Gulliver's Travels (miniseries)

Did You Know?

• The miniseries is known in some markets as Ted Danson's Gulliver's Travels.
• The miniseries won five Primetime Emmy Awards, including for Outstanding Miniseries.
• Ken Tucker of Entertainment Weekly praised the production's fidelity to Swift's novel and its 'blithe vulgarity'.

Premise

The miniseries frames Gulliver's travels through flashbacks as he recounts them after being committed to an insane asylum, a framing device not present in the novel. While largely faithful to the book, the ending is altered: in the novel, Gulliver becomes obsessed with the Houyhnhnms and isolates himself with horses; here, he recovers and reunites with his wife and child.

Plot

Lemuel Gulliver, long missing and presumed dead, is found in his own stables by his wife Mary and son Tom. He narrates his adventures, which are received as tall tales. Flashbacks show his shipwreck on Lilliput, where tiny people live. He learns their customs, such as selecting officials by jumping over a stick, and is asked to fight the enemy country of Blefuscu. He wins by disabling their navy, but later extinguishes a palace fire with his urine, humiliating the Empress, who demands his execution. Gulliver escapes on a raft built by Lilliputian friends. Meanwhile, Dr. Bates, who has taken over Gulliver's practice and house, conspires to have Gulliver committed to a mental institution so he can wed Mary. Tom finds Gulliver's travel satchel containing a journal and a Lilliputian sheep, but Bates tries to burn the journal. Tom recovers the damaged journal. In the asylum, Gulliver continues his tale: his raft crashes in Brobdingnag, a land of giants. He is found by Farmer Grultrud, exhibited as a crop guardian, then sold to a lady of the court with the farmer's daughter Glumdalclitch as his caretaker. Presented to the Queen, Gulliver displaces the court dwarf Grildrig, who later tries to kill him. Gulliver discusses English culture with the Queen, who finds it repugnant compared to Brobdingnag's fair-sharing system.

Production

The project took years to secure financing. Producer Duncan Kenworthy noted that Jim Henson was involved in early development, and the goal was to adapt the entire book. Filming took place in England and Portugal. Jim Henson's Creature Shop created CGI wasps and prosthetic makeup for the Yahoos. Animals were supplied by A1 Animals.

Television and home media

The miniseries aired on NBC in 1996. VHS releases were handled by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment (Australia and Italy) and Hallmark Entertainment (US). A Laserdisc release was handled by Image Entertainment. Artisan Home Entertainment and Family Home Entertainment released a US DVD in 1999. Hallmark released a 171-minute DVD in Australia in 2002, branded VideoEzy in 2003. Koch Media handled a German DVD release in 2013. Mill Creek Entertainment released the complete miniseries on DVD in the US in 2015. NHK handled the 1997 Japanese TV release.