1980s - The Decade of Miniseries

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Chiefs

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Watched the VHS dozens of times

There is a lot to be said for a miniseries. As recent shows have demonstrated. If you have great material for, say, 8 hours, then doing just 8 hours is a great idea.

There were some amazing miniseries back then. We have X amount of story to tell so we are going to tell it in X amount of time.

The 80s were also big on 2 part movies. The Deliberate Stranger was a Ted Bundy movie that starred Mark Harmon. Always saw him as a serial killer after that.

The Deliberate Stranger

Eta

I need this in HD somewhere

My grandmother (who was from WWII Europe and never watched American TV) would faithfully tune into The Thorn Birds like it was a religion.

Families would gather and watch these Miniseries. There was no, I'm going to my own room to play on my phone or Ipad.

Miniseries were events that I'm sure was full of water-cooler talk as they were on the playground.

I rewatched Shogun awhile back; it still holds up. It's a great watch.

I hated the new V but might go back and watch the original...that was the talk of the playground, everyone was watching that show in 1984.

Yeah they don’t make them like this anymore

Roots was the 70s and is a masterpiece. 7 of the 8 episodes are in the top 50 watched- tv shows of all time, including the finale which is #3. The numbers are staggering.


Episode Nielsen Ratings Date
All-time ranking Households
(millions) Rating Share
1 Roots Part I #82 28.84 40.5 61% January 23, 1977
2 Roots Part II #32 31.40 44.1 62% January 24, 1977
3 Roots Part III #27 31.90 44.8 68% January 25, 1977
4 Roots Part IV #35 31.19 43.8 66% January 26, 1977
5 Roots Part V #21 32.54 45.7 71% January 27, 1977
6 Roots Part VI #18 32.68 45.9 66% January 28, 1977
7 Roots Part VII #50 30.12 42.3 65% January 29, 1977
8 Roots Part VIII #3 36.38 51.1 71% January 30, 1977

One of the 70's Masterpieces was "The Search for the Nile" which you can't find anywhere.

It was made in 1971 and is better than most.

LINK

I don't know what is up with BBC refusing to release it streaming or even DVD. I mean you can't find it anywhere, it's like the miniseries never existed.

IT was awesome though.

The Search for the Nile

Can be found on dvd, it is hard to come by. I bought it on dvd around 2010.

I have a 35mm film of the whole series I bought around 1999.

One of the top mini series of the 1970's.