NBC’s Gulliver’s Travels, starring Ted Danson, became a major television event when it premiered three decades ago, eventually earning strong recognition from Emmy voters.
The miniseries was produced by Duncan Kenworthy, best known for Four Weddings and a Funeral. Kenworthy had wanted for years to adapt Jonathan Swift’s 1726 novel in a more complete way than previous screen versions. Rather than focusing only on Gulliver’s famous encounters with the tiny people of Lilliput and the giants of Brobdingnag, he wanted to include all four journeys from the book, including the stranger, less frequently adapted sections involving Laputa and the horse-like Houyhnhnms.
To realize the story’s unusual creatures and worlds, the production worked with Jim Henson’s Creature Shop. Kenworthy later said the project had been in development while Jim Henson was still alive, before his death in 1990, and that Henson was interested in adapting the full scope of Swift’s book because it had rarely, if ever, been attempted that way.
The project eventually secured funding, with Danson taking on the lead role after the end of his Emmy-winning run on Cheers. For the part, Danson wore a long wig, though the producers decided not to have him use an English accent, despite Gulliver being English in the original novel. Kenworthy said Danson was chosen because Gulliver needed to feel like an ordinary man caught in extraordinary circumstances.
The cast also featured several major names, including Omar Sharif, Peter O’Toole, Alfre Woodard, Kristin Scott Thomas and Mary Steenburgen, who married Danson soon after production ended.
NBC aired Gulliver’s Travels over two nights, on Feb. 4 and Feb. 5, 1997. The broadcast became the network’s most-watched TV movie in almost ten years. It later received 11 Emmy nominations and won five awards, including outstanding miniseries.
Danson has said he understood the sadness and difficulty at the heart of Gulliver’s journey, emphasizing that the story is far darker than a simple fantasy adventure.
