In the USA, a miniseries or mini-series is a television show or series that tells a story in a predetermined, limited number of episodes.
The term "serial" is used in the United Kingdom and in other Commonwealth nations to describe a show that has an ongoing narrative plotline, while "series" is used for a set of episodes in a similar way that "season" is used in North America.
In Halliwell's Television Companion (1987), Leslie Halliwell and Philip Purser suggest that miniseries tend to "appear in four to six episodes of various lengths",[1][2] while Stuart Cunningham in Textual Innovation in the Australian Historical Mini-series (1989) defined a miniseries as "a limited run program of more than two and less than the 13-part season or half season block associated with serial or series programming".
In a miniseries on the other hand, there is a clearly defined beginning, middle, and end (as in a conventional play or novel), enabling characters to change, mature, or die as the serial proceeds".
[7] The Collins English Dictionary (online, as of 2021, UK) defines a miniseries as "a television programme in several parts that is shown on consecutive days or weeks for a short period; while Webster's New World College Dictionary's (4th ed., 2010, US) definition is "a TV drama or docudrama broadcast serially in a limited number of episodes".
[11] Post-war BBC Television picked up the classic radio serial tradition by broadcasting The Warden by Anthony Trollope over six-episodes in 1951.
[20] The void was filled with less expensive series like Gunsmoke or Wagon Train, which featured the same characters every week and had higher potential for lucrative rebroadcast and syndication rights.
It was the American success in 1969–1970 of the British 26-episode serial The Forsyte Saga (1967) that made TV executives realize that finite multi-episode stories based on novels could be popular and could provide a boost to weekly viewing figures.
[1][6] According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the earliest known use of the word miniseries was in 1963, when it was employed (in hyphenated form) by the Connellsville Daily Courier to describe a limited five-week run of the CBS music show Your Hit Parade.
[21][22] The Blue Knight, a four-hour made-for-television movie broadcast in one-hour segments over four nights in November 1973, has elsewhere been credited as the first miniseries on American television.
[23] The miniseries form continued in earnest in the spring of 1974 with the CBC's eight-part serial The National Dream, based on Pierre Berton's nonfiction book of the same name about the building of the Canadian Pacific Railway, and ABC's two-part QB VII, based on the novel by Leon Uris.
Its success in the USA was partly due to its schedule: the 12-hour duration was split into eight episodes broadcast on consecutive nights, resulting in a finale with a 71 percent share of the audience and 130 million viewers, which at the time was the highest rated TV program ever.
North and South, the 1985 adaptation of a 1982 novel by John Jakes, remains one of the 10 highest rated miniseries in TV history.
[25][26][27] Japanese serialized television production can be traced back to the Sunday Diary of My Home (Waga Ya no Nichiyo Nikki), which was aired by NTV in 1953 and consisted of 25 half-hour episodes.
In the same year NHK tried its own variation of the home drama format in the Ups and Downs Toward Happiness (Kofuku e no Kifuku), which comprised thirteen episodes.
Since they are of a fixed length, dramas have a definite ending, and since they are relatively long, they can explore character, situation, and interesting dialogue in a way not possible in movies.
Popular dramas do often give rise to "specials" made after the final episode, if the show has been a huge success.
Since then, the shows became popular worldwide, partially due to the spread of the Korean Wave, with streaming services that offer multiple language subtitles.
During the 1970s the straightforward fervor gave way to a more nuanced interplay of patriotism, family and everyday life wrapped into traditional genres of crime drama, spy show or thriller.
[60] Some notable examples included The Dismissal, Bodyline, Eureka Stockade, The Cowra Breakout, Vietnam, and Brides of Christ.
[61] Literary adaptations were also popular, with notable examples including A Town like Alice, A Fortunate Life, The Harp in the South, and Come In Spinner.
Although most Australian miniseries during this period were historically focused, there were occasional variants into genres such as contemporary action/adventure and romantic melodrama.
"[62][63] The number of Australian-made miniseries declined in the 1990s, and many of those that were made had more of an "international" focus, often starring American or British actors in the leading roles and/or being filmed outside of Australia.
More recently, true crime docudrama miniseries have become popular, with notable examples including Blue Murder and the Underbelly anthology.
For example, The Family of Mr Shalash miniseries starring Salah Zulfikar was the highest rated at the time.
These terms also apply to multi-season shows which feature rotating casts and storylines each season, such as American Horror Story, Fargo and True Detective.