The second part languishes for most of its running time, and the climactic ending is a goofy misinterpretation of the source material. Shown in two parts, the first part that focuses on the main characters as kids has all the best stuff. While Tim Curry’s portrayal of the titular creature’s favorite form, Pennywise the Dancing Clown, is certainly iconic, the rest of the show is a mixed bag. King’s story is a thesis on horror as a genre and its influence on our culture, and it reads just as well today as it did when it was published thirty years ago. It tells the story of a group of childhood friends who battle against a shape-shifting monster, only to have to reconnect years later as adults to finish it off. The ’90s would end up being the most prolific decade for the Stephen King miniseries, and the decade kicked off with one of the more successful adaptations on this list.

It’s a cornerstone vampire story from a time where the world wasn’t overburdened with them. The vampire Barlow is the stuff nightmares are made of, the vibe is spot on, and there’s a playful sense to the production itself. It’s pulpy, it steals from better sources, and it suffers rather substantially from the transitional stylistic period it was filmed in but the overall result is a winner. ‘Salem’s Lot is far from perfect and it’s a pared down approach to the seminal novel it’s based upon, but director Tobe Hooper packed in enough great elements to make it a high water mark for Stephen King onscreen. I slept that night under my parent’s kitchen table while they played cards with friends because it was so intense an image. I was seven years old when I saw Ralphie Glick floating outside his brother’s window and the odd way in which he floated into the room. ‘Salem’s Lot (1979)Īsk anyone who was a child at the time that this miniseries aired if ‘Salem’s Lot was scary and you’ll get a resounding “hell yes”. Regular TV series such as Golden Years or Under the Dome were disqualified, as well as made-for-TV movies like The Diary of Ellen Rimbauer and Quicksilver Highway. It should be noted that we only considered projects that were made with the intention of being a miniseries.

In honor of the release of 11/22/63, we here at Fandom decided to take a look back at all the miniseries adaptations of King’s works.

This is hardly the first time that a King story has been adapted in this way, and King himself has given loads of praise to the miniseries format in the past. Hulu has gotten into the miniseries game in a big way with their adaptation of Stephen King’s 11/22/63, a time-traveling adventure about a man determined to stop the assassination of President John F.

Dreamscapes 2006