The Stand Full Miniseries 1994 Stephen King Reformatted Audio And Screen Size

The Stand
Full Miniseries
1994
by Stephen King

reformatted audio and screen size

The Stand (also known as Stephen King's The Stand) is a 1994 American post-apocalyptic television miniseries based on the 1978 novel of the same name by Stephen King. King also wrote the teleplay and has a minor role in the series. It was directed by Mick Garris, who previously directed the original King screenplay/film Sleepwalkers (1992).

The Stand includes a cast of more than 125 speaking roles and features Gary Sinise, Miguel Ferrer, Rob Lowe, Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, Jamey Sheridan, Laura San Giacomo, Molly Ringwald, Corin Nemec, Adam Storke, Ray Walston, Ed Harris, and Matt Frewer. The miniseries was shot in several locations and on 225 sets. Each episode was given a $6 million budget so to reduce cost, the miniseries was shot on 16 mm film. The Stand originally aired on ABC from May 8 to May 12, 1994. Reviews were positive and the miniseries was nominated for six Primetime Emmy Awards, winning two for its makeup and sound mixing.

On June 13, at a top-secret government laboratory in Northern California, a weaponized version of influenza, called Project Blue, is accidentally released. A U.S. Army soldier, Charlie Campion, escapes the lab and flees across the country with his wife and daughter, unintentionally spreading the virus. On June 17, Campion crashes his car into a gas station in Arnette, Texas, where Stu Redman and some friends are gathered. With his wife and child already dead from the superflu, Campion warns Redman that he had been pursued by a "Dark Man" before he succumbs to the virus as well. The next day, the U.S. military arrives to quarantine the town on orders from General Starkey, commander of Project Blue.

The townspeople are taken to a CDC facility in Stovington, Vermont. All but Stu succumb to the superflu, called "Captain Trips" by the populace, which kills 99.4% of the world's population in two weeks. The scattered survivors include would-be rock star Larry Underwood, deaf mute Nick Andros, Frannie Goldsmith and her unborn child, her teenaged neighbor Harold Lauder, imprisoned criminal Lloyd Henreid, and "Trashcan Man", a mentally ill arsonist and scavenger. The survivors begin having visions, either from kindly Mother Abagail, or from the demonic "Dark Man" Randall Flagg. The dreams counsel the survivors to either travel to Nebraska to meet Abagail, or to Las Vegas to join Flagg.

Lloyd is freed from prison by Flagg in exchange for becoming his second in command. Trashcan Man destroys fuel tanks across the Midwest and is directed to Las Vegas by Flagg. Larry escapes New York City with a mysterious virginal woman named Nadine Cross. Despite their mutual attraction, Nadine is unable to consummate a relationship with Larry because of her visions of Flagg, who commands her to join him; she leaves Larry to travel on her own. Larry then meets a school teacher named Lucy Swann, and a traumatized boy she calls Joe, outside Des Moines, Iowa, which has burned to the ground. After escaping the CDC facility, Stu gathers a group of survivors, including Frannie, Harold, and former college professor Glen Bateman. They are joined by various other immune survivors.

Harold is consumed with jealousy over Stu's leadership of the group and his growing relationship with Frannie, on whom Harold has an unrequited crush. Nick barely escapes an attempt on his life in Shoyo, Arkansas by the bigoted town bully, and makes his way across the Mid-South. Nick ends up in May, Oklahoma where he meets Tom Cullen, a mentally challenged man who spells every meaningful word he utters as M-O-O-N. The two men travel into Kansas, and encounter Julie Lawry, a vicious girl who vows to kill them when they refuse to let her join them. Nick and Tom then meet kindly farmer Ralph Brentner, and the three head west together in Ralph's pickup truck. Nick's group reaches Abagail's farm in Hemingford Home, Nebraska. She warns that a great conflict is imminent and they must travel to Boulder, Colorado. The survivors form a community called the Boulder Free Zone and begin restoring civilization.

Flagg sets up a brutal autocratic regime in Las Vegas which he rules with an iron fist, with the intent of defeating the Boulder survivors using salvaged nuclear weapons, which he sends "Trashcan Man" out to find. Harold's resentment toward Stu and Frannie intensifies, causing him to be seduced by Nadine and join forces with Flagg. Abagail, convinced that she has fallen into the sin of pride, leaves Boulder to walk in the wilderness in an act of atonement. Three Boulder survivors are chosen by the Free Zone Committee to infiltrate Las Vegas as spies: Tom, Dayna Jurgens, and Judge Farris. Glen hypnotizes Tom to follow a specific set of instructions, including that he leave Las Vegas at the next full moon.

Harold and Nadine plant a bomb in Frannie and Stu's home using demolition dynamite, planning to set it off during a meeting of the Free Zone Committee. A weakened Abagail returns to town, and gives a psychic warning to the council members. Most of the council escape the explosion, but Nick and a few others are killed. Before she dies, Abagail tells Stu, Larry, Glen, Ralph, and Frannie that God commands that the men must travel by foot to Las Vegas to confront Flagg, but one of them will fall along the way. When Nadine and Harold flee Boulder, Flagg causes Harold to be crippled in a motorcycle accident. Nadine leaves him in a ravine, and he kills himself with a gun the next day. Once Nadine reaches the desert, Flagg calls her to him. She realizes that she has made a terrible mistake and tries to escape, but Flagg declares it is too late for her to turn back, reveals his true demonic form, and rapes her. Nadine is catatonic following the sexual attack by Flagg, and her hair has turned white. Flagg's men intercept Judge Farris, who is accidentally killed by one of his henchmen, Bobby Terry, before he can be tortured. Flagg tears Bobby to pieces for not following instructions. Upon returning to Las Vegas, Flagg has Dayna brought to him. He plans to torture her for information about the identity of the third spy. Flagg saw Judge Farris and Dayna with his powers, but whenever he tries to see the third spy, all he sees is the moon. After a failed attempt to kill Flagg, Dayna kills herself before he can extract any useful information from her.

Tom leaves Las Vegas when the moon is full, but Julie Lawry recognizes him; she tries to alert Flagg, but Tom escapes into the desert and hides from Flagg and his men. A crazed Nadine taunts Flagg that he is losing control over his empire. She then commits suicide by jumping off the hotel balcony with the demon baby he conceived in her. With winter approaching, Stu, Larry, Glen, and Ralph leave Boulder to set out on their quest. Stu breaks his leg when he falls in a dry riverbed, and must be left behind with Glen's dog, Kojak. The remaining three are captured by Flagg's forces a few days later, and Glen is separated from Larry and Ralph. Flagg orders Lloyd to shoot and kill Glen after he taunts Flagg. As Larry and Ralph endure a show trial on Fremont Street, Flagg uses his powers to silence a dissenter, striking him with a ball of plasma energy emitted from his fingers. "Trashcan Man" arrives at that moment towing a stolen nuclear warhead with an ATV and showing signs of radiation poisoning, so Flagg orders Lloyd to kill him. Flagg is unable to stop the energy ball from transforming into a spectral hand, the Hand of God, and it detonates the nuclear bomb as the voice of Mother Abagail declares that God's promise has been kept, and welcomes Larry and Ralph into heaven. Las Vegas is destroyed by the nuclear blast, and Flagg is apparently killed along with all of his followers.

Stu is rescued by Tom, and they witness the nuclear explosion together. Tom and Stu find a working car and make it to a nearby cabin where Tom sets Stu's leg just as a winter storm arrives. Stu contracts the flu, but in a dream, Nick comes to Tom and tells him which medicine to give him. Stu recovers from the infection after a number of days, and the two of them return to Boulder in a snowstorm via a Snowcat. Stu finds that Frannie has given birth to a daughter, whom she has named Abagail. The baby has contracted the superflu, but she is able to fight off the virus. Lucy reveals that she is pregnant with Larry's child, and Joe sees a spectral image of Mother Abagail, as she blesses the newborn baby. Assured that the immune survivors can safely reproduce, the inhabitants of Boulder set to work rebuilding the world.

Gary Sinise as Stu Redman
Molly Ringwald as Frannie Goldsmith
Jamey Sheridan as Randall Flagg
Laura San Giacomo as Nadine Cross
Ruby Dee as Mother Abagail Freemantle
Ossie Davis as Judge Richard Farris
Miguel Ferrer as Lloyd Henreid
Corin Nemec as Harold Lauder
Matt Frewer as Trashcan Man
Adam Storke as Larry Underwood
Ray Walston as Glen Bateman
Rob Lowe as Nick Andros
Bill Fagerbakke as Tom Cullen
Peter Van Norden as Ralph Brentner
Bridgit Ryan as Lucy Swann
Rick Aviles as Rat Man
Sam Anderson as Whitney Horgan
Max Wright as Dr. Herbert Denninger
Shawnee Smith as Julie Lawry
Cynthia Garris as Susan Stern
Richard Jewkes as Dick Ellis
Sarah Schaub as Gina McKone
William Newman as Dr. Soames
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as The Monster Shouter
Warren Frost as Dr. George Richardson
John Bloom (aka Joe Bob Briggs) as Deputy Joe-Bob
Troy Evans as Sheriff Johnny Baker
Stephen King as Teddy Weizak
John Landis as Russ Dorr
Dan Martin as Rich Moffat
John Dunbar as Dave Roberts
Sam Raimi as Bobby Terry
Chuck Adamson as Barry Dorgan
Kellie Overbey as Dayna Jurgens
Ray McKinnon as Charlie D. Campion
Tom Holland as Carl Hough
David Kirk Chambers as Brad Kitchner
Kathy Bates as Rae Flowers (uncredited)
Ed Harris as Gen. Bill Starkey (uncredited)
Sherman Howard as Dr. Dietz
Ken Jenkins as Peter Goldsmith
Richard Lineback as Poke Freeman
Leo Geter as Chad Norris
Patrick Kilpatrick as Ray Booth
Jordan Lund as Bill Hapscomb
Jesse Bennett as Vic Palfrey
Jim Haynie as Deputy Kingsolving
Billy L. Sullivan as Joe
Hope Marie Carlton as Sally Campion
Mary Ethel Gregory as Alice Underwood
Britney Lewis as Arlene
Mike Lookinland as Sentry #1
Bill Corso as the voice of corpses

In June 1992, King figured that a miniseries was a way to present most of the novel's contents without having to deal with the other broadcast Standards and Practices regular television shows face. He spent four months writing a 420-page first draft without using his or Pallenberg's theatrical film drafts as reference. He submitted the draft to ABC, which offered King the ability for the script to be produced just days after submission. The network also had to follow conditions that it couldn't throw so many Standards and Practices at him that it would ruin the spirit of the source material.

Worried about not disappointing fans, King took six months just to write one draft, "and then there were two more." King wrote six drafts of the miniseries before production began. Only minor changes were made in writing the miniseries, and while it is not based on the 1990 expanded version of the novel, the first scenes of the miniseries are taken from that edition. ABC still had discussions with King and Garris about certain plot elements likely not following practices, such as the use of a mummified child doll, a man on a cross wearing a crown of drug needles with the sign "Drug Addict" on his neck, and open-eyed corpses. A lot of these, however, were kept in the final product because of expectations from fans of The Stand.

While ABC and Rubinstein suggested Brian De Palma to direct The Stand, King chose Mick Garris after viewing his work for Psycho IV: The Beginning (1990) and the 1992 film version of King's Sleepwalkers. King thought the director was good at just being a "medium" that did not alter the story's original message. King told Garris about the project while both were on the set on Sleepwalkers, and Garris signed on due to the content's unusual fantasy elements and the large scale of the production he would be dealing with, such as in effects, outdoor locations, action sequences, and the number of extras.

Despite the script's 125-plus speaking roles, casting for The Stand was very easy except for one character: Randall Flagg. While Miguel Ferrer, who played Lloyd Henreid, was interested in the part, Garris and King had other plans, searching for any A-list Hollywood actor they thought was suitable for the part, such as Christopher Walken, Jeff Goldblum, Willem Dafoe, James Woods, Lance Henriksen, and David Bowie; none of them were available. Steve Johnson recalled Garris' ideas of a possible Flagg actor to be "a bit against normal kinds of view points in casting." King himself had suggested Robert Duvall in his introduction to the novel. Ultimately, after seeing a lesser-known Jamey Sheridan as a psycho killer in Whispers in the Dark (1992), King considered him for the part. As King explained, "when he came into readings, he said, 'Flagg is really a funny guy, isn't he?' And I was sold."

Moses Gunn had originally been cast as Judge Farris, but shortly after filming had commenced his health declined, and he died shortly after that. Ossie Davis, who was present at the filming because his wife, Ruby Dee, was playing Mother Abagail, took over the role of Judge Farris. Whoopi Goldberg was approached by the casting team for Mother Abagail, but couldn't take the role as she was working on Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit (1993). Goldberg would later play Abagail in a 2020 web miniseries version of The Stand. When Dee was offered the role of Abagail, she felt she "was" the character and "my whole life has been research for Mother Abagail." Rob Lowe had been originally considered for the role of Larry Underwood, but Lowe felt that playing the more unusual role of the deaf and mute Nick Andros would be a great challenge and was able to convince Garris that it would better suit the production (Lowe has been deaf in his right ear since childhood). Adam Storke ended up with the role of Underwood, where his musical skills were an asset.

Bates's character, Rae Flowers, was originally a man (Ray Flowers), but when Bates became available, King – who wanted her to play the part – rewrote the role as a woman. King played Teddy Weizak, the first character he played that was intelligent and not a typecast "country asshole." He has less of a presence in the miniseries, as King "had a lot of other fish on a lot of other griddles that I was trying to fry all at once." This also meant some of the lines Weizak originally meant to speak were transferred to Garris' character Henry Dunbarton.

1 "The Plague" Mick Garris Stephen King May 8, 1994
2 "The Dreams" Mick Garris Stephen King May 9, 1994
3 "The Betrayal Mick Garris Stephen King May 11, 1994
4 "The Stand" Mick Garris Stephen King May 12, 1994

ABC aired the highly anticipated miniseries in May 1994 for two reasons: it was a sweeps month, and it was the earliest month that didn't have new episodes of Monday Night Football and Roseanne in the line-up. All four parts were viewed by approximately 19 million homes, with Part 1 receiving a rating/share of 20.1/32, Part 2 receiving 21.0/32, Part 3 receiving 20.1/31, and Part 4 receiving 20.0/31.