Straightwashed Gandalf

Jared, Oriana and Ned talk about Ned’s choice of topic: Hobitit, the 1993 Finnish TV miniseries adapting The Lord of the Rings. Broadcast over nine half-hour episodes, Hobitit grew out of a live stage adaptation of Tolkien done for an open air summer theater series in Helsinki in 1988 and 1989, which garnered much attention in its own right. By the time of the series, though various live action attempts of adapting Tolkien for TV had happened before, Hobitit became the first full non-radio adaptation of The Lord of the Rings anywhere in the world, though one with a specific focus on the story of Frodo and Sam in particular rather than every element of the overall narrative. Though a notable success upon initial broadcast, with a repeat following four years later, the series has never been reshown since due to licensing issues and possibly more besides that, leaving viewers since to rely on circulating online copies, sometimes available with subtitles, even as Peter Jackson’s films achieved firm pride of place. What elements of the overall production clearly carry over from the original theater version of the adaptation, and what in particular stands out as best among them? Is it possible to look past the evidently limited budget for the series to get a best sense of what the creators were attempting to achieve? What elements of the story, especially between Frodo and Sam as central characters, stand out as the most potentially successful in an admittedly up and down production overall? And just what the heck is going on with a fair amount of the music anyway?

(Quick note: the Colbert film news broke after we recorded this. We’ll talk about it next time!)