TV shows that are made with an end in sight.

North & South. Everyone knows why, too, so don't pretend like you don't.

Two observations:
1. I'm too young for this poll (sorry). While I remember them being on TV, I don't remember watching most of them. Band of Brothers and V are the only ones i've watched more than once.

2. for all of the wonderful creative TV being made, the true mini-series is still a missing art form. most of those you've nominated are from the 70s.

On that list, the show that was must see tv at the time and everyone watched was Rich Man, Poor Man.

Also Roots and The Thorn Birds.

From that list I'll go with I, Claudius. Practically my whole family watched it. I even ended up buying a Claudius roman coin worth about 4 dollars.

I am not sure I have ever watched such a thing.

The Winds Of War (1983) was another big TV hit that everyone watched with an all star cast including Robert Mitchum and the gorgeous Ali MacGraw.

Most of these were during a more innocent time of television predating cable tv.

Never watched it, so I don't?

Patrick Swayze?

I'm a fan because I was only fourteen when it aired, and I learned all about...well, I learned about how pretty much every 80's actress who was 'teh hawtness' of that era looked in the bosom-revealing outfits of the Civil War era. I'm pretty sure it was more of a 'Dynasty' influence that was really at work, and that women of that era probably didn't reveal anywhere near as much décolletage as the actresses in the TV show did...but damn, that was some good décolletage they had going on there.

I, Claudius was really good also.

I didn't watch many mini series on TV. I did watch Roots and I, Claudius, and I enjoyed both.
I do remember family members watching some of the others like Shogun and my sister liked V.

I'm going to go with I, Claudius.

Band of Brothers is such a different breed of mini series compared to the network based minis. Its excellence is unmatched by anything on this list.

Wasn’t that HBO? A whole different animal compared to regular tv mini series.

Though I'm old enough to recall older mini-series like "Rich Man, Poor Man," "The Thornbirds," etc., I don't recall having liked watching what I saw of them that much. I have never been a fan of the kinds of best-selling novels they were usually based on. Judging from the "New York Times Bestseller List," those kinds of novels aren't nearly as popular in general as they were thirty or forty years ago. Those 1970s-1980s American network TV mini-series were very much products of their time. Not IMHO products that the time can be very proud of. Probably the only reason anybody today would watch most of them would be to laugh at them.

Since I have no personal favorites I'll choose "Roots" as the probably the most culturally significant of them. It really was a huge event back in the day.

My personal favorite limited series are either good historical documentaries--which are a different animal--and certain anime like "Haibane Renmei" and "Angel Beats." Some of the best ones tell stories much more sophisticated than what those early mini-series told.

Shaka Zulu.

Most of these are before my time, or at least before my years where I'd be interested in such things. I've seen bits of Band of Brothers, always meant to see the entire thing. What I saw was outstanding, so I'll go with that.

This was another really good one.

Lace which starred Phoebe Cates in 1984 was a sexy 2 night mini series that got big ratings. I still have fond memories of Phoebe saying "which one of you bitches is my mother?"