"John Adams" (2008) TV mini-series

Seasons:

1

Release Date:

16 March 2008 (USA)

Genre:

Biography | Drama | History

Tagline:

Join or Die

Plot:

A miniseries on the life of John Adams and the first 50 years of the United States.

Plot Keywords:

John Adams | TV Mini-Series | First Lady | Law | Colonial America

Awards:

Won 4 Golden Globes. Another 32 wins & 19 nominations

Cast

Paul Giamatti	...	John Adams (7 episodes, 2008)
Laura Linney	...	Abigail Adams (7 episodes, 2008)
John Dossett	...	Benjamin Rush (6 episodes, 2008)
Stephen Dillane	...	Thomas Jefferson (6 episodes, 2008)
Sarah Polley	...	Nabby Adams (4 episodes, 2008)
Samuel Barnett	...	Thomas Adams (4 episodes, 2008)
David Morse	...	George Washington (4 episodes, 2008)
Andrew Scott	...	Colonel William Smith (4 episodes, 2008)
Danny Huston	...	Samuel Adams (3 episodes, 2008)
Ebon Moss-Bachrach	...	John Quincy Adams (3 episodes, 2008)
Steven Hinkle	...	Young John Quincy Adams (3 episodes, 2008)
Madeline Taylor	...	Young Nabby Adams (3 episodes, 2008)
Mamie Gummer	...	Sally Smith Adams (3 episodes, 2008)
Kevin Trainor	...	Charles Adams (3 episodes, 2008)
Tom Wilkinson	...	Benjamin Franklin (3 episodes, 2008)
Michael Hall D'Addario	...	Young Charles Adams (3 episodes, 2008)
Landon Ashworth	...	The Senator (3 episodes, 2008)
Dan Taylour	...	Merchant / ... (3 episodes, 2008)
Rufus Sewell	...	Alexander Hamilton (2 episodes, 2008)
Justin Theroux	...	John Hancock (2 episodes, 2008)
Judith Magre	...	Madame Helvétius (2 episodes, 2008)
Brennan Brown	...	Robert Treat Paine (2 episodes, 2008)
Tom Beckett	...	Elbridge Gerry (2 episodes, 2008)
Jules Croiset	...	Second Dutch Banker (2 episodes, 2008)
Sieger Sloot	...	Dutch Man (2 episodes, 2008)
Lex van Delden	...	First Dutch Banker (2 episodes, 2008)
Zeljko Ivanek	...	John Dickinson (2 episodes, 2008)
John Keating	...	Timothy Pickering (2 episodes, 2008)
Thomas Langston	...	Young Thomas Adams (2 episodes, 2008)
Timmy Sherrill	...	Attorney General Charles Lee / ... (2 episodes, 2008)
Juan Eloy Carrera	...	Bostonian Townsperson (2 episodes, 2008)
Robert Rice		(2 episodes, 2008)

Also Known As:

Untitled John Adams Miniseries (USA) (working title)

Runtime:

501 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Australia:M | Singapore:NC-16

Filming Locations:

Budapest, Hungary

Company:

HBO Films

Trivia:

During an interview on NPR's "Fresh Air," Paul Giamatti told interviewer Dave Davies that the scene in which Abigail and John have sex upon being reunited after many years apart was not written as a sex scene. The script only called for John and Abigail to kiss, but Giamatti said that he and Laura Linney discussed between themselves that they thought the characters would go farther in that situation, and they decided to "keep going" and hope the director and camera person would follow them, which they did. The scene they improvised and shot was originally much longer than what ended up in the finished film.

Goofs:

Factual errors: After the death of Abigail there is a scene where Dr. Benjamin Rush is consoling John Adams and encourages him to write to Thomas Jefferson. Benjamin Rush died 5 years before Abigail.

Quotes:

Abigail Adams: Half-fed slaves building our nation's Capitol. What possible good can come from such a place?

Movie Connections:

Featured in The 60th Primetime Emmy Awards (2008) (TV)

Soundtrack:

Chester

Drama

Historically-based drama, like historical romance, is not history. Having said that, I rate this new television series somewhat high.

I like many other students of history will find fault with historical details that go astray in this presentation. I may also find fault with the manner in which some of the historical facts and characters seem overemphasized at the expense of others. But the key question is whether the story as compelling drama holds up against all that background.

For example, is the character of John Adams as played by Paul Giamatti believable? Does he seem consonant with the storyline? Are the other cast members and episodes structured so as to advance a clear image in our minds of the man and his times? I must confess I have a very different idea of what the real John Adams must have been like. But the words and actions of this drama are in and of themselves generally representative of the written record of history. As an example I cite from the most recent episode the beginnings of antagonism between Adams and Jefferson that would lead (I hope will lead!) to the very dramatic facts of their bitter enmity and eventual reconciliation before they died as old men, coincidentally on the same day. Every schoolchild needs to know what these two men stood for in the formative years of the republic, and how each one like so many politicians today felt occasionally inclined to put vanity ahead of what they truly believed. That is the makings of good drama.

So I can forget from time to time that much of this stuff is being filmed in Hungary, that Breed's Hill was not Bunker Hill, that the accents aren't right (especially undifferentiated as between the South and New England), and that the sun is almost always shining.

Instead, I concentrate more on why there is so much mumbling and whispering. My ears are not as good as they used to be.