War and Remembrance (miniseries)
| War and Remembrance | |
|---|---|
Miniseries DVD Cover
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| Genre | War |
| Created by | Herman Wouk |
| Written by |
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| Directed by | Dan Curtis |
| Starring | |
| Narrated by | William Woodson |
| Composer(s) | Bob Cobert |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language(s) | English and German, Hebrew, Polish, Russian, Japanese |
| No. of episodes | 12 |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) | Dan Curtis |
| Producer(s) | Barbara Steele |
| Location(s) | Auschwitz, Montreal, USS New Jersey, many locations in Europe and United States |
| Cinematography | Dietrich Lohmann |
| Editor(s) | John F. Burnett Peter Zinner |
| Running time | 1620 minutes |
| Production company(s) |
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| Distributor | Disney-ABC Domestic Television |
| Release | |
| Original network | ABC |
| Original release | November 13, 1988 – May 14, 1989 |
| Chronology | |
| Preceded by | The Winds of War |
War and Remembrance is an American miniseries based on the novel of the same name written by Herman Wouk, which aired from November 13, 1988 to May 14, 1989. It is the sequel to The Winds of War, which was also based on one of Wouk's novels.
The television mini-series continues the story of the extended Henry family and the Jastrow family starting on December 15, 1941 and ending on August 7, 1945.
War and Remembrance had a multi-year production timeline. It was the most expensive single-story undertaking in United States television history up to that point, costing $104 million and taking over ABC's broadcast schedule for two one-week periods in 1988 and 1989, totaling 30 prime-time hours.
Miniseries had been major events on American television, reserved for "important" stories like Jesus of Nazareth (1977) and The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich (1968). Up to that point, television had been dominated by the Big Three broadcasting networks in the United States, ABC, NBC and CBS. Shortly after, cable television began the fragmentation of the United States broadcasting audience in earnest, leaving War and Remembrance the last of the giant miniseries.
Because Herman Wouk was happy with Dan Curtis's adaptation of The Winds of War, he allowed Curtis to adapt the sequel as well. Paramount Television, the studio behind The Winds of War, decided not to produce the sequel and sold the rights to ABC, which had only aired the original series. ABC first planned a $65 million, 20-hour series, but when they went to Curtis, he said he wanted to make a $100 million, 30-hour series, which they eventually greenlit. There were also contractual restrictions on advertising: Herman Wouk had approval over all ads and refused to allow any advertising for personal care products, foods, or other ABC programming. Two major eventual sponsors were Ford Motors and Nike. In addition, Wouk required that certain Holocaust sequences run uninterrupted by commercials of any kind. ABC's standards and practices division also agreed to an unprecedented waiver allowing frontal nudity during the lengthy Holocaust sequences, running parental advisories before any episodes beginning before 8pm. The series was nearly called off in 1985, just as it was nearing the completion of $16 million in preproduction, when ABC was bought by Capital Cities.
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