Stephen King's The Stand
ABC Television mini-series
People who know me might tell you that Star Wars is my favorite work of fiction; however people who really know me will tell you that it's The Stand. The mini-series that was inspired by the work that I consider to be the greatest novel of the century in which it was written premiered on ABC twenty years ago today. It was my first exposure to the story of The Stand and it opened up a whole new world for me. I was so blown away by the mini-series that I picked up the novel in paperback a few days after I saw it, and I loved the book even more. Reading that opened the door for me to The Dark Tower and to the rest of the works of Stephen King.
I didn't see this when it first aired on television, but I brought the VHS tapes home to watch a few years later when I worked at Blowout Video as a teenager. "Don't Fear The Reaper" by Blue Oyster Cult sets the tone from the very beginning, and the score throughout the series, by W. G. Snuffy Walden, is haunting and beautiful. "Don't Dream It's Over" by Crowded House beginning in Franny's living room (or was that her mother's parlor?) and continuing as a backdrop to the aftermath of the plague is unforgettable. Larry Underwood's character (played brilliantly by Adam Storke) captures the moment of the journey across the country when he sits on a car in a traffic jam of the dead playing Barry McGuire's "Eve of Destruction". Larry also puts music to "Baby, Can You Dig Your Man" sixteen years after it first appeared in print. I still wonder who performed it for the mini-series, and if a full version of the song exists somewhere.
There are a lot of little Easter Eggs hiding in the mini-series. Some are references to the novel that were cut from television, while others are just fun things to find. For example: who on earth put a New York Mets bumper sticker on The Monster Shouter's sandwich boards? The cast members themselves have such a diverse background that it's fun to connect the dots to their previous work. Is that My Favorite Martian as Glen Bateman? How about Agent Rosenfield from Twin Peaks as Lloyd Henreid? Is that Max Headroom as The Trashcan Man, and is he bowing down and praying to Biff Tannen's Pleasure Paradise? Did Jigsaw's female accomplice from the Saw franchise learn how to be a henchwoman by working for Randall Flagg? Didn't I see Mother Abigail as a much younger woman in college when we watched A Raisin In The Sun? Was that Officer Vinnie Schtulman picking up Nick and Tom on the road to Hemingford Home, and what the heck did Alf do to Willie Tanner to make him want to arrest Stu Redman in Arnette? The series has dozens of actors and actresses that you will recognize, both in major and minor roles.
If you haven't seen this, I highly recommend it whether you've read the novel or not. It can either open the same door for you as it did for me, or it will bring the world that you've imagined in the novel to life on the screen as well as the best film adaptation of a book that you'll ever find.
If you haven't seen this, I highly recommend it whether you've read the novel or not. It can either open the same door for you as it did for me, or it will bring the world that you've imagined in the novel to life on the screen as well as the best film adaptation of a book that you'll ever find.
