Centennial: The Complete Series by Richard Chamberlain

One of the all time great miniseries!

Wow. That's about all I can say when I remember being 11 years old and seeing the movie trucks move into our small farming community of Weldon Valley here in Northeast Colorado. I can remember my uncle and kids from my school telling me about their bit parts, standing in the background in scenes (and also for those lucky kids--missing school to be in the school teacher scene at one point in the series! Those bums!). For a long time the town of Orchard remained a stark reminder of what happens when something out of the ordinary happens in small communities and then it is over: it's all we had to talk about for years! As a kid how many times did my brother and I go out to the corn fields to play "McCeeg and Paskinel" with BB guns in town and fake coon skin caps bought from our vacation to the Alamo that past summer?! Imaginary foes, stories, and a new love of the bagpipes and mountain life were seen in a way I never thought of before as we recreated the Rendevous every weekend afternoon in the hayfield next to the house (remember that scene?) When I went to college I still got attention from the fact I grew up where this was filmed, and took photos of the quickly failing sets (now 10 years older), complete with foam fake brick siding falling off everytwhere and other momentos where folks nabbed "Centennial lumber" left from sets to build this and that. My favorite memory: walking down the street of "Centennial" to find Brian Keith relaxing in the shade on the side porch of the general store. We got our pictures with the man, it was a moment I won't forget, he was cordial but not overtly friendly (he was big-time tired from the heat of the day), but he stood there stoic-ally while snapshot after snapshot was taken, putting up with us like pesky flies on a hot day. Oh, and I also remember the scenes north of the school where the great Indian (Native American) battles were shot--(we DID get out of school to go see that done), the teepees out in the pasture were one of those times when you felt like you might be looking into a time machine window, it was so beautifully and wonderfully done. When I grew up and left college, the first coat I bought myself with my own money I earned from my new job was (of course) a leather jacket with the fringe all over it, and I also just HAD TO HAVE a burly muzzle loader from Cabelas (that has never shot anything except targets on the trees to the north of my home--mighty white hunter I am). Besides how the films affected me growing up, the thing about Centennial too was that it was honest, (if not a bit hokey once in a while--too many people seemed to die under dramatic circumstances when you watch the shows back to back!). Overall I felt it hoped not just to entertain but to envisage a reality of days gone by--and to show that the "good ole days" were not always that good. Thanks for reading my "blog" here, that being said--I hope you buy the series and take it for what it was worth from the standpoint of being a great western tale based in reality by Michener (Centennial the town is very much a story about Greeley, Colorado and other towns in Northeast Colorado) and by being a monolith project of the late 70's that was not soon forgotten. This was especially true of how the series really had an impact on a young farm boy/college kid/& pastor (ME) who came to love the history of where he grew up so much--he returned and ended up living in the same little community he grew up in. I may live in what big city folk call "podunk USA" or the "boondocks", but Centennial and movies like it make a person feel that it is sometimes the most insignificant places in the world that have the greatest stories to tell. And that makes me proud to live here, and it also makes me want to share Centennial's great story by viewing the series with my own kids and generations to come.

"Centennial" is a really good production that is a television mini series from the 1970s. It is based on a sprawling epic novel of the same name, authored by James Michener. It is mostly faithful to the novel and Mister Michener does appear in an introductory interview, suggesting to me his approval of the entire project. I liked the mini series very much, although I found the end of the story slightly tedious as I also did in the novel.As for the physical product itself, this is a DVD Box Set that I purchased from Amazon. The product arrived very quickly and was in excellent, new, condition. As a customer, I was completely hapy with the purchasing expereince. There were six DVDs within a plastic case, each containing multiple hours of viewing. This viewing included several interviews well after the fact of actors such as Robert Conrad. I really enjoyed those interviews.Prior to watching the mini series, I had just completed reading he novel. My copy of the novel is over 1000 pages. the novel, as well as the mini series spans many years. The novel spans millions of years. The mini series focuses more on the period of Native Americans and the inevitable migration of Europeans. By necessity, the cast keeps changing. There are multiple flashbacks to prior episodes. Each episode is like watching a movie that are related to other movies.My personal favorite actor in the mini series is probably Robert Conrad, He is also interviewed separately, as a senior citizen, many years after the production. In this interview Mister Conrad states that many of his fans tell him that this is their favorite role of his. I have not seen all of his acting, but I have seen some, and I have to agree. As this is a multi generational story, at some point, of course, the story goes on without Mister Conrad.As I found with the novel, my least favorite part of the mini series is the ending episode. I will not be specific but I felt that I was being lectured a certain view points were being put forth. This is the right of both James Michener and the producers of this fine work. I have no wish to say that I agree or disagree. I am just stating how I felt as a viewer. I owe that to you as a reviewer. This almost always happens to me when I am "lectured" at the end of a story. As an example, Tolstoy does this at the end of "War and Peace" and it is my least favorite part of that novel.In summary, I really enjoyed this mini series. I also really enjoyed the novel. I am glad that I read the novel first, but it is a vast novel and required a real commitment of time and concentration. As a customer, the service from Amazon was quite excellent. Thank You for taking the time to read this review.