It's been about eight and a half years since HBO premiered the miniseries produced by Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg, but I remember deleting Band of Brothers off my TiVo as if it was yesterday. I didn't delete it because I didn't like it, I never got around to watching it and knew I wasn't going to.
Back around the time it premiered I had a "real job," and it was a pretty stressful job that was about to get more stressful. I was relieving the stress by going to the ballpark a lot and watching Barry Bonds hit home runs into the bay. I don't really care whether you hate Barry Bonds or not, watching him mash home runs over a 25' wall into the San Francisco Bay with 42,000 or so other people was fun as hell. That was the year he hit 73 home runs and broke the then three year old single-season record.
The day that Band of Brothers premiered was a pretty good day as I recall. Unfortunately, a couple of days later wasn't such a great day because a couple of days later was September 11, 2001.
Band of Brothers started to pile up on the TiVo and the hard drive on the TiVos in those days weren't so big so ultimately I deleted it. I wasn't in the mood for watching a miniseries about World War 2 at the time.
About a month ago I was perusing HBO On Demand and I noticed Band of Brothers, and the first three episodes were available. I wound up watching them back-to-back-to-back and since then I've been watching as they add new episodes every week and have now watched seven out of the ten episodes.
So far, I absolutely love it. The production quality is pretty amazing.
The cast, especially for someone who watches a lot of TV, is a real treat. A younger version of Damien Lewis who I enjoyed so much on Life.
There's Michael Cudlitz from Southland and Richard Speight Jr. who was Bill on Jericho (and the "Trickster" on Supernatural) and the actor who plays a Colonel, Dale Dye also once appeared on Chuck as a General (Dye was also a real life enlisted Marine who ultimately retired as a Captain and the "Daddy D.A." character in the movie "Full Metal Jacket" is based on Dye).
Fringe fans will recognize Kirk Acevedo. It's a huge cast and just combing through IMDB to see everything else they've worked on would probably kill a couple of hours.
If you've never seen it, and have HBO On Demand (or Netflix, etc), I recommend giving it a look.
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After writing the above I was curious about how the show rated back in 2001 and wound up digging up an article in The New York Times about how Hollywood handled the on-screen portrayal of soldiers following September 11. The numbers were impressive, both before and after 9/11:
Since the release of Steven Spielberg's ''Saving Private Ryan'' in the summer of 1998, American popular culture has been in the midst of what might be called a ''Greatest Generation'' cycle, celebrating the sacrifices and achievements of American soldiers in World War II in films as well as in best sellers by Tom Brokaw and Stephen E. Ambrose. The cycle was to reach its apotheosis this fall with the release of the mini-series adaptation of Mr. Ambrose's ''Band of Brothers,'' the most expensive and ambitious project in HBO history.
It was that mini-series's fate to have its two-hour premiere on Sept. 9, thus providing the first concrete example of how the terrorist attacks may have changed Americans' perceptions of men in uniform and their appetite for war dramas.
The heavily promoted premiere drew about 10 million viewers around the country, but when the terrorists struck two days later, HBO decided to halt the mini-series's marketing campaign immediately out of sensitivity to the effect such images might have. But the next episode, on Sept. 16, still drew 7.3 million viewers, a hefty number for HBO, especially in light of the lack of advertising. And figures for subsequent episodes (through Oct. 7, the most recent date for which information is available) have hovered just above six million, which an HBO spokesman said was roughly equivalent to what the network had drawn for regular series like ''Six Feet Under'' and ''Sex and the City.''
It really is a great miniseries. Enjoy each episode.
I wish I had HBO so I could watch the Pacific when it comes on. I guess I’ll just have to wait for DVD.
also, you can’t forget to mention Ron Livingston, from such hits as “Defying Gravity”
Really impressive numbers especially compared to what HBO shows pull in today. I wonder how the Pacific premiere will do in comparison. By the way did you ever receive numbers for Temple Grandin?
HBO on demand has a bunch of treats right now in addition to Band of Brothers as it has Extras the Complete Series, The Wire Season 1, and The Corner
I never have been a fan of WW II movies, games etc. But Band of Brothers was amazing. At the beginning, I never watched a complete episode. I was watching a few minutes here and there, from random episode each time. I finally had the chance to watch it last summer, I don’t regret it. One of HBO’s greatest show. It’s also waaaaaay better than Generation kill (War in Iraq)
I’m not sure about The Pacific though. I’ll watch for sure, but I don’t know if Band of Brothers can be reproduced quality and rating wise. I hope so.
HBO is coming back in a really back in a really big way. They have The Pacific, Treme, True Blood and Boardwalk Empire. HBO is back in a really big way.
Jared, I didn’t forget, it’s just that I’m enjoying Ron enough in Band of Brothers where I don’t want to take any potshots…
Cullen, I never saw anything directly but saw on USA that Temple Gradin averaged 1.2 million in its first airing.
“Cullen, I never saw anything directly but saw on USA that Temple Gradin averaged 1.2 million in its first airing.”
That’s not bad for a tv movie. I’m sure that The Pacific will get more viewers than that though.
Band of Brothers was amazing. That’s where I first developed a great appreciation for Damian Lewis. You probably haven’t gotten there yet, but Matthew Settle (late of Gossip Girl, ugh) was also rather awesome as Speirs.
Gotta disagree with Samuel, though. I think BoB and Generation Kill are equally brilliant in their own ways. It’s actually quite striking to compare the two – in BoB you have the comfort of a righteous war whereas GK questions the wisdom of people/institutions in a war that’s all about shades of gray. Both fantastic, but showing a starkly different attitude toward/philosophy of war.
I can’t imagine even The Pacific can touch Band of Brothers but I think it’s the same writers and producer. This was an incredible and important miniseries. If The Pacific is half as good it will still have every other show on TV beat by a mile.
The Pacific doesn’t need to be as good as Band of Brothers. It just needs to stand on its own.
Here’s a clip from HBO’s The Pacific:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GH0wgz0TXK4
And the Denver Post has this to say:
http://www.denverpost.com/headlines/ci_14385369
“The first two hours are every bit as engrossing as the Europe-based “Brothers,” and as bloody and nerve-wracking as you might expect.”
I don’t really like war films, but I have to say the acting was so magnificant (it also had Neal Mcdonough who played the mystery character in last years Desperate Housewives), the writing was also superb (very funny at times but also human and powerful). It was just a huge triumph.
Frank, If HBO greenlight’s “A Game of Thrones” (the Pilot has supposedly been watched and a decision has been promised by March, but it’s looking good) then that’s another show that could turn into a big hit for them.
It would be their most expensive show ever and I don’t see them committing that much money unless they’re reasonably sure that it will be worth the cost.
Band of brothers was/is the most outstanding series I have ever watched. I have watched it fully 5 or 6 times now and it never gets old.
@Robert
It’s “Kirk” Acevedo, not Kurt.
Boardwalk Empire is going to be a big hit as well.
Loved it so much I bought it on DVD. I starting watching Life because of Damien Lewis.
I agree hbo is returning with a bang! Don’t forget the Ricky gervais animated show and the life and times of Tim return this Friday!
I loved Band of Brothers and I have it on Blu-ray at home. You mention Dale Dye but Rick Gomez, the guy who plays George Luz, is the brother of Josh Gomez (Morgan from Chuck)
I guess I’ll have to Netflix it then!