Best miniseries ever

Rich Man, Poor Man was young Nick Nolte's ticket to stardom, and he stole the show for most of the series – and who can forget Ed Asner's brief but dramatic role as Axel Jordache, the plodding, tortured father?

Roots was probably better because of the historical relevance, but Rich Man, Poor Man did Irwin Shaw's book proud.

 

I guess Ken Burns' The Civil War is more of a documentary than a mini-series. Still worth mentioning though because it was very well done and set a new standard for detail, storytelling and visuals in my opinion.

 

Speaking of Civil War miniseries, I've always been partial to "The Blue and the Gray" from the early 80s.

Not one of the greatest miniseries by no means, but it's one that I enjoyed as a kid and I enjoyed watching it again a few years ago. Especially the scene where the main protagonist has a duel with a Prussian officer over the officer lying about being one of the spectators running away at Bull Run.

 

Rich Man, Poor Man aired when I was a junior in high school, and I still remember girls having "Nick Nolte vs. Peter Strauss" arguments.

Roots and Rich Man, Poor Man both were terrific from that era, though in the case of the latter I slightly preferred the book.

The Rich Man, Poor Man Book II sequel was a pale imitation of the original, but William Smith was downright scary as Falconetti, who was one of the central characters in the sequel.

 

Agreed.

Oh, and raise your hand if, like me, you thought his name was Falcon Eddie.

 

I don't know if it was the best but it's hard to beat "Roots" as a phenomenon. The story was important and was probably the largest number of actors of colour in a single show to that point. It felt like everyone was watching it and as nobody owned a VCR you HAD to watch when it was broadcast. I was 17 and at a party on a Saturday night. The music was shut off and the entire house full of young people sat down in the living room to watch that night's episode.

 

To me, the only ones that count are the big network ones from the '70s and '80s. An HBO series that premieres episodes weekly instead of over multiple nights in succession doesn't count. I'm old enough to remember Roots as a cultural phenomenon but not old enough to watch it (I was in kindergarten at the time). I do remember Shogun pretty well - the beheading scene on the beach and another guy getting boiled alive. Winds of War is probably the first I remember watching in its entirety. Blue and Gray is probably my favorite. Centennial (watched parts of it - Richard Chamberlain really was all over the miniseries scene - a poor man's Peter O'Toole) and Marco Polo were pretty solid too.

 

That is a great point about "Roots," and almost exactly how I remember it. It was true must-see TV, and it seemed that almost everybody did, too. It was like you couldn't look away, even when you kind of wanted to, and as if it was the only thing on.

 

Those memories of how our country coalesced during "Roots" is what leads to my disappointments in the current state of our country. Here we were in the '70s, just out of the civil rights era, and one of our main medias was enlightening our populace on how slavery was brought to our country and the "roots" of our African-American citizens. It was an amazing event.

The divisiveness of today is not just some friction that we can endure, its the biggest threat to our country in the last 50 years. Together, our country can do tremendous things.

 

"V" was one of my favorites, too.

 

In 1996, the Sci Fi channel (or whatever it was called then) reaired V, the original and then the Final Battle episodes when Michael Ironside and the gang figure out the red dust that kills them. I still have those on VCR tapes and every once in awhile I'll break them out. Grainy, but still so good. Robert Englund, who was in the series, hosted those airings in 1996. Seeing Diana eat the rat is one of the defining TV images that scarred me as a kid, along with seeing Danny Glick outside the window in Salem's Lot and Danny saying "redrum" in The Shining. (yes, my parents carry guilt for letting me watch those last two at a young age).

One that I liked, again as a kid, again sort of scarring because it featured kidnapped children, was Chiefs, with Charlton Heston, Billy Dee Williams, Keith Carradine.