Guide Note

John Adams is a seven part television mini-series that originally aired on the HBO premium cable network. The program is based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning book of the same name by author David McCullough that follows Adams' life through the first fifty years of American history.

Fast Facts

1. Network: HBO
2. First aired: March 16, 2008 - April 27, 2008
3. Locations: Budapest, Hungary
4. Many costumes borrowed from old BBC productions
5. Tag: "He united the states of America"

• Paul Giamatti as John Adams
• Laura Linney as Abigail Adams
• David Morse as George Washington
• Clancy O'Connor as Edward Rutledge
• Sarah Polley as Abigail Nabby Adams
• Rufus Sewell as Alexander Hamilton

"But it's the casting of Giamatti as Adams that says it all. Giamatti is an almost defiantly ordinary-looking man, and that's a crucial detail as far as author David McCullough is concerned. In his book, the caption underneath ... paintings of a puffily wigged Adams and his wife reads, 'Her decided nature is clearly evident, while he might be almost any untested, well-fed young man of the time.' I believe what he means to express is that Adams looks like a fat frat boy with a squirrel glued to his head."—Salon.com¹

"The producers of John Adams say that they set out to show history as we have not seen it before, and in a way that will shape forever our imagined memories of America's early years. There are a few missteps: I would rather not have seen John Adams in bed atop his wife, for instance, and there are some goofy accents. But this is nothing. Having watched ... we will indeed have connected with the past in a new way. It is not an exaggeration to say that the effect is of opening a treasure chest and being showered with its riches."—The Wall Street Journal²