The Adams Chronicles

When I first heard of the passing of Mr. Grizzard, I got to wondering why one of his greatest roles is not on DVD. Where is The Adams Chronicles?

PatH

Re: The Adams Chronicles

Not only is it not on DVD it is my understanding that it was only released in limited amounts on VHS to certain college libraries. I have checked in RI and can't find these VHS tapes anywhere.

I am unaware of any plans to release it on DVD, but I would love to see it also.

SMK

Re: The Adams Chronicles

I'm reviving this very old thread to remind people that The Adams Chronicles goes on sale this Tuesday, May 13 2008.

Apparently the sale of David McCullough's hugely successful book to HBO, plus the general increase in interest in Adams and all the founders over the past few years, made somebody realize that there might be money to be made with this series.

I have a couple of Circuit City gift cards that I've been saving since Christmas, and I plan to run over to the CC near my office at lunch time Tuesday to pick up my set. Then maybe I'll fake food poisoning so I can go home early and start watching.

Regards,

Joe

Re: The Adams Chronicles

Just remembering that the Adams Chronicles was to be released in May, I went to Amazon today to check to see if it was still on schedule for release. To my surprise Amazon says it was released 4/15. I added it to my queue at Netflix, but it is listed as "very long wait," so I may end up buying it myself.

Has anyone seen it yet? I wonder about the picture and sound quality for this very old series.

SMK

Re: The Adams Chronicles

Costco in Portland Or. had in out early priced at $35 . Purchased it but haven't watched it yet.

Re: The Adams Chronicles

That was an error. The official release day was Tuesday May 13. I still don't have a copy because CC didn't bother to stock this new release, and you can't order on-line using Circuit City gift cards. Maybe I'll buy it somewhere else and save the gift cards for the HBO John Adams in June.

Regards,

Joe

Re: The Adams Chronicles

Well, it turns out you can't pre-order or back order using CC gift cards - and for some reason this set went directly from pre- to back-order without ever showing as "in stock" until more than a week after the official release date.

I was finally able to place my order this past Wednesday evening. Ground shipping was free, and they had a couple of expedited shipping options. I choose the 3 day air delivery for $4.00. With the holiday that meant I could probably expect delivery on Wednesday, assuming it shipped on Thursday. Kind of a drag, since I had wanted to watch it over Memorial Day weekend. Friday morning I checked the shipping status a got a laugh. It turns out the thing shipped on Thursday, alright, from a warehouse in Pompano Beach - about 40 miles from here. It had already been received at the FedEx facility in Riviera Beach, about 10 miles of north of my office, but was being held for delivery on the schedule date. In other words, if I'd opted for the free ground shipping I would have had it on Thursday afternoon, but since I paid for air freight, I was going to have to wait until next week.

Luckily, I was able to run up on my lunch hour and pick it up on Friday, so my original plan is still on track.

I've watched the entire first disc already, and just started the episode "John Adams: Vice President" on disc 2. The set is not going to win any awards for video quality. The series was shot on videotape more than 30 years ago. The sound is clear, but there are sometimes drop-outs, and the picture - well, that depends on your expectations. If your standard is 2008 TV shows shot in digital hi-def, this is going to disappoint. OTOH, if you remember what shows shot on videotape looked like as original broadcasts on 60s and 70s vintage 27" tube sets, the picture looks pretty damned good.

I'm sure they've done what they can with the picture elements, but you can't make bricks without straw, a fact that they've actually noted with an apologetic little blurb on the back of the box, the first such blurb I've ever seen on a DVD set.

Of course, with this show, the main thing is the content, and not the form. The show is as magical as I remembered it being. Unlike a lot of other things I haven't seen in many years, there was nothing in it to disappoint. (At least nothing that didn't also disappoint me the first time around, like the change in actresses playing Abagail Smith Adams. ) I haven't seen the recent HBO John Adams mini-series (I have another CC gift card ready to go for that when it is released in June), so I can't offer a comparison. I'm sure in terms of production values the HBO set is light-years ahead of this modestly-budgeted PBS offering, but, again, this is a story where content is more important than form, and I think The Adams Chronicles does a marvelous job of bringing the people of time to life, and of showing us the events through the eyes of its main character. (Which necessarily look different than they would from the point of view of say Franklin or Jefferson.)

Having read a good deal about the period in the intervening three decades, I was especially pleased to see how many of the scenes and even the dialogue are taken directly from the family correspondence and memoirs, and from other primary sources. (Franklin's famous comment about Adams being "always an honest man, often a wise one, but sometimes ... absolutely out of his head" is here presented as something that Franklin says directly to Adams, which is a little out of character for the good doctor, rather than being something he wrote in a letter to others that he knew damned well would "leak" and embarass Adams, but at least they managed to work it in.)

All-in-all I'm enjoying the release very much and am looking forward to the rest of the chapters in this remarkable story. (And also looking forward to lending the set to my brother-in-law, who did watch the HBO mini-series after reading the McCullough book it was based on - a book I had also lent him.)

Regards,

Joe

Re: The Adams Chronicles

Joe, thanks for the great write-up. I remember watching part of this on a PBS rerun back in the late 70s/early 80s and it was quite interesting then so I'm very much looking forward to seeing the whole thing.

I've got this coming from Netflix where it's currently backlogged a bit. Costco does have it for $36 for those interested.

Re: The Adams Chronicles

Well, John Quincy Adams has just been elected President as I write this, and I've taken a break for dinner.

Something has been bugging me since I watched the first disc, though. I remembered a fairly long main title for each episode, a montage of images from the entire series over John Morris's magnificent score, but here the music fades under the still image of each chapter title and then fades out and into the beginning of the episode. I was beginning to think my memory was playing tricks on me until I found out that the series had re-aired in 1986 as part of the Statue of Liberty Centennial celebration (don't ask me how I missed even knowing about this at the time) and that the main titles had been truncated for that broadcast. Presumably the present DVDs were transferred from those video masters, which might be the only one still available. OTOH this could account for relatively good condition of the discs. But I do miss that theme, now only heard over the closing credits. (I also suspect that those may have been cut, perhaps inadvertently, because I noticed that there were no credits for some minor roles in the early episodes. John Adams friend Richard Cranch, for instance, who is courting one of the Smith girls and is reponsible for John and Abagail meeting, is omitted. I was looking for that credit in particular since I happen to know Cranch was played - for the 30 or 40 seconds he was on screen - by Michael O'Hare, later Cmdr. Jeffery Sinclair of Babylon 5.)

Because it was produced by WNET-13 in New York, the production relied mostly on actors (like O'Hare) from the New York theater and the soap operas still shot there, not Hollywood "stars", but there are still familiiar faces. I had forgotten that John and Abagail's eldest daughter Nabby was played as an adult by Katherine Hepburn's niece Katherine Houghton (Guess Who's Coming to Dinnner), but her voice was unmistakeable. It was also amusing to spot Christopher Lloyd as the Tsar of Russia, and classic character actors like James Noble and Nancy Marchand.

I would have liked the full main titles, some commentary tracks and a documentary or two, but it is clear that Acorn Media is operating on the same kind of shoestring budget WNET had when it was producing the show in the first place. As in that case, they've put the money into the essentials, and I'm glad they did. Far better to have The Adams Chronicles shot on video and a tight schedule than not have it at all, and far better to have these barebones DVDs then never see this wonderful production again.

Oh - one bit of trivia. While David Birney plays John Quincy Adams in his early career, William Daniels plays him as secretary of state, president and in retirement. Daniels, of course, originated the role of John Adams in the 1969 Broadway musical 1776 and played the part in the 1972 film version. The stage production and film arguably began the rehabilitation of Adams - a largely forgotten president, sandwiched between the literal and figurative giants Washington and Jefferson - in the public mind, and helped inspire this very series. But that was not, as it happens, Daniels' first encounter with this family and with John Quincy.

His very first television appearance was in the Hallmark Hall of Fame production, "A Woman for the Ages" in 1952. The show was about Abagail Smith Adams and Daniels played her son, John Quincy.

He never quite got away from the family, either. He played Sam Adams in The Bastard (1978), a four-hour mini-series adaptation of the first of John Jakes "Kent Family Chronicles" novels, which were originally intended to tell the story of the revolution and the Founding around the time of the Bicentennial. (Eventually the series was extended up to the present day at the time the last book was published. It was a sort of cross between The Winds of War/War and Remembrance and The Adams Chronicles itself, in that it told the story of a famlily whose members somehow managed to be center stage for almost every great historical event of their time, and who personally knew the people responsible for any important events that they missed. ) Finally Daniels playd John Adams once again when the same producers brought Jakes' The Rebels to the small screen the following year.

Oh, well. Supper's over. Time for "John Quincy Adams: President".

Later,

Joe

Re: The Adams Chronicles

Joe,

Thanks for all the info and the mini history lesson.

I, too, remember the opening credits with the great score and montage of scenes in different episodes. I will miss it (when I finally get the chance to see the show at all).

SMK

Re: The Adams Chronicles

Thanks to Netflix I finally made it through all the episodes.

Perhaps someone can clear something up for me....I was always of the understanding that during the Continental Congress/Revolutionary War era that the participants would often break into song with Jefferson/Adams/Franklin often performing duets and trios. That does not happen here, what gives?





In all seriousness this was enjoyable to watch again even if it didn't seem quite as impressive as it did back in the day. For example, the outlines of the bald wigs are clearly visible and, being a PBS production, the actors used vary in quality. I did not care for Abigail Adams at all. Maybe Abigail really did have a deeper voice than her husband but the casting just didn't work for me. I thought the actress playing John Quincy's wife was much more effective at conveying the hardships of being a politician's wife.

In my opinion, the best episodes are the 3 with the wonderful William Daniels playing John Quincy Adams. He is absolutely wonderful and his acting abilities outshines most of the rest of the cast. Then there's that wonderful voice of his; he could read the names out of the phone book and make it mesmerizing.

Well worth watching once in my opinion; not sure if this would stand up to repeated viewings especially if the viewer is used to the more polished productions we get today.