The Thorn Birds (TV miniseries)

The Thorn Birds
Directed by	Daryl Duke
Written by	Carmen Culver Lee Stanley Colleen McCullough (novel)
Starring	Richard Chamberlain Rachel Ward Barbara Stanwyck Christopher Plummer Jean Simmons Bryan Brown Philip Anglim Richard Kiley
Music by	Henry Mancini
Cinematography	Bill Butler
Editing by	Robert F. Shugrue David Saxon Carroll Timothy O'Meara
Country	United States
Language	English
Original channel	ABC
Release date	()
Running time	467 minutes

The Thorn Birds is a television mini-series broadcast on ABC between 27 and 30 March 1983. It starred Richard Chamberlain, Rachel Ward, Barbara Stanwyck, Christopher Plummer, Richard Kiley, Bryan Brown, Mare Winningham, Philip Anglim and Jean Simmons. It was directed by Daryl Duke and based on a novel by Colleen McCullough.

Set primarily on Drogheda, a fictional sheep station in the Australian outback, the story focuses on three generations of the Cleary Family and spans the years 1920 to 1962.

Plot

For more details on this topic, see The Thorn Birds#Plot.

Deviations from the novel

The novel begins in New Zealand on December 8, 1915, Meggie Cleary's fourth birthday. The miniseries begins in Australia five years later.

Three of Paddy and Fiona's children, Hughie and twins Jims and Patsy, are left out of the miniseries. In the miniseries, Meggie and Stuart visit Frank in prison, where Frank eventually dies. In the novel, Ralph acts as a go-between and no one in the Cleary family sees Frank until he is released from prison after 30 years.

In the novel, Meggie is totally ignorant of sexual matters until her wedding and has her own childish idea of how babies are made, which is revealed in her dialogue with Ralph. In the corresponding dialogue in the film, she is at least aware that animals copulate. The scene in the novel where Meggie reveals to Ralph that she has begun menstruating has Ralph reacting with anger toward Fee (although he never confronts Fee about it), whereas in the miniseries, Ralph is amused.

Justine visits Greece with Dane in the miniseries, while in the novel she stays in London.

In the miniseries, Anne and Luddie Mueller attend Dane's funeral. In the novel, Luddie had died prior to Dane's funeral and Anne attended alone.

Ralph dies while sitting in a chair with Meggie's head in his lap, recalling the legend of the thorn bird, not in Meggie's arms as in the novel, and not immediately after Dane's funeral.

The miniseries ends with Ralph's death. The novel continues with Justine's and Rainer's story.

The novel contains a continuity device where characters visit the Drogheda graveyard. This device is not used in the miniseries.

Cast

Actor	Role
Richard Chamberlain	Ralph de Bricassart
Rachel Ward	Meggie Cleary (as an adult)
Sydney Penny	Meggie Cleary (as a child)
Barbara Stanwyck	Mary Carson
Richard Kiley	Paddy Cleary
Jean Simmons	Fee Cleary
Bryan Brown	Luke O'Neill
Mare Winningham	Justine O'Neill
Philip Anglim	Dane O'Neill
Ken Howard	Rainer Hartheim
John Friedrich	Frank Cleary
Dwier Brown	Stuart Cleary (as an adult)
Vidal Peterson	Stuart Cleary (as a child)
Piper Laurie	Anne Mueller
Earl Holliman	Luddie Mueller
Christopher Plummer	Archbishop Vittorio di Contini-Verchese
Brett Cullen	Bob Cleary
Stephen W. Burns	Jack Cleary
Barry Corbin	Pete
Holly Palance	Miss Carmichael
John de Lancie	Alastair MacQueen
Allyn Ann McLerie	Mrs. Smith
Richard Venture	Harry Gough
Stephanie Faracy	Judy
Antoinette Bower	Sarah MacQueen

Filming

• Although the mini-series is set in Australia it was filmed in the United States. The outback scenes were filmed in southern California and the Queensland scenes were filmed on the Hawaiian island of Kauai. The Drogheda main house was a set built on the Big Sky Ranch in Simi Valley, California.

• The mountainous terrain of the southern California "outback" filming location does not resemble western New South Wales, which is predominantly level to gently rolling.

• The mini-series included "the most dangerous bus in Australia". Since filming took place in the US an American bus was used. In Australia, where there is right-hand drive, it would set down its passengers in the middle of the road.

• In the miniseries, Drogheda, Mary Carson's sheep station, is said to have been named after the Irish town of Drogheda, by a former resident of that town. However, its name is mispronounced by all characters as "Drog-ee-da". In fact, the g should be silent and the e short. A former resident would pronounce it as Draw-hed-ah or Dro-hed-ah (with a soft o as in "drop"), or draw-da.

• A "midquel" was produced in 1996, by CBS entitled The Thorn Birds: The Missing Years, which tells the story of the 19 years unaccounted for in the original miniseries

• New York Jets offensive tackle D'Brickashaw Ferguson was named after the character Ralph de Bricassart.

• Rachel Ward, who was born in 1957, plays the mother of a daughter played by 1959 born actress Mare Winningham, and a son played by 1953 born actor Philip Anglim.

• Rachel Ward met her husband Bryan Brown on the set while filming the series. Brown plays Luke O'Neill who marries Ward's character, Meggie Cleary.

• Actor Bryan Brown, was actually the only Australian born cast member hired in a major role. This is not too unusual since although the series takes place in Australia, Luke O'Neill and Meggie's children were the only major characters who were Australian born. Father Ralph, Mary Carson, and Paddy Cleary were all Irish born. Fee and most of the Cleary children were born in New Zealand.

• During casting, actress Jane Seymour was considered for the role of Meggie Cleary and the role of Mary Carson was originally offered to Audrey Hepburn.

• The serial has had great success in France. The French title is "Les oiseaux se cachent pour mourir" (The birds hide to die). The series is still regularly repeated on TV channels.

• The series was also very successful in Brazil, where it was broadcast by SBT. During its first broadcast, in 1985, the minisseries beat Globo TV network in the ratings, which had always been the leader in ratings in Brazil. The series last aired in Brazil from October 2 through October 13, 2006, at 9:40 PM (local time).

Emmy Awards

The Mini-series was nominated in 16 categories at the Primetime Emmy Awards in 1983, 7 of which were for acting. The winning actors were:

• Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series or a Special- Barbara Stanwyck.
• Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited Series or a Special- Richard Kiley.
• Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited Series or a Special- Jean Simmons.

Also nominated for their roles:

• Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series or a Special- Richard Chamberlain.
• Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited Series or a Special- Bryan Brown.
• Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited Series or a Special- Christopher Plummer.
• Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited Series or a Special- Piper Laurie.

Competing against these actors were Roger Rees and David Threlfall for their performances in the television version of the Royal Shakespeare Company's The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, which beat out both The Thorn Birds and The Winds of War for Best Miniseries.

External links

• Encyclopedia of Television
• The Thorn Birds at the Internet Movie Database