In 1993, in the era of television reinvention following the earthquake of Twin Peaks, ABC aired a 6-hour miniseries executive produced by Oliver Stone and Bruce Wagner --
Wild Palms. Featuring a monster cast (James Belushi, Dana Delaney, Robert Loggia, Angie Dickenson, Kim Cattrall, Ernie Hudson, Nick Mancuso, Bebe Neuwirth and Brad Dourif, just to name a few) and with episodes directed by the likes of Kathryn Bigelow and Phil Joanou, it was a near-future cyberpunkish surreal Television Event that the New York Times described as "
nothing so much as an acid freak's fantasy, drenched in paranoia and more pop-culture allusions than a Dennis Miller monologue."
[more inside]
posted by hippybear
on Jan 25, 2012 -
50 comments
The Kids in The Hall are returning to CBC tonight with an 8-part murder mystery miniseries,
"Death Comes To Town." Trailer.
Death hops off a bus in the small town of Shuckton, Ontario, wearing a codpiece and a
vest once worn by
The Friendly Giant. Murder, mayhem, and hilarity are sure to ensue.
Excellent interview with Scott Thompson on the history of the group, Buddy Cole (
Previously on Mefi), and dealing with his own mortality while undergoing chemotherapy during the writing and production of the series.
Sorry, non-Canadians, although negotiations are said to be underway, there are no known plans to broadcast the series outside the country.
posted by yellowbinder
on Jan 12, 2010 -
66 comments
The making of a D-Day tradition... I immediately get
goosebumps when I hear the score of
Band of Brothers...I'm not sure why, maybe it was my local connections (
Dick Winters,
Bill Guanere,
Albert Blithe,
Babe Heffron,
Thomas Meehan,
Ralph Spina,
Harry Welsh, and
Robert Strayer are all from Philadelphia), the surrounding suburbs, or Pennsylvania), or maybe it was because the original airings took place in the shadow of 9/11 (the premiere was September 9th, 2001, with the D-Day drop occuring in the second episode, Day of Days, on 9/16/2001), but this series will ALWAYS have a special place in my heart. Everything is done so beautifully, from
the special effects, to the sound,
the music, to the dutiful translation from
Stephen Ambrose book to the screen. It's certainly worthy of the
9.5 out of 10 that IMDB readers had given it. Every year now since, either HBO (On Demand - you have to subscribe to HBO plus have digital cable) or
the History Channel has played
Tom Hanks' and
Steven Spielberg's masterful WW2 epic. You can think of it as Saving Private Ryan, but 3 times as long. Even if war movies are not your thing, I can almost guarantee that they will see the human side of the soldier and becomely deeply invested in the characters. Follow the men of Easy Company from training and the running of Currahee, to the parachute jump on D-Day, through the liberation of Europe, the horror of a German concentration camp, and eventually to the end of the war, to Hitler's mountaintop retreat. I'm not the only one - check out the numerous fan sites to BoB (forum shorthand for Band of Brothers)
here,
here, and
here, as well as entries on
TVTome,
Wikipedia, and
Television without Pity. If you want to try before you commit to watching the whole thing, I'd recommend the episodes
Day of Days,
Crossroads, and
the Breaking Point.
posted by rzklkng
on Jun 4, 2005 -
24 comments
CBS may cancel 'The Reagans' mini-series over GOP protests. Rep. John Dingall has some thoughts on the matter: As someone who served with President Reagan, and in the interest of historical accuracy, please allow me to share with you some of my recollections of the Reagan years that I hope will make it into the final cut of the mini-series: $640 Pentagon toilets seats; ketchup as a vegetable; union busting; firing striking air traffic controllers; Iran-Contra; selling arms to terrorist nations; trading arms for hostages; retreating from terrorists in Beirut; lying to Congress; financing an illegal war in Nicaragua; visiting Bitburg cemetery; a cozy relationship with Saddam Hussein; shredding documents; Ed Meese; Fawn Hall; Oliver North; James Watt; apartheid apologia; the savings and loan scandal; voodoo economics; record budget deficits; double digit unemployment; farm bankruptcies; trade deficits; astrologers in the White House; Star Wars; and influence peddling.
posted by skallas
on Nov 4, 2003 -
102 comments
"V" -- a science-fiction allegory for World War II -- may return to television. NBC has commissioned a three-hour movie script from writer-director Kenneth Johnson (who was responsible for the excellent first miniseries, but not the second miniseries or the dreadful series) that promises "a metaphor for the new millennium." Will Johnson might tackle unilateralism and WMD? And might a letter-writing campaign be in order to encourage production?
posted by ed
on Jun 10, 2003 -
29 comments
