John Adams

[Jedi Master Carr]

This came on HBO Sunday night. It is 7 part miniseries they are doing covering the last 50 years of his life and the first 50 of American History. I loved it, Paul Giamiati gave a great performance and he will get an Emmy for it I bet. Laura Linney was great too as his wife Abagail. I also couldn't believe the job they did on David Morse for George Washington. He looked just like the paintings we have of him. They also did great casting of Ben Franklin (Tom Wilkerson has him down pretty well) and Thomas Jefferson (he looked just liked him and captured the demeanor of the figure). I can't wait to see the rest of the series and I know want to pick up the book. David MCCullough is a great writer. I would definitely recommend watching it.

[CMJ]

Fantastic book! Highly recommend reading it. I don't have HBO, so I'll rent the series in 6 months or so when it is released.

[Rutabaga]

I watched both parts Sunday, and rewatched some last night. I was very, very impressed. The acting is simply superb...I think Paul Giamatti and Laura Linney in particular are shoe-ins for Emmy nominations for their work. And David Morse, good heavens, I read in a short interview with him in TV Guide that when he first walked on set in costume, everyone gasped, and I can totally see why. He looks like he walked right off the $1 bill! It's great!

I really, really recommend the series to anyone who's interested in the history of Colonial America, it's terrific. :thumbup

[jjwr]

I really wanna see it and was bummed when I saw it was on HBO. I'll just have to wait for the DVD.

[Jedi Master Carr]

Fantastic book! Highly recommend reading it. I don't have HBO, so I'll rent the series in 6 months or so when it is released.

I am planning on getting the book. I read 1776 by the same author and that was a great book.

[Rutabaga]

A truly remarkable achievement...I almost feel a little bereft now that it's finished. If this series is not remembered come Emmy time, I will be shocked.

For those of you who do not have HBO, Amazon.com says the DVD is coming out on June 10th. Rent it or buy it...you will not be disappointed.

[Jedi Master Carr]

I saw the final part tonight, had to tivo it. It was a sad end to a great series. I loved how they played up Adams and Jefferson dying on the same day on the 4th of July no less. That was one of those strange facts that is so weird. Also I think it is clear that our country was built by those two men whose ideas created the foundation for our Republic.

[Yog]

What an amazing series. This rivals Gettysburg in many ways. The ending was very sad :(

If this does not get showered with Emmies, I will be very upset.

[Crusader]

Sounds kewl. I think I will try to get my hands on this.

[Jedi Master Carr]

What an amazing series. This rivals Gettysburg in many ways. The ending was very sad :(

If this does not get showered with Emmies, I will be very upset.

I love Adams final line, little did he know Jefferson died a few hours before him.

[Yog]

I love Adams final line, little did he know Jefferson died a few hours before him.
I think they loved their country so much, they both decided it was the right day to pass away.

[CMJ]

Just watched the DVD's. I thought they did a great job adapting the book(and of course his life). I felt the best parts were #2 and #5.

[Jedi Master Carr]

I loved the second episode too that was a great episode. The fifth one was great as well.

[CMJ]

They were all at least good episodes. I wish they had spent more time on the letters Jefferson and Adams sent each other their last 10 years or so. The book spent alot of pages discussing them.

[Jedi Master Carr]

I know I finished reading the book and I really enjoyed that part. It barely got touched on in the film. They also skipped a lot of the war years. I wished they had shown him meeting with Gates. They also skipped the Peace Treaty of Paris which he was heavily involved in. I am curious does the DVD have any deleted scenes? Do you off hand if they added anything to the episodes? I have been meaning to get it but just haven't had the opportunity.

[CMJ]

Well the Paris treaty was referenced in Episode 4 quite a bit. It was obvious Adams, Franklin, and Jefferson were involved. I haven't gone thru the extras, I just watched the episodes. I'll try and let you know.

[Jedi Master Carr]

Well the Paris treaty was referenced in Episode 4 quite a bit. It was obvious Adams, Franklin, and Jefferson were involved. I haven't gone thru the extras, I just watched the episodes. I'll try and let you know.

Maybe I just overlooked it in that scene. And thanks, I want to pick it up but was curious what I was looking forward to.

[Hartus Kenobi]

enjoyed it immensely, but I do have to say that a lot of the historical inaccuracies bothered me.

[Rutabaga]

As expected, John Adams scored a huge number of Emmy nominations...as a matter of fact, it scored the most nominations of any series or movie, period. Both Paul Giamatti and Laure Linney were nominated for their acting, as were David Morse, Stephen Dillane, and Tom Wilkinson. :)

[Jedi Master Carr]

enjoyed it immensely, but I do have to say that a lot of the historical inaccuracies bothered me.

Like what? I didn't notice anything too glaring other than a few minor changes like that Adams brought both his sons to Europe. It followed the book pretty closely other than taking out parts of his life, but it couldn't cover everything.
Also about the Emmys I am glad it got those 23 nods. It should easily win the Miniseries one. I also think about Giamatti and Linney will win. I think Dillanie should win for Jefferson he was amazing in that part.

[Hartus Kenobi]

enjoyed it immensely, but I do have to say that a lot of the historical inaccuracies bothered me.

Like what? I didn't notice anything too glaring other than a few minor changes like that Adams brought both his sons to Europe. It followed the book pretty closely other than taking out parts of his life, but it couldn't cover everything.
Also about the Emmys I am glad it got those 23 nods. It should easily win the Miniseries one. I also think about Giamatti and Linney will win. I think Dillanie should win for Jefferson he was amazing in that part.
Mostly small things like Adams or Jefferson sharing opinions that they did not have until much later in life. Adams and Abigail spent most of their early marriage away from each other, and corresponded almost exclusively in letters, whereas the series had them mostly living together and speaking directly to each other (they depended on the letters heavily to write the dialogue between them, but still. I know it makes for bad television, but I wish they incorporated letter-writing more into the show. It's just a little annoying to me to see a 40-year old Adams say something to Jefferson that I know he didn't write about until he was 80 years old. Also, the series had Abigail's death be the main impetus for John to write to Jefferson again, whereas, both John and Abigail wrote to Jefferson before her death.

[Jedi Master Carr]

enjoyed it immensely, but I do have to say that a lot of the historical inaccuracies bothered me.

Like what? I didn't notice anything too glaring other than a few minor changes like that Adams brought both his sons to Europe. It followed the book pretty closely other than taking out parts of his life, but it couldn't cover everything.
Also about the Emmys I am glad it got those 23 nods. It should easily win the Miniseries one. I also think about Giamatti and Linney will win. I think Dillanie should win for Jefferson he was amazing in that part.
Mostly small things like Adams or Jefferson sharing opinions that they did not have until much later in life. Adams and Abigail spent most of their early marriage away from each other, and corresponded almost exclusively in letters, whereas the series had them mostly living together and speaking directly to each other (they depended on the letters heavily to write the dialogue between them, but still. I know it makes for bad television, but I wish they incorporated letter-writing more into the show. It's just a little annoying to me to see a 40-year old Adams say something to Jefferson that I know he didn't write about until he was 80 years old. Also, the series had Abigail's death be the main impetus for John to write to Jefferson again, whereas, both John and Abigail wrote to Jefferson before her death.


Well we don't see much of their early marriage, but we do see they spend a lot of time away, but they skip years several times in the film. In Part 2 and 3 they skip 5 years and most of that time he was away from her. So really that wasn't a contradiction it is just time constraints can't show all of that in 7 hours. You would have to give me examples of what Adams said to Jefferson. I say that because much of it followed the book pretty well even their lines of dialogue. It could be McCullough that took liberties, I don't know for sure. Some of that I don't have a problem with because we don't really know what they said to each other for the most part. The other one I understand what you mean and I do wonder why they did. Maybe they wanted to keep the Jefferson letters to one section of the episode. CMJ had the same problem there wishing they had showed more of the letters they wrote to each other.

[CMJ]

Considering how closely TV/Movies USUALLY follows history - that is hardly worth noting. I came to the opinion sometime ago, if they get the real essence right, it's hard to complain - because they usually screw that up to! :lol

[Jedi Master Carr]

They got the big things right and followed his life pretty closely. They were very accurate in the look and feel of the period as well. Probably the only things they messed up is what was said, but that they can embellish since we don't really know what was really said between them.

[Rutabaga]

The John Adams miniseries set a record at the Emmys, scoring 13 awards overall. Paul Giamatti and Laura Linney won their respective categories, and best supporting actor went to Tom Wilkinson as Ben Franklin. And of course, it won the outstanding miniseries trophy :thumbup.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/SHOWBIZ/TV/09/21/emmy.awards/index.html

CafeFX, a local special effects company here in Santa Maria, won a creative arts Emmy for their work. Especially since Pan's Labyrinth, this company has been on fire creatively :).

[Jedi Master Carr]

I watched them last night was glad Giamatti won. Still think Morse or Dillane should have beat Wilkerson out. He was the weakest one of those three. That was the high point for the Emmys for me. I was disappointed that Hugh Laurie didn't win for House. He is seriously overdue.

[Yog]

Well deserved! :thumbup

I also noticed Colbert Report and The Daily Show got nods, and h-264 got some technical award, I think. I can like that. I did not notice any awards for Heroes, BSG or any sci fi series though.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/60th_Primetime_Emmy_Awards

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/35th_Daytime_Emmy_Awards

I am not bothering to make a separate thread, because I heard the show itself was dull, even though they got a lot of awards right.


Outstanding Variety, Music or Comedy Series:
The Daily Show (Comedy Central)
The Colbert Report (Comedy Central)
Late Show with David Letterman (CBS)
Real Time with Bill Maher (HBO)
Saturday Night Live (NBC)

You can't go wrong with a lineup like that :D

[Jedi Master Carr]

The show was dull. They had this stupid thing with these multiple hosts. They were horrible.