Has anyone ever seen one? I can't recall ever seeing a mini-series that was very good.

Sure! Roots, without argument, is a great miniseries. Stephen King's, The Stand, was gripping. I could go on but I'm tired right now.

Here are my three favorites:

North and South
The Thornbirds

and the ultimate: Pride and Prejudice (though most think of it as a film)

i thought north and south was good and each successive one was worse. i also thought the stand was pretty good.

Lonesome Dove
From the Earth to the Moon
Band of Brothers
About 50 other A&E and HBO mini-series

I typically avoid any and all Stephen King mini-series, because they're so incredibly bland and derivative, but I liked The Shining (not as good as Kubrick's version, but I enjoyed it).

das

North and South
V
The Winds of War

A recent one: Uprising. Not sure if you'd consider it a "series," since it was a two-parter, but it was really good.

yeah most of those were pretty good, though I don't consider stuff on HBO to really be mini-series - they are typically much more cinematic....what was the most recent mini-series that was worth a damn though? Excluding Band of Brothers, I can't think of any for a while back

The Stand
The Shining
Merlin
The Tenth Kingdom

I thought all of those were excellent.

I thought Merlin was awful - I'm sort of an Arthurian buff, I've read all of the major material on it - and it wa so far from anything that was written before it, it doesn't follow the legend well at all. The Mist of Avalon Mini-series that was on TNT, I think, was a little better but not much.

I think it was called "The Corner" on HBO.

I haven't read anything on it, nor do I have enough interest to read anything on it, so I enjoyed the movie since inaccuracies obviously wouldn't bother me since I wouldn't notice them. I just thought it was good story that was well acted and had good FX for a TV mini-series.

The 10th Kingdom

Rich Man, Poor Man
Roots
Shogun

Shaka Zulu was the best in my opinion.
V is another good one
I, Claudius

V
It (although the ending was horrible)
The Stand
Storm of the Century (because of the ending)

My all-time favorite mini-series is The Manions of America, an early 80's mini starring a pre-Remington Steele (& James Bond) Pierce Brosnan and a very young (pre-Voyager) Kate Mulgrew. Brosnan is an Irish immigrant and Mulgrew is the rich English girl who loves him.

Roots
Lonesome Dove