TV mini-series of the 70s and 80s

I remember there being a big deal over "Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy" starring Jaclyn Smith

Scruples starring Lindsay Wagner

[quote]I remember there being a big deal over "Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy" starring Jaclyn Smith

Yes. The episode where she had to go On Assistance was truly poignant.

Poor Little Rich Girl starring Farrah Fawcett

The Thornbirds, with DL faves Barbara Stanwyck and Richard Chamberlain.

The Thorn Birds!

"Which one of you bitches is my mother?"

The Thorn Birds and Rich Man, Poor Man.

Celebrity - I remember being genuinely surprised at points in the script and I think it was one of the first TV shows I watched that dealt with a closeted homosexual.

Oh, and the cast excellent.

R7 Phoebe Cates was laughably awful in that role. Probably one of the worst performances ever.

But memorable nonetheless, R10.

r10=Kevin Kline

I'd love to see the Gordon Merrick novels made into a TV movie?

I'll Take Manhattan

The Holocaust starring Meryl Streep.

R4 Farrah's breakout dramatic role after leaving Charlie's Angels.

Lonesome Dove

"Guyana Tragedy: The Story of Jim Jones" with Powers Boothe was excellent. Probably the best movie version made.

If you want to include the 90s - Tales of the City was excellent too.

[quote] "Guyana Tragedy: The Story of Jim Jones" with Powers Boothe was excellent. Probably the best movie version made.

I was thinking about the miniseries yesterday. It was the 45th anniversary and one of the Bay Area news stations had story about the anniversary.

Was the Thorn Birds the one with Dickie Chamberlain doing some kind of from Here to Eternity beach scene thing in it? If so, remember that from being a small boy and thinking, "fascinating". Also The Life and Loves of a She Devil, though I'm sure I was not supposed to have watched that.

You can watch The Holocaust on YouTube. But I saw it on TV many years ago.

North and South

War and Remembrance-The Winds of War

Scruples needs a updated version with the gloryhole blowjob scene& Princess Daisy too

All the Sidney Sheldon novels, Other side of Midnight, Rage of Angels, Master of the Game.

Trashy mini-series updated!!

We had to watch an episode or 2 of "Roots" and report on it for a class. I wasn't really into it then, but watched it in its entirety years later on DVD and thought it was compelling. There was also "Roots: the Next Generation" that came afterwards.

The one where Brian Dennehy played John Waybe Gacy was really good?

Does anyone remember Chiefs, with Charlton Heston and Billy Dee Williams?

Angels in America

Princess Daisy

V

To R25...read the book...very homoerotic.

It made me think "Bad thoughts" about hitchhiking young mens!!

Why I tried hitchhiking while at Northwestern in the 80's?

Centennial. It was rather good until the last episode, which played as if it had been thrown together at the last minute.

For the classy couch potato, PBS had "I, Claudius" via the BBC.

Hollywood Wives!

SHOGUN

Surprised it hasn't been mentioned yet. It was huge. People were greeting each other with Konnichiwa!

Obviously not referring to the remake.

Is there a channel or streaming service that has these?

R33, you can find some of them on Amazon Prime

Bare Essence.

Scruples (on CBS) Lindsay Wagner and Barry Bostwick was a huge ratings success in 1980.

Sins on CBS starring Joan Collins in 1986

Winds of War starring Jan Michael Vincent and Ally McGraw

R35 nobody watched that shit

These are what fraus watched before the Lifetime channel made its debuted.

Enough people watched it that CBS ordered it to series, R35 .

R35 Genie Francis' big venture into prime time.

I'll Take Manhattan was so trashy but it had the delicious Tim Daly as a blind man who ended up dating Julianne Moore who played India West, the most beautiful film star in the world. And there was a gay storyline involving a slutty underwear model.

And Master Of The Game had Dyan Cannon and Harry Hamlin and some dreadful ageing make up.

There was Joan Collins in Sins and Monte Carlo, both of which had Nazi themes. I remember Timothy Dalton ripping open his shirt to show the concentration camp tattoo he had there because his hands were burned.

And speaking of Joan Collins, nothing beats Lucky Bitches.

R4 I remember seeing an ad for this as a kid and being devastated that Farrah changed her hairstyle.

Ellis Island.

R40 I was heavily into network mini series because of who my mom is. I never, ever heard of Bare Essence until you posted. It was not popular.

R42 look up just a few replies to r36

Of course Little Gloria ... Happy at Last should be required viewing for Datalounge.

Bare Essence was a flop.

Despite a great deal of promotion (with commercials like "Love her. Use her. Or destroy her. Everyone wants a piece of Tyger Hayes." Bare Essence was unsuccessful and canceled after its first season, with cliffhangers left unresolved.

Amy Irving in Anastasia! She was really outta love.

Whenever a new mini-series was announced the network would promote it as a "major television event!!" like you had to stop everything you were doing and tune in.

Someone posted this video in a thread some time ago.

Sins may have won the ratings war but Peter The Great won the Emmy.

This tagline is so Datalounge

"At the centre of Hollywood's world of high fashion, glitz, glamour and gluttony, one woman fights for the thing in her life worth defending - her Scruples."

You can watch War and Remembrance on You Tube, but it has Polish subtitles. Still, Hart Bochner stars as Briny.

LOVE’S SAVAGE FURY

Starring Jennifer O’Neill, Perry King, Connie Stevens, and gowns by Nolan Miller

Windmills of the Gods is on youtube as well. May watch it tonight.

Dynasty was originally a 3-part mini series called "Oil" which is pretty much the first 3 episodes of the first season.

Angie Dickinson was the original choice for Krystle.

She did this instead:

Some of the British productions that would become popular with PBS viewers. These are some of the ones that come to mind. I'm sure there were more.

The Six Wives of Henry VIII (1970)

Elizabeth R (1971)

War & Peace (1972-73)

The Mayor of Casterbridge (1978)

Brideshead Revisted (1981)

SHOGUN

Angels in America? That was in 2003!

My mom used to watch all the true crime ones like Fatal Vision and Blind Faith. There’s a horrifying one with Valerie Bertinelli, Michael Ontkean and a young Chris Meloni (he has hair!) called In A Child’s Name. Worth watching if only for the final shot of part one showing the luminol glow of blood spatter in the murdered bride’s bedroom.

I Know My First Name Is Steven Carrington

The Winds of War. Oh how I remember discovering Jan Michael Vincent as a 12 year old.

R57 Well, at least she did "Dressed to Kill" the year before.

R55 is that starring Jaclyn Smith?

Fatal Vision was good

Blood and Money

Lace

Shogun was probably my favorite, but I enjoyed Sheriffs (I recently re-read the novel) and Centennial as well.

The Two Mrs. Grenvilles (1987) with DL-fave Ann-Margret, screen legend Claudette Colbert, and uh, Stephen Collins.

The Long, Hot Summer

Loved The Two Mrs. Grenvilles

Sidney Sheldon's Master of the Game, featuring the late Ian Charleson

"Billionaire Boys Club" (1987) was a dramatization of real-life criminal activity that was still very current. Criminal mastermind, Joe Hunt, was still up for murder at the time and sued NBC in an effort to stop the mini-series from airing, saying it would prejudice the jury. He lost.

Judd Nelson played Joe Hunt.

[quote]the late Ian Charleson

Where can one find The Two Mrs Greenville’s in 2023?

I’ve always wanted to see it.

R67

[quote] ...but I enjoyed Sheriffs (I recently re-read the novel)

Didn't you mean "Chiefs"?

Captains and the Kings - Richard Jordan was so hot, and apparently Blair Brown agreed. They were together for years. Patty Duke appears in several episodes. It's about a poor Irish immigrant who becomes immensely rich.

My father loved the aforementioned Six Wives of Henry VIII, so we watched that as well as Elizabeth R. There's a moment in which Glenda Jackson is angry with Mary Stuart and exclaims: Ingrate! with a ton of resentment and anger. I use that occasionally.

R74, not sure if it's streaming anywhere but you can get the DVD on Amazon

[quote]R74 Where can one find The Two Mrs Greenville’s in 2023?I’ve always wanted to see it.

The book is FABULOUS… a real page turner.

Maybe try that while you’re searching.

Roots was culture-changing. Everyone watched it, everyone talked about it at school the next day.

[quote]North and South

In 1985, my bedtime was 8:30, but I remember watching North and South when it aired. Maybe my parents taped it and I watched it on the weekend.

North and South was shown again in prime time circa 1988 or 1989, so perhaps you watched it then, R80.

Las Dos Señoras Grenville is on YouTube. Hope you speak Spanish, though.

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

Smiley's People

Jewel in the Crown

I Claudius

and Roots

“Master of the Game”, with Dyan Cannon. I think she’s fantastic.

"My Sister, Myself." Stefanie Powers plays twins. One is a nun and the other one is an axe murderer.

Lord, that girl can act.

Roots

The Thornbirds

North & South

“Backstairs at the White House.”

“Roots”

“The Awakening Land,” with Elizabeth Montgomery, Hal Holbrook, Jane Seymour, and William H. Macy. NBC, 1978.

Speaking of Jane Seymour....East of Eden

It’s not 70s or 80s, but another Dominick Dunne book, An Inconvenient Woman, was turned into a fun miniseries in 1991 with Rebecca DeMornay.

I enjoyed An Inconvenient Woman, it was based on the Vicki Morgan saga

[quote]R10 Phoebe Cates was laughably awful in that role. Probably one of the worst performances ever.

Marrying Kevin Kline was the smartest thing she ever did. She was never going to pierce the A List on her own.

Anyone remember Deceptions with Stefanie Powers, Barry Bostwick and DL fave Brenda Vacarro? Powers plays twins - one a bored housewife, the other a rich jet setter. They decide to swap lives for kicks and one ends up getting killed. Imagine Charlene’s “I’ve Never Been To Me” by way of The Parent Trap. Peak 80s cheese surprisingly not from Sidney Sheldon or Judith Collins

We had a lot of Australian mini series shown in the UK.

Bangkok Hilton with Nicole Kidman, Denholm Elliot and Hugo Weaving was very special.

Brides Of Christ with a young Naomi Watts and Brenda Fricker

Ring Of Scorpio with Catherine Oxocube and Jack Scalia

Richard Chamberlain was the mini-series star!

"A Town Like Alice" - From 1981. Based on the book by Nevil Shute. Starred Helen Morse, Bryan Brown and Gordon Jackson.

The novel had previously been produced as a film in 1956 starring Virginia McKenna and Peter Finch.

Brides Of Christ was 1991 but is available on YouTube.

Night Clit starring Labia Majora, Twatsy and Vulva!

r93, I'll give "Deceptions" a try. Looks like fun.

Pussy Express starring Genie Spready

V.

Oppenheimer (1980)

Masada (1981)

“Murder in Texas”

I think this was Farrah Fawcett’s comeback after her shitty movies bombed.

Seventh Avenue, an NBC Novel for Television, starring the unforgettable Dori Brenner and Steven Keats as Jews in the rag trade in the Garment District in New York.

Nutcracker starring Lee Remick as the pathological Frances Schreuder.

[quote]r105 Nutcracker starring Lee Remick as the pathological Frances Schreuder.

Stefanie Powers did a version of that story, too.

Some of my faves in the 70s were on PBS -- The Six Wives of Henry VIII, Elizabeth R, and I Claudius.

Joseph Wambaugh's novel "The Blue Knight" was turned into a mini-series the year after it was published in 1972. William Holden and Lee Remick both received Emmy nominations for it. (Holden won.)

Murder in Texas was really good

R106 that’s a scary lookin bitch

The 1981 East of Eden remake with Jane Seymour.

I vaguely remember the Six Wives of Henry the XIII (I was 5) because it fueled my obsession with his court- I made my parents get a Henry XIII and his wives coloring book.