Anyone watching "John Adams" on HBO?

[Desert Rat]

I'm learning a lot from this miniseries......very well done, in my opinion

[MyracleMan]

I've got it all on my DVR... just waiting for a chance to sit down & watch it.

[Jane Craig]

Impressive -- as anything with Paul Giamatti and Laura Linney would be expected to be. I really like David Morse as Washington as well. I thought the first two episodes were extremely well-done, right down to the details of costume and lighting.

That whole men-wearing-preposterous-wigs thing is just bizarre.

[Lazlo Toth]

I don't know. Worked for Wm. Shatner and Bruce Willis.

It's been excellent. I don't usually go looking for things on On Demand, but I saw snippets and then went to find the entire first two episodes.

[Sultanosurf]

Don't have time to watch right now, but I'm interested in how it matches McCullough's terrific book.

There were some nasty political divisions then, despite everyone's misty depiction of the Revolution. And the Adams story also reminds how important letters are in resurrecting history. Historians will have an interesting time with all our emails. Does anyone save them to the degree of letters?

[writer2]

off topic, shame on me.
But I'm loving it.
Visited Boston last year.
Second episode ended with the reading of the Declaration of Independence.
Sent chills down my spine. Terrific!

[Jane Craig]

I tend to shy away from long biographies of Famous Dead People (manyof them are just ponderous), but the series is making me contemplate reading the book,

[Firestarter]

It is fantastic television. The major networks should get back to smarter programming. How sad that we have to pay 11 bucks a month to have access to a show like this---while at the same time offering the poor folk who get free TeeVee shows like "My Dad...." and "Are you smarter than..."

Good stuff, per usual from HBO.

[commercial hack]

I wanted to see it, don't have HBO. I guess I'll have to wait till it comes out on DVD.

[jrat33]

Am watching it. It serves two purposes... enlightens me on historical events and puts my two year old to sleep!

It's really well done. In the first episode, where they tar and feather the guy, I had to turn away. It just gave me the heebie jeebies.

[Tripe Face]

I read the book and loved it.

I too can't wait for the DVD.

Sultan's point about letters is very true. Martha Washington burned most of what George Washington wrote and what she wrote. So we don't know NEAR as much about his thinking about crucial issues that still affect this country as we do about Adams and Jefferson's thinking.
They both wrote constantly and those letters and other documents were saved.

[Clever Login Name]

Originally Posted by Desert Rat

I'm learning a lot from this miniseries......very well done, in my opinion

Uh, why don't you have your Giants Super Bowl DVD playing on a continuous loop like I, a true Giants fan, do?

And for those without HBO, I think they have a free preview weekend coming up ... I'll see if I can catch some of the series then. It will be hard to match the book, though.

[Lazlo Toth]

Originally Posted by commercial hack

I wanted to see it, don't have HBO. I guess I'll have to wait till it comes out on DVD.

Have your friends tape it.

[Desert Rat]

[quote=Clever Login Name;367435]Uh, why don't you have your Giants Super Bowl DVD playing on a continuous loop like I, a true Giants fan, do?



I just got my copy yesterday and checked it out, once again another stellar job by NFL Films...

I wonder if Mr. Rugen would like a copy of the NFC divisional playoff game highlights against the Giants. I would be more than happy to send him one.....you know just in case he forgot what happened.

[Pro]

OK, here's some spoilers: The revolutionists won the war. John Adams was elected as the second U.S. President. He got into a p*ssing match with Thomas Jefferson. They later made up and became great freinds. They died on the same 4th of July.

Now, you don't have to watch it.

[Diplomat]

Originally Posted by Pro

OK, here's some spoilers: The revolutionists won the war. John Adams was elected as the second U.S. President. He got into a p*ssing match with Thomas Jefferson. They later made up and became great freinds. They died on the same 4th of July.

Now, you don't have to watch it.

You beat me to it.

[Stupid]

So far I've loved it. I have a question about David Morse's portrayal of Washington. What is the accent he's using? I can't place it.

[Sultanosurf]

Originally Posted by Tripe Face

I read the book and loved it.

I too can't wait for the DVD.

Sultan's point about letters is very true. Martha Washington burned most of what George Washington wrote and what she wrote. So we don't know NEAR as much about his thinking about crucial issues that still affect this country as we do about Adams and Jefferson's thinking.
They both wrote constantly and those letters and other documents were saved.

It really makes you wonder how we'll track the past twenty years. Anything intimately revealing will probably get a delete on both ends.

Then again, maybe letters were a luxury anyway. Did the Sumarians write home how their robes itched and how bad the chow was?

It'll be a loss, though. The Adams letters were revealing on both the highest and lowest level. And Washington's letters to his property caretaker were among the most detailed and anguished of the direst times in the Revolution.

[CKMD]

I watched it tonight.
We should all watch it...and join together to remember what we were built on, what they fought for, why it is important.
Amazing historical look at what was done, why it was needed and visions of the future.
Forgetting history only continues ignorance.

[Stupid]

Originally Posted by CKMD

I watched it tonight.
We should all watch it...and join together to remember what we were built on, what they fought for, why it is important.
Amazing historical look at what was done, why it was needed and visions of the future.
Forgetting history only continues ignorance.

Agreed. Liberty and freedom. We seem to have lost those principles. On both sides of our current aisle.

[TVShootist]

No .

[Stupid]

Originally Posted by TVShootist

No .

You should watch it. It's well done television.

[Tripe Face]

Originally Posted by Sultanosurf

It really makes you wonder how we'll track the past twenty years. Anything intimately revealing will probably get a delete on both ends.

Then again, maybe letters were a luxury anyway. Did the Sumarians write home how their robes itched and how bad the chow was?

It'll be a loss, though. The Adams letters were revealing on both the highest and lowest level. And Washington's letters to his property caretaker were among the most detailed and anguished of the direst times in the Revolution.

It's not just letters and written material.

Every new advance in technology for recording visual images deteriorates sooner than the previous. Paintings of George Washington are in much better shape that the Photos of Abe Lincoln and the earliest film of FDR is in better shape than any video recording of Truman or Eisenhower.
But those are presidents, every effort is made to save whatever there is of their legacy. That's not true of the visual images of other people and key events of their time.

Now think about your station's first foray into digitally recorded and stored images. How long will the software that allows you to view and use those first digital images be around?

And videotape isn't the answer. I've talked to the person in charge of my network's library... The video of the First Gulf War is deteriorating on the tape faster than the 16mm film used to record much of the Vietnam, Korean and WWII.

Let me ask you, how many of you have a 3/4 inch videotape of early career triumphs? Could any of you watch that today... even if you wanted? Even if there were a 3/4 machine hooked up to a tv in your building?

I don't know why tv stations don't invest more in library and archives personnel and equipment. They spend fortunes buying cameras and hiring people to get this video...it is practically their one tangible "product" and then a day after it's shot they treat it almost like old newpapers.

OK, I've gone way off topic here. Back to our discussion of John, Abigail, George and Thomas and the other original Liberal Elite.

[Sultanosurf]

Hey, the 3/4 stuff I might find a machine for, imagine all the stuff on Beta SX.

You don't think that compatible software will allow conversion of digital stuff? If not, I'm spending a lot of time to convert, and it'd be nice to know if it's going somewhere that' be accessible, or if I'll face the same problem all over again.

[Tripe Face]

Originally Posted by Sultanosurf

Hey, the 3/4 stuff I might find a machine for, imagine all the stuff on Beta SX.

You don't think that compatible software will allow conversion of digital stuff? If not, I'm spending a lot of time to convert, and it'd be nice to know if it's going somewhere that' be accessible, or if I'll face the same problem all over again.

I know that where I work, some of the stuff we cut on Final Cut Pro isn't compatible with other Final Cut Edit bays... if the material is cut on a version of FCP that is NEWER, it won't be compatible with machines running an older version of FCP.

Then there is the problem of our bureau cutting on FCP and our other bureaus cutting on Pinnacle... so all their stuff must be converted before we can use it.

Oh, we have tons of Beta SX and SP machines... bring your stuff to DC... I'll convert it for the low low price of $250 a minute. Cash!