The 15 Best Miniseries of the 1970s, Ranked

Updated  Nov 3, 2026, 4:58 AM EST

Andrea M. Ciriaco is a long-time script reader and former entertainment editor who specializes in classic movies and Hollywood history. She was a student film critic at Kent State University for three years and worked at Warner Bros Studio in Burbank and The Safran Company for several years. Based on her vast taste and range of knowledge, many consider Andrea to be a walking IMDb who knows dozens of underrated movies and is a vital assesst to any trivia night. While movies are her expertise, Andrea is also a diehard fan of iconic shows including The Sopranos, Boardwalk Empire, Rod Serling's The Twilight Zone, Will & Grace and South Park. Some of her favorite filmmakers are Walt Disney,John Huston, Fritz Lang, Alfred Hitchcock, John Ford, Mel Brooks, Quentin Tarantino, Martin Scorsese and Howard Hawks. 

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The 1970s were a pinnacle point for television series, as many new networks emerged and moved away from the traditional family sitcom and embraced a broader range of stories that resonated more with modern audiences. While there were many series that marked this crucial time in television content, miniseries also became a popular format of storytelling that expanded the possibilities of the small screen.

The decade introduced an array of new stories and themes with hit miniseries such as Roots, King, and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, that set the standard and formula of limited television series. From the historical drama, The Awakening Land, starring Elizabeth Montgomery and Hal Holbrook, to the television version of From Here to Eternity, starring Natalie Wood and William Devane, these are the best miniseries of the 1970s, ranked!

15 'Pearl' (1978)

Image via ABC

Pearl is a 1978 historical drama that follows three couples residing in Hawaii in 1941 and details the events leading up to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, which led to the United States entering World War II. The three-part series features a star-studded cast including Robert Wagner, Angie Dickinson, and Dennis Weaver, and was one of the most watched prime-time shows of the week, earning over eighty million viewers.

Oscar-winning screenwriter Stirling Silliphant novelized the script, which was published by Dell Books several months before the show aired, and assisted in gaining viewer interest in the show's upcoming premiere. The series remained fairly true to Silliphant's original work, but the book contained more graphic imagery and storylines that never made it to the small screen. While some might be put off by the show's historical subject matter, Pearl goes beyond just the facts and provides viewers with a more personalized and emotional perspective, making it far more than just a history lesson.

14 'The Dark Secret of Harvest Home' (1978)

Image via NBC

The Dark Secret of Harvest Home is a lesser-known horror miniseries based on the 1973 novel, Harvest Home, written by Tom Tyron, and stars Academy Award-winning actress and classic movie icon, Bette Davis. The series follows a husband and wife, Nick (David Ackroyd) and Beth Constantine (Joanna Miles), who, in an attempt to save their marriage, move with their fifteen-year-old daughter, Kate (Rosanna Arquette), to a small village in Connecticut. When the family arrives, they learn the tight-knit community is overseen by The Widow Fortune (Bette Davis), a midwife and herbal healer, who is as kind as she is strict.

The miniseries has a bewitching atmosphere that keeps viewers on edge, while Davis' character serves as a constant source of curiosity and suspense. The Dark Secret of Harvest Home was praised for its authentic creepiness and overall performances, but the series does take a bit to pick up the pace and feels a little drawn out. Despite these minor qualms, The Dark Secret of Harvest Home is still a satisfying watch, making it one of the best miniseries from the 1970s.

13 'Backstairs at the White House' (1979)

Image via NBC

Backstairs at the White House is an essential historical miniseries based on the 1961 novel, My Thirty Years Backstairs at the White House, written by Lillian Rogers Parks with Frances Spatz Leighton. Set during the 1900s, the series explores Maggie Rogers (Olivia Cole), a maid in the White House, and the rest of the staff's relationships and experiences with eight different Presidents. The series features an all-star cast including Louis Gossett Jr., Leslie Nielsen, Robert Vaughn, and Deadpool star Leslie Uggams.

The miniseries gives viewers a rare and insightful glimpse into the inner workings of the White House while also sharing a personal account that is full of heart and depth, ultimately setting it apart from other 1970s miniseries. Backstairs at the White House earned generally positive reviews for its performances and engaging story, but some cite it as more of a melodrama than a historical drama. The show earned eleven Primetime Emmy Award nominations, including Outstanding Limited Series, and went on to win for Outstanding Achievement in Make-Up.

12 'Ike' (1979)

Image via ABC

Robert Duvall stars as Dwight D. Eisenhower in the miniseries Ike, also known as Ike: The War Years, which explores General Eisenhower's time as Supreme Commander of Allied Forces during World War II, as well as his extramarital affair with his driver and secretary, Kay Summersby (Lee Remick). The series is based on the 1948 memoir, Eisenhower Was My Boss, as well as the 1975 autobiography, Past Forgetting: My Love Affair, both written by Summersby.

Ike was well received by both critics and viewers, who commended the historical focus of the series and its strong central performances by Duvall and Remick. Despite the underlying romance between Eisenhower and Summersby, Ike never strays from its main historical scope and manages to balance an emotional and dramatic tone without distraction. The three-part limited series received five Primetime Emmy Award nominations, including Outstanding Cinematography, Outstanding Art Direction, and Outstanding Film Editing.

11 'Once an Eagle' (1976)

Image via MCA TV

Once an Eagle is an underrated war miniseries based on the 1968 novel of the same name written by Anton Myrer. The show centers around the professional and personal lives of two military men, Sam Damon (Sam Elliott) and Courtney Massengale (Cliff Potts), starting with the outbreak of World War I and ending with the aftermath of World War II. The series features a handful of familiar faces, notably Glenn Ford, Ralph Bellamy, Amy Irving, and Melanie Griffith.

The miniseries is another standout show from the 1970s that provides a humanizing view into a time of war and how it impacts the lives of those in the military as well as those around them. Once an Eagle was an overall success and earned positive reception for its epic scope, thrilling story, and Elliott's powerhouse performance. The miniseries earned a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Cinematography as well as a Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress - Television for Darleen Carr.

10 'The Awakening Land' (1978)

Image via NBC

The Awakening Land is a 1978 miniseries based on Conrad Richter's series of novels and stars Elizabeth Montgomery as a pioneer heroine, Sayward Luckett. The three-part series follows Luckett and her family as they move from Pennsylvania after the American Revolutionary War to start over in the unsettled area of the Ohio Valley. After her mother dies and her father abandons her and her family, Luckett is left to raise her sisters and fend for themselves in the unpredictable wilderness and uncharted territory, but they manage to gradually build a new home and life for themselves.

The Awakening Land was a monumental success, earning immense praise from viewers and critics, who commended Montgomery for her riveting performance as well as the overall production as a sensational miniseries. The series went on to earn several Emmy Award nominations, including Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series for Montgomery, Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series for Hal Holbrook, and Outstanding Cinematography.

9 'Captains and the Kings' (1976)

Image via NBC

Captains and the Kings stars Richard Jordan as an ambitious Irishman, Joseph Armagh, who immigrates to the United States as a teenager with his family, only for his parents to die shortly after their arrival, leaving Armagh to care for his younger siblings. As Armagh struggles to provide for himself and his family, his investments in the rise of the oil industry eventually pay off and make him one of the wealthiest men in the country, elevating his family to notable social status and political power.

The eight-part miniseries, Captains and the Kings, is an adaptation of Taylor Cadwell's 1972 novel and was a part of NBC's Best Sellers anthology series. The miniseries also features a cast consisting of major stars, including Patty Duke, Jane Seymour, Robert Vaughn, Henry Fonda, and Charles Durning. Captains and the Kings was a major success, earning various award nominations and wins. Both Duke and Seymour received Emmy nominations for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series, with Duke winning the award. Jordan also won the Golden Globe Award for his performance.

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Movies/Academy Awards/Best Picture

Collider · Best Picture Which Oscar Best Picture
Is Your Perfect Movie? Five winners · ten questions · one envelope

Five Oscar Best Picture winners. Five completely different visions of what cinema can be and what it can do to you. One of them is the film made for the way your mind works, and ten questions will work out which. The nominees

2020Parasite

2023Everything Everywhere All at Once

2024Oppenheimer

2015Birdman

2008No Country for Old Men

Open the envelope

Reel01 / 10

Question 01 of 10TONE

01 What kind of film experience are you really after? The best movies do not just entertain. They leave something behind.

ASomething that pulls the rug out, that makes me think I am watching one kind of film and then reveals I am watching another entirely. BSomething overwhelming: funny, sad, absurd and genuinely moving, all at once. CSomething grand and weighty, a film that makes me feel the full scale of what I am watching. DSomething formally daring, a film that pushes what cinema can even do. ESomething lean and relentless, pure tension with no wasted frame.

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Reel02 / 10

Question 02 of 10THEME

02 Which idea grabs you most in a film? Great films are driven by a central obsession. What is yours?

AClass, inequality, and what people are willing to do when desperation meets opportunity. BIdentity, family, and the chaos of holding your life together while everything falls apart. CGenius, moral responsibility, and the catastrophic weight of a decision you can never take back. DEgo, legacy, and the terror of becoming irrelevant while you are still alive to watch it happen. EEvil, chance, and whether moral order exists at all or we just tell ourselves it does.

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Reel03 / 10

Question 03 of 10STRUCTURE

03 How do you like your story told? Form is content. The way a story is shaped changes what it means.

AGenre-twisting. I want it to start in one lane and migrate into something completely different. BMaximalist and genre-blending: comedy, action, drama and sci-fi in one ride. CEpic and non-linear, cutting between timelines to build a mosaic of cause and consequence. DA single unbroken flow. I want to feel like I am living it in real time with no cuts to safety. ESpare and precise, every scene doing exactly what it needs to do and nothing more.

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Reel04 / 10

Question 04 of 10VILLAIN

04 What makes a truly great antagonist? The opposition defines the protagonist. What kind of opposition fascinates you?

AA system: invisible, structural, and almost impossible to fight because it has no single face. BThe self, and the ways we sabotage, abandon and fail the people we love most. CHistory, and the unstoppable momentum of events no single person can stop or redirect. DThe industry, the machinery of culture that chews up talent and spits out irrelevance. EPure, implacable evil, a force so certain of itself it becomes almost philosophical.

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Reel05 / 10

Question 05 of 10ENDING

05 What do you want from a film's ending? The final note is the one that lingers. What do you want it to sound like?

AShock and inevitability, a conclusion that recontextualizes everything before it. BEarned emotion. I want to cry, laugh and feel hopeful, even if the world is a mess. CDevastation and grandeur, an ending that leaves me sitting in silence for a few minutes. DAmbiguity, something open enough that I am still turning it over days later. EBleakness, an honest refusal to pretend the world is tidier than it is.

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Reel06 / 10

Question 06 of 10WORLD

06 Which setting pulls you in most? Where a film takes place shapes everything: mood, stakes, what is even possible.

AA gleaming modern city with a hidden underside, beauty masking rot and wealth masking desperation. BA collapsing suburban life that opens onto something infinite, the multiverse inside one ordinary person. CThe corridors of power and science at a world-historical turning point, where decisions echo for decades. DThe grimy, alive chaos of New York and Hollywood, fame as both destination and trap. EVast, indifferent landscape, desert and highway where violence arrives without warning or reason.

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Reel07 / 10

Question 07 of 10CRAFT

07 What cinematic craft impresses you most? Every great film has a signature, the element that makes it unmistakable.

AProduction design and mise-en-scène, every frame composed to carry meaning beneath the surface. BEditing and tonal control, the ability to move between registers without losing the audience. CScore and sound design, music that becomes inseparable from the dread and awe of what you see. DCinematography as performance, the camera not recording events but taking part in them. ESilence and restraint, what is left unsaid doing more work than any dialogue could.

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Reel08 / 10

Question 08 of 10PROTAGONIST

08 What kind of main character do you root for? The protagonist is the lens. Who you follow says something about you.

ASomeone smart and resourceful who makes increasingly dangerous decisions under pressure. BSomeone overwhelmed and ordinary who turns out to be capable of something extraordinary. CA brilliant, tortured figure whose gifts and flaws cannot be separated from each other. DA self-destructive artist whose ego is both their superpower and their undoing. EA quiet, principled person trying to make sense of a world that has stopped making sense.

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Reel09 / 10

Question 09 of 10PACE

09 How do you feel about a film that takes its time? Pace is a choice. Some films sprint. Others let tension accumulate slowly, deliberately.

AI love a slow build when the payoff is going to be seismic. Patience for a devastating reveal. BGive me relentless momentum. I want to feel breathless and emotionally spent by the end. CEpic runtime does not scare me. If the material demands three hours, give me three hours. DI want it propulsive even when nothing is technically happening, restless energy throughout. EDeliberate and unhurried. I want dread to accumulate in the spaces between the action.

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Reel10 / 10

Question 10 of 10AFTERMATH

10 What do you want to feel walking out of the cinema? The best films leave a mark. What kind of mark do you want?

AUnsettled, like I have just seen something I cannot fully explain and cannot stop thinking about. BMoved and energized, like the film reminded me what matters and gave me something to hold onto. CHumbled, like I have been in the presence of something important and overwhelming. DExhilarated, like I have just watched cinema do something it has never quite done before. EHaunted, like a cold, quiet dread that stays with me for days.

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The envelope, pleaseAnd the Oscar goes to

★ Best Picture, 2020 Parasite Bong Joon-ho, 2019 A film that hides its true intentions until the moment it is ready to reveal them.

You are drawn to films that operate on several levels at once, that begin in one genre and quietly, brilliantly migrate into another. Bong Joon-ho's Parasite is a film about class, desire and the architecture of inequality that manages to be darkly funny, deeply suspenseful and genuinely shocking across a single extraordinary running time. Your instinct is for cinema that rewards close attention and punishes assumptions, right up to its devastating final image. From the Collider file

• The first film not in the English language to win Best Picture, in the Academy's 92-year history to that point.
• It took four Oscars in one night: Picture, Director, Original Screenplay and International Feature.
• It won the Palme d'Or at Cannes in 2019 by a unanimous jury vote, the first Korean film to do so.
• The Park family's modernist house was not a location. It was built from scratch on an outdoor lot.

Reads between the lines Loves a reveal Attention to detail

★ Best Picture, 2023 Everything Everywhere All at Once Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, 2022 A film that refuses to choose between being entertaining and being meaningful.

You want it all, and this one gives you all of it. The Daniels' Everything Everywhere All at Once is among the most maximalist films ever made: action comedy, multiverse science fiction, family drama, existential crisis, and an emotional core that sneaks up on you in the middle of the chaos. You respond to ambition. Being overwhelmed is the design, not the side effect, because the feeling of being crushed by infinite possibility is exactly what the film is about. From the Collider file

• Seven Oscars, including three acting wins for Michelle Yeoh, Ke Huy Quan and Jamie Lee Curtis.
• Michelle Yeoh became the first Asian woman to win Best Actress.
• The visual effects were handled by a team of fewer than ten people, most of them self-taught.
• Ke Huy Quan had all but left acting for two decades before this role brought him back.

Wants everything Big swings Soft center

★ Best Picture, 2024 Oppenheimer Christopher Nolan, 2023 A film about the gap between what we can do and what we should do.

You are drawn to cinema on a grand scale, films that treat history not as a backdrop but as a force, then place their characters inside that force and watch what happens. Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer sits inside one of the most consequential moments in human history and refuses to look away from it. You want your films to feel important without being self-important, earning their ambition through craft and the gravity of the subject. This one is enormous, complicated, and offers no easy comfort. From the Collider file

• Seven Oscars, including Nolan's first wins for directing and for Best Picture.
• Cillian Murphy and Robert Downey Jr. both took their first Academy Awards for it.
• Kodak engineered a black-and-white 65mm stock that did not previously exist so Nolan could shoot those sequences on IMAX.
• A three-hour, R-rated drama about theoretical physics that passed 950 million dollars worldwide.

Thinks in decades Scale and weight No easy comfort

★ Best Picture, 2015 Birdman Alejandro G. Iñárritu, 2014 A film doing something that probably should not be possible.

You are drawn to films that foreground their own construction, where the how of the filmmaking becomes part of the what it is about. Alejandro G. Iñárritu's Birdman, stitched to appear as one continuous take, is cinema examining itself through the cracked mirror of a fading actor's ego. You respond to formal daring. Michael Keaton's performance and Emmanuel Lubezki's restless camera make something unlike anything else: a film about creativity, relevance, self-destruction and never quite knowing whether your work means anything at all. From the Collider file

• Four Oscars, among them Best Picture and Best Director for Iñárritu.
• Emmanuel Lubezki's win here was the middle of three consecutive cinematography Oscars, after Gravity and before The Revenant.
• Antonio Sánchez's improvised drum score was ruled ineligible for the score category, which caused a minor uproar.
• The long-take illusion was built from a handful of extended shots joined by hidden cuts.

Formally daring Camera as character Ego and art

★ Best Picture, 2008 No Country for Old Men Joel and Ethan Coen, 2007 A film that treats dread as a form of meaning.

You are drawn to cinema that trusts silence, refuses to explain itself, and lets unease do the talking. The Coen Brothers' No Country for Old Men is about the arrival of a new kind of evil: implacable, arbitrary, and indifferent to the moral frameworks we use to make sense of things. It is one of the most tightly controlled films ever made, and that control is the source of the terror. You want your films to haunt you rather than comfort you, and you have no interest in a resolution that would be a lie. From the Collider file

• Four Oscars: Picture, Director, Adapted Screenplay, and Supporting Actor for Javier Bardem.
• Adapted from Cormac McCarthy's 2005 novel, with much of his dialogue carried over intact.
• Carter Burwell's score runs about sixteen minutes and is nearly inaudible by design.
• Roger Deakins was nominated twice that year, for this and The Assassination of Jesse James, and won for neither.

Trusts silence Dread over answers No tidy endings

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8 'Eleanor and Franklin' (1976)

Image via ABC

Eleanor and Franklin is a two-part biographical miniseries that takes an intimate look into the lives and relationship of the former President of the United States, Franklin D. Roosevelt (Edward Herrmann), and his wife and former First Lady, Eleanor, played by Jane Alexander. After the death of her husband, Eleanor reflects on their life together, reminiscing about their early days as husband and wife and raising a family together to more strenuous obstacles such as marital problems and Franklin's rise to political power that put their relationship to the test.

Eleanor and Franklin is a fascinating miniseries based on the biography of the same name written by Joseph P. Lash, who was Eleanor's personal secretary and close confidant. The series depicts a detailed portrait of the couple's personal and professional lives, essentially conveying a humanizing perspective on the husband and wife's relationship. The following year, a sequel, Eleanor and Franklin: The White House Years, was released and went on to win eleven Primetime Emmy Awards, including Outstanding Television Movie.

7 'Holocaust: The Story of the Family Weiss' (1978)

Image via NBC

Holocaust: The Story of the Family Weiss, starring Meryl Streep, James Woods, and Michael Moriarty, is a historical drama TV show that follows a fictional Jewish family who are living in Berlin during the rise of the Third Reich and highlights an array of crucial historical events leading up to World War II. The story is primarily told through the perspective of various members of the Weiss family as well as non-Jewish citizens who are forced to choose between their morality and survival during one of the most horrific times in world history.

The four-part miniseries earned generally positive reviews from audiences and critics, but there was some controversy surrounding the historical accuracy and depiction of the subject matter that didn't sit well with some, notably Holocaust survivor and political activist Elie Wiesel, who felt the series to be untrue and offensive. Despite the mixed reception, the miniseries did prove to be influential in West Germany, sparking public debates and having an enormous impact on viewers around the world. The show went on to win several awards, including the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Limited Series, Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series for Streep, and Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series for Moriarty.

6 'Rich Man, Poor Man' (1976)

Image via ABC 

Rich Man, Poor Man is an award-winning miniseries that follows two brothers, Rudy (Peter Strauss) and Tom (Nick Nolte), who are the sons of German immigrants and each take a drastically different path in life. Spanning from 1945 to the 1960s, Rudy becomes a successful entrepreneur whose business ventures lead him to build a corporate and political empire that overshadows his poor background and upbringing. Meanwhile, his brother, Tom, is not so fortunate and resorts to boxing in an effort to make ends meet.

Rich Man, Poor Man is an adaptation of the 1969 book of the same name written by Irwin Shaw, and also stars other noteworthy names, such as Ed Asner, Kim Darby, Talia Shire, Gloria Grahame, and Van Johnson. The miniseries was a major hit and earned rave reviews from both audiences and critics, earning a slew of award nominations and winning many of its nominations, including four Golden Globe Awards and two Primetime Emmy Awards. Rich Man, Poor Man was also crucial in laying the groundwork for future miniseries based on books, spawning many critically acclaimed shows, notably Roots and the original 1980 miniseries, Shogūn.