Popular television format since the 1970s, involving 4–15 hours of narrative, somewhere between one-time specials and regular series. Miniseries offer flexible responses to market trends (including news items, historical reflections and popular novels) and may target audiences during ratings “sweeps.” They also allow more character and plot development and lush use of exotic locales; they have attracted major cinematic stars, reinforcing their cachet. Sometimes linked to PBS Masterpiece Theatre, miniseries tend to be relentlessly middle-brow—evident from one of the earliest, Irwin Shaw’s Rich Man, Poor Man (ABC, 1976) or Upstairs, Downstairs (PBS, 1975–80).

Roots (ABC, 1977) remains the watershed (if not the first)—the highest rated miniseries ever and among the most watched television programs. Beginning January 23, ABC broadcast this 12-hour dramatization of Alex Haley’s family history for eight successive nights. Vivid images of capture, slavery punishment, separation and love sparked conversations in families, schools and offices even if Roots did not evoke the racial catharsis some contemporary commentators predicted. Nor did the popular sequel Roots: The Next Generation (1979) or Queen (1993) change the overall problems of African Americans in television.

Other thematic clusters in miniseries include the Second World War (NBC’s Holocaust, 1978, or The Winds of War, 1983, and ABC’s War and Remembrance, 1988– 9, based on novels by Herman Wouk), the West (especially work by Larry McMurtry like Lonesome Dove, 1989), crime (CBS’ Helter Skelter, 1976) and exotic historical locales (feudal Japan in Shogun, 1980, and Australia in The Thorn Birds, 1983). The immense popularity of the last two earned star Richard Chamberlain the nickname “King of the Miniseries.” The miniseries continued as a programming tool in the 1980s and 1990s without its initial fanfare. Religious and fantasy themes have cropped up beside lengthy romances, historical recreations and other genres. One might also ask how these intersect with popular PBS documentary series by Ken Burns like The Civil War (1990) and Baseball (1994).