How Stephen King’s ‘The Stand’ Miniseries Became a True Classic

September 20, 2019

“This is the way the world ends.

This is the way the world ends.

This is the way the world ends.

Not with a bang but a whimper.”

With those four lines from the T.S. Elliott poem “The Hollow Men,” one of the greatest television miniseries of all-time, the adaptation of Stephen King’s classic doomsday novel The Stand, made its long-awaited debut on the big, er, small screen. Premiering in May of 1994, the four-part event was a massive ratings smash for ABC television. Directed by frequent King collaborator Mick Garris off of a teleplay by King himself, the film featured an impressive cast, especially so when considering made-for-tv movies didn’t usually land many big-time film actors at this time.

Adapted from King’s massive 1978 post-apocalyptic novel, The Stand tells the story of a superflu virus originally intended for biological warfare accidentally being released into the general population. Within a short period of time, the superflu, nicknamed Captain Trips, wipes out over 99 percent of the world’s population. The survivors eventually coalesce into two camps: One, a group of benevolent individuals who come together to form the “Free Zone” in Boulder, Colorado under the mentorship of the saintly Mother Abagail and the other, a group of cruel, cold-blooded scoundrels who gather in Las Vegas under the tyrannical rule of an evil supernatural shapeshifter who goes by the name of Randall Flagg. The two groups eventually have a confrontation in Vegas in the ultimate battle of good versus evil.

“The problem with ‘The Stand’ as a movie is I don’t think (executive producer) Richard Rubinstein could ever tell it with (Romero) at the helm because George was seen as ‘The Living Dead’ guy and not the guy who was capable of putting together an epic.” – Stephen King

Mirroring the journey that Stu Redman, Larry Underwood, and others take in The Stand, the road from King’s novel to film adaptation was a long and windy one. The project was originally envisioned as a collaboration between King and director George A. Romero in the early ’80s. Having successfully worked together on 1982’s Creepshow, Romero was the only director King trusted to bring his apocalyptic opus to life on the big screen. However, due to the length of King’s book, which he had conceived as his version of J.R.R. Tolkien’s fantasy epic The Lord of the Rings, a workable screenplay proved to be a difficult task. After multiple attempts by King to craft a workable screenplay, he tried to adapt it to miniseries on television, with no luck. King then turned over screenwriting duties to Rospo Pallenberg (Exorcist II: The Heretic), who crafted a three-hour script that maintained the novel’s biggest beats while keeping it a singular film. Although universally liked by those involved, Warner Bros ultimately decided to pull out of the project.

On the May 8th, 2019 edition of Mick Garris’ podcast Post Mortem, King recalled the difficulty of bringing his novel to the screen, big or small. “The problem with The Stand as a movie is I don’t think (executive producer) Richard Rubinstein could ever tell it with George (Romero) at the helm because George was seen as ‘The Living Dead’ guy and not the guy who was capable of putting together an epic.” Not long after the feature film fell apart, ABC Television approached King about doing the project as a miniseries. King agreed and wrote the screenplay for the six-hour miniseries. Mick Garris, who had just directed the adaptation of King’s Sleepwalkers, was then brought on board to direct.

Related Article: The Stephen King Movie Quiz!

Casting would prove to be a daunting task, with the sprawling epic having over 100 roles to be filled along with countless extras. The biggest, most crucial casting, was that of hero Stu Redman. Gary Sinise, who was not yet a worldwide name thanks to his performance as Lt. Dan in Forrest Gump (filmed right after filming on The Stand concluded and released only two months after The Stand aired), would ultimately land the role. On Post Mortem, Garris recalled, “An agent at CAA sent me two five dollar bills to go see Of Mice and Men to see one of his clients in there. It so happened that Gary Sinise was who I noted in the movie and I thought ‘HE could be a good Stu Redman, do you think we could get him?’ Gary Sinise jumped at the chance.” Other notable castings included Molly Ringwald (Sixteen Candles) as Frannie Goldsmith, Rob Lowe (The Outsiders, Wayne’s World) as Nick Andros, Laura San Giacomo (Just Shoot Me!) as Nadine Cross, and Ruby Dee (Do the Right Thing) as Mother Abagail. “I knew Sinise was right for the part, there was no doubt about that in my mind,” King remembered. “We cast Ray Walston (Fast Times at Ridgemont High, as Glen Bateman), he was perfect. Miguel Ferrer (RoboCop) was fantastic as Lloyd (Henreid).” For the role of ultimate villain Randall Flagg, multiple actors, such as James Woods, Jeff Goldblum, Christopher Walken, and Willem Dafoe, were considered but King preferred a lesser-known actor for the part. Jamey Sheridan, known mostly at that time for his TV work, was ultimately cast in the part.

“Nothing wiped me out more than ‘The Stand’ did. Five months of shooting on the road. We shot in six states, 126 actors/speaking parts, and 99 scripted locations. It was insane!” – Mick Garris

Along with the main cast, there were a number of interesting cameos in the film. NBA legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar played the doomsday-warning Monster Shouter, Joe Bob Briggs (John Bloom) played a Texas State Patrolman (named Joe Bob, nonetheless!), directors John Landis (An American Werewolf in London, Animal House), Sam Raimi (The Evil Dead, Spider-Man), and Tom Holland (Child’s Play, Fright Night) played three of Flagg’s soldiers, and King himself was cast in the minor role of truck driver Teddy Weizak. The two most notable cameos, both uncredited, went to Ed Harris (The Abyss), who had previously worked with King on Creepshow and in the 1993 King adaptation Needful Things, as General Starkey, and Kathy Bates, who won the Best Actress Oscar for her role as Annie Wilkes in another King adaptation, Misery, as talk radio host Rae Flowers. In the book, the character of Flowers is male but King rewrote the part when Bates became available. “She managed to project that world weariness and cynicism and at the same time the feeling of (patriotism),” King recalled. “That was a high point for me, that Kathy would come on and do that, uncredited.”

Filming took place over five months from February 1993 to July 1993 in multiple locations, including New York City, Colorado, and Las Vegas, but the bulk of the film was shot in Utah. Boulder, Colorado, where a bulk of the story takes place, was originally going to be a shooting location, but the production pulled out after Colorado passed a state amendment that nullified existing laws protecting gay rights. As Garris recalled, “Nothing wiped me out more than The Stand did. Five months of shooting on the road. We shot in six states, 126 actors/speaking parts, and 99 scripted locations. It was insane!” One more interesting tidbit: The high-rise hotel and casino seen behind the stage where Larry and Ralph are being “crucified” in the Vegas climax is the same one used for Biff’s hotel and casino in Back to the Future Part II.

“One of the broadcast standard notes was you couldn’t show any corpses with their eyes open. (So) during the opening credits, the camera goes right in on a dead woman’s eyes and it was our middle finger to ABC.” – Mick Garris

One of the most memorable scenes from the film is the opening title sequence in Part 1, “The Plague,” after the virus outbreak. The camera moves in and around the dead bodies in the Project Blue government installation while Blue Oyster Cult’s “Don’t Fear the Reaper” plays, creating an unforgettable start to the miniseries. “The opening was exactly what I pictured,” King remembered. Garris further added, “One of the broadcast standard notes was you couldn’t show any corpses with their eyes open. (So) during the opening credits, the camera goes right in on a dead woman’s eyes and it was our middle finger to ABC.”

As with “Don’t Fear the Reaper,” music played a vital role in the film. In Part 2, “The Dreams,” Frannie Goldsmith and Harold Lauder (Corin Nemec) pull out a battery-operated record player to listen to Crowded House’s “Don’t Dream It’s Over” shortly after they bury Frannie’s father, who has succumbed to the superflu. It’s a beautiful, touching scene that serves to remind the viewer of how much these characters have lost and how life has completely changed for them. Whereas King conceived of the opening sequence with “Don’t Fear the Reaper,” using “Don’t Dream It’s Over” as an elegy to set the tone for Part 2 was Garris’ idea. King had actually wanted to use the Beach Boys’ “Fun Fun Fun.” After seeing the scene play out, King agreed that Garris’ was the right choice. King, however, won out when it came to the score, as Mick wanted to use a “Copeland-esque” orchestral score and King wanted a guitar-y, bluesy score by composer W.G. “Snuffy” Walden. King recalled, “It (had to be) a quiet soundtrack. (Snuffy) knew what it was about right away.”

Despite the six-hour length, The Stand remains highly re-watchable. That the film managed to be a pretty faithful adaptation of Stephen King’s epic novel given the limitations of time and TV standards says quite a bit about the incredible work by all involved, especially director Mick Garris and screenwriter King. The performances of the ensemble cast created unforgettable characters that added to the viewer’s emotional investment in the sprawling story. And of course, who can forget all the quotable lines. Tom Cullen’s (Bill Fagerbakke) “M-O-O-N…that spells (non-’moon’ word).” Mother Abagail Freemantle’s (Ruby Dee) “Folks ’round these parts just call me Mother Abagail. I’m a hundred and six years old, and I still make my own bread!” and “Mayhap it is, and mayhap it ain’t!” Trashcan Man’s (Matt Frewer) “My life for you!” and so many more.

The four parts of The Stand, “The Plague,” “The Dreams,” “The Betrayal,” and “The Stand,” would average approximately 19 million viewers each upon their first airings. “It was very successful, critically as well as ratings wise,” Garris commented on his podcast. “And the fans of the book liked it. And because I’m one of them, it was so important to me to make (King) proud and to bring it to the screen with respect and love (for) the book I was so passionate about.” It would go on to continued success on home video and subsequent airings on cable and would renew interest in the novel itself. From 2008 to 2012, Marvel released a comic series based on the book. And a fully restored, 2-disc Blu-ray edition is set to be released later this month.

Of course, anything this good must eventually come around again. In 2017 and 2019, another of King’s epic novels, It, was re-adapted with great success, coming 27 years after the original ABC miniseries was released. So it should be no surprise to learn that The Stand is getting the same treatment, although this time as a 10-episode “limited series” from streaming service CBS All-Access. Directed by Josh Boone (The Fault in Our Stars, The New Mutants), the series stars James Marsden (X-Men series, Westworld), Whoopi Goldberg (Ghost), Amber Heard (Aquaman), Greg Kinnear (As Good As It Gets), and Alexander Skarsgård (True Blood and brother of It’s Pennywise the Clown, Bill Skarsgård) as Randall Flagg. The series, set to debut on the service in 2020, will also feature a newly written epilogue penned by King.

On the September 11th, 2019 episode of ABC’s The View, King commented on the brand new ending, “I was never really totally happy with the way it ended because the main characters Stu and Fran never talked about what happened to them after they left Boulder, Colorado, where the thing ends. And I always wondered about their trip back. I had an idea. Josh (Boone) came to me and said, ‘Would you be interested in writing a button episode for this thing?’ And I said, ‘Well since you got Whoopi, you can have me.’ (And) the nice thing about on-demand is that you can let it all hang out. You can do a lot more of what we couldn’t do for ABC all those years ago.” On Garris’ podcast, King also remarked, “I actually worked with (Boone) on his first feature. I like his reach and ambition. We’ve got two more hours (actually four) to tell the story (and) we’re free of all those things that held us back. My son Owen has written some of the scripts and they’re terrific.”

25 years after the original miniseries aired, The Stand remains a fan favorite. And 42 years after King’s novel was first published, the story is set to be told again. It is just as relevant and entertaining as it was all those years ago. And it will likely always remain that way, as our fascination with death and the end of the world is universal and never ending. M-O-O-N. That spells timeless.