CNN Millennium

CNN Millennium
Genre	Documentary [1]
Inspired by	Millennium: A History of Our Last Thousand Years by Felipe Fernández-Armesto [2]
Creative director	Bernard Heyes [3]
Narrated by	Ben Kingsley
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	10
Original release
Network	CNN
Release	October 10 (1999-10-10) – December 12, 1999 (1999-12-12)

CNN Millennium or Millennium: A Thousand Years of History or MM Millenium or Millennium is a CNN Perspectives ^[2] television series or miniseries ^[1] about world history ^[4] during the 2nd millennium from the 11th to the 20th centuries. ^[5]

The Millennium series should not be confused with the CNN Millennium 2000 DVD, which documented the celebrations around the world for the arrival of the year 2000.

Sir Jeremy Isaacs, filmmaker of "The World at War" and CNN's Cold War , and Pat Mitchell, president of CNN Productions and Time Inc. Television, served as executive producers.

Ben Kingsley's role as narrator remained confined to introducing the subject matter and placing it into context. Main protagonists such as Genghis Khan tell their individual stories in their native tongues, relayed to viewers through simultaneous translation.

Bernard Heyes was in charge of graphic design and animation. Richard Blackford composed the original musical score for the series.

Production

The production of the series lasted for over two years. ^[6] Filming for the series took place in 28 countries. ^[5]

Broadcast and release

Millennium: A Thousand Years of History was first broadcast on BBC2 in the United Kingdom on Mondays between 18 October 1999 and 20 December 1999. ^[7] CNN Millennium was first broadcast on CNN in the United States between 10 October 1999 and 12 December 1999, at 10pm on Sundays.

The series Biography of the Millennium was also about the history of the 2nd Millennium, and was first broadcast on A&E in the United States on 10 October 1999. The first broadcast of the first two hour episode of Biography of the Millennium ended at 10pm, just before the start of Millennium on CNN. ^{[8] [9]}

CNN Millennium was released on VHS cassettes. ^[10] A CD of the Millennium soundtrack was available at the time of the broadcast.

CNN Interactive (now called CNN.com) created a dynamic companion website for the television series that includes animation, interactivity and 3-D effects. ^{[10] [11] [12]} A companion book by Anthony Coleman was published by Bantam Press in 1999 under the title "Millennium". ^[13]

Awards and nominations

Bernard Heyes won a News & Documentary Emmy for the title sequence. ^[14] Richard Blackford was nominated for an Emmy for the music. ^[15]

References

1. Paley Center for Media
2. "About the Series", Millennium, CNN.com
3. (1999) 19 Metropolis, Issues 3-6, p 38
4. Bahn, "CNN's Millennium Project" (2000) 53 Archaeology 80
5. Shales, Tom (October 9, 1999). "A Journey Of a Thousand Years". Washington Post. ISSN   0190-8286. Archived from the original on August 24, 2018. Retrieved August 24, 2018.
6. Chris Kaltenbach. "1,000 years of history squeeze into 10 hours". Baltimore Sun. 6 October 1999. Archive.
7. See issues of The Radio Times cited above
8. "Digesting the millennium made easy thanks to cable". Tampa Bay Times. 10 October 1999.
9. Lisa Leigh Parney. "What's On TV". The Christian Science Monitor. 8 October 1999.
10. Mike Burns. "CNN: Millennium". Heidi Roupp (ed). Teaching World History in the Twenty-first Century. ME Sharpe. 2010. Routledge. 2015. p 89
11. John E Wills Jr. "CNN Millennium". The World from 1450 to 1700. (New Oxford World History). Oxford University Press. 2009. p 164
12. Official website
13. For a scan of this book, see Google Books
14. Title Sequences, Individual Achievement in a Craft, Winners Index, 1999 National News and Documentary Emmy Awards, NATAS. Archived on 3 March 2001.
15. "Richard Blackford: we explore the composer's music", Gramophone, 11 April 2022

External links

• Paul G Bahn, "CNN's Millennium Project" in "Multimedia" (2000) 53 Archaeology 80 (No 1, January and February 2000)
• "CNN Produces a Multimedia Package for the Millennium Series" (1999) 27 THE Journal: Technological Horizons in Education 12 and 27 (1 October 1999)
• Felipe Fernandez-Armesto. "Television's Millennium". History Today. Vol 54. No 2. p 8. 1 December 1999. TheFreeLibrary.
• Mark Lawson. "Time, gentlemen, please". The Guardian. 18 October 1999.
• Clyde Haberman. "Weaving the World Together, Century by Century". New York Times. 10 October 1999. Section 13. Page 4.
• James Poniewozik. "Television: A Quick 1,000: CNN's Millennium series serves up whirled history". Time. 18 October 1999.
• John Leonard. "Millennium: Thousand Years of History". New York Magazine. 11 October 1999. Vol 32.
• Kevin Baxter. "Mummies, Yummies and the Millennium". Los Angeles Times. 19 September 1999.
• Frazier Moore (The Associated Press). "CNN's Millennium offering a Thousand Years of Happenings". Greensboro News and Record. 9 October 1999.
• Gloria Goodale. "Continent-hopping overview of 1,000 years". Christian Science Monitor. 8 October 1999.
• Chad Galts, "Translating the Millennium" (1999) Brown Alumni Magazine (November to December 1999)
• "99-014". Brown University News Service. 2 September 1999.
• "A history of the world in ten chapters". The Radio Times. Issue 3948. 16 October 1999. Page 35.
• Linda Moss. "CNN Eyes Millennium Dawn". Next TV. 4 October 1999.
• "Around the world in 600 minutes" (1999) 9 Sight and Sound, issues 7 to 12, p 30
• "Tx - Millennium - A Thousand Years of History". Broadcast. 8 October 1999.
• "A Millennium State of Mind" (1999) 21 Emmy 52
• "TV Picks: Millennium Madness" (1999) 2 Brill's Content 95
• (1999) 193 Country Life 123
• (1999) 8 BBC Music Magazine 15
• "Millennium" (2000) Globus, issues 517 to 525, p 98
• Brian Viner. "Critics' Awards 1999 - Television: Hilarious, intelligent and, of course, American". The Independent. 19 December 1999.