Shogun TV series

[Brian G Turner]

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?

 

[HareBrain]

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

 

[BAYLOR]

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.

 

[Elckerlyc]

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.

 

[Anthoney]

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.

 

[olive]

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?

 

[Cat's Cradle]

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!

 

[Anthoney]

Episode	Original US air date	Times	Notes	Household rating[1]	Household viewers (millions)[1]
01	15 September 1980	8 pm - 11 pm Eastern	(3 hr opener)	29.5	23.0
02	16 September 1980	8 pm - 10 pm Eastern		31.7	24.7
03	17 September 1980	9 pm - 11 pm Eastern		36.9	28.7
04	18 September 1980	9 pm - 11 pm Eastern		35.6	27.7
05	19 September 1980	8 pm - 11 pm Eastern	(3 hr finale)	31.5	24.5

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

 

[Brian G Turner]

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.

 

[BAYLOR]

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.

There's a new tv mini series on the way .