In 1986, Stephen King published IT, a massive novel that was over 1,100 pages. Most writers spent years working on novels that long and nothing else. James Clavell, for instance, churned out massive epic novels like Shogun and Noble House over many, many years. Then, you had David Foster’s Wallace Infinite Jest, which could also be used to hammer nails it was so massive.
But next to The Stand, IT is considered one of KIng’s greatest epic works. And in between, he churned out many novels 400-600 pages and a few movie scripts here and there. The novel spanned about 30 years in the lives of seven people in the fictional town of Derry, Maine. (The town itselft is believed to have been modeled after Bangor, Maine, where KIng has been living since the early 1980s.) The seven people who we meet as tweens in the late 1950s are considered part of The Losers Club. They are bullied by the students and ignored by the adults. The town has been terrorized by an evil force killing young people. It’s personified by an evil clown called Pennywise. Imagine Bobo the Clown with the personality of Don Rickles and the homicidal tendecies of John Wayne Gacy,
The miniseries had been heavily marketed for weeks following up to its premiere broadcast on Nov. 18, 1990. Featuring a cast of mostly TV actors and an unforgettable performance by Tim Curry, it would forever change TV and become a cultural icon for years to come. IT opens with a young girl in modern time being killed by Pennywise off-camera. Mike Hanlon (Tim Reid) is a local librarian who finds an old black and white picture of a young boy, Georgie Denborough (Tony Dakota), nearby the house.
Hanlon contacts Bill Denborough (Richard Thomas), Georgie’s brother in England. Bill is a famous and successful horror-fiction horror who suffers a stutter. He’s married to an actress, Audra (Olivia Hussey), but tension is rising as he is working on the screenplay adaptation of one of his books. Upon hearing from MIke that “IT’s back,” Bill has a memory flashback to 1960 when he was sick in bed, but he helped make a paper boat for Georgie to use as it was raining outside. The boat ends up flowing down street into a sewer where Georgie meets Pennywise who murders him by biting his arm off.
Months later, Bill (played by Jonathan Brandis as a tween) and his friend, Eddie Kaspbrak (Adam Frazail) befriend Ben Hanscom (Brandon Cane) who has moved with his mother to Derry following the death of his father to live with his snooty aunt. Ben becomes immediately smitten with Beverly Marsh (Emily Perkins), who is the abusive daughter of the school janitor. There’s also Rich Tozier (Seth Green), who’s known as the class clown, and Stanley Uris (Ben Heller) who is a proud Boy Scout and also Jewish.
They form the Losers Club but also add Mike (Marlon Taylor as a tween) when he is being bullied by the greaser Henry Bowers (Jarred Blancard) and his minions. But all the Losers say they’ve had interactions with Pennywise in some form or other. They also realize that Derry has a history of horrific events occurring every 30 years, which they tie to Pennywise. They think they defeat him by confronting him in the sewers but make a promise to return in the event IT returns.
The miniseries is a two-parter with the second part concluding on Nov. 20, 1990. However, many people felt the second part wasn’t as well made as the first part. To condense over 1,100 pages into a miniseries that only runs about three hours and 10 minutes with credits on two nights is a difficult task. A lot had to be cut out. King wrote the novel during the peak of his alcohol and cocaine abuse. There were a lot of scenes that couldn’t make it to TV in 1990 and some parts that wouldn’t make it to the R-rated movies released in 2017 and 2019. (There’s a scene of Henry and his friends lighting farts that leads to one of them more or less jerking him off. And then, there was the scene where Beverly, as a child, lets the others more or less gangbang her. I’m not even sure any book editor would’ve allowed that in today’s world.)
Seeing the Losers as adults I think robs them of the limitations they have. It’s one thing to see an evil entity like Pennywise or IT when you’re a child and not having adults or other children believe you. It’s different when you’re an adult. There’s never a real sense the adults are in a bigger danger. Richie talks of leaving and I think that’s it. You can walk away easier as an adult than as a kid where you have nowhere to go.
Some of the casting is off as well. Reid and Thomas play their roles perfectly. Dennis Christipher seems to be what one would think someone like Eddie would grow up to be. But it’s hard to see the connection between Crane and John Ritter as Ben. I also felt they didn’t give Ritter much to do as adult Ben except finally woo Beverly.
But the biggest problem is how Rich played by Harry Anderson as an adult seems to be constantly complaining and bitching ad nauseam. I liked Anderson on Night Court and even as Harry the Hat on Cheers. Here, he’s poorly miscast. It doesn’t help that Green has red hair and Anderson has brown fair hair. Richard Masur gets the minor role of Stan as an adult. If you know anything about IT, you know that Stan commits suicide rather than return to Derry. The first part ends with Stan’s wife discovering him after slitting his wrists in the bathtub.
This brings me to the next thing I want to discuss. IT was groundbreaking in TV’s Standards and Practices at the time. There are several scenes of the Losers Club imaging seeing blood splashing in people’s faces and all over the place including one scene in Beverly’s bathroom as a child. While some prior miniseries didn’t shy away from violence, they still had to follow certain regulations. Faraizl had also appeard in 1989’s Lonesome Dove which had to rely on clever editing and angles to bring Larry McMurty’s epic western to the small screen. (The book contained a scene of a man being castrated.)
It was determined that as long as the the images of blood didn’t result as an act of violence, they could remain. Richie as an adult sees balloons popping at the library spraying blood on the people there. That was ok as long as the blood wasn’t coming from a person This led to some clever editing and angles during the discovery of Stan’s suicide as he writes IT in his own blood on the wall. A decade after IT, CSI: Crime Scene Investigations and other police procedural shows would push the envelope with the implications of TV ratings.
But let’s discuss the elephant in the room. When the Losers as adult go into the sewers again to confront IT, we discover that it’s some gigantic otherwordly spider. The novel goes into detail on why there’s a spider but the miniserie’s time frame, just seems to have us expect that some gigantic spider is causing all these things. Yet, it’s also taken down so easily. Even in TV in 1990, it felt like the production’s hands were tied.
If you ever get a chance, checkout Pennywise: The Story of IT, which focuses on the production. I’m just wondering why Lonesome Dove, which was short in book form, got a four-part miniseries and they still couldn’t have squeezed another part into IT. Despite that, the miniseries was a ratings success for ABC and was the most-watched program of the year.
Nothing against Tommy Lee Wallace, who directed, but his collaborator John Carpenter was once considered to direct an adaptation as well as King’s friend and collaborator George A. Romero. I’m almost certain with Romero or Carpenter attached, more funding might have been available to make a far better adaptation. And despite what some people have said, I actually enjoyed the 2017 and 2019 movies a lot more, mainly because they didn’t have the restrictions of 1990 TV.
However, no one could surpass Curry as Pennywise. While Bill Skarsgard gave a noble performance, Curry set the bar very high. You can really see Curry is having the best time playing the character but he didn’t go into it half-cocked. I think it shows you how more skilled English actors are in their portrayals. Curry has been recovering from a stroke since 2012 that left him with many complications and having to use a wheelchair.
Both Anderson and Ritter have since passed away as has Brandis who shows some of his early talents on display which makes his death following a suicide attempt seem all sadder. In her documentary Kid 90, Soleil Moon-Frye uses some voice messages Brandis left and you can hear the loneliness and the need to be wanted in his voice. Hopefully, new fans of the miniseries will discover his talents as well as those of Anderson, Ritter and Curry.
What do you think? Please comment.
Zane Says 