Victory at Sea (1952) 5

Victory at Sea is probably the very first television miniseries and established historic documentaries and miniseries as a viable television genre.

Victory at Sea relates the history of naval warfare in every Theatre of Operations during the Second World War, from 1939 and the Battle of the Atlantic, to Japan's eventual surrender on the USS Missori in 1945. Produced with the assistance of the United States Navy, the producers scoured the archives of the world and edited the program from an amazing 60 milion feet of combat film. Victory at Sea first aired in 1952 in 26 half-hour segments and NBC thought the subject matter so important that the entire miniseries was shown without any commercial breaks.

Although presented more as an artistic endeavour than a documentary, the series is very fair and extremely accurate in telling the stories of the action and the men fighting the war. Even in black and white, this is a riveting series. The award winning 13 hour score for Victory at Sea was written by Robert Russell Bennett and is based on twelve themes written by Richard Rodgers, some as short as just two minutes. The stirring Victory at Sea music has never been out of print and is now available in remastered digital form.

For many years a staple of PBS television, Victory at Sea is now available to the public on DVD. This miniseries gets a well deserved 5/5 rating.