# Shogun TV series



## Brian G Turner (Jan 12, 2020)

So I've now got the DVD so the family can watch it, but I'm a little surprised to find it just contains 5 episodes: 2 x 3 hour episodes, and 3 x 2 hour episodes.

I could have sworn when I watched it that it was broadcast in 1 hour episodes, especially when I last watched it on Sky TV a few years ago.

However, is my memory playing up with me? Has it always been broadcast in such big sections?


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## HareBrain (Jan 12, 2020)

It's a long time ago, but I'm sure when I watched it in my youth each episode was an hour.


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## BAYLOR (Jan 12, 2020)

HareBrain said:


> It's a long time ago, but I'm sure when I watched it in my youth each episode was an hour.



It was a huge hit on American television .  In Japan, it flopped.  

Author  James Clavell  also did the screenplay for* The Fly*.


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## Elckerlyc (Jan 12, 2020)

It was a huge hit in Holland as well, but here it were 10 episodes of each 43min. which was the usual length for TVseries in those days.


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## Anthoney (Jan 12, 2020)

I watched it when it first aired in the US.  It was run in 5 days.  They were all at least 2 hours and some were even 3.


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## olive (Jan 13, 2020)

I know that it was a huge hit over here too. It aired at the beginning of the 80s. (I was around 5.) I haven't seen any of it. 

Should I see it?


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## Cat's Cradle (Jan 13, 2020)

I second Anthoney's thoughts - I also saw the original airing, and it was over after five nights of 2-3 hour long episodes (IMDB has the series' length as 9 hours 7 minutes). Quite a TV event back in the day, and I've been meaning to read the book ever since (but haven't yet). So, what you have, Brian, likely matches the editing of the US episodes. 

Also, after looking at IMDB - that was some cast!


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## Anthoney (Jan 13, 2020)

EpisodeOriginal US air dateTimesNotesHousehold
rating[1]Household
viewers
(millions)[1]0115 September 19808 pm - 11 pm Eastern(3 hr opener)29.523.00216 September 19808 pm - 10 pm Eastern31.724.70317 September 19809 pm - 11 pm Eastern36.928.70418 September 19809 pm - 11 pm Eastern35.627.70519 September 19808 pm - 11 pm Eastern(3 hr finale)31.524.5

I found this on Wikipedia.  This is about what I remember.


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## Brian G Turner (Jan 13, 2020)

Shogun does a fade to black every 20 minutes, which makes it easy to separate the sections - although we're watching the 3hr first episode, we're watching it in 3 x 1 hour chunks.

And yes, though a little slow at the start, I think both the TV series is worth watching and the book is worth reading.


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