The Thorn Birds (TV miniseries)
| The Thorn Birds | |
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DVD cover
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| Written by |
Carmen Culver Lee Stanley Colleen McCullough (novel) |
| Directed by | Daryl Duke |
| Starring |
Richard Chamberlain Rachel Ward Barbara Stanwyck Christopher Plummer Jean Simmons Bryan Brown Philip Anglim Richard Kiley |
| Theme music composer | Henry Mancini |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language(s) | English |
| No. of episodes | 4 |
| Production | |
| Cinematography | Bill Butler |
| Editor(s) |
Robert F. Shugrue David Saxon Carroll Timothy O'Meara |
| Running time | 467 minutes |
| Release | |
| Original network | ABC |
| Original release | March 27 – March 30, 1983 |
The Thorn Birds is an American television miniseries broadcast on ABC from March 27 to 30, 1983. It starred Richard Chamberlain, Rachel Ward, Barbara Stanwyck, Christopher Plummer, Jean Simmons, Richard Kiley, Bryan Brown, Mare Winningham and Philip Anglim. It was directed by Daryl Duke and based on a novel by Colleen McCullough. The series was enormously successful and became the United States' second highest-rated miniseries of all time behind Roots; both series were produced by television veteran David L. Wolper.
Set primarily on Drogheda, a fictional sheep station in the Australian outback named after Drogheda, Ireland, the story focuses on three generations of the Cleary family and spans the years from December 1920 to December 1962.
The novel begins in New Zealand on December 8, 1915, Meggie Cleary's fourth birthday. The miniseries begins in Australia five years later.
In the novel, Meggie Cleary's "titian" (red) hair is mentioned frequently, and used as a plot device. Rachel Ward, who played Meggie in the miniseries, had auburn hair which is a reddish brown. In the miniseries, Meggie and Stuart visit Frank in prison, where Frank eventually dies. In the novel, Ralph acts as a go-between and no one in the Cleary family sees Frank until he is released from prison after 30 years.
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