Stephen King's It (1990 mini-series) (on DVD)

Stephen King’s It
[DVD It] 

The success of the recent theatrical release of It, featuring Bill Skarsgard as the demonic clown Pennywise, has me thinking back with great fondness to the 4-hour 1990 TV mini-series adaptation of Stephen King’s novel, which featured Tim Curry (Rocky Horror Picture Show) as Pennywise. Whereas the current feature film is merely the first half of the story, with the second half expected in two years, the adaptation was complete in two nights, and featured a veritable “who’s who” of recognizable TV actors from the late 1980s. Also, the pre-teen actors who played the 12-year-old versions of the main characters were all excellent, and in the subsequent 27 years many of them have gone on to great success in film and television.

The “adult” cast included Harry “Night Court” Anderson, Dennis “Profiler” Christopher, Richard “Transparent” Masur, Annette “Smallville” O’Toole, Tim “WKRP” Reid, John “Three’s Company” Ritter, and Richard “The Waltons” Thomas. The “kids” included Jonathan “SeaQuest” Brandis, Brandon Crane, Adam Faraizl, Seth “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” Green, Ben Hiller, Emily Perkins and Marlon Taylor.

I’m sure I’ll eventually see the 2017 It, although I may wait until I can see both halves of the story back-to-back. But I absolutely loved the 1990 mini-series — the performances were all marvelous, especially Curry as Pennywise…the images of his red-haired menace staring out of the sewer opening still scares me to this day. The only thing that keeps me from giving this a “10” rating is the ridiculous ending, which I also didn’t care for in King’s original novel. But, that silly ending notwithstanding, Stephen King’s It mini-series is definitely worth revisiting!

[If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try the TV mini-series versions of Stephen King’s The Stand, Stephen King’s The Shining or the TV series version of The Dead Zone, starring Anthony Michael Hall.]

[Also available in traditional print format.]

[ Internet Movie Database entry for this film ]

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library

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