Centennial



A miniseries that aired in 1978-1979, during the heyday of TV miniseries, and based on the acclaimed James Michener novel. Just like most of his historical novels, the series follows the events set around a region of Colorado, starting the the formation of the land some million years ago! From there, it skips ahead to the beginning of western expansion. Characters and their long lines of descendants then make up the cast, as the story unfolds with the frontier they've made as their home becomes a trading post, then a cattle ranch, until a Western town slowly forms into a modern one, all over the course of two centuries.

Unlike most miniseries at that time, Centennial was possibly the longest and most ambitious of projects, with a budget of $25 million and rounding out at over 26 hours long! That's with commercials.

Tropes:

 * All Star Cast
 * Big No: Levi, on being told that he will be shunned
 * Cattle Drive
 * Dead Hat Shot
 * Duel to The Death: Frank Skimmerhorn and Maxwell Mercy
 * Fate Worse Than Death Amish shunning
 * Generational Saga
 * Gold Fever: Pasquinel spends the remainder of his life trying in vain to find a undiscovered stream filled with gold. He goes as far as marrying the indian maiden whose father discovered it before dying in battle. Unfortunatly this drives a steak between him and friend, whose fallen in love with said maiden, and on account of the fact that Pasquinel has another wife back in St. Louis. Driving Mc Keag farther and farther away, Pasquinel
 * Larkin in his obsessive search for the "Lost Indian Gold Mine"
 * Good Scars Evil Scars: Sam Purchase and arguably Jaques Pasquinel
 * The Great Depression
 * The Gunslinger averted as the hired killers prefer long range assassination
 * Halfbreed Jake and Mike Pasquinel
 * Hollywood Homely: Elly Zendt, told by her best friend that "pretty isn't everything"
 * Meaningful Name: Colorado is the Centennial State, having been granted statehood in 1876.
 * Mountain Man
 * Noble Savage: Played straight, lampshaded, averted... the Native Americans in the story are shown to be complex individuals
 * The Sheriff
 * Tear Jerker: As the story takes place over many decades, new characters are introduced, become beloved, and eventually die.
 * Also, anything having to do with the fate of the Native Americans.
 * Shown Their Work: To the point that the book has an appendix at the end of each chapter just to show off the facts that wouldn't fit into the main body of the narrative.
 * Too Happy to Live
 * Villain With Good Publicity: Frank Skimmerhorn's vicious campaign against the defenseless Arapaho is initially celebrated until the grisly details come to light; also Mervin Wendell gets rich by taking advantage of naive homesteaders and is regarded as a pillar of the community
 * The Western: especially the episode The Longhorns