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Here are some links and card catalogue references if you're looking for more information. Some of them now seem to be available in NTSC VHS format by searching videos online at http://www.amazon.com/. PAL viewers--please let us know where to find them in your country.
According to Les Brown's Encyclopedia of Television, Rick Hauser conceived and produced an adaptation for station WGBH-TV, Boston. It took four and a half years to finish. It was finally shown on public television (PBS) for four nights in April, 1979, and received the highest ratings of any PBS drama series in that season. It won an Emmy for videotape editing.
It starred Meg Foster as Hester Prynne, Kevin Conway as Roger Chillingworth, and John Heard as the Rev. Arthur Dimmesdale.
Brown remarks that the production was inordinately expensive and protracted mainly because of the PBS system of "step funding" in effect at the time. Each of the four steps required a lengthy proposal and separate grant: a planning grant to determine the need for the project, research and development to cover script production, a pilot film production, and a full production grant for the entire work. Brown states that the r&d grant proposal ran 300 pages alone (more than Hawthorne's original novel!) and consumed two writers, the first of whom needed two years for "scholar-dictated revisions." After some 48 National Endowment of the Humanities reviewers could not agree on the production's interpretation of the novel, a new writer was hired, Alvin Sapinsly, who composed new scripts, the ones produced.
According to some who remember having seen it, the series was quite faithful to Hawthorne's novel. In spite of the incredible expense to the public, videotapes are apparently no longer obtainable from WGBH for viewing.
Some viewers have told us they have obtained the video from amazon.com, where you can also find some viewer reviews.
Date: Fri, 07 Jun 1996 23:27:54 -0600
From: Rick Hauser (address withheld at his request)
Organization: Beyond Broadcast
Althought I have not written Les Brown directly regarding his inaccurate reporting of the television adaptaion of The Scaret Letter, I'll post this here. The critical reception of SL was split, it is true, between those who considered it "a masterpiece" and those who thought it "a disaster." It should be noted that the East Coast critics, among whom Mr. Brown can be numbered, were generally critical. The West Coast critics praised the adaptation on many counts. Brown should correct his volume; it is consulted and his statement is simply not accurate. He has a personal ax to grind; at least, I have always thought so. The public -- hey! they thought the show was great; and in a recent viewing, I have to say I thought the work was pretty terrific, too.
. . .
I'm glad teachers like the work; it's buttressed by great research and was at the time a revelation: no more "dark, dank, dour and dreary Puritans." All those sumputary laws must have been in place for some reason!
As far as tv itself goes, the series is notable for havng taken a film approach with video tools, before anyone else had done so. Bob Collins' lighting and photography should've won the Emmy that year, although he didn't submit SL, because he didn't think to do so; SL was honored with the Emmy for videotape editing that year.
'GBH sold its rights to the series, I think; they may belong to Electronic Arts Intermix -- ? I do know the series circulates; there are versions abroad, for instance, in 40 countires, I was told. Folks have written me, suggesting that it now be shown again; since Demi et Cie did their work... Interest from viewers could revive the series; so letters and e-mail wouldn't be out of place. It did wonders for Star Trek!! Oh, by the way, John Morris' wonderful score is now available, in a handsome package, on CD. Out of Portland, I think.
The following links probably won't work any longer. Was the 1995 Scarlet Letter film so bad that the producers tried to remove all traces of it from the net?
Internet Movie Database in the U.K. or in Los Angeles, or Australia, or Mississippi State Internet Movie Database have information on some of the following, for which you can search, if direct links don't work:
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Tue Sep 28 19:25:04 EDT 1999
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