It seems like we get a new Stephen King adaptation every other month nowadays (there were four King-based feature films released theatrically just this year), but in 1990, movies and TV series based on King books were much less common.
When the two-part miniseries adaptation of King’s novel “It” debuted on ABC in November 1990, only one previous King novel (“Salem’s Lot”) had been brought to the small screen. For 10-year-old me — as well as other, more seasoned King fans — it was a major event, and it still holds up as one of the most significant small-screen takes on King’s work.
“It” remains one of King’s most popular and acclaimed novels, especially since director Andy Muschietti’s two-part film adaptation was released in 2017 and 2019, and the current prequel series “It: Welcome to Derry” is one of HBO’s biggest shows. I still have my VHS recording of the original ABC “It” broadcast, which I paused in real time to skip over the commercial breaks, but there’s no need to dig around for vintage videotapes in order to watch the miniseries, which is streaming as a single three-hour film on HBO Max.
‘It’ offers a streamlined but largely faithful Stephen King adaptation
As Muschietti’s films proved, it’s not easy to condense King’s novel (which runs over 1,100 pages) into two movies, let alone one. Broadcast across two nights in two-hour TV time slots, the 1990 “It” miniseries has a total running time of just over three hours, which necessitates the removal of a lot of King’s subplots and character beats. Even within its network-TV limitations, though, “It” captures a great deal of what makes King’s novel compelling, especially the deep bond among the seven main characters who dub themselves the Losers Club.
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Unlike the theatrical films, the “It” miniseries integrates the two timelines from King’s novel right away, as King himself does. It also sticks with the novel’s late-1950s setting for the flashbacks featuring the characters as children, with the present-day scenes taking place 30 years later. That retains the spirit of King’s novel more effectively than the updated timeline of the movies, which shift the flashbacks to the 1980s. Anyone who’s read a few King novels or seen a few King adaptations knows that King loves twisting the aesthetics of 1950s greaser culture into something menacing.
After opening with a montage of black-and-white photos in an old-fashioned album, “It” wastes no time in debuting its terrifying villain, the sinister clown known as Pennywise (Tim Curry), as he claims his latest child victim. While “Welcome to Derry” has been holding off on Pennywise for more than half its season, director and co-writer Tommy Lee Wallace shows Curry’s version of the character within a few minutes, and it’s an instantly iconic performance.
Dressed in more traditional clown attire than Bill Skarsgard’s version in the 2010s films, Curry’s Pennywise is all the more horrific for the way he twists a friendly archetype into something evil.
‘It’ mixes terror with grounded character drama
Because it aired on 1990s network TV, “It” wasn’t able to depict graphic violence in the same way as a theatrical film or a modern streaming series. That forces Wallace and co-writer Lawrence D. Cohen to get creative, devoting greater screen time to the bond among the main characters. The story is as much about the power of enduring childhood friendships as it is about taking on a supernatural threat.
The adult cast is an all-star lineup of TV stars of the time, including John Ritter, Harry Anderson, Tim Reid, Richard Thomas and Annette O’Toole. Among the child actors, Seth Green and Jonathan Brandis stand out as future stars, but all of the young performers effectively connect to their older counterparts.
Wallace uses simple, reassuring gestures to tie the older characters to their younger selves, as they start to regress once they hear from librarian Mike Hanlon (Reid) that the monster they defeated as children has returned to their Maine hometown of Derry. One by one, they each recall their own traumatizing encounters with Pennywise and the creature’s other incarnations, bringing back memories that had faded with time.
While “Welcome to Derry” has gotten plenty of attention for its explicit gore, Wallace conveys terror via understated effects, like young Bill Denbrough (Brandis) seeing the picture of his murdered younger brother Georgie suddenly wink at him and then start seeping blood.
One of the most haunting moments in the miniseries comes in the second half, when the adult characters reunite for a dinner at a Chinese restaurant, escaping Pennywise’s looming threat by reminiscing about the past and joking about their present circumstances. At the end of the dinner, they each open their fortune cookie to reveal tiny terrors, simple practical effects that are unsettling and uncanny.
‘It’ represents a high point for King’s 1990s TV adaptations
The ratings success of “It” kicked off a new era of King adaptations, with ABC airing numerous movies and miniseries based on King books and/or original King ideas. The quality of those productions varies, but all of them exist in the shadow of “It,” which received mixed reviews at the time but has lodged itself in the memories of viewers like me.
In particular, Curry’s performance as Pennywise has entered the pantheon of great horror-movie villains, with its mix of Catskills-style insult humor and sheer evil. Curry’s Pennywise can be funny, but always in an uncomfortable way, and he can switch in an instant into one of the scariest foes anyone has ever faced. He’s as mesmerizing to watch now on HBO Max as he was on my family-room TV set 35 years ago, and the show he stars in is just waiting for newer King fans to rediscover.
“It” is now streaming on HBO Max.
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