It’s hard to believe how quickly time flies, especially as one grows older. As children, summer vacation felt like a lifetime while the school year leading up to it felt like an eternity. I remember lazy summer days where I would run in the backyard and climb my treehouse for hours at a time. I remember riding my bike to the park and hanging out with my friends. But you know who never got to really experience anything like that? Georgie Denbrough. He’s too busy doing some “floating”.
That’s right, folks! Today marks the 25th anniversary of the premiere of the TV adaptation of Stephen King’s “It“, the film that instilled a terror of clowns into an entire generation.
Directed by Tommy Lee Wallace (Halloween III: Season of the Witch) the two-part film event premiered November 18th, 1990 on ABC and was based off of Stephen King’s 1986 novel of the same name. The film followed the “Loser’s Club”, a group of seven kids who were essentially the school outcasts as they dealt with the tragedy of losing one of their own. But the tragedy wasn’t some act of nature. Rather, it was the work of Pennywise the Dancing Clown, who was played by veteran actor Tim Curry (Rock Horror Picture Show, Legend).
The first part of the two-part television event focused on the Loser’s Club as children, seeing their formative years shaken and rattled by the eponymous monster that haunted them at nearly every turn. They decide to strike back to ensure no more loss of life occurs, all while having to deal with the school bullies that seemingly won’t leave them alone. After they manage to strongly wound Pennywise, they make a pact that they will return to their hometown of Derry should the evil ever arise again, fighting to save the souls of the children there.
Part two takes place almost 30 years later, when a vicious murder causes Mike, the only member of the Loser’s Club to stay in Derry, to call the rest of the crew up to return and finish what they started. It’s then that things really start to spin out of control as they are all forced to face their greatest childhood fear.
While King’s novel didn’t get the full treatment that it probably warranted, it’s understandable why so much had to be excised. “It” runs over 1,100 pages, which meant that a faithful adaptation would’ve only worked as a two to three season TV series, at the very least. Even then, a bunch of liberties would’ve had to have been taken because King’s writing is oftentimes very adult in nature and that wouldn’t have flown on TV.
Still, even with all the edits and creative liberties taken, the film was generally well received, although critics and much of the cast and crew felt that the second part wasn’t as strong as the first half. The two-part event was also incredibly well received by viewers, the first part being the fifth-highest rated program upon airing and the second part being the second-highest rated program, each being viewed by nearly 20 million households.
Even with only one movie appearance Pennywise has become a horror icon. Much of that can be attributed to the outstanding performance of Tim Curry, who rumor has it used his real hair for the performance, simply dying it red and going through makeup and hair styling each day. His mixture of pleasant charm with gleeful terror has cemented the character in our minds, filling our slumbers with nightmares.
“It” is in the process of being remade and we’ve been bringing you tons of coverage on what’s been going on there. Admittedly, it hasn’t been pretty and the process has gone through a great deal of turmoil, although now it’s apparently set to begin filming in Summer of 2016. And while we hope that the remake gives something fresh and interesting with more of the terror from the novel, we can always rest comfortably knowing that we have the original.
