'Angels in America' is seen by more than 4.2 million viewers

[La_Serpiente]

HBO's 'Angels in America' Seen by 4.2M

NEW YORK - The first installment of HBO's much-praised miniseries, "Angels in America," was seen by 4.2 million viewers Sunday - making the first half of the six-hour drama the year's most-watched made-for-cable movie.

While the viewership was roughly a third of what the last original episode of "The Sopranos" drew on a Sunday a year ago and paled in comparison with the 17.3 million people who saw CBS' "Undercover Christmas" on Sunday, HBO pronounced itself pleased.

HBO is airing the AIDS-era epic adapted from the stage by Tony Kushner in one-hour chunks before the second half is shown next Sunday, and will also offer the miniseries in one six-hour sitting.

"This is only the beginning of what we hope is an enormous audience when this plays out over an aggressive schedule," HBO spokeswoman Tobe Becker said Tuesday.

Story

[joeybee12]

1. Did you tape it for me?

I don't have cable!!!!!!!!!!!!

[La_Serpiente]

4. Sorry, I saw it on a friend's TV

but it wasn't on Cable. It was on HBO. However, it will be on DVD in a few months. :-)

[ajacobson]

2. It was tv too good for tv IMHO

n/t

[oxymoron]

3. I agree.

The first half was absolutely brilliant.

[PinkTiger]

5. I'm always amazed at Al Pacino. Excellent actor.

And the rest of the cast was great. I'm never in New York, so I'd not heard of the play. I watched it all, enthralled not only by the acting but the special effects and the settings. My homophobic husband, who kept gritting his teeth during the love scenes, also enjoyed it.....how could one NOT enjoy it? The themes the playwright used were themes all of us can identify with, gay or not:
1. fear of illness/dying/disease
2. disappointment in ourselves for not measuring up to our ideals, whether those ideals are noble or not
3. the force of evil is in all of us, and in every group of us, even those we consider beyond that. Like Roy Cohn, for example. Although gay, he realized it was a liability and chose to live in the closet for the benefits of a straight life. He even helped stop AIDS research! He was a monster. But I'm ahead of myself.

Great series. And Meryl Streep and Emma Thompson and the other one, the Morman's wife (name!!!! I know her like I know myself, but her name escapes me!!!) Any way, they were all wonderful. I'll shut up now.

[LiviaOlivia]

7. Mary-Louise Parker

Brilliant TV.

[otohara]

6. If They Hated "The Reagans..."Conservatives Better Duck & Cover

If They Hated "The Reagans..."
"Angels in America" Swoops; Conservatives Better Duck & Cover

by Andrew Christie

As though in exchange for the conservative establishment's victorious banishment of "The Reagans" over one line of dialog, now comes Tony Kushner's raging angels of retribution with six and half solid hours of the whole, inconvenient story that was embodied in that notorious line.

During the ruckus over "The Reagans" mini-series -- based on its accurate representation of Ronald Reagan's attitude toward the AIDS crisis and its victims in a line of created dialog -- The National Review and friends got busy rewriting history to make Reagan look good while accusing "The Reagans" of rewriting history to make Reagan look bad. They omitted his six years of silence, his indifference to funding aggressive research and public health measures to combat the disease in the early going, before it blew up into the scourge now raging around the world. They included Reagan's appointment of a 1987 commission to make recommendations on how to deal with the epidemic. They omitted his administration's subsequent opposition to the recommendations of that commission, fighting every step of the way as Congress tried to implement a bill based on the commission's urgings to ban discrimination against people infected with the HIV virus and increase funding for AIDS services. Reagan's congressional factotums only allowed it to pass after they succeeded in rendering it pointless by deleting any mention of federal-level anti-discrimination rules and gutting a crucial provision assuring confidentiality for patients who tested HIV-positive. During that battle, Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), remarked "I think the administration will be remembered for its continued and stubborn refusal to deal with AIDS."
http://www.commondreams.org/scriptfiles/views03/1206-08.htm

[MountainLaurel]

8. Have heard terrific things

I don't have cable, but one of my colleagues came into work saying that it was probably the best television she's seen in 10 years. And, she taped both nights!

Now, if I weren't leaving for Japan in 36 hours. :eyes: Maybe I can borrow it over Christmas?

[ZoCrowes]

9. Thank god for Digital Cable

I just finished watching it on OnDemand TV and I was very impressed. Can't wait for the second installment.

[kayleybeth]

10. I missed it

I'll have to catch the replay.

[David Zephyr]

11. I'd Only Read the Play & This Is My First Chance to "See" It

And it's everything I would have hoped.

Tony Kushner grew up in the South as a youngster like me, is a queer socialist like me, so I have a very soft spot in my heart for him.

I hope everyone who can will be sure to watch it.

I love it.

[Sufi Marmot]

12. Is it going to be shown in Canada?

Is one of the Canadian cable channels (Showtime, Bravo, etc..) going to pick it up and show it up here?

-SM

[xxqqqzme]

13. how in the hell did I miss this?

W/ the ads HBO's been running...where was I? (slaps head) Hafta catch a replay!