Stephen King has made a name for himself in films, with Academy Award recognition in the form of The Shawshank Redemption and The Shining and a huge fan following for cult favorites like Needful Things and Pet Semetary. In my opinion, the best Stephen King movies aren’t movies at all, but TV miniseries. The miniseries is not a popular format in America, with just a few success stories in television miniseries format. That may account for the lack of fervor about the many and various miniseries of Stephen King.
The first (and in my opinion the best) TV miniseries Stephen King had a hand in was It. Many people remember It as a standalone film, mostly because it is available for rent at movie rental shops and on Netflix. But the film itself premiered in 1990 in two long-form television episodes. It is about as creepy as American television will ever get, and even though it has a total cop-out ending (a giant spider? REALLY???) it remains one of my favorite Stephen King movies of all time.
Coming in at a close second in terms of Stephen King’s miniseries work is 1997′s TV remake of King’s classic The Shining. You may not remember it, but this miniseries was a big deal when it premiered–Steven Weber reignited his TV and film career with this role, a masterful bit of acting that in some ways equaled the great Jack Nicholson in the film of the same name from 1980.
Rounding out my top three Stephen King miniseries is a little-known bit of TV magic, 1991′s Golden Years. If you’re a King fan and you haven’t seen this series, don’t feel bad. Most people missed it. Spread out across seven episodes, this “hunt across America” story starred a young Felicity Huffman well before she made her name.
