Remove ads

King is a 1978 American television miniseries based on the life of Martin Luther King Jr., the American civil rights leader. It aired for three consecutive nights on NBC from February 12 through 14, 1978.

Quick Facts Written by, Directed by ...
King
Thumb
DVD cover
Written byAbby Mann
Directed byAbby Mann
StarringPaul Winfield
Cicely Tyson
Music byBilly Goldenberg
Country of originUnited States
Original languageEnglish
Production
ProducerPaul Maslansky
CinematographyMichael Chapman
EditorsDavid Berlatsky
Byron Brandt
Richard C. Meyer
Running time300 minutes
Original release
NetworkNBC
ReleaseFebruary 12 (1978-02-12) 
February 14, 1978 (1978-02-14)
Close

Production

Several real-life figures from the Civil Rights Movement had minor roles in the production, including then-Atlanta mayor Maynard Jackson, King's sister Christine King Farris, his niece Alveda King, and his four children: Yolanda, Martin III, Dexter and Bernice. Donzaleigh Abernathy, Tony Bennett, Julian Bond and Ramsey Clark each portrayed themselves.

Reception

The miniseries earned nine Emmy Award nominations, including nominations for actors Paul Winfield, Cicely Tyson and Ossie Davis.

Though heavily promoted, the series met with controversy and was a huge ratings disappointment. The first installment was the lowest rated of all 64 prime time programs for the week of its debut.[1][2][3][4][5][6]

Cast

Annazette Chase was considered to portray Coretta Scott King.[8]

Remove ads

Home media

The miniseries was released on DVD on January 11, 2005.

See also

References

Remove ads

Wikiwand in your browser!

Seamless Wikipedia browsing. On steroids.

Every time you click a link to Wikipedia, Wiktionary or Wikiquote in your browser's search results, it will show the modern Wikiwand interface.

Wikiwand extension is a five stars, simple, with minimum permission required to keep your browsing private, safe and transparent.

Remove ads