Of all those maxi-miniseries that aired on network tv over the years, especially during the 80s and 90s, which one do you think was the best or your favorite? North and South was always my favorite, but here are a few notable other ones:

The Thorn Birds
Roots
War and Remembrance
The Stand

I remember ABC was the leader in these types of shows. The budget back then was HUGE for this kind of television and popularity was at its peak during the 80s. I think the cost for War and Remembrance was $130 million and that was 15 years ago.

It's too bad that that fad ended, and we're left with stupid (albeit cheap to produce) reality shows to keep tv viewers coming back each night. I guess the networks are saving plenty of money. I'm just glad to see that most if not all of these are now being made available on dvd so we can enjoy them once again.

1. Winds of War
2. North & South I
3. North & South II
4. War & Remembrance

Didn't care for Thornbirds. I still to this day have never seen Roots.

Yeah - you'll never see these epic miniseries again on network TV. Far too costly.

I own WoW and W&R on DVD. I'll definitely pick up N&S when it comes out later this year.

Also, if you include all miniseries, V would be at the top of the list.

Oops, I did leave out Winds of War and V. If there are any other big ones that I've left out, post them up too.

V & V:TFB were on NBC so technically you were correct to leave them out.

"The Stand" wasn't in the 80's. Thats was 1994. So if you're going to say that one you also have to mention "The Shining" which I prefer over the movie version.

And even though it defies both the 80s and the ABC requirements "The Last Don" was awesome.

i too was always a fan of north and south. the first two were great...the third one stunk. although i don't remember much about it there was also amerika, where the communists took over the u.s. (or something like that).

I remembered a couple of other biggies, both Richard Chamberlain ones (prob from the late 70s):

Centennial
Shogun

I haven't seen either of them though, nor have I seen all of Roots.

There was also one called Rich Man, Poor Man.

And I could kick myself for orignally leaving out Lonesome Dove in the first post! That's a classic. I think it was CBS.

Shogun was NBC.

Rich Man Poor Man was regarded as the first epic miniseries. Of course, like Roots, it aired in the 70s.

Yeah, we might as well open it up to all network tv (ABC,CBS, and NBC) miniseries.

War and Remembrance is in 12 parts. Does anyone know if it was originally broadcast on 12 consecutive nights, or did they split it up and show that last half titled "The Final Chapter" at a later date? I know it was all filmed at the same time though. IMDB has one release date in November of '88.

My all-time favorite was The Manions of America with a very young Pierce Brosnan and Kate Mulgrew.

Great, epic story.

Fresno

hahaha...I remember Fresno, RobCA. It was a spoof on Falcon Crest. Wasn't it about raisins instead of grapes. I remember they rode backwards in the back seat of the limo so they faced the back window. It was hilarious. I'd love to see this one again.

I think they split it up and showed during 2 different sweeps months.

Shogun first, followed by Rich Man, Poor Man. I like the 70s minis much better than the 80s minis. The Holocaust was also excellent... (Streep, James Woods & Micheal Moriarty...)

Shogun aired in 1980.

Barely remembered today, but CHIEFS was excellent.

I always thought AMERIKA was underrated. Wouldn't mind seeing it on DVD

I vaguely remember AMERIKA. Of course, I never saw it.

I think the last batch of miniseries that we'll see were the NBC Hallmark ones which consisted of mostly two-parters. I think they made Gulliver's Travels, The Odyssey, and quite a few others. Merlin was a notable one that I thought was well done.

The largest one was the 10th Kingdom, which lasted 5 nights and was widely advertised as the largest miniseries in over ten years (meaning War and Remembrance was probably the last one before it). I really enjoyed Kindgom too.

I think the miniseries overall has been underrated. People tend to snub tv productions, but for the most part they tend to be really good (at least to me). I think the format is very forgiving. You can have some lame or boring scenes but they are balanced out by the many good ones since most of the time these movies are so long. It's like comparing it to a large regular series that might have a bad season.

Red Dog, I did a little research and War and Remembrance was indeed aired in November of '88 and the final chapter in May of '89.

When you include the length of The Winds of War, the total viewing time without commercials is over 40 hours long!!

I know - I watched the whole epic over the course of a few weeks a month ago.

I'd like to see Amerika again, it only aired the one time. I'm surprised that it hasn't shown up on USA or SciFi some weekend. (Of course, there was also the SNL parody of a US taken over by Canada, called "Ameri-da.")

Back in the day I saw and loved North and South 1&2, and The Thornbirds. Since then, of the other miniseries mentioned, I've seen Roots, The Blue and the Gray, and The Stand. The miniseries I love now are the same I loved then, lol.

Would love to see the Manions of America and Amerika. Hopefully they'll get a dvd release soon.

East Of Eden....Jane Seymour was one hell of a tramp.
Rich Man, Poor Man what can be said for the times.

Thornbirds and maybe Shogun were the best in class.