Sit Back and Watch SHOGUN (All Nine Hours); Sake Not Included

Nothing screamed “event” more on television during the early Eighties than a mini-series. 

Today they’ve pretty much disappeared, but back then before Tivo or the widespread use of VCRs, people would schedule a week of their lives around such and event and everyone would watch.

One of the most popular was Shogun, based on the novel by James Clavell, which premiered in September 1980 and starred dozens of actors including Richard Chamberlain, Toshirô Mifune, Yôko Shimada, and John Rhys Davies.

For five nights, people tuned in religiously to ten hours of television that was sparked in no small part to the success of 1977’s mini-series, Roots.  Filmed entirely on location in Japan, the series was edited as a feature film overseas and not only increased awareness of Japanese culture, but also caused sales of the paperback edition of the novel to explode, ultimately selling over 2 million copies.

And for those of you keeping score, the film marked the first time the word “piss” was used on television.

Watch the entire film after the jump and start soon, it’s long.