipping Fridays and Saturdays. 

In any event, PBS (then called NET) took a chance and imported "The Forsyte Saga" in November of 1969, running it weekly, and it was a huge success. This lead to what might be called a "miniseries series," and that would be "Masterpiece Theatre," which gobbled up the many British historical serials produced in the wake of "The Forsyte Saga," starting with "The First Churchills" in January of 1971. But perhaps you don't want to count Public TV…it's just too different, with no commercials and all…in that case, let's try…


The Six Wives of Henry VIII…CBS 1971…Originally broadcast in UK, 6 weekly 1-hour episodes, starting in January of 1970… then in the US, again weekly, beginning August 13, 1971. Miniseries or not? I report, you decide. I’m sticking with "The Blue Knight." But as you can see, it all hinges on the definition of miniseries. Remember "Primal Man"? Very cool show…4 1-hour episodes spread out over a year and a half, the first in December of 1973. You could call it a series of specials…not really that much different from the Peanuts specials that were similarly spaced out…yet at the time, it was called a miniseries. Or consider the initial run of "Dallas"…5 weekly episodes in April of 1978. Today we might call that a "limited run preview," since it was intended to introduce the first full season debuting in the Fall…but back in the day, it was a miniseries. So if we stretch the definition to the breaking point, we get…

Davy Crockett…ABC 1954-55…Yes, some people call that a miniseries…Wikipedia sure does…and as one blogger put it when Fess Parker died in 2010: “His death brings to mind the miniseries that made him a star…” But betwixt and between all the qualifications and quibbles, I can definitely say IT WAS NOT! 5 1-hour episodes, each a self-contained story, spread out over a full year’s time, and broadcast as part of the anthology series "Disneyland," the forerunner of "Wonderful World of Color." True, it was accompanied by miniseries-level hype, one of the first TV shows to explode into a full-blown fad…and I reckon it sold more merchandise than "Shogun" or "Winds of War"…I mean, were there "Roots" Hallowe'en costumes? I don't think so.  Lunch boxes maybe, I just don't remember. But there you have it…good night, good luck, and keep rockin'!




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