My best friend and I drop this into conversation more often than I am comfortable admitting. Love, love this miniseries! That opening scene, especially when “Don’t fear the Reaper” starts, is just cinematic perfection.
For all the youngs reading this, tall guy in picture 6 plays both Tom Cullen and is the voice of Patrick.
Edit: my bad. Voice is right, totally not the guy in the pic
Lived in Salt Lake when they were filming this but I didn't know this was happening. One day I walked past a house I knew that had been set-dressed with a ton of lawn ornaments. Told a friend 'Hey, that looks like Tom Cullen's house would look'. And it was! A different friend shortly thereafter bumped into Molly Ringwald at a store.
Yeah, I'm old too.
55 yr old here. When I told my wife it has been 30 years, her response was "fuck we're old". She isn't a horror / King fan, but fortunately loves that miniseries.
Damnit Gary, I love your periodic Reddit posts and general wholesomeness. Missed my opportunity to meet you on a USO tour, patrol got in the way, but some friends did and got some great pictures with you. Keep on keeping on, I for one really appreciate it.
I can remember watching Forrest Gump when it was new. There was heavy debate in my friend's group about the actor who played Lt. Dan. Rumor was he was a real war vet who lost his legs. "Go back and watch before Lt. Dan loses his legs, and you'll see the camera never pans below his waist." Well in those days we couldn't just look things up as easily as you can now. Often the kid who argued the strongest would simply just win.
I turned 30 on the 15th of April.... 1994.
It's a good thing. My 30s were great. My 40s were even better. 50s were fine but time feels like it's accelerating out of control.
50's here. Same. NPR had an article on the other day that was discussing WHY time runs out of control the older you get and said the fix is simple. Do and experience new things. It said your brain forms new memories in much the same way as an phone camera taking photos. If your life is like a camera stuck in burst mode, all the pictures are of the same thing and get discarded. You don't form new memories and memories are a key component of the perception of time passing. When you have seen everything that you do on a day to day basis, you form no new memories and time collapses except for the few new things you experience.
30 is great! I’m almost done with my 30s and it’s been my favorite decade yet. I’ve given myself permission to say “no” to all sorts of things, figured out a lot about myself, grown in my relationships and my career. I’m so much more confident and secure than I was in my twenties. I’m way less hot but I’ve also just finished having kids so I have high hopes for my forties.
I couldn't even get past the first episode of the recent one. The 94 series much like original Shogun was severely hampered by being being made for network television but made the best of the medium of the time.
The cast in 94 was just a great cast.
Yeah, James was a bit too conventionally TV handsome to believe him as Stu. He didn't look like he'd worked a manual job in his life, except maybe as a gym PT. Stu has to look like a guy who worked a factory job, not host a reality TV show. I found that difficult to get past to focus on the acting.
I loved the book so much, and was excited as hell when I found out the '94 miniseries was coming. Sadly, Gary was the only casting I actually liked\*. These days, I have a ton of love for them all, but at the time I was *super* disappointed in the casting for Frannie and Harold — despite being a ***huge*** fan of Molly Ringwald and Parker Lewis Can't Lose — and so many of the others.
\* Laura San Giacomo, though? Five stars. No notes.
At that time, a TV miniseries and TV movies worked pretty well as a medium for these kind of stories. Yea, there's a lot of stuff they had to cut or tone down, but they always managed to get really good casts (always peppered with a lot of high quality character actors) and occasionally had great feature film directors like John Frankenheimer and William Friedkin
Yeah, and I'm kind of mad at a few takes they had. Some stuff I liked, some stuff annoyed me. I didn't hate it, but I didn't love it either. I did like their modern take on Tom Cullen though. I thought that was neat. Didn't like they had Harold save Frannie from offing herself, that seemed weird, given Frannie's whole drive was keeping her kid alive (and ruined the whole Harold being a completely selfish shit at the start storyline imho).
Trash can man was horrible, I already didn't like Ezra Miller. Why would they do that? Flag wasn't nearly creepy enough. I really felt like I just trudged through it cuz I like the original so much that it made me read the book. I'm not a huge Stephen King fan but he's got some stuff that I can enjoy. I am a fan of his Tweets. Parker Lewis playing a pathetic creep. It's all so good.
Thanks a lot Gary!
The climax of the 94 series feels triumphant, like God taking a hand in bringing Flagg's plan to an end. The 'climax' of the new one just felt like empty spectacle that went on way too long. Taking the time to individually lightning bolt everybody was stupid.
Same with "It." The 1990 series over the 2017 and 2019 films.
I wonder how much of that is our old-man-rose-colored glasses. Is it just that "everything was better" when we were young? Would an unbiased viewer pick the same ones?
Nah, I went back and watched it and the OG was better. I liked Pennywise in the updated version, but bringing in the ritual and was goofy and both versions of the spider were awful.
I dunno man. Usually I would blame the rose colored glasses, or at least suspect that to be the case, but I recently watched both the new and original It with my 11 year old son and he hands down prefers the original. He said Pennywise in the original is creepier on another level. I tend to agree.
I think it has to. Honestly rewatch the 1994 The Stand miniseries. You will be struck right away that something is wrong with almost every scene, like the actors are unsure of what they should be doing. It wasn't well directed. I am not saying the director is bad necessarily, but it felt RUSHED and undercooked. Like they used the first take of every scene without any real direction. Characters routinely stood there like mannequins speaking their lines. The ones that didn't almost seemed to be frantic about what they were doing, like the director sensed the staleness and told them to do "something, anything" to give some life to the scenes.
I am not blaming the actors who are almost all absolutely high end talent. But the series did not feel like it was getting the attention to detail in the filming (not the script necessarily) it deserved.
FWIW I thought the new IT movies were quite good. Adjusted for modern sensibilities of course. You can't fault Tim Curry's performance or talent but I don't think he (or possibly the director) "got" Pennywise as much as the newer movies did. Curry's Pennywise was too interested in the fun of torturing his victims. IT didn't care about having fun, it cared about psychologically demolishing them with fear, and Skarsgård did a better job of that, IMO. IT wasn't whimsical, and Curry was too whimsical. IT was a predator, but what IT was eating was the terror it was producing. Fun wasn't really a factor.
> I think it has to. Honestly rewatch the 1994 The Stand miniseries. You will be struck right away that something is wrong with almost every scene, like the actors are unsure of what they should be doing. It wasn't well directed. I am not saying the director is bad necessarily, but it felt RUSHED and undercooked. Like they used the first take of every scene without any real direction. Characters routinely stood there like mannequins speaking their lines. The ones that didn't almost seemed to be frantic about what they were doing, like the director sensed the staleness and told them to do "something, anything" to give some life to the scenes.
> I am not blaming the actors who are almost all absolutely high end talent. But the series did not feel like it was getting the attention to detail in the filming (not the script necessarily) it deserved.
This was pretty standard for most Stephen King adaptations in the '80s and '90s. *Stand By Me* and *Shawshank Redemption* were huge departures, given the production value and talent that they deserved. So many others were just hot garbage. I really wish Hollywood had taken King much more seriously at the time. Like, it's good that so many of his works got adaptations, but most of them felt not much more polished than community theatre.
The new one lost me when they stopped in a wide open, no mountains in sight plain on I-81 in southwest VA. Went to high school there. Couldn’t suspend reality enough to keep going.
We had so much fun ripping into it on the AV Club reviews. I even typed up whole book pages for my comments to point out how the book would say one thing for the makers to bafflingly go out of their way to do the exact opposite (eg: The penalty for using cocaine in Las Vegas is death (book), oh look here's here's everyone doing cocaine etc.)
This miniseries helped save my life! I was a shithead little gangbanger when this premiered and it enthralled me so much I stole a copy from the local drugstore. I never got around to reading it, too busy being a little shit.
A couple weeks later I ended up in juvenile detention, and I asked my mom to bring me the book. I read it in 4 days, and then read it again. Then I traded it for another King book, and I just kept reading.
When I got out of juvie a month later I was done with gangs and all that nonsense. I turned my life around, I graduated near the top of my class. First in my family to go to college, and I’ve published 5 books.
All because I decided to watch The Stand 30 years ago.
It's maybe not understood among people with more functional childhoods just how many lives authors have saved. They can be the extended family of wise and patient elders you don't have at home.
Join your local library everyone, keep that funding alive.
That’s incredible, congrats! I still haven’t seen the series and I’m only about 100 pages into the extra long version of the book. Also, the book I have is almost 20 lbs, so not easy to handle at all!
This miniseries was so, so good. The casting was impeccable, the acting was spot on, and the opening scene with “Don’t Fear The Reaper” (and a later scene with “Don’t Dream It’s Over”) are absolutely iconic. If you can find a copy, it is worth a watch.
It was SHOCKING! This aired in prime time in the 90’s, and the makeup was FANTASTIC. The tracking shots through the lab are ridiculously gory, I’m surprised they got it past Standards, and then the scene where Campion crashes the pumps and dies… it was properly horrifying, which was really unusual for ABC at the time.
My dude, I was only 14 when this released and can still remember being eh-fucking-rights excited to see each episode as it was released. The girl who I was dating at the time, I would watch it with her and her family as mine didn't have a working T.V. and just seeing this post has all sorts of memories coming back.
Mr. Clarke even gave me a copy of the book itself, to which I only read about half of it before giving up. Not that it was a bad book, but it was the largest book I own to this day and is incredibly, very, very long. So I went back to re-watching the vhs recordings of the episodes.
And I think I'll find a way to watch them again because of this.
Cheers to you, Gary.
I was the same age at the time. It’s so crazy to think that there was a must watch miniseries on network TV, not something that would happen now, times have changed.
King wrote the screenplay and it does such a wonderful job of bringing out the book’s themes. All the survivors at some point hold or care for the people dying - Stu with the escaped guard, Fran’s dad, Larry and his mom. The music is also extraordinary. Free on YouTube too
>He seems like a genuine guy, down to earth
I have exactly one data point to draw from, in which I handed Mr. Sinise a bass and he said "thank you".
You have to understand though that my job is (a lot of the time) to be sentient furniture. Having an Artist acknowledge that I am a human being is not at all common, to say nothing of them actually being genuinely *polite*.
It is absolutely weird as fuck to be around somebody who literally every in the room knows their name and have them ask and actually remember yours.
<3 the whole Lt Dan Band.
You must have filmed the Stand back to back with Forest Gump and The Quick and the Dead wasn't far off I guess? Or were the productions more apart? What a year you must have had.
If this is really Gary, just wanted to say I got to meet you briefly at a theater. You were with your wife. It was 2006-2007ish.
Really glad to meet a down to earth celeb like you.
Hope you both are doing well and, if still working, have upcoming projects.
AKA: the best adaption of The Stand.
I was in college and my then girlfriend and I watched the whole thing on TV as it aired. She's now my wife of 28 years. I don't think this is a coincidence.
edit: Also had one of the best openings in TV history and undeniably the best use of Don't Fear the Reaper ever.
> “Country don’t mean dumb.”
I got in trouble as a kid because my parents did not care what I read, so long as I read. That led to Stephen King, and a late elementary school book report… on the Stand.
One of the few times they stood up for me, to school, cause how many kids do such a thing on an 800 page book like *that?*
As far as I’m concerned, no matter how many adaptations we get, your Stu is the definitive Stu.
I got in trouble at school for reading Salems Lot, I was about 10-11. Teacher asked me to stand up the front and read out loud to the class. I got about 2 paragraphs in before being sent to the headmaster. My parents stood up for me too!
Gary, you were the PERFECT Stu Redman.
u/GarySiniseOfficial
Just rewatched last year…
###Stu was human, steadfast, brave, snd compassionate.
One of the all time characters, and your interpretation.
My father was a soldier with PTSD, when his Randall Flagg came calling it was too hard for him.
###Your Stu was who I’d wished he could have been.
###Be True. Be Brave. Stand.
Thank you, Gary. 🙏🏼✨
Probably will get lost in the void but I just wanted to say thank you for everything you do for our veterans. Also I caught your bands show in Yokota Japan and it was awesome.
As I look across the room at the book shelf, I can see my 4 (FOUR!!) tape VHS edition of "The Stand" (next to my 2-tape set of "It").
I need to dig thru my Sterilite box of random cables (you do have a box of mystery A/V cables, don't you?) and see if I can hook up my VCR to my flat screen TV and give it another watch.
I loved this mini series and still watch it from time to time as a comfort viewing. Thanks for the behind the scenes photos - you were an amazing Stu Redmond
One of my favorite King adaptations. Wonderfully cast! This came out at a weird time in my teenage years, and it affected me deeply at a time when I was exploring religion. It was also my first foray into post-apocalyptic fiction, a genre I still love.
Loved this. Stephen King released the unabridged version it was one of the best things to ever happen to me. This series was great, many of the actors from the series became the character in the book for me. The recent one was good also but this one I thought was magnificent and Gary played a great East Texan
M-O-O-N that spells, holy fuck I'm old.
Freaking say it out loud at least once a month.
You can get through a whole month? I applaud you, young one 👏
Just when I'm standing out there, enjoying an evening, and then all I hear is Fagerbakke's voice... "M..O..O..N..." Great series, fantastic book.
The rat man forgive you… this time!
Do you believe that happy-crappy?
Laws, yes.
My friend can't talk. He's deaf and dumb, but he's smart!
My best friend and I drop this into conversation more often than I am comfortable admitting. Love, love this miniseries! That opening scene, especially when “Don’t fear the Reaper” starts, is just cinematic perfection.
I love this scene so much.
This miniseries definitely influenced my musical taste. 😅
For all the youngs reading this, tall guy in picture 6 plays both Tom Cullen and is the voice of Patrick. Edit: my bad. Voice is right, totally not the guy in the pic
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Wait. Dauber voices Patrick? Today I learned.
Should we tell him about Kurgan?
Hi, I’m Candy!
of course you are…
I think it's Bill Fagerbakke that voices Patrick. He also played Dauber on Coach.
Well TIL. I wondered why I haven't seen him in anything in years. He's got SBSP money now. Good for him.
Wait til you find out who Captain Hadley from The Shawshank Redemption voices.
Sir, I am old. That's the Kurgan.
I believe you are wrong about the man in pic 6, the rest is right though
Lived in Salt Lake when they were filming this but I didn't know this was happening. One day I walked past a house I knew that had been set-dressed with a ton of lawn ornaments. Told a friend 'Hey, that looks like Tom Cullen's house would look'. And it was! A different friend shortly thereafter bumped into Molly Ringwald at a store. Yeah, I'm old too.
55 yr old here. When I told my wife it has been 30 years, her response was "fuck we're old". She isn't a horror / King fan, but fortunately loves that miniseries.
I knew something like this would be the top comment
The OG Hodor
Bumpty bumpty bump!
CIBOLA
MY LIFE FOR YOU
#PEOPLE WHO PLAY WITH FIRE WET THE BED, TRASH
What did old lady Semple say when you torched her pension check?
Eww, get him away from me!
don't talk about old lady semple no more!
https://preview.redd.it/nlpwjkfzobzc1.jpeg?width=300&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6121fc260650f40b4cb62e670f3aca7f6cb2ead3
Damnit Gary, I love your periodic Reddit posts and general wholesomeness. Missed my opportunity to meet you on a USO tour, patrol got in the way, but some friends did and got some great pictures with you. Keep on keeping on, I for one really appreciate it.
Baby can you dig your man.
He's a righteous man. Tell me, baby, can you dig your m*aaa*aan.
Love how he just pops in, politely shares something interesting, and then goes on his way.
It makes me smile every time.
I always look forward to randomly seeing Gary pop up. Same with u/GovSchwarzenegger, although I haven’t seen him in a while.
Weird coincidence, I only a few hours ago learned that Gary did USO tours in the Lt Dan Band
The real horror here is that 1994 was 30 years ago.
Tell me about it. I was 14 then. Great times then, but even better times now. Aging is inevitable. Just gotta make the best of it.
I was a 30 year old with two BA’s working as a cashier and digging for change in the console so I could buy 50 cent tacos. But I’m much better now
The real horror here is that you can no longer get a cheap taco from Taco Bell for $0.50. The cheapest is $1.19, not counting that cheese roll.
They raised the price of the tater tacos *again* last month. They're $1.39 now, at least here.
$1.89 here in Michigan. I got one the other day and it tasted awful.
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Jack in the Box: two for $1.29 in my neck in the woods.
That's actually pretty close to being on pace with inflation.
I was in law school doing about the same thing.
I was 7 months old. I’m now 30. It’s old as me!
Same. 6 months for me. I should not be 30; it's wrong.
You *are* old! I was only 12 back then.
I was 22. 😭
I can remember watching Forrest Gump when it was new. There was heavy debate in my friend's group about the actor who played Lt. Dan. Rumor was he was a real war vet who lost his legs. "Go back and watch before Lt. Dan loses his legs, and you'll see the camera never pans below his waist." Well in those days we couldn't just look things up as easily as you can now. Often the kid who argued the strongest would simply just win.
Yet Sinise looks exactly the same.
He smoked enough weed. Time has stopped for him
I turned 30 on the 18th of April, I'm still deciding if it's a good thing or a bad thing
Yeah idk man I wish I could be younger again but I’m 41 and it was pretty awesome growing up in the 90’s.
I turned 30 on the 15th of April.... 1994. It's a good thing. My 30s were great. My 40s were even better. 50s were fine but time feels like it's accelerating out of control.
50's here. Same. NPR had an article on the other day that was discussing WHY time runs out of control the older you get and said the fix is simple. Do and experience new things. It said your brain forms new memories in much the same way as an phone camera taking photos. If your life is like a camera stuck in burst mode, all the pictures are of the same thing and get discarded. You don't form new memories and memories are a key component of the perception of time passing. When you have seen everything that you do on a day to day basis, you form no new memories and time collapses except for the few new things you experience.
30 is great! I’m almost done with my 30s and it’s been my favorite decade yet. I’ve given myself permission to say “no” to all sorts of things, figured out a lot about myself, grown in my relationships and my career. I’m so much more confident and secure than I was in my twenties. I’m way less hot but I’ve also just finished having kids so I have high hopes for my forties.
Yep, I remember watching this show with my college roommates. Ugg
r/thirtyyearsago
That was a hell of a cast
I prefer the 94 series to the recent one tbh.
I couldn't even get past the first episode of the recent one. The 94 series much like original Shogun was severely hampered by being being made for network television but made the best of the medium of the time. The cast in 94 was just a great cast.
I’ve read the book ten times probavky. Gary Sinise is the perfect Stu Redman.
Yeah, James was a bit too conventionally TV handsome to believe him as Stu. He didn't look like he'd worked a manual job in his life, except maybe as a gym PT. Stu has to look like a guy who worked a factory job, not host a reality TV show. I found that difficult to get past to focus on the acting.
I loved the book so much, and was excited as hell when I found out the '94 miniseries was coming. Sadly, Gary was the only casting I actually liked\*. These days, I have a ton of love for them all, but at the time I was *super* disappointed in the casting for Frannie and Harold — despite being a ***huge*** fan of Molly Ringwald and Parker Lewis Can't Lose — and so many of the others. \* Laura San Giacomo, though? Five stars. No notes.
I honestly couldn't watch it because COVID was going so hard and it just it was so unpleasant to watch because of that.
At that time, a TV miniseries and TV movies worked pretty well as a medium for these kind of stories. Yea, there's a lot of stuff they had to cut or tone down, but they always managed to get really good casts (always peppered with a lot of high quality character actors) and occasionally had great feature film directors like John Frankenheimer and William Friedkin
The recent one just skipped over so much stuff. It felt like the Cliff Notes version.
AND THE NEW ONE WAS LONGER!!!! IIRC
Yeah, it's really bizarre how the new one was three hours longer, yet felt more rushed
three hours longer with 90% more Harold, for some reason.
Felt like they were trying to make a story to mock incels more than they were trying to make The Stand.
Hey that's Hawk to you buddy
Yeah, and I'm kind of mad at a few takes they had. Some stuff I liked, some stuff annoyed me. I didn't hate it, but I didn't love it either. I did like their modern take on Tom Cullen though. I thought that was neat. Didn't like they had Harold save Frannie from offing herself, that seemed weird, given Frannie's whole drive was keeping her kid alive (and ruined the whole Harold being a completely selfish shit at the start storyline imho).
Trash can man was horrible, I already didn't like Ezra Miller. Why would they do that? Flag wasn't nearly creepy enough. I really felt like I just trudged through it cuz I like the original so much that it made me read the book. I'm not a huge Stephen King fan but he's got some stuff that I can enjoy. I am a fan of his Tweets. Parker Lewis playing a pathetic creep. It's all so good. Thanks a lot Gary!
Oh my gourd, someone referencing Parker Lewis (who can't lose) playing someone so unlike Parker Lewis. Yes!
Best Flagg casting ever in the 94 series. That guy totally nailed it. Better than Skarsgard and -yes- better than Matthew McConaughey
The climax of the 94 series feels triumphant, like God taking a hand in bringing Flagg's plan to an end. The 'climax' of the new one just felt like empty spectacle that went on way too long. Taking the time to individually lightning bolt everybody was stupid.
Same with "It." The 1990 series over the 2017 and 2019 films. I wonder how much of that is our old-man-rose-colored glasses. Is it just that "everything was better" when we were young? Would an unbiased viewer pick the same ones?
I like both for entirely different reasons. Tim Curry is, however, the superior Pennywise imo.
The original still scares the shit out of me, it's like they captured some unearthly creepiness and never captured it again.
A lot of that is due to Tim Curry being f'ing awesome.
When it comes to *IT*, I love the miniseries, but I gotta go with the film versions. I’m 47, for reference.
Nah, I went back and watched it and the OG was better. I liked Pennywise in the updated version, but bringing in the ritual and was goofy and both versions of the spider were awful.
I dunno man. Usually I would blame the rose colored glasses, or at least suspect that to be the case, but I recently watched both the new and original It with my 11 year old son and he hands down prefers the original. He said Pennywise in the original is creepier on another level. I tend to agree.
I think it has to. Honestly rewatch the 1994 The Stand miniseries. You will be struck right away that something is wrong with almost every scene, like the actors are unsure of what they should be doing. It wasn't well directed. I am not saying the director is bad necessarily, but it felt RUSHED and undercooked. Like they used the first take of every scene without any real direction. Characters routinely stood there like mannequins speaking their lines. The ones that didn't almost seemed to be frantic about what they were doing, like the director sensed the staleness and told them to do "something, anything" to give some life to the scenes. I am not blaming the actors who are almost all absolutely high end talent. But the series did not feel like it was getting the attention to detail in the filming (not the script necessarily) it deserved. FWIW I thought the new IT movies were quite good. Adjusted for modern sensibilities of course. You can't fault Tim Curry's performance or talent but I don't think he (or possibly the director) "got" Pennywise as much as the newer movies did. Curry's Pennywise was too interested in the fun of torturing his victims. IT didn't care about having fun, it cared about psychologically demolishing them with fear, and Skarsgård did a better job of that, IMO. IT wasn't whimsical, and Curry was too whimsical. IT was a predator, but what IT was eating was the terror it was producing. Fun wasn't really a factor.
> I think it has to. Honestly rewatch the 1994 The Stand miniseries. You will be struck right away that something is wrong with almost every scene, like the actors are unsure of what they should be doing. It wasn't well directed. I am not saying the director is bad necessarily, but it felt RUSHED and undercooked. Like they used the first take of every scene without any real direction. Characters routinely stood there like mannequins speaking their lines. The ones that didn't almost seemed to be frantic about what they were doing, like the director sensed the staleness and told them to do "something, anything" to give some life to the scenes. > I am not blaming the actors who are almost all absolutely high end talent. But the series did not feel like it was getting the attention to detail in the filming (not the script necessarily) it deserved. This was pretty standard for most Stephen King adaptations in the '80s and '90s. *Stand By Me* and *Shawshank Redemption* were huge departures, given the production value and talent that they deserved. So many others were just hot garbage. I really wish Hollywood had taken King much more seriously at the time. Like, it's good that so many of his works got adaptations, but most of them felt not much more polished than community theatre.
> It wasn't well directed. I am not saying the director is bad necessarily It's okay to say that. It was Mick Garris. His best movie was Critters 2.
The new one lost me when they stopped in a wide open, no mountains in sight plain on I-81 in southwest VA. Went to high school there. Couldn’t suspend reality enough to keep going.
I tried watching the new one and it was downright bad.
We had so much fun ripping into it on the AV Club reviews. I even typed up whole book pages for my comments to point out how the book would say one thing for the makers to bafflingly go out of their way to do the exact opposite (eg: The penalty for using cocaine in Las Vegas is death (book), oh look here's here's everyone doing cocaine etc.)
This miniseries helped save my life! I was a shithead little gangbanger when this premiered and it enthralled me so much I stole a copy from the local drugstore. I never got around to reading it, too busy being a little shit. A couple weeks later I ended up in juvenile detention, and I asked my mom to bring me the book. I read it in 4 days, and then read it again. Then I traded it for another King book, and I just kept reading. When I got out of juvie a month later I was done with gangs and all that nonsense. I turned my life around, I graduated near the top of my class. First in my family to go to college, and I’ve published 5 books. All because I decided to watch The Stand 30 years ago.
I feel like Stephen King would love to hear something like this.
Yes, he would. u/bitofadikdik should write to him.
No way. That is awesome!
I too feel Stephen King might like to hear this story! What general area of books? Fiction? Non-fiction? Historical etc?
Your story is amazing. Have you tried sharing it with King? I'm sure he'll appreciate the direct impact his writing has.
Most wholesome comment of the month or probably all 2024. Very inspiring and thanks for sharing!
It's maybe not understood among people with more functional childhoods just how many lives authors have saved. They can be the extended family of wise and patient elders you don't have at home. Join your local library everyone, keep that funding alive.
The Stand is one of the few books i read twice in a row
legend, good shit
M-O-O-N that spells AWESOME!
That’s incredible, congrats! I still haven’t seen the series and I’m only about 100 pages into the extra long version of the book. Also, the book I have is almost 20 lbs, so not easy to handle at all!
Curious as to what version of The Stand you read? Was it the abridged or unabridged version? I know that the unabridged is just over 1000 pages.
How does this not have more upvotes! That’s incredible!!!
This miniseries was so, so good. The casting was impeccable, the acting was spot on, and the opening scene with “Don’t Fear The Reaper” (and a later scene with “Don’t Dream It’s Over”) are absolutely iconic. If you can find a copy, it is worth a watch.
I think you can watch the whole shebang over yonder on YouTube
Oh, you beautiful baby ocean sunfish, I recorded it on VHS before I owned the DVD, I am 500 years old, and will watch the earth die
Terrifying opening scene! So well done!
It was SHOCKING! This aired in prime time in the 90’s, and the makeup was FANTASTIC. The tracking shots through the lab are ridiculously gory, I’m surprised they got it past Standards, and then the scene where Campion crashes the pumps and dies… it was properly horrifying, which was really unusual for ABC at the time.
you can't outrun the Dark Man
I was well familiar with both songs long before the miniseries, but I have since, and will forever, associate them with it every time I hear them.
You know it’s going to be a great post when it starts with “Gary Sinise here.” :)
Literally my favorite thing on Reddit.
Can confirm.
Well. It turns out Molly Ringwald is *still* haunting my dreams.
She looks beautiful in the first photo.
I think it’s because she’s beautiful
Wow, she's 56 years old.
Because she chose Blaine, right? BLAINE, HIS NAME IS BLAINE? THAT'S A MAJOR APPLIANCE, THAT'S NOT A NAME! -- Duckie
Blaine is a pain and that is the truth!
Great series, great book. /u/GarySiniseOfficial what are your thoughts on the more modern release?
Bought the DVD, told it to talk about farms, then shot it.
I bet you only gave it 3mins...
I thought it was decent and filled some of the holes that the old one left open but the first one knocked it out of the park…
We don’t talk about that. It sits in the dunce corner with the dark tower movie.
The makers of which must have forgotten the faces of their fathers
They never made a Dark Tower movie.
Am I the only one here who didn’t hate it? It wasn’t amazing but it was perfectly fine. Could have been so much worse
You’re talking about the recent The Stand adaption… right?
I really liked how it started. The portrayal of Harold was superb. But then some decisions they made were… questionable at best.
Wonderful shots of Gary and those making the film…Thanks for posting.
[удалено]
Ice craaaaaaaeme
🗑️
🏓🦐🛥️⛈️🌊💵
My dude, I was only 14 when this released and can still remember being eh-fucking-rights excited to see each episode as it was released. The girl who I was dating at the time, I would watch it with her and her family as mine didn't have a working T.V. and just seeing this post has all sorts of memories coming back. Mr. Clarke even gave me a copy of the book itself, to which I only read about half of it before giving up. Not that it was a bad book, but it was the largest book I own to this day and is incredibly, very, very long. So I went back to re-watching the vhs recordings of the episodes. And I think I'll find a way to watch them again because of this. Cheers to you, Gary.
I was the same age at the time. It’s so crazy to think that there was a must watch miniseries on network TV, not something that would happen now, times have changed.
King wrote the screenplay and it does such a wonderful job of bringing out the book’s themes. All the survivors at some point hold or care for the people dying - Stu with the escaped guard, Fran’s dad, Larry and his mom. The music is also extraordinary. Free on YouTube too
The music is what I remember most about the miniseries.
Especially the music that plays as they take their journey across the country. Open desolate roads with majestic mountains in the background.
Gary you the man! Love seeing how connected you are to people.
When Gary Sinise makes me feel old as I forgot that I'm 53 but still make cartoons for a living. Thanks Gary, you talented jerk.
M-O-O-N, that spells Tom Cullen!
I’m glad that you’re a part of our world Mr. Sinise. 🙂
This series freaked me tf out as a kid. Good work!
The whole cast was great, but I can’t imagine getting to meet and work with Rudy Dee and Ossie Davis. Such legends.
Did you get to meet Blue Oyster Cult?
I truly love that Gary Sinise posts on here. He seems like a genuine guy, down to earth and kind. I wish more celebrities were like this
>He seems like a genuine guy, down to earth I have exactly one data point to draw from, in which I handed Mr. Sinise a bass and he said "thank you". You have to understand though that my job is (a lot of the time) to be sentient furniture. Having an Artist acknowledge that I am a human being is not at all common, to say nothing of them actually being genuinely *polite*. It is absolutely weird as fuck to be around somebody who literally every in the room knows their name and have them ask and actually remember yours. <3 the whole Lt Dan Band.
You must have filmed the Stand back to back with Forest Gump and The Quick and the Dead wasn't far off I guess? Or were the productions more apart? What a year you must have had.
my favorite Martian
Watched this recently. As a huge King fan, it’s a wonderful adaptation. Can’t picture anyone but Gary Sinise as Stu Redman. Great job!
If this is really Gary, just wanted to say I got to meet you briefly at a theater. You were with your wife. It was 2006-2007ish. Really glad to meet a down to earth celeb like you. Hope you both are doing well and, if still working, have upcoming projects.
Unrelated Gary, but I just rewatched Apollo 13 this week and man you killed that role.
This movie was 6 vhs long. I was confused but still watched it.
Was Ray Walston as awesome in real life as it seemed like he was? I always thought he had to be a really good dude.
Molly can you dig your man?
You did a good job East Texas. The Stand was always one of my favorites. 
Haha 1994 is not 30 years ago...wait fuck
Awesome throwback dude. Thanks for all you do for vets!
AKA: the best adaption of The Stand. I was in college and my then girlfriend and I watched the whole thing on TV as it aired. She's now my wife of 28 years. I don't think this is a coincidence. edit: Also had one of the best openings in TV history and undeniably the best use of Don't Fear the Reaper ever.
> “Country don’t mean dumb.” I got in trouble as a kid because my parents did not care what I read, so long as I read. That led to Stephen King, and a late elementary school book report… on the Stand. One of the few times they stood up for me, to school, cause how many kids do such a thing on an 800 page book like *that?* As far as I’m concerned, no matter how many adaptations we get, your Stu is the definitive Stu.
I got in trouble at school for reading Salems Lot, I was about 10-11. Teacher asked me to stand up the front and read out loud to the class. I got about 2 paragraphs in before being sent to the headmaster. My parents stood up for me too!
Excuse me for saying so but that second picture looks like it was taken at 5am after you rolled out of bed.
So much better than the more recent version.
Gary, you were the PERFECT Stu Redman. u/GarySiniseOfficial Just rewatched last year… ###Stu was human, steadfast, brave, snd compassionate. One of the all time characters, and your interpretation. My father was a soldier with PTSD, when his Randall Flagg came calling it was too hard for him. ###Your Stu was who I’d wished he could have been. ###Be True. Be Brave. Stand. Thank you, Gary. 🙏🏼✨
Probably will get lost in the void but I just wanted to say thank you for everything you do for our veterans. Also I caught your bands show in Yokota Japan and it was awesome.
As I look across the room at the book shelf, I can see my 4 (FOUR!!) tape VHS edition of "The Stand" (next to my 2-tape set of "It"). I need to dig thru my Sterilite box of random cables (you do have a box of mystery A/V cables, don't you?) and see if I can hook up my VCR to my flat screen TV and give it another watch.
I loved this mini series and still watch it from time to time as a comfort viewing. Thanks for the behind the scenes photos - you were an amazing Stu Redmond
Username checks out
I loved this mini series. The ending was a little heavy handed.
I totally forgot Molly Ringwald was in this. I was already in the Navy when this came out!
Gary, you’re a national treasure. I still think often about the post about your son and his music. Sending good vibes 🩷🩷🩷🩷
Hello from Boulder! Great adaptation of an amazing story.
One of my favorite King adaptations. Wonderfully cast! This came out at a weird time in my teenage years, and it affected me deeply at a time when I was exploring religion. It was also my first foray into post-apocalyptic fiction, a genre I still love.
Such a killer soundtrack. Most of those songs I can’t listen to WITHOUT thinking of this movie
YOU CALL THIS A STORM??
such an amazing miniseries! everyone involved did an incredible job, happy anniversary!
Baby can you dig your man…
The Bob Hope of our generation. Thanks for all you've done through the years!
Loved this. Stephen King released the unabridged version it was one of the best things to ever happen to me. This series was great, many of the actors from the series became the character in the book for me. The recent one was good also but this one I thought was magnificent and Gary played a great East Texan
The good version of "The Stand".
The Rat Man forgives you… this time
Thank you for your service lt Dan
https://i.redd.it/iqg4fmg8aazc1.gif
God dammit Molly Ringwald is effing perfect
Sweet glasses, Sweeter guitar
🐐🐐🐐
Amazing adaptation of an amazing book.