''Golden Years'' (also referred to as ''Stephen King's Golden Years'') is an American television
science fiction
Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...
thriller miniseries
A miniseries or mini-series is a television series that tells a story in a predetermined, limited number of episodes. "Limited series" is another more recent US term which is sometimes used interchangeably. , the popularity of miniseries format h ...
that aired in seven parts on
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...
from July 16 to August 22, 1991 as a part of its
1991 schedule.
Plot
Harlan Williams, an elderly janitor, is caught up in an explosion at the top-secret laboratory where he works. After surviving but discovering he is now "aging" in reverse, he ends up on the run from an operative of "The Shop".
Cast
;All episodes
*
Keith Szarabajka
Keith Szarabajka (; ; born December 2, 1952) is an American actor. He is perhaps best known for his roles as Mickey Kostmayer on '' The Equalizer'', Daniel Holtz on ''Angel'', Gerard Stephens in '' The Dark Knight'' and Adam Engell in '' Argo''. ...
as Harlan Williams
*
Felicity Huffman as Terry Spann
*
Frances Sternhagen
Frances Hussey Sternhagen (born January 13, 1930) is an American actress; she has appeared on- and off-Broadway, in movies, and on TV since the 1950s.Joy, Car"Frances Sternhagen in Talks to Join Company of Broadway Magnolias" Broadway.com, Nov ...
as Gina Williams
*
Ed Lauter
Edward Matthew Lauter Jr. ( ;
October 30, 1938 – October 16, 2013) was an American actor and stand-up comedian. He appeared in more than 200 films and TV series episodes in a career that spanned over 40 years.
Early life
Lauter was born and ...
as Gen. Louis Crewes
*
R. D. Call as Jude Andrews
*
Bill Raymond
William Joseph Raymond (born September 9, 1938) is an American actor who has appeared in film, television, theater and radio drama since the 1960s.
Career
He is featured in the second and fifth seasons of the HBO drama ''The Wire'' as "The Gree ...
as Dr. Richard X. Toddhunter
;Six or fewer appearances
*
Stephen Root
Stephen Root (born November 17, 1951) is an American actor. He has starred as Jimmy James on the television sitcom ''NewsRadio'', as Milton Waddams in the film ''Office Space'' (1999), and provided the voices of Bill Dauterive and Buck Stricklan ...
as Maj. Moreland
* Philip Lenkowsky as Billy Delois
*
Tim Guinee
Timothy S. Guinee (born November 18, 1962) is an American stage, television, and feature-film actor. Primarily known for his roles as Tomin in the television series ''Stargate SG-1'' (1997–2007) and railroad entrepreneur Collis Huntington AMC ...
as Fredericks
* Graham Paul as Rick Haverford
*
Erik King
Erik King (born April 21, 1963) is an American actor, best known for his portrayal of Sergeant James Doakes on Showtime's television series '' Dexter''. He is also known for his roles as Moses Deyell on '' Oz''., and as Bobby Davidson in ''Mis ...
as Burton
*
John Rothman
John Mahr Rothman (born June 3, 1949) is an American film, television, and stage actor.
Life and career
Rothman was born in Baltimore, Maryland, the son of Elizabeth D. (née Davidson) and Donald N. Rothman, a lawyer. He is the brother of film ...
as Dr. Ackerman
*
Harriet Sansom Harris
Harriet Sansom Harris (born January 8, 1955) is an American actress known for her theater performances and for her portrayals of Bebe Glazer on ''Frasier'' and Felicia Tilman on ''Desperate Housewives''.
Harris won a Tony Award in 2002 as a Fe ...
as Francie Will
*
Matt Malloy
Matt Malloy (born January 12, 1963) is an American actor and producer who has appeared extensively on television, film, and radio. Malloy's break-out performance was his co-starring role alongside Aaron Eckhart and Stacy Edwards in the 1997 bla ...
as Redding
*
Margo Martindale
Margo Martindale (born July 18, 1951) is an American character actress who has appeared on television, film, and stage. In 2011, she won a Primetime Emmy Award and a Critics' Choice Television Award for her recurring role as Mags Bennett on '' ...
as Thelma
*
Stephen King
Stephen Edwin King (born September 21, 1947) is an American author of horror, supernatural fiction, suspense, crime, science-fiction, and fantasy novels. Described as the "King of Horror", a play on his surname and a reference to his high s ...
(''cameo/episode 5'') as a bus driver
Production
King called ''Golden Years'' a "novel for television"; it originated as an idea for a novel that sat in his notebook for years.
He "wrote the first five episodes and outlined the last two."
King credited ''
Twin Peaks
''Twin Peaks'' is an American Mystery fiction, mystery serial drama television series created by Mark Frost and David Lynch. It premiered on American Broadcasting Company, ABC on April 8, 1990, and originally ran for two seasons until its cance ...
'' for making it possible for ''Golden Years'' to be produced:
"Up until ''Twin Peaks'' came on, the only sort of continuing drama that TV understood was soap opera
A soap opera, or ''soap'' for short, is a typically long-running radio or television serial, frequently characterized by melodrama, ensemble casts, and sentimentality. The term "soap opera" originated from radio dramas originally being sponsored ...
, ''Dallas
Dallas () is the List of municipalities in Texas, third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 ...
'', ''Knots Landing
''Knots Landing'' is an American prime time television soap opera that aired on CBS from December 27, 1979, to May 13, 1993. A spin-off of ''Dallas'', it was set in a fictitious coastal suburb of Los Angeles and initially centered on the lives of ...
'', that sort of thing. To some degree David Lynch gave them that. But he turned the whole idea of that continuing soap opera inside out like a sock. If you think of ''Twin Peaks'' as a man, it's a man in delirium, a man spouting stream-of-consciousness
In literary criticism, stream of consciousness is a narrative mode or method that attempts "to depict the multitudinous thoughts and feelings which pass through the mind" of a narrator. The term was coined by Daniel Oliver in 1840 in ''First Li ...
stuff. ''Golden Years'' is like ''Twin Peaks'' without the delirium."
The miniseries was intended to lead into a regular series, and therefore ended on a
cliffhanger
A cliffhanger or cliffhanger ending is a plot device in fiction which features a main character in a precarious or difficult dilemma or confronted with a shocking revelation at the end of an episode or a film of serialized fiction. A cliffhang ...
. CBS, however, decided not to pick up the option on the full series, and it was never realized. King asked for four hours of airtime in the following spring to finish the story, but CBS denied him this as well.
The home video version changes the last few minutes of the final episode to give the story an optimistic ending.
References
External links
*
{{Media based on Stephen King works
1990s American television miniseries
1991 American television series debuts
1991 American television series endings
Television shows written by Stephen King
Television shows based on works by Stephen King
Television series by CBS Studios
CBS original programming