It

1 9 9 0 (USA)
2 x 90 minute episodes

With over twenty million viewers for its first broadcast, It won a following well beyond that of most miniseries.

Stephen King’s vast, 1,000-page novel followed small-town characters through three decades as they battled prejudice, bullying, and a supernatural, shape-shifting creature that preferred the form of Pennywise the Clown.

Lawrence D. Cohen, who wrote the screenplay for the 1976 movie adaptation of King’s Carrie, and director Tommy Lee Wallace, a protégé of horror legend John Carpenter, adapted It into two ninety-minute instalments.

Streamlining the novel’s multiple perspectives, shifting time frame, and metaphysical climax, they set the first episode in 1960 and the second in 1990.

Instructed to cut down his original, six-hour screenplay, Cohen inadvertently jettisoned the miniseries’ intended director, zombie maestro George Romero – who, King himself told Fangoria, “threw up his hands and walked because he didn’t think it was enough space”.

Dispensing gore that was graphic for the time, and with several of the scariest moments shown from the monster’s point of view, Pennywise was a second iconic role for Tim Curry after Dr Frank-N-Furter of The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975).

He was initially reluctant to take it because of the lengthy makeup process.

It’s rare for TV horror to create characters as enduring as Michael Myers or Freddy Krueger. But Pennywise the Clown truly was the stuff of nightmares, lingering on into the bad dreams of the twenty-first century.

Richie Tozier
Harry Anderson
Eddie Kaspbrak
Dennis Christopher
Stanley Uris
Richard Masur
Beverly Marsh
Annette O’Toole
Mike Hanlon
Tim Reid
Ben Hanscom
John Ritter
Bill Denbrough
Richard Thomas
Pennywise 
Tim Curry
Bill Denbrough – Age 12
Jonathan Brandis
Ben Hanscom – Age 12
Brandon Crane
Eddie Kaspbrak – Age 12 
Adam Faraizl
Richie Tozier – Age 12
Seth Green
Stanley Uris – Age 12
Ben Heller
Beverly Marsh – Age 12
Emily Perkins
Mike Hanlon – Age 12
Marlon Taylor
Audra Denbrough
Olivia Hussey
Mrs Kaspbrak
Sheila Moore
Henry Bowers – Age 14
Jarred Blancard
Belch 
Chris Eastman
Patrick Hocksetter
Gabe Khouth
Tom Rogan
Michael Ryan
Cyndi 
Venus Terzo
Al Marsh
Frank C. Turner
Patti Uris
Caitlin Hicks
Georgie Denbrough
Tony Dakota
Mr Denbrough
Steven Hilton
Sharon Denbrough
Sheelah Megill
Laurie Anne Winterbarger
Chelan Simmons
Mrs Winterbarger
Merrilyn Gann
Aunt Jean
Susan Astley
Arlene Hanscom
Claire Vardiel
Coach 
Garry Chalk
Officer Nell
Terence Kelly
Miss Douglas
Donna Peerless
Ben’s Father
Steve Makaj
Henry Bowers
Michael Cole
Mrs Kersh
Florence Paterson

Director
Tommy Lee Wallace