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    Nostalgia Central
    Home»Television»Shows by Decade»1990s Television
    1990s Television Drama Shows T 2 Mins Read

    Tommyknockers, The

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    1 9 9 3 (USA)
    2 x 90 minute episodes

    This television miniseries was based on the 1987 novel of the same name by Stephen King. It was directed by John Power and adapted by Lawrence D Cohen.

    Bobbi Anderson (Marg Helgenberger) and her boyfriend, Jim ‘Gard’ Gardner (Jimmy Smits) find a metallic object buried in the woods which turns out to be a spaceship which is millions of years old.

    The object has a strange effect on the residents of the nearby town who become super intelligent with incredible bursts of creativity, creating all manner of strange (and potentially dangerous) inventions.

    Disintegrator rays, magic machines that make objects and people disappear.

    However, as the people become more obsessed with their inventions and retreat into their own paranoid worlds, they seem to be suffering from health problems – as if they are literally being drained of energy and life.

    Gard, who has a metal plate in his head from an accident, seems immune to the effects and must somehow save the town.

    The miniseries was split into two parts and the glacial pacing at times suggests there probably wasn’t enough story in the book for a miniseries adaptation. The “Maine” village was really in New Zealand.

    The book was written while King was struggling with drink and drugs problems and is one of those stories that he claims he can’t even remember writing.

    Jim ‘Gard’ Gardner
    Jimmy Smits
    Roberta ‘Bobbi’ Anderson
    Marg Helgenberger
    Trooper Butch Duggan
    John Ashton
    Deputy Becka Paulson
    Allyce Beasley
    Bryant Brown
    Robert Carradine
    Sheriff Ruth Merrill
    Joanna Cassidy
    Marie Brown
    Annie Corley
    Joe Paulson
    Cliff De Young
    Nancy Voss
    Traci Lords
    Ev Hillman
    E.G. Marshall
    Chaz Stewart
    Chuck Henry
    Hilly Brown
    Leon Woods
    Davey Brown
    Paul McIver
    Mabel Noyes
    Yvonne Lawley
    Elt Barker
    William Johnson
    Barney Applegate
    John Steemson
    Jingles
    Rick Leckinger
    Benton Rhodes
    Peter Rowley
    Mr Arberg
    John Sumner
    Patricia McCardle
    Elizabeth Hawthorne
    Student Bartender
    Craig Parker
    Pearl
    Kay Helgenberger
    Dr Etheridge
    Jim McLarty
    Mr Allison
    Timothy Bartlett
    Tommyknocker
    Karyn Malchus

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