Miniseries - Television

Television

The term "miniseries" is used to refer to a single finite story told in separately broadcast episodes. Before the term was coined, such a form was always called a "serial", in the same way that a novel appearing in episodes in successive editions of magazines or newspapers is called a serial. Several commentators have offered further qualifications. Leslie Halliwell and Philip Purser argue that miniseries tend to "appear in four to six episodes of various lengths", whilst Stuart Cunningham defines them as, "a limited run program of more than two and less than the 13-part season or half -season block associated with serial or series programming." Francis Wheen states, "Both soap operas and primetime series cannot afford to allow their leading characters to develop, since the shows are made with the intention of running indefinitely. In a miniseries on the other hand, there is a clearly defined beginning, middle, and end, (as in a conventional play or novel) enabling characters to change, mature, or die as the serial proceeds."

None of these qualifications, however, gets to the essential point, which is quite simple. A series is a run of drama shows using the same basic characters and in which each show is a self-contained story. By contrast, a miniseries is not in fact a series of any kind, but a serial in which a single story is serialised in several episodes.

In North America the format began in 1974 with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's The National Dream, featuring Pierre Berton (which aired from 3 March 1974 to 28 April 1974) and the American Broadcasting Company's QB VII, which starred Anthony Hopkins (and which began on 29 April 1974). Following these initial forays, broadcasters used miniseries to bring other books to the screen. Rich Man, Poor Man, based on the novel by Irwin Shaw, was broadcast in 12 one-hour episodes in 1976 by ABC. Alex Haley's Roots in 1977 can fairly be called the first blockbuster success of the format. Its success in the USA was partly due to its schedule: the 12-hour duration was split into eight episodes broadcast on consecutive nights, resulting in a finale with a 71 percent share of the audience and 130 million viewers, which at the time was the highest rated TV program of all time. TV Guide (April 11-April 17, 1987) called 1977's Jesus of Nazareth "the best miniseries of all time" and "unparalleled television". In British television, the term "miniseries" is almost never used, except in reference to American imports. The term serial is preferred for serialised dramas, which have been a staple of UK television schedules since the early 1950s when serials such as The Quatermass Experiment (1953) established the popularity of the form.