For five consecutive nights in September 1980, NBC’s Shōgun captivated audiences, drawing between 23M-29M viewers each night. The miniseries starring Richard Chamberlain, Toshiro Mifune and Yoko Shimada, was also a critical success, earning 14 Emmy nominations, including Outstanding Limited Series.
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Taking on a TV classic is always risky but FX’s adaptation of James Clavell’s novel delivered, becoming FX’s most-watched show ever based on global hours streamed. And this morning, it topped its predecessor with 25 Emmy nominations — the most of any program this year — including Outstanding Drama Series.
The remake, whose haul helped FX net a record 93 Emmy nominations and Disney an all-time high 183 noms, accomplished that in a very competitive field of dozens of linear networks and streamers producing hundreds of original series a year. In 1980, there were three networks, ABC, CBS and NBC.
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FX’s most ambitions (and expensive) production to date, which took six years to come to the screen as it changed writers and locations, the new Shōgun , headlined by Hiroyuki Sanada, Cosmo Jarvis and Anna Sawai, also started off as a limited series. Following its breakout success, the network announced plans for two more seasons , moving the original installment to drama series in the Emmy race.
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While in different fields, limited series and drama series, the original NBC series and the FX remake share nominations for some of the same roles — as well as in the same crafts categories.
Sanada, nominated today as Lead Actor for his role as the imposing Lord Yoshii Toranaga, follows in the footsteps of Mifune, who also was nominated.
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Sawai is nominated as Lead Actress for playing the tragic Mariko as was Yoko Shimada from the original.
Néstor Carbonell is nominated in the Guest Star field for playing the opportunistic Vasco Rodrigues, just like John Rhys-Davies was for portraying the character in the original.
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Other acting nominees for the FX series include Tadanobu Asano as Kashigi Yabushige and Takehiro Hira as Ishido Kazunari, both in the Supporting Actor category.
The original Shōgun went on to win three Emmys, for Outstanding Limited Series, Costume Design For a Series and Graphic Design and Title Sequences.
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Receiving the Oustanding Limited Series Emmy for the NBC version were executive producers James Clavell and Eric Bercovici who died in 1994 and 2014, respectively.
If FX’s followup wins Oustanding Drama Series, its recipients will include Clavell’s daughter, Michaela Clavell, who serves as an executive producer.
In a forward to their Episode 1 script “Anjin” for Deadline’s It Starts On the Page series, Shōgun writers/executive producers Rachel Kondo & Justin Marks — nominated today for that script — explained why they took on Clavell’s classic.
“This story needs to be told again, today more than ever. Because it’s about how we encounter another culture, and how we encounter ourselves when faced with what we can’t understand,” they said. “It’s a story about the fallacy of translation… how we can never fully reconcile the tragic gaps in language and culture, though we dare not stop trying.”
Their interpretation has received enthusiastic thumbs-up by many, including Game Of Thrones author George R.R. Martin who admitted that he didn’t feel the need to have a new Shōgun adaptation after the “landmark” 1980s miniseries.
“I am glad they did, though. The new Shōgun is superb,” he said.
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