The Thorn Birds (miniseries)

The Thorn Birds
DVD cover
Genre	Drama Romance
Written by	Carmen Culver Lee Stanley Colleen McCullough (novel)
Directed by	Daryl Duke
Starring	Richard Chamberlain Rachel Ward Barbara Stanwyck Christopher Plummer Jean Simmons Bryan Brown Philip Anglim Richard Kiley Piper Laurie
Theme music composer	Henry Mancini
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of episodes	4
Production
Executive producers	Edward Lewis David L. Wolper
Producers	Stan Margulies Lee Stanley (co-producer) Swifty Lazar (associate producer)
Production locations	William Andrews Clark Memorial Library Big Sky Ranch Kaua'i Los Angeles City Hall Warner Brothers Burbank Studios
Cinematography	Bill Butler
Editors	Robert F. Shugrue David Saxon Carroll Timothy O'Meara
Running time	467 minutes
Production companies	David Wolper-Stan Margulies Productions Edward Lewis Productions Warner Bros. Television
Distributor	Warner Bros. Television Distribution
Release
Original network	ABC
Picture format	Color
Audio format	Mono
Original release	March 27-30, 1983
Chronology
Followed by	The Thorn Birds: The Missing Years (1996)
Infobox instructions (only shown in preview)

The Thorn Birds is an American television miniseries broadcast on ABC from March 27 to 30, 1983. It starred Richard Chamberlain, Rachel Ward, Barbara Stanwyck, Christopher Plummer, Piper Laurie, Jean Simmons, Richard Kiley, Bryan Brown, Mare Winningham and Philip Anglim. It was directed by Daryl Duke and based on the 1977 novel of the same name by Colleen McCullough. The series was enormously successful and became the United States' second highest-rated miniseries of all time behind Roots; both series were produced by television veteran David L. Wolper.