| Director: | Buzz Kulik |
| Starring: | Pierce Brosnan Eric Idle Julia Nickson |
| Theme Music Composer: | Billy Goldenberg |
| Country: | United States Italy Yugoslavia Germany |
| Num Episodes: | 3 |
| Executive Producer: | Renée Valente |
| Producer: | Paul Baerwald |
| Editor: | David Beatty Les Green Peter Parasheles |
| Cinematography: | Nicholas D. Knowland |
| Runtime: | 266 minutes |
| Company: | Avala Film Harmony Gold |
| Channel: | NBC |
Around the World in 80 Days is a three-part television miniseries originally broadcast on NBC from April 16 to 18, 1989.[1] The production garnered three nominations for Emmy awards that year.[2] The teleplay by John Gay is based on the 1873 Jules Verne novel of the same title.[3]
The plot centres around Phileas Fogg (Pierce Brosnan) making a £20,000 wager with three members of the Reform Club that he can circumnavigate the world in 80 days. He takes with him his newly employed French valet Passepartout (Eric Idle), and is pursued by Detective Wilbur Fix (Peter Ustinov) who mistakenly thinks Fogg robbed the Bank of England and is using the wager as a cover to escape capture.
Starring Pierce Brosnan as Phileas Fogg, Eric Idle as Passepartout, Julia Nickson as Princess Aouda, and Peter Ustinov as Detective Fix, the miniseries featured multiple cameo appearances, including Patrick Macnee, Simon Ward, and Christopher Lee as members of the Reform Club, and Robert Morley, who had a cameo in the 1956 film adaptation, and Roddy McDowall appear as officials of the Bank of England.[4] Other familiar faces, credited as guest stars and in more substantial roles, include John Mills (who also appeared in the 1956 film version), Jack Klugman, Darren McGavin, John Hillerman and Henry Gibson.[3]
The heroes travel a slightly different route than in the book, and the script makes several contemporary celebrities part of the story who were not mentioned in the book, such as Sarah Bernhardt, Louis Pasteur, Jesse James, Cornelius Vanderbilt, Empress Dowager Cixi, and Queen Victoria.
The miniseries was filmed on location in England, Macau, Hong Kong, Thailand and Yugoslavia.
| Title | Air date | Timeslot (ET) | Rating/share (households) | Viewers (millions) | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "Part 1" | April 16, 1989 | Sunday 9:00 p.m. | 15.5/24 | 24.4 | [5] | |
| 2 | "Part 2" | April 17, 1989 | Monday 9:00 p.m. | 13.2/21 | 19.4 | [6] | |
| 3 | "Part 3" | April 18, 1989 | Tuesday 9:00 p.m. | 13.0/21 | 19.3 |