Source: Observer-Reporter
Well, the miniseries "John Adams" has gotten under way on HBO and, from all indications, it won't be branded a flop. The saga of our second president has received mostly solid reviews and its premier episode drew 2.7 million viewers, numbers that make it "moderately successful," according to the journal Advertising Age.

So if "John Adams" is successful enough for the TV powers that be, we could be in for copycat series, sequels and spin-offs. And when you consider that television has 42 other presidents to work with, there's plenty of grist for the dramatic mill.

And, for the sake of argument, let's take George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Franklin Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy off the table. Their lives and careers have been hashed over and dramatized repeatedly. And while we're at it, let's put aside Theodore Roosevelt, since Martin Scorsese is developing a biopic about him. The same goes for Harry Truman, since he's already been the subject of a miniseries and the one-man show "Give 'Em Hell, Harry," along with Richard Nixon, our very own Richard III.

That still leaves us with 35 presidents. If you only did one miniseries per year starting this year (including "John Adams"), you would finish in 2044. And, by then, we would already have at least four additional presidents to work with, and that would be in the unlikely event that all of the presidents between now and then serve two full terms.

Most obviously, "John Adams" has built-in sequel possibilities thanks to the fact that Adams' son, John Quincy Adams, also became president. He became the nation's chief executive in 1824, even though his opponent, Tennessee's Andrew Jackson, won the popular vote. Let's see ... son of a president, losing the popular vote to someone from Tennessee but becoming president anyway. Man, that's something you could never imagine happening again!

But there are plenty of other nearly-forgotten presidents who could provide provocative grist for a mini-series or two.

Pennsylvania's own James Buchanan was the only bachelor president America has had so far. He also usually lands near the top of the "worst president" lists thanks to his inaction in the build-up to the Civil War. But what could make a Buchanan miniseries particularly juicy is the long-standing speculation that Buchanan had a homosexual relationship with William Rufus King, Franklin Pierce's vice president. Take some debates over Dred Scott, add in a little bit of "Brokeback Mountain"-style forbidden love, and a Buchanan miniseries could be a hit for Logo, the gay and lesbian television network. [More about that in this Qblog post]

And, when you consider the number of programs and infomercials dedicated to weight loss in the outer reaches of the cable spectrum, a miniseries dedicated to the extra-hefty chief executive William Howard Taft would have some contemporary relevance. It is, of course, a pity that Marlon Brando is no longer here to play Taft, but surely some other portly actor can be pulled out of summer stock somewhere and dramatize the struggles of the 1912 Republican Party split and getting in and out of the White House bathtub.

Full article: 'Adams' success could lead to more presidential profiles | O-R Online