Hollywood (British TV series)

Hollywood
Thames Video Collection VHS 1 of 13
GenreDocumentary
Written byKevin Brownlow
David Gill
Directed byKevin Brownlow
David Gill
Narrated byJames Mason
Theme music composerCarl Davis
ComposerCarl Davis
Country of originUnited Kingdom
Original languageEnglish
No. of episodes13
Production
ProducersKevin Brownlow
David Gill
EditorsDan Carter
Trevor Waite
Oscar Webb
Running time49-52min per episode (ex. commercials), ~11h14m in total
Production companyThames Television
Original release
NetworkITV
ReleaseJanuary 8 (1980-01-08) –
April 1, 1980 (1980-04-01)
Infobox instructions (only shown in preview)

Hollywood (also known as Hollywood: A Celebration of the American Silent Film) is a British television documentary miniseries produced by Thames Television and originally broadcast on ITV in 1980. Written and directed by film historians Kevin Brownlow and David Gill, it explored the establishment and development of the Hollywood studios[1] and their cultural impact during the silent film era of the 1910s and 1920s.[2] At the 1981 BAFTA TV Awards, the series won for Best Original Television Music and was nominated for Best Factual Series, Best Film Editing and Best Graphics.[3][4][5][6]

The series has seldom been released on home video formats, apparently due to the complexity of obtaining home video rights to all of the film clips used. It is available on the Internet Archive.[7]

In 1995, Brownlow and Gill produced the followup series, Cinema Europe: The Other Hollywood, which explores the rise of the silent film industry in Sweden, Germany, France and Great Britain.

  1. ^ Hollywood: The Pioneers Hardcover – March 12, 1980-Amazon Books
  2. ^ 5 Great Documentaries on Old Hollywood-Paste Magazine
  3. ^ 1981 Television Original Television Music|BAFTA Awards
  4. ^ 1981 Television Factual Series|BAFTA Awards
  5. ^ 1981 Television Craft Graphics|BAFTA Awards
  6. ^ 1981 Television Craft Film Editor|BAFTA Awards
  7. ^ Kevin Brownlow (1980), Hollywood, Thames Television, retrieved 30 September 2024