Customer Review

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  gfirob

  5.0 out of 5 stars I made two of these

  Reviewed in the United States on September 8, 2010

  Verified Purchase

  I was the producer and director of two of these shows (Egypt and Mesopotamia) and I appreciate all the kind words. The reason there are so many biblical references is that this was a commercial project (Time Life/NBC) and many people are interested in the bible. This series also represents the end of an era, in that very few historical or cultural documentaries are made with budgets as large as these (close to a million dollars each). They are commercial shows, however, so they have a greater emphasis on entertainment than on ideas or complex history (which explains all the biblical references), but for that reason they were quite popular. A tremendous amount of travel was done for this series and there are (by contemporary standards) very high production values at each location. Cranes and steadicams were used to keep the camera moving in many locations, for instance and the crews were generally quite large. The executive at Time Life who originated the series left in the middle of production and the new executive, appalled at the cost, tried at first to cancel the project and then, having determined that too much money had already been spent to make that sensible, tried to slash the budgets. The project went on to win a prime-time Emmy.
  
  I encourage you to buy the series, but sadly, I won't be making any money from the sale.

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