I remember reading Colleen McCullough’s novel The Thorn Birds. I couldn’t put it down. This book was a saga in the true sense of the word. Beginning in the Australian outback, we follow young Meggie Clearly as she grows into a woman. Her love for a Catholic priest drives the story, and you’re with her every step of the way. Her joys, her angst, her sorrow. The book was published in 1977 and in the 80’s they made a television miniseries based on the book. The 80’s were big on miniseries – every week waiting for the next installment – oh those were the days, before TIVO and DVR’s and Netflix and on-demand. You had no choice, you were stuck in front of your TV, sitting through every darn commercial. If the miniseries was good, you let your answering machine pick up the phone, you waited to go to the bathroom, you had every imaginable snack piled in the living room – you just didn’t want to miss a minute. That’s the way it was for me with The Thornbirds.
In the very early 90’s some television network ran a repeat of the entire miniseries in one day. It was a dawn to dusk event. I was visiting my parents and my mother and I sat and watched it in its entirety. We started out with coffee and muffins, moved on to a light lunch and then we hit the cocktail hour all in front of the TV set. We had plenty of Kleenex on hand and cried our eyes out. I’m not a big fan of book to TV or movies – but this one hit the mark for me. Now I hear they’re making it into a musical. Say what?! Oh yes, a musical. Here’s where I personally draw the line – I’m not interested in seeing some of my favorite characters break out into song – it just doesn’t work for me.
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PJ
on Jan 11th, 2009
@ 1:38 pm:
You have *got* to be kidding!
Marisa
on Jan 11th, 2009
@ 1:59 pm:
I just can’t imagine Meggie breaking into song about getting lice and having her hair chopped off, or the rotten bastard she ends up marrying, or the lament on why she can’t marry a Catholic priest – yikes!
Maria Lokken
on Jan 11th, 2009
@ 2:02 pm:
Oh yeah – I can just see Meggie singing about being pregnant and not by her husband. That ought be a memorable tune – it should bring the house down.
“Honey we’re having a baby
The baby will be cute
But won’t look like you
Don’t worry cause by act two, I’m leaving your sorry ass.”
Marisa
on Jan 11th, 2009
@ 2:12 pm:
LOL
The next song she could sing would be
Honey I had your baby
No it’s not my dirt bag husband’s
No it was not an immaculate conception
Honey I had your baby
Remember that week on the beach
When we thought that time had stopped
Honey I had your baby
Now even if you are heading to Rome
Now even if you are about to be a Bishop
Honey I had your baby
Gannon
on Jan 11th, 2009
@ 2:58 pm:
ROFLMAO! Love your songs, M’s! When I read that they would be making The Thorn Birds into a musical, all I could think was WTF!!! Leave it alone. It is a fantastic book–I need to re-read it soon–and I adored the miniseries. They should learn never to mess with a good thing.
pambook
on Jan 11th, 2009
@ 11:13 pm:
Huh! Whatever are they thinking?