This Time Travel Miniseries Based On A Stephen King Novel Was A '90s Hit

When a red-eye flight from Los Angeles to Boston slips through a rift in the fabric of time, a handful of sleeping passengers wake up to find a world completely devoid of humanity. That's the plot of ABC's "The Langoliers," a miniseries based on Stephen King's 1990 novella of the same name, which was originally featured in his acclaimed collection "Four Past Midnight." The name of the story comes from the time-eating, razor-toothed creatures that inhabit the world the passengers find themselves in. 

The two-part TV adaptation was written and directed for the screen by Tom Holland, the man behind 1980s horror classics like "Fright Night" and "Child's Play." The ensemble cast includes Patricia Wettig as teacher Laurel Stevenson, Dean Stockwell as mystery writer Bob Jenkins, David Morse as airline pilot Brian Engle, Mark Lindsay Chapman as a British secret agent, and Bronson Pinchot as the unhinged corporate executive Craig Toomy. King himself makes a cameo appearance as Toomy's boss.

When the horror miniseries first premiered on ABC in May 1995, it was a ratings juggernaut for the network. According to the Los Angeles Times (via Internet Archive), the broadcast was the top-rated movie of that Sunday night, pulling in an estimated 17.5 million households. While those numbers no doubt make made network executives happy, the critical reception to "The Langoliers" wasn't as impressive, with even Stephen King himself left unimpressed.

On Rotten Tomatoes, "The Langoliers" holds a middling 48% critic score. Viewers were just as lukewarm on the series going by the audience score, which is a smidge lower at 46%. The Seattle Times said that the script suffered from clunky dialogue and that the direction encouraged the cast to overact, while the San Francisco Chronicle said that viewers were spending hours watching cardboard characters only to be rewarded with a payoff of cheesy special effects. Entertainment Weekly offered a somewhat more forgiving take, giving the project a "B" grade for its eerie setup before the painfully obvious CGI creatures show up.

Stephen King TV adaptations have proven to be a mixed bag throughout the years, with miniseries like 1993's "The Tommyknockers" being panned as a creative misfire, while others like 2017's "The Mist" with Morgan Spector and 2020's "The Stand" both received similar 50s-range scores on Rotten Tomatoes. King himself has never been shy when it comes to sharing his candid thoughts about how Hollywood translates his work. During an interview with Fangoria (via Talk Stephen King), the author gave his blunt opinion on "The Langoliers," telling the outlet, "I wasn't crazy about it. That was more of a TV thing. But given when it was, it was fine. The best thing about it was that it gave Tom Holland and Richard Rubinstein the bona fides they needed to get Spelling Productions to go ahead with 'Thinner.'"

For those curious to witness the toothy CGI meatball monsters firsthand, "The Langoliers" is currently available to stream for free on The Roku Channel.