It (miniseries)

''It'' (also known as ''Stephen King's IT'') is a 1990 ABC two-part psychological horror drama miniseries directed by Tommy Lee Wallace and adapted by Lawrence D. Cohen from Stephen King's 1986 novel of the same name. The story revolves around a predatory monster that can transform itself into its prey's worst fears to devour them, allowing it to exploit the phobias of its victims. It mostly takes the humanoid form of Pennywise, a darkly comedic clown. The protagonists are The Lucky Seven, or The Losers Club, a group of outcast kids who discover Pennywise and vow to kill him by any means necessary. The series takes place over two different time periods, the first when the Losers first confront Pennywise as children in 1960, and the second when they return as adults in 1990 to defeat him a second time after he resurfaces.

Cast members included Tim Curry (Pennywise), Richard Thomas, John Ritter, Harry Anderson, and others. Produced by Green/Epstein Productions, ''It'' was filmed over a period of three months in New Westminster, British Columbia in mid-1990 with a budget of $12 million, double the usual television budget. The miniseries was first broadcast during the November sweeps month. Despite the risk factors, mixed pre-airing critical reviews, and coverage of President George H. W. Bush's foreign trips cutting into the program; ''It'' was ABC's biggest success of 1990, pulling through with 30 million viewers for its two parts.

''It'' was nominated for two Emmy Awards, one Eddie Award, one Youth in Film award, and a best miniseries recognition from the People's Choice Awards; it won two of the nominations, an Emmy Award for Outstanding Music Composition for Richard Bellis' score and an Eddie Award for the miniseries' editing.

While divided critical perspectives towards ''It'' have continued in later years, the miniseries has become most known for Curry's version of Pennywise. In fact, his portrayal has been considered by several publications to be one of the scariest clown characters in film and television. ''It'' has also spawned an Indiegogo-funded documentary film about the miniseries' production, titled ''Pennywise: The Story of It'' (2020); and an alternate history sequel short named ''Georgie'', also by the producers of the documentary.

Plot

During a heavy rainstorm in Derry, Maine in the spring of 1960, George Denbrough plays in the streets with a paper sailboat made by his stuttering older brother, Bill. It goes down a storm drain, where Georgie encounters Pennywise the Dancing Clown. Pennywise entices Georgie to reach in to retrieve his boat, only to tear his arm off and leave him to bleed to death. A few months later, Bill and asthmatic Eddie Kaspbrak befriend the chubby new kid Ben Hanscom. They are later joined by Beverly Marsh, who lives with her abusive father, and she and Ben are introduced to Bill and Eddie's other friends: the comical Richie Tozier and skeptical, Jewish boy scout Stan Uris.

Ben develops feelings for Beverly, and sends her an anonymous poem, but she has feelings for Bill. At school, by the creek and around town they are all bullied by Henry Bowers and his greaser gang. The children all have grotesque, frightening encounters with Pennywise. In July, the group is joined by Mike Hanlon, an African-American boy, as he is chased by Bowers' gang. The children, now dubbing themselves the "Losers Club", fend off Bowers gang with rocks. While looking through Mike's History of Derry school project scrapbook, the Losers realize that Pennywise, whom they refer to as "It", is not a human being, but rather an ancient creature that awakens roughly every thirty years to hunt and feed.

Realizing that It killed Georgie, Bill leads the Losers into Derry's sewers to kill the creature. Stan becomes separated from the group and is ambushed by Bowers and Belch Huggins. Belch is killed by It, and Henry is left traumatized, his hair shocked white. Stanley regroups with the Losers in a large sewer drainage chamber, which fills with fog as the seven join hands to form a circle, their united strength, but Stan is grabbed by It. The Losers take advantage of It's ability to access their imaginations and use it against It. Eddie imagines his inhaler is full of battery acid, injuring half of the clown's face, then Beverly slingshots silver earrings at It, which seems to 'break' Pennywise's head open, his light force seeping out. Wounded ''It'' flees down a drain, where the kids hear moaning, and conclude ''It'' is dead. The group exits the sewers, but vows to return should ''It'' ever return. Bowers, now insane or possessed from ITs deadlights confesses to the child killings and is institutionalized.

Thirty years later in May 1990, It kills a little girl in her backyard, signalling another awakening and feeding spree. Mike, the only one to stay in Derry, contacts his old friends to fulfill their oath after hearing reports of missing children. All of the Losers, who have gone on to have successful careers, return, except Stan, who cannot bear the thought of returning to Derry to fight It, who commits suicide. The other Losers reunite in Derry, later learning of Stan's suicide. Upon returning, they are all taunted and terrorized by Pennywise. Bowers, with It's help, escapes from the asylum to murder the Losers. Bill's = wife, Audra, travels to Derry but is captured by It, hypnotized by the monster's "Deadlights". Bowers attacks and stabs Mike, but is fatally stabbed with his own knife when Eddie & Ben rush in. Mike is hospitalized, where he gives Bill the two silver earrings he retrieved from the sewers ten years ago. The five remaining Losers return to the sewers to confront It, where Bill realizes that ''It'' has Audra.

They reach It's inner sanctum, see the catatonic Audra engulfed in spider webs and discover It's true form of a gigantic, otherworldly spider. Bill, Ben, and Richie are entranced by the Deadlights emanating from ''Its'' underside, while Beverly retrieves the silver earring she overshot. Eddie attempts to repeat the wound he inflicted on It as a child, but is grabbed and mortally wounded. Beverly frees her friends, but Eddie dies. The others follow the injured demon spider, finishing it by ripping out its heart and crushing the heart. They remove Eddie's body and the catatonic Audra from the sewers. Mike recovers in the hospital, explaining how the Losers go their separate ways once again, their memories of It and each other fading over time, save for his journal; Beverly and Ben get married and are expecting their first child, and Richie is cast in a film. Bill is preparing to leave Derry, but pulls Audra out of her catatonia by riding her down a street on "Silver" his childhood Schwinn cruiser.

Cast and characters

''It'''s main ensemble features actors not very well known in horror, such as John Ritter, Tim Reid, Harry Anderson, and Tim Curry. Thomas' only previous horror venture was ''Tales from the Crypt''; and Anderson's experience in the genre included an episode in the series and his magician shows, where he would eat live animals, put a nail up in his nose, and catch a gun bullet with his teeth. This casting was unusual for a horror production at the time, but producer Jim Green reasoned that it was in order to increase eyeballs from more easily frightened casual viewers. The majority of the adult actors in the film, including Ritter, Dennis Christopher, Reid and Anderson, were hand-chosen by Wallace and Cohen for their roles. Emily Perkins and Marlon Taylor, who played the young Beverly Marsh and Mike Hanlon, were cast out of Vancouver, while Seth Green and Jonathan Brandis were cast out of Los Angeles for the parts of young Richie and Bill.

It

It is the titular shapeshifting antagonist of the miniseries whose primary form is a wisecracking clown named Pennywise, played by Tim Curry. Curry used Robin Williams-esque natural improvisation when playing Pennywise, giving the character a Bronx accent in order to sound like, as Curry put it, "an old-time Catskills comic." While the original novel showcased It taking on many other incarnations, the miniseries only features four of them (not counting the forms of Georgie, Stan, and Al Marsh): an elderly lady Beverly meets named Mrs. Kersh, portrayed by Florence Paterson; Ben's dead father Captain Hanscom, played by Steve Makaj; a werewolf Richie encounters after viewing ''I Was a Teenage Werewolf'' (1957) played by an unknown actor (A 1991 '' Fangoria'' feature states an actor played the werewolf, but it did not specify who and the actor is not credited in the miniseries); and It's true spiderlike form, portrayed by Brent Baker.

According to writer Lawrence D. Cohen, he had written the script for the series without a specific actor in mind for the role of Pennywise. Malcolm McDowell, Roddy McDowall, and Alice Cooper were in consideration to play Pennywise, but director Tommy Lee Wallace wanted Curry for the role. King recalled that there was doubt from the crew about Curry playing Pennywise, perhaps due to the actor previously being known for comic roles in films like ''The Rocky Horror Picture Show'' (1975) and ''Clue'' (1985).

Wallace wasn't a fan of the other choices, particularly McDowell, as Wallace found him to have too much "sweetness" to play a part like Pennywise. Curry took the role for the clown's "subversive nature," being "both beguiling and murderous" and "a smile gone bad." He was originally planned to play all of It's forms, not just the clown; however, the crew thought it was more efficient to have different actors play the other forms so they did not have to take up so much time dealing with makeup changes.

Because of the amount of makeup Curry's character required, he had the earliest call time of all the actors. On each shooting day, it took at least three hours for him to take off his make-up and get out of his costume. Curry's performance unnerved the cast and crew so much they avoided him as much as possible while on set. While waiting between shots, Curry would be chain-smoking and showing his sharp teeth if one of the child actors got too close to him. As Perkins recalled, "He really tried to intimidate us, because he wanted the fear to be real in our performances." However, Wallace recalled having a pleasant time working with Curry: "Tim was always well-prepared, easy on set, patient and low-key."

In a 2015 interview with ''Moviefone'', Curry called the role of Pennywise "a wonderful part", giving his blessing to would-be successor Will Poulter, who ultimately dropped out. Bill Skarsgård replaced him, and while being interviewed at Fan Expo Canada, Curry gave his approval, saying that "I like illSkarsgård. I think he's very clever. It'll be interesting to see what sort of clown face he puts on. because it's not an obvious clown face at all. .So I'm fascinated to see it."

The Losers

* Richard Thomas portrays Bill Denbrough, the stuttering founder of the Losers Club whose desire to kill Pennywise is heavily influenced by the death of his younger brother Georgie. As an adult, he is a bestselling horror writer who lives in the United Kingdom before returning to Derry to face It in the present time. Stephen King fan himself, Thomas easily related with the character he portrayed, as he was an easily frightened kid and had an imagination "so vivid that I could scare myself about just about anything. And I've never been particularly fond of snakes." Jonathan Brandis, who played young Bill, described his role the hardest he had ever done, especially when it came to performing the stuttering.
* Annette O'Toole portrays Beverly Marsh, the only female member of the Losers Club, and a fashion designer who has lived both in an abusive family and an abusive relationship. O'Toole was cast in the film at the suggestion of Ritter, with whom she had recently shot ''The Dreamer of Oz'', and she recalled the process happening very quickly. As O'Toole described the character, What I loved about the character was the way she dealt with this terrible, lonely and abusive childhood she had and the way she found a family with these other kids. She kind of gets into this club, and it doesn't really matter that she's a girl. They accept her, and she finds a group of really kindred souls." As Ritter explained the experience of being with O'Toole between breaks, "It was fun to refer to Annette as the 'it' girl when we went to restaurants together. She was the only woman with us and people thought it was kind of strange for six men to be out with one woman." Emily Perkins portrays young Beverly Marsh.
* John Ritter portrays Ben Hanscom, an architect who became a bodybuilder after being obese as a child. Ritter had previously worked with Thomas on ''The Waltons''. Ritter related to the role of Ben; as a child, he also called his friends "losers" during his most depressed moments. This was Ritter's first horror production, which excited him: "The thing I like about horror is you have to ask: Can I take it? It's like going on a roller-coaster ride. How far can you hang over the edge before you have to pull back? It's the idea that there is this dark side." A huge King fan after the novel ''Carrie'' was released, Ritter made multiple attempts to appear in a King screen adaptation before ''It'', all of which failed; his most recent of these was trying to get in touch with George A. Romero to star in a later-rejected theatrical version of ''The Stand'' Romero was planned to direct. Ritter then heard about a feature-length version of ''It'' in development and asked his manager, "Tell them BCI'll play any part they want me to. I'll play the girl." Initially, Ritter was unable to appear in the miniseries as casting began just as he started filming '' The Dreamer of Oz: The L. Frank Baum Story'' (1990). However, the casting was postponed following Romero's leave of the ''It'' project (see Development), which opened space for him to get the part of Ben. The young version of Ben is played by Brandon Crane, who, like Ritter, also connected with the character he played; he was raised without a dad and bullied for being fat at school in real life. Crane would later cameo in ''It Chapter Two'' (2019) as a working assistant for the adult Ben Hanscom, who was played by Jay Ryan in the film.
* Harry Anderson portrays Richie Tozier, the comedic relief of the group who works as a late night television comedian and did funny impressions of real-life figures as a child. Anderson used improvisation with delivering one-liners for his character, and even made a directing suggestion to Wallace for a moment where all the Losers Club members hug Bill except for Richie; Wallace wasn't sure about the decision at first, but Anderson's idea was executed in the final cut as Richie was the only cynical member of the group after Stan's death. Seth Green plays young Richie.
* Dennis Christopher portrays Eddie Kaspbrak, an asthmatic limousine service runner who has lived with his overbearing mother into his adult life. Jim Carrey was originally considered for the character before Christoper was chosen. Adam Faraizl plays Young Eddie.
* Tim Reid portrays Mike Hanlon, the only black person in the Losers Club, as well as the only one to remain in Derry following the Losers Club's first defeat of It in 1960. Working as a librarian in the town, he calls all of the Losers to return to Derry 30 years later. David Alan Grier was initially considered for the role of Mike before Reid was cast. The young version of Mike is portrayed by Marlon Taylor, who recalled going through "two auditions and three or four callbacks before I was told that I had the part of young Mike."
* Richard Masur portrays Stanley Uris, a real estate broker who was a Jewish Boy Scout as a kid. Due to the character's early death, Masur has far less screen time than the other Loser actors. Ben Heller, who played young Stan, only had local theatre experience, small parts in ''21 Jump Street'' and '' Wiseguy'', and no commercial or modeling experience before auditioning for ''It''. He got the role after his third read to the casting director, receiving the call claiming he got the part just after his seventeenth birthday.

Given that the shooting entailed an adult cast with child counterparts, Wallace sought to have the adult actors meet with the children playing the younger versions of their characters: "We made a point of bringing the adult and children actors together for a couple of days, even though it was costly, since the adults and the kids have no scenes together." For Ritter and Crane, the two looked very different, which meant they had to make similar the young and adult versions of Ben through actions and facial expressions.

Supporting cast

Because ''It'' was filmed in Vancouver, most of the supporting cast consists of actors well known in Canadian media and theater; exceptions include British actress Olivia Hussey as Bill's wife Audra, Tony Dakota as his brother Georgie Denbrough, and Michael Cole as Henry Bowers. Jarred Blancard played the young version of Henry; he hated having to call the character Mike Hanlon the "Nigger", often apologizing to the actor playing young Mike, Marlon Taylor, for repeatedly using the word during practice. The two actors remained friends after filming had wrapped. The number of the Bowers Gang are reduced from seven in the novel to five for the miniseries: Gabe Khouth as Victor Criss and Chris Eastman as Belch Huggins, while the actors of Peter Gordon and Moose Sadler go uncredited.

Other relatives of members of the Loser Clubs include Sheila Moore as Eddie's mother Ms. Kaspbrak; Michael Ryan as Beverly's abusive boyfriend Tom Rogan; Frank C. Turner as her just-as-abusive father Alvin Marsh; Caitlin Hicks as Stanley's wife Patti; Steven Hilton and Sheelah Megill as Bill's parents Zack and Sharon respectively; Noel Geer as Cousin Bradley; Susan Astley as Aunt Jean; and Claire Vardiel as Ben's mother Arlene Hanscom.

Chelan Simmons, who played Pennywise's first victim Laurie Ann Winterbarger, had her first non-commercial experience with ''It''; she would later be known for appearing in several 21st-century budget horror films and a 2002 telefilm version of ''Carrie''. Due to her fear of clowns, she has admitted to never seeing the miniseries or reading the original novel. The girl's mother is portrayed by Merrilyn Gann. Two Gemini Award winners, Nicola Cavendish and Venus Terzo, appear as a desk clerk and Ben's woman, Lyndi, respectively. Terence Kelly, who portrays officer Nell, was nominated for a Gemini for another role as an officer in '' Reg Serge''.

Two actors later known from ''The X-Files'' appear in ''It'': William B. Davis as Mr. Gedreau, and Megan Leitch as a library aide Richie talks to while being taunted by Pennywise. Other well-known Canadian actors in the miniseries include Laura Harris as Loni; Garry Chalk, most known for voice acting, as Eddie's gym class coach; Jay Brazeau as a taxi driver; Tom Heaton as Mr. Keene; Paul Batten as his grandson; Donna Peerless as teacher Miss Douglas; and Kim Kondrashoff, Helena Yea, and Charles Siegel as Joey, Eddie's chauffeur, Rose, the waitress at the Chinese restaurant, and Nat, Richie's agent, respectively.

Context

There was only one television version of a Stephen King story before ''It'', that being the 1979 adaptation of '' 'Salem's Lot'' (1975), directed by Tobe Hooper. Although critically acclaimed, it did not change King's negative view on horror television as he still believed that the format was "too institutionally fainthearted and unimaginative to handle real horror" in 1983. This skepticism continued in the mid-1980s when he wrote and published '' It'' (1986), and he never thought a television version of the book would happen despite its success. His reason was that it was a censorship rule not to show children in jeopardy, a major theme in ''It''.

''It'' was written over four years by King with inspirations from the story "Three Billy Goats Gruff" and legends about Bangor, Maine's sewer system. Despite garnering a polarized critical response for its huge number of pages and bizarre sexual sequences, ''It'' was the best-selling hardcover fiction book in the United States in 1986, according to ''Publishers Weekly''; and a British Fantasy Award winner.

King's predictions about a TV version of the book not happening, while false, were also justified according to newspaper critic Matt Roush. At the end of the 1980s, a horror product of any kind was an unlikely gamble for a network. The television market was dominated by sitcoms, soap operas, and fictional presentations of real life events; there were series like ''Freddy's Nightmares'' (1988–90) and '' Friday the 13th: The Series'' (1987–90), but they were often hampered by network censorship, commercial breaks, low budgets, and "cheesy execution."

Other factors increased the risk of a network doing a film or miniseries version of a King story in the late 1980s to 1990; theatrical King screen transfers were performing poorly at the box office, and big TV events like miniseries or films were becoming far less important to viewers due to a rise in VCR ownership by 20 percent from 1985 to 1990. This resulted in channels like ABC taking several cost-cutting measures, such as adding more regular series to its lineup.

Some critics also questioned the airing of a horror film like ''It'' on television, a format much easier for children to access than theaters due to less parental and government restrictions.

King described his expectations of the miniseries being "in the basement. Here was a book that sprawled over 1,000 pages, and they were going to cram it into four hours, with commercials."

Pre-production

Motive

Hollywood significantly increased their interest in screen adaptations of King's work after the box office success of ''Pet Sematary'' (1989), and several of went into development; around this time, ABC had acquired the rights to a television miniseries of ''It'' and green-lit it to be an eight-to-ten-hour miniseries. One reason, according to Lawrence D. Cohen, was that it was "the heyday of networks adapting lengthy novels for TV." ABC film chief Allen Sabinson explained that they chose to produce ''It'' as a previous film based on a King story about children, '' Stand by Me'' (1986), was a success. The producers were also focused on the story's drama aspects, likely due to most viewers leaning towards drama productions in 1990.

''It'' was made at a time when the television landscape was making a slight change into unusual styles, as indicated by the popularity of shows like David Lynch's ''Twin Peaks'' (1990–91) and ''Tales from the Crypt'' (1989–96). ''Twin Peaks'' was constantly referenced in discussions between the cast and crew of ''It'' during shooting. As Tommy Lee Wallace recalled, "It brought everyone's attention to the fact that it doesn't have to be like and look like and act like everything else to succeed. You can break new ground – not with hard-core violence or nudity, necessarily – but just by being different and strange, which I certainly am trying to bring to ''It''." At the same time, CBS was taking similar chances with the horror film '' Psycho IV: The Beginning'' (1990), which aired in the same month as ''It'' and also featured Olivia Hussey, who played Audra in ''It''.

Development

George A. Romero had originally been signed on to direct the project, which at the time ABC had planned for an eight-to-ten-hour series that would run over four two-hour blocks. On June 1, 1989, ABC announced that the miniseries would be six hours and directed by Romero, with no cast planned. A July 1989 announcement published in the ''Houston Chronicle'' indicates that the miniseries was originally planned to be set in "small-town Massachusetts" instead of Derry.

In an interview published in January 1990, ABC's Dan Doran described ''It'' as a "long-range development project, and it's not even a firm, 100% commitment yet." He also revealed Romero's involvement to be "tentative." However, Romero described himself as being incredibly involved in the project: "I worked with the effects guys. I did toryboards. I must have thousands of pages of scripts and notes." However, a scheduling conflict with his 1990 remake of ''Night of the Living Dead'' (1968) resulted in him having to leave the project just after ABC decreased the length of the miniseries to four hours. His exit initially upset him because it reminded him of his time being dropped from ''Pet Sematary''. However, he stated in 1993 that he appreciated his leave, feeling that the length decrease lessened the likely "impact" of the miniseries' final product. The producers were also worried about Romero making the miniseries too graphic for television.

The producers "lost their nerve" from how much work they could be faced doing an eight-to-ten hour miniseries. Thus, ABC condensed it to a three-part series, before shortly after making it a two-part miniseries once Tommy Lee Wallace was signed on to direct after reading a draft of the first part of Cohen's script.

Writing

Cohen, who had previously written the film adaptation of '' Carrie'' in 1976, was hired to write ''It'', receiving a manuscript of the novel that was sent to his New York apartment in 1986 before the book was published. Although King had multiple drafts of the script sent to him by Cohen, he had little to no involvement in the writing of the miniseries. Cohen's early drafts rejected the flashback format of the book, where the first night would show the Losers as kids and the second part as adults. He originally planned for the spider form to be hinted at in part one when Pennywise was hit by the rock, but the idea was scrapped. Cohen also initially wrote the second episode as, according to Wallace, "a very interior melodrama" that differed heavily from the novel and where Tom Rogan played a much bigger role in the plot.

In reading Cohen's draft, Wallace initially avoided reading the book to get an objective view of it: "I knew I was dealing with people who had been intimately involved with the book for years." After noticing many issues in the script, especially in the second part, Wallace gave Cohen an offer to rewrite his drafts; however, that would have required Cohen to take a three-week trip to the miniseries' Vancouver production location, which his schedule would not permit as he was involved in other projects. This led Wallace to have to re-write the script himself and use the book as reference, which turned out to fix all of the original drafts' issues. As Wallace explained, "One of the things I believe I contributed in my rewrite was just packing in as much of what was memorable about the book." He added the flashback structuring from the book into the script and made sure the screenplay for the second part "maintain dsome of the rhythm" of the first.

Changes from the novel

Given the length of the King novel, which runs 1,138 pages, a great deal of material was left out of Cohen's 215-page screenplay, including subplots concerning the personal lives of the adult characters and a scene in which the young male members of the Loser's Club each lose their virginity to Beverly. Cohen, while upset about the material that did not make it in the final cut, also opined, "the best moments from the book made the cut and the rest are casualties of war." Themes of friendship and loyalty were distorted in the miniseries in order to appeal to non-horror TV viewers.

O'Toole has admitted to disliking the removal of the Losers' orgy scene: "This was their greatest attachment to one another – she thought they were all going to die, and this was a gift she was giving to each one of them, and I thought it was the most beautiful, generous love-filled gift, and it tied them all together in such an amazing way." Cohen retrospectively admitted that he wished he was permitted to write an ending different from the novel's: "If I had to do it over again, my instinct would be to find a way to have the adults confront Pennywise in another way, in all his shapeshifting glory."

One major change King disliked but had to deal with was the decreased amount of depth of the main characters, particularly Richie Tozier, who was altered from a Los Angeles DJ into a television show comedian. He found the miniseries' version of Richie to have only two dimensions: "scumbag" and "sort of a kindhearted Buddy Hackett." However, Wallace and Cohen retained the centrality of Pennywise in the source novel; as noted by film scholar Tony Magistrale in ''Hollywood's Stephen King'', the made-for-television movie retains the "association between the adult world of Derry and ''It'' hichis further established in the masterful choice of a carnival clown as a unifying symbol for the various creatures representing the monster."

Production

Filming

''It'' was shot over a three-month summer period in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Green set the budget at $12 million, double the usual television film, to give ''It'' a major motion picture feel. Filming locations in Vancouver included Stanley Park, Beaver Lake and Saint Thomas Aquinas High School Convent in North Vancouver. The Buntzen Lake Hydro Plant, in particular, was used as the miniseries' sewer plant.

For the opening scene where Laurie Winterbarger is eaten by Pennywise, Simmons' shots were done while Curry wasn't on set; Wallace stood at the laundry area of the backyard giving her simple directions for emotions. However, she still met Curry via read-throughs and while in her trailer after the shot: "while walking down the sidewalk Tim walked by in the full clown costume—make up and all. He turned to me and said "Hi!" in a very friendly voice, but it still scared me half to death!" Similarly, the scene where Patti Uris finds her husband dead in the tub (done on the first shooting day) involved Uris not being on set for shots of Caitlin Hicks' reaction. The Captain Hanscom sequence in the first part was shot at the Lost Lagoon, which involved Makaj on a platform just below the water surface to give the illusion of the character standing on water. The shots of the captain's corpse were done when Crane wasn't on set.

Filming ''It'' was not without difficult sequences. The scene where the blood-filled balloon explodes in Beverly's bathroom required multiple takes due to how difficult it was to get the timing of the explosion right. The theater scene took many retakes and much waiting, so Curry went on the stage and entertained the child extras with singalongs, all unaware he was playing a monster character in the miniseries. Shooting the last sewer scene was tough for the adult actors, as they had to deal with walking in an area filled with rust likely infected with tetanus. The final scene with Bill and Audra Denbrough took days to rehearse, a library scene with all the adult actors involved some slight injuries due to the number of objects randomly flying around the place, while the photo album scene where Pennywise comes to life was the hardest scene to shoot for Wallace.

Directing

In explaining why directing a screen version of a King story was difficult, Wallace summarized, "Stephen King is so good with language that he can make almost anything sound incredibly scary. Some of King's images translate to film. Some are simply ethereal, like smoke."

A lot of Wallace's directing was influenced by films he worked on with John Carpenter, such as '' Halloween'' (1978) and ''The Fog'' (1980). He made several technical and staging decisions just to make each scene scarier or weird. These included interesting camera tricks, such as the Chinese restaurant scene being shot with a handheld camera; and shots where It goes through pipes filmed as if they were from It's point of view, a decision inspired by Wallace's past experiences working with Carpenter.

The Chinese restaurant sequence was shot in only one take and involved the actors not being aware what was going to happen so that "our expressions were all real," explained Reid. As Wallace explained, "The fortune cookie scene is an example of how to get great scare-power out of fairly humble, low-budget special effects. A trick table, puppeteers underneath, a handful of creepy little cookie models, a group of characters taken by surprise. So much depended on the details."

When it came to the Ms. Kersh scene, Wallace place several incidental details, such as Mrs. Kersh's teeth being rotten like Pennywise's, to give the audience a clue something was up; the scene also ends with Beverly Marsh in the middle of the street, with intentionally no extras around to add to the creep factor. Wallace also chose to make the furniture in Stanley Uris' house odd to signify something being wrong with the character.

Special effects

Gene Warren's effects company Fantasy II were in the middle of working on ''Predator 2'' (1990) when ABC assigned the company to work on ''It'' with a deadline of 12 weeks. The effects team of ''It'' included Warren, who handled the visual effects; Bart Mixon, who coordinated the makeup effects and Pennywise's animated deadlights; Jo-Anne Smith, who had previously worked on Curry's make-up for his role in ''Legend'' (1985); Salty Ray; J.C. Matalon; and the Fantasy II effects team run by Warren's son, Gene Warren Jr., and including Jim McLoughlln, Aaron Sim, Brent Baker, Norman Cabrera, and Joey Orosco. Fantasy II had previously worked on a feature also directed by Wallace titled ''Fright Night Part 2'' (1988) and another King adaptation named ''Pet Sematary'' (1989).

The majority of the special effects were done practically without digital alteration, such as puppeteers being used to animate the fortune cookies in the Chinese restaurant scene. Some scenes were done with replacement animation, an animation technique similar to stop motion animation. Replacement animation was used for when Pennywise came out of the drain, killed Belch in the sewers, and did a somersault in the air. A lot of the effects Wallace planned to use while storyboarding did not make it into the final version for budget reasons, such as the roots writhing around Pennywise in his ghostly encounter with the adult Losers in the sewer. Lindsay Craig, an artist who made a living doing prop work in film and television, created some of the blood for ''It'' using food coloring, water, and methacyl.

While It's lair features many cocooned humans, Sally Ray and J.C. Matalon sculpted only six of them, four children and two adults, for close-up shots.

To work with the deadline, Mixon divided the design team of each It creature into four artists: "Each artist was given a considerable amount of freedom with his creations, with occasional input from Warren or myself to make sure we were adhering to Wallace's vision."

Pennywise

When designing Pennywise, Mixon focused on making him look as "friendly" as possible: "This creature is trying to lure children in, so he's not going to be a monster at first." He began drawing concepts for how Pennywise would look before Curry was cast, researching the looks of most other clowns in the process. Original storyboards for Pennywise featured exaggerated cheekbones, a sharp chin, and bulbous forehead.

Mixon began working on a head cast for the Pennywise character after Curry was cast in the role; he also designed three clay molds for testing. According to Mixon, he based the shape of Pennywise's head on Lon Chaney in ''The Phantom of the Opera'' (1925), "stylized into a clown." Three different versions of the clown's face were created, one of which resembled a hobo clown, another that was "a little meaner," and the final one seen in the series.

Mixon then worked with Curry on the makeup and tested two concepts: one with just a nose, headpiece, and a make-up pattern Curry suggested; and another one that was closer to the original designs. The former was chosen, although the other make-up choice is featured in the final cut when Pennywise is sprayed with battery acid. Instead of traditional clown make-up, PAX paint was used for makeup that made Pennywise look "almost like a living cartoon."

According to director Wallace, "Tim urryobjected strongly to all the rubber. He had recently been in several movies which covered him in prosthetics and I'm sure he felt all the glue and latex would just get in his way. He was right, of course. With those eyes, and that mouth, and his crazy, sardonic sense of humor, less turned out to be more in the makeup department." However, the bulbous forehead was kept to give the character "a supernatural aspect without getting in the way." Getting the clown faces right also depended on some of the actor's own efforts, to the point where he had to do a day of training of not only getting into the character but also practicing the faces. Small adjustments to Pennywise's face, such as on his mouth and the eyebrows ("the hardest thing to get right" according to Curry), were still being made in the first five days of shooting.

In the scenes when the clown became vicious, Curry wore yellow lenses and two sets of sharp teeth throughout shooting: a smaller set he could talk while wearing, and a less flexible but far bigger set for more horrifying shots. The teeth were designed by Jim McLoughlin. Wallace originally did not want Pennywise to switch into a "horror" look but rather maintain the "nice" clown look throughout the miniseries, but this idea was dropped.

Dan Platt sculpted a puppet replication of Pennywise specifically for the stop motion scenes, with painting done by Mixon and the hair by Jack Bricker. Rotoscoping was used for Pennywise's "dead light" effects in the first part of the miniseries.

Werewolf

Norman Cabrera sculpted the design of the werewolf. Because Wallace did not want it to look like a usual "Howling type of creature," Mixon instructed Cabrera to make "a slicker, '90s version" of the wolf from the 1950s film Richie viewed. The makeup used for the werewolf character was kept simple, consisting only of a spandex hood mask, gloves, and hair tied around the neck all put together through KY Jelly; this was done to suit the limited application time and "the nature of the shots." Jack Bricker created the wolf's hair, and Mimi Cabrera made stylistic additions. Aaron Sims painted three sets of false eyes for the wolf; a "beauty pair" for close-up shots, a "stunt pair" that had the pupils "drilled out," and a set of glowing eyes. Only the "stunt" and "beauty" pairs are seen in the final miniseries.

Mrs. Kersh

For the part when Mrs. Kersh is revealed to be Alvin Marsh's corpse, Florence Peterson was still playing the character. Cabrera was responsible for the Marsh part of Kersh's make-up, composed of two face pieces, one teeth piece, false fingernail pieces, one neck piece, two pieces on the back of the hands, and an "empty eyesocket" piece. Mixon handled a PAX paint layer of the makeup. As Mixon explained, "Director Wallace wanted an empty eyesocket look for Al, so Cabrera sculpted rot inside the sockets and then burned tiny holes through the foam for the actor to see through."

Stanley's refrigerator head

The scene when the Losers find Stanley's decapitated head in the refrigerator was done via a split screen effect; it consists of one shot of Masur wearing a Jim-McLoughlin-designed "severed neck" with black areas filled in by another shot of the refrigerator without the actor. McLoughlin also created a dummy head of Stan used for wide shots.

The spider

Producing and shooting It's final spider form required a budget of $200,000 and 13 weeks of time. It began with Mixon coming up with the idea of a "soft and fleshy" spiderlike creature. Joey Orosco, with some help from Henry Mayo, used his idea to create a design that included the abdomen and multiple limbs of a spider; and shoulders, hips, and torso-attaching legs of a human; the body parts went through more than 16 concept sculptures. In addition to painting the entire creature, Orsco mold the torso, arms, and head; while the spider's legs and abdomen were sculpted by Sims. Sims also molded a stop-motion replica of the spider, with an armature built by Mike Joyce, used for nine split-screen, rear projection, and tabletop shots supervised by Warren.

As Wallace explained, the spider was far less "beefy and muscular" and more "lean and mean" then what was in the concept drawings; its face was also not suppose to be as visible as it was in the final cut, although he blames himself for letting that happen. As Mixon described the 500-pound, 250-foot radio-controlled spider, "They've had some other creatures on TV but I can't think of anything just this big or this neat." Its odd design and unusually large size caught the attention of Canadian customs officials when it reached the US-Canada border of White Rock during its relocation from Los Angeles to a sound stage at The Bridge Studios; the officials delayed the operation.

Brent Baker was inside the spider, previously going through three months of training in using it, where there was a video monitor showing him how the spider was moving: "It got a little stuffy, but they had a place where they could stick in a little hose if I wanted water or some fresh air." Baker got really uncomfortable when the spider had to do multiple shots of the roll-over movement, as he would have to lay on his side while the crew set up another shot. Dave Kindlon's mechanics of the spider required control by various operators for different body parts; the head was radio-controlled by three people, the legs were operated by six people, one person operated the arms, one handled the deadlights, and others handled the movement of the entire spider.

As Mixon described controlling the spider, "We used a certain amount of animatronics for the head, and the body had some of my crew members inside it. Once we got it into place, we couldn't move it around too much, because it was pretty unwieldy. For some reason, they shot it in super slow motion, so it's no wonder it looks like it's not moving! It was capable of more than what you saw onscreen."

The final spider figure disappointed both the cast and Wallace.''It'' DVD Commentary (2003). On set, Thomas called the spider a "diva," Ritter mocked it as a " muppet from hell," and O'Toole recalled most of the cast calling it the "Alaskan king crab." King also disliked the spider, mocking it as "three Chevy headlights on the bottom of a wheelbarrow." The effects artists made touches after King revealed his disappointment during production.

As the producers were about to throw away the spider, Bart's father Tom rushed to Fantasy II to obtain it; as of January 1993, the spider resided in a Houston, Texas warehouse owned by Bart's parents Tom and Barbara.

Music

''It'' was composer Richard Bellis' first score since his career "came to a screeching halt for some unknown reason" in 1984. He was in the fourth year of owning a woodwork business when getting the call to score the miniseries. The score took five weeks to compose and produce. Bellis recorded four-days worth of orchestra parts performed by various ensembles that had 55 players at most, and the electronic instruments were tracked at Ray Colcord's home studio.

Bellis' use of motifs and ostinatos in ''It'' were inspired by the works of Bernard Herrmann. The music features motifs of not only each Loser and Pennywise but also themes of nostalgia and the difference between the past and the present. In presenting the story's varied tone, the score mixes together adventurous orchestra motifs (especially so for the music of the last showdown between It and the Losers), horror synthesizer pieces, circus music, big band jazz, creepy sound design touches, and trumpet-heavy music accompanying the setting of Derry.

Bellis took a long time figuring out the first interval of the title theme, since he considered the use of a tritone overused in horror. Then, one day, he spontaneously chose the interval to be a major seventh after he heard it on the hairdryer he was using. The scrapbook seen in the title sequence influenced how he composed the theme: "I do remember being struck by the fact that it was not like other scrapbooks, filled with happy memories. The pages were sparse and the sequence mostly in black & white." The producers and Wallace initially intended The Impressions' cover of "The Way You Do the Things You Do" to be the title song, but it is instead played in the sequence where the Losers build a dam in the final cut.

The choice of calliope, drums, and bells for Pennywise's circus theme was obvious to Bellis; however, how he would use the bright-toned circus instruments was challenging in composing the theme for an evil clown. As Bellis described his thinking process, "Does the music have to be evil too? Besides, calliope music is usually very busy— I use this instrument as a scoring instrument or will that just be distracting? Maybe I can use it in a register lower than an actual calliope is capable of playing and just with single notes. And what about a sort of "demented" carousel? Maybe I can create something that uses my major seventh interval?"

In the beginning of ''It'', Winterbarger sings " Itsy Bitsy Spider" while riding on a bike, which foreshadows the titular antagonist's spider form.

Wallace and the producers disliked the score (particularly the title music) according to Bellis.

The first release of the score was in February 1996, but only as a 16-minute suite on the album ''Richard Bellis: Film Music Volume 1''. Then, a 2-CD release of the TV movie's complete score by Richard Bellis was released on November 15, 2011, by Intrada Records, and is volume 184 of the label's special collection. On October 31, 2016, Warner Brothers, as part of their Archive Collection Series, issued the score in a shorter, one-tracklist version on CD and Spotify. In 2017, Waxwork Records issued the entire score for the first time on vinyl. A six-minute suite of the score, along with a six-minute outtake recording of an orchestra session, can be heard on Bellis' website.

On October 18, 2016, guitarist Eric Calderone released his electric guitar cover of Bellis' circus theme for ''It''.

Track listing

''It'''s content in relation to television restrictions

AllMovie suggested ''It'' pushed the television barriers not only with its amount of blood, but also with its themes of child endangerment.

As ''It'' was a television production, its content had to follow Broadcast Standards and Practices. This limited the amount of violence, gore, and blood displayed, and how it was presented. For instance, since blood could not come out of body orifices, blood instead had to come out of physical objects such as sinks and photo books. Mixon re-called that, when designing the skeleton Ben encountered, ABC did not want the skeleton to be wet and have muscles hanging off of it. However, the skeleton was supposed to be wet as it had just emerged from a river. To get around the problem, Mixon decided to replace the skeleton meat with seaweed. As Mixon explained, "They just didn't want any etgore, although rot and decay was okay." The biggest broadcast rule the makers of ''It'' had to loophole around was not to show kids in jeopardy, which was a major issue as kids facing deadly situations was a prominent theme of the story. An example of this is Georgie's death; he could not have his arm shown to be ripped off, so it had to only be implied through dialogue.

The censorship ''It'' dealt with made it more of a psychological horror product, something different from most popular horror productions at the time. Most of this horror is executed through the titular villain and the scared expressions of the Loser Clubs actors. Philip Rosenthal wrote that in order to be scared of ''It'', "it is necessary to embrace the fantasy that such an evil entity could exist and cloud minds the way It does." The lack of graphic content ''It'' could display also resulted its story to be very character-orientated for its genre. Like the original novel, ''It'' deals with multiple themes related to childhood: children's safety issues, trauma adults unconsciously place on kids, the importance of friendship, and childhood fears that continue into adulthood. The Losers face problems of bullying, abusive parenting, racism, and lack of adult attention to the sudden increase of child deaths. They are connected as outsiders dealing with similar levels of traumatic situations, and they work together to overcome those traumatic feelings by defeating "It," a symbol of their inner fears.

''It'' also features comic touches to its otherwise scary plot and was labeled by a 2019 retrospective review as being a campy production for its "fake-looking" It forms, the over-the-top performances of the main cast, and bizarre story elements, such as adults being terrified by balloons. Curry's performance of Pennywise is also cited as a reason for unintentional hilarity, as it combines horror, black comedy, and cheeriness. In addition to his odd methods of transportation, such as popping out of sinks, storm drains, and shower heads, Pennywise appears and acts like a regular circus clown, instead of a malevolent extraterrestrial being. However, this very appearance in combination with his evil acts is recognized as the major element of terror in the miniseries.

Reception

Broadcast

ABC originally did not want King seeing the footage of ''It'' until after it was broadcast; however, the author threatened the network that he would not do any promotional interviews if he did not see it first. King explained in a September 1990 ''Fangoria'' interview that he had seen the first hour of the miniseries, and that the rest was currently being edited. His reasoning for checking on the miniseries' progress was, "It's my damn book and I worked on it for three years."

''It'' was initially planned to air on ABC in May 1990 before being moved to the " sweeps month" of November, specifically the nights of November 18 and November 20. That weekend, ''It'' and other network programs had to contend with many cut-ins of coverage of president George H. W. Bush's European trips, such as meetings with Václav Havel and Helmut Kohl; and his visit with troops in the Persian Gulf.

Just before the broadcast, a variety of predictions were made by television writers about how big ''It'''s ratings would be. Journalist Janos D. Froelich analyzed the final product of ''It'' as looking cheaper than ABC's previous sweeps month big events, which made her less faithful about it being successful. Mike Drew suggested that while the star power could increase the miniseries' chances of succeeding, its content was "probably too tamed-down by TV requirements" to gain its primary target horror demographic. However, Joan Hanauer suggested the program would be "a natural ratings grabber" for its "good clean horror fun," and Greg Paeth forecasted that it could bring in curious King fans.

''It'' turned out to be the biggest success of 1990 for Capital Cities, owner of ABC, garnering nearly 30 million viewers over its two-night premiere. Part 1 was the fifth highest rated program of the week with an 18.5/29 rating/share, and being watched in 17.5 million households. Part 2 was the second highest rated program of the week with a 20.6/33 rating/share, and watched in 19.2 million households. During a time when recording television programs on tape with VCR was becoming a commonly-practiced activity in family homes, the second part of ''It'' was the most taped program of the month of November, with 1.96 million tape machines detected by A.C. Nielsen to be recording it. In a year where traditional television films like '' Decoration Day'' (1990) and '' The Incident'' (1990) garnered the most viewers, ''It'' was the only non-safe fare on 1990 to obtain the high ratings it received.

In France, the miniseries aired on M6 on October 16, 1993, under the title ''Il est revenu'', French for ''He Came Back''. When it aired on BBC One in the United Kingdom in 1994, part one garnered 6.6 million viewers; and the second part became the eleventh-most viewed program of the period of May 29 to August 14, 1994, by attracting 7.6 million watchers.

Pre-broadcast reviews

Television experts reported "rave" and not-so-fond reviews of ''It'' from television critics. Farrell Peter ''The Oregonian'' honored ''It'' as "the best horror show ever made for network television, and among the better miniseries of any genre offered this year," praising its multi-layered story and performances. Some critics called it one of the far better King films. ''The Cincinnati Post'' labeled it "one of the creepiest productions put together for broadcast TV" (although opined it to be nothing more than for "thrills and chills"), and the '' St. Louis Post-Dispatch'' writer Eric Mink cherished it as "a gripping, bloody horror romp that will leave most of your major muscle groups aching from long stretches of constant tension." Matt Roush of ''USA Today'' categorized ''It'' as "the mini-series equivalent of those Saturday matinee shockers that merrily warped a generation before Freddy and Jason began stalking their more graphic turf." Both David Zurawik of ''The Baltimore Sun'' and Ron Miller of the ''Press-Telegram'' enjoyed ''It'' for working both as a straightforward scary miniseries and a very deep story, Zurawik highlighting its many "finely crafted" mythic and religious undertones.

Some critics highlighted its priority on character development over the typical horror traits of blood and gore, Richmond elaborating it was "all the more disturbing and believable by the fact that we are forced to care about these people as individuals." Many reviewers spotlighted some of the scare moments of the miniseries, often using the Chinese restaurant sequence as an example. A couple reviews particularly appreciated the miniseries' horrification of everyday objects and scenarios, such as shower heads and photo galleries. '' Times Union'' writer Steve Bornfeld recommended it for its freaky visuals and "effective cast," particularly Curry: "With his razor-sharp teeth and bloody balloons, Curry delicately balances clown-like cheer and pure evil, exploiting the freak show side of clowns that can terrify children." Julia Keller of ''The Columbus Dispatch'' applauded the "solid production values" and "crisp direction," where "each moment is crafted and distinct as, layer upon chilly layer, an edifice of terror is painstakingly created." Reviewers also described the special effects as "exceptionally effective," "jaw-dropping," and "rival nganything you've seen on the big screen."

However, many writers also panned ''It'''s long length and padding, ''The Washington Times'' writer Rick Martin criticizing its lack of scary moments over a four-hour running time. ''The Miami Herald

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