Classic Primetime Miniseries - Trashy or Classy?

[DRW50]

Oh right. That makes sense. Thanks.

[Khan]

"Deceptions" was so deliciously trashy, lol.

[kalbir]

@Khan How can anyone not love a trashy miniseries based on a best-selling novel? Sadly those are all relegated to Lifetime now, and it's just not the same as the ones on the broadcast networks in the 1980s.

[Khan]

ICAM.  Like much of what is broadcast today, those miniseries are so dreary to watch.  They take themselves much too seriously.

[j swift]

If Big Little Lies was produced in 1989, Jane Seymore would've been cast in Nicole Kidman's part, and the earnest nature of the production would have made it seem trashy.

I would argue that the script for Big Little Lies would not have been out of place amongst the genre of female melodrama miniseries of the 1980s.  I would also argue when accounting for inflation, the budget would have been close to what HBO spent on BLL (considering they often filmed in multiple foreign locations in the 1980s). 

It is simply that Max has the marketing cache to make a series like Big Little Lies seem like premium television drama.  Those miniseries told engaging stories, but that was the only way they knew how to make them at the time.

Edited March 23 by j swift

[DRW50]

It seems like Nicole Kidman gets all those projects. Not to be mean, but I don't like looking at her plastic surgery and I don't really like watching her act. 

Edited March 23 by DRW50

[Contessa Donatella]

Not to be mean, LOL, and then you proceed to do just that. 

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I'm going to respectfully suggest an edit: Despite it sounding mean-spirited there's just something about her that doesn't work for me. 

How's that? You are free to reject my suggestion, of course. LOL!

[DRW50]

You're right. I am a hypocrite. I'm sure Nicole is better looking than many (including me) ...just hard for me to watch her.

[Contessa Donatella]

You just crack me up! Your sense of humor is so wicked, dry, omni-present. Right on, my friend

[DRW50]

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/30/arts/television/richard-chamberlain-shogun-thorn-birds.html

Nothing that amazing here, but I appreciated them writing about Chamberlain's arguably biggest roles and that era of miniseries in a way that didn't feel sneering.

[janea4old]

March 27, 2025:  Genie Francis, interviewed by Stephanie Sloane.
Genie says a little bit about each of some of the primetime, daytime, and miniseries that she's appeared in.
https://www.remindmagazine.com/article/27693/general-hospital-genie-francis-luke-laura-days-of-our-lives/ 

Regarding her role as Brett Main, on the North and South miniseries, Books 1 and 2, (1985 and 1986) ...

“I have nothing but joy when I think of it, and I just did the other day. It’s the biggest production value that I’ve ever had a part in, and I remember all of the prep that we had to go through — I had, like, 26 changes in those dresses. I worked with Johnny Cash, who could only work for two days, so I worked 24 hours consecutively with him. We were in Reader, Arkansas, because that’s where the trains were and he was playing the abolitionist, John Brown.

“We were up all night, and I remember at one point, I was sitting on those silly little chairs they give you, and I woke up because I was passed out and my neck was hurting and I’ve got this bonnet on my head that’s tied around my chin. That was the hardest day of work I’ve ever put in in my life, because it was literally 24 hours long and I was in a corset and wigs and all that regalia, and with Johnny Cash. So, when I woke up suddenly in my chair, I looked over at him, and he had this sort of stone face when he looked at me, like, ‘Poor kid.’ I think he probably felt bad, but he didn’t really want to say anything, but he stayed up all night with me.

“Jean Simmons was my mom and Patrick Swayze, who played my big brother [Orry Main], was extremely big brotherly with me in real life. He taught me some stuff about dancing, and he was so encouraging and so wonderful. I think one of the best scenes I’ve ever played in my life, I played in that show with Patrick, when she goes to her brother and he smacks her in the face, and she says, ‘That’s it, I’m out of here.’ That was one of the best things I’ve ever done. I have that on my reel, actually, from years ago. It was just great. We learned how to dance in that period of time; we all took lessons together as a cast. I learned how to ride a horse and ride side saddle. And then in Part 2, I had to jump on the back of the horse, bareback. Looking back on it, I’m glad I did. It’s all very exciting.”  

 

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[Paul Raven]

Harem 4hr  2 part ABC mini series aired Feb 86. Anyone see or remember it?

A two-part minseries about a beautiful woman who, at the turn of the century, is kidnapped and sold into a Turkish harem.

Starring Nancy Travis, Sarah Miles, Art Malik, Omar Sharif and Ava Gardner.

Pt 1 ranked 28th for the week-Sun 9-11 Competition was final 2hrs of NBC 3hr movie Under Siege which was 27th overall and on CBS TV Movie Child's Cry which was 7th.

Part 2 on Monday did worse ranking 32nd. NBC premiered An Officer and a Gentleman which was 16 th but CBS was the winner with Kate & Allie 11th Newhart 12th and Cagney and Lacey 18th.

[Khan]

I guess ABC was going after the "Jewel in the Crown" demographic, lol.

[Soaplovers]

I saw it one time back in the day when the WE (Women's Entertainment) network used to air 80s mini series.  I didn't like nor dislike it.. but it was presented more as a historical romance though I'm sure in modern 2020s lenses would be considered a sexist movie.