# Storm of the Century
**Storm of the Century** is a 1999 American horror television miniseries written by [Stephen King](https://www.edgepedia.org/stephen-king) as an original screenplay, broadcast on ABC in three parts beginning February 14, 1999, and published the same month as a paperback screenplay by Pocket Books.[1](https://stephenking.com/works/screenplay/storm-of-the-century.html) • [2](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/storm_of_the_century/s01) Unlike most King screen projects, it was not adapted from a novel or story; the printed screenplay is the work's only literary form.[1](https://stephenking.com/works/screenplay/storm-of-the-century.html)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Format | Three-part ABC miniseries, first aired February 14, 1999; directed by Craig R. Baxley[2](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/storm_of_the_century/s01) |
| Origin | Original screenplay by Stephen King, conceived in 1996 as a "novel for television"; not based on any prior King work[3](https://nnty.fun/downloads/books/TAEL/GENERAL%20KNOWLEDGE/FICTION%20STUDIES/MODERN/The%20Films%20of%20Stephen%20King.%20From%20Carrie%20to%20Secret%20Window%20-%20Tony%20Magistrale%20%282008%29.pdf) |
| Setting | Little Tall Island, off the coast of Maine, during a blizzard with hurricane-force winds and up to five feet of snow[1](https://stephenking.com/works/screenplay/storm-of-the-century.html) |
| Principal cast | Tim Daly (Constable Mike Anderson), Colm Feore (Andre Linoge), Debrah Farentino (Molly Anderson)[4](https://www.tvinsider.com/show/storm-of-the-century/) |
| Budget | ABC committed $33 million on the basis of three first-draft scripts, which were never significantly changed[5](https://zanotowane.pl/1154/1929/) |
| Awards | Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Sound Editing (1999); Saturn Award for Best Single Genre Television Presentation (2000); International Horror Guild Award for Best Television[6](https://www.televisionacademy.com/shows/stephen-kings-storm-century) • [7](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0135659/awards) |
| Published screenplay | Paperback, Pocket Books, February 1999[1](https://stephenking.com/works/screenplay/storm-of-the-century.html) |
## Premise
The story takes place on Little Tall Island, a fictional community off the Maine coast, as a blizzard described in the promotional copy as packing hurricane-force winds and up to five feet of snow cuts the island off from the mainland.[1](https://stephenking.com/works/screenplay/storm-of-the-century.html) Just as the first flakes fall, Martha Clarendon, one of the island's oldest residents, is killed violently. The man responsible, Andre Linoge, sits calmly in her easy chair holding a cane topped with a silver wolf's head, waiting to be arrested.[1](https://stephenking.com/works/screenplay/storm-of-the-century.html)
While held prisoner, Linoge continues to cause harm. He knows the residents' secrets, drives some of them to violence against themselves and each other, and repeats a single proposition to Constable Mike Anderson and the rest of the community: "Give me what I want and I'll go away."[1](https://stephenking.com/works/screenplay/storm-of-the-century.html) • [8](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0135659/plotsummary/) What he wants is a young child to raise and teach his ways, and the child must be given by the community voluntarily.[1](https://stephenking.com/works/screenplay/storm-of-the-century.html) The story builds to a town meeting in which the islanders must choose, and the consequences of their choice haunt their lives for years afterward.[1](https://stephenking.com/works/screenplay/storm-of-the-century.html)
The Orlando Sentinel's review places the events in 1989.[2](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/storm_of_the_century/s01) Critics noted the story's resemblance to [Shirley Jackson](https://www.edgepedia.org/shirley-jackson)'s "The Lottery" in its depiction of a community sanctioning a sacrifice, and to *Village of the Damned* and *The Exorcist* in its portrait of a small town under supernatural siege.[9](https://bookbrief.io/books/storm-of-the-century-stephen-king) • [10](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/style/1999/02/14/storm-deja-boo-all-over-again/487f0c7d-37f2-481b-a3b3-f6d22b944bc4)
## Writing and production
King conceived the idea in 1996 as an "original novel for television," a way of avoiding the adaptation process he had often found uncomfortable.[3](https://nnty.fun/downloads/books/TAEL/GENERAL%20KNOWLEDGE/FICTION%20STUDIES/MODERN/The%20Films%20of%20Stephen%20King.%20From%20Carrie%20to%20Secret%20Window%20-%20Tony%20Magistrale%20%282008%29.pdf) In his own account, he wrote it exactly as he would a novel, keeping a list of characters but no other notes, working three or four hours a day on a Final Draft screenwriting program, including in hotel rooms during trips to watch Maine women's basketball away games.[5](https://zanotowane.pl/1154/1929/) A Boston Globe report said he wrote the 300-plus-page screenplay in about six weeks.[11](https://groups.google.com/g/alt.books.stephen-king/c/P0Lig-JglOE)
King knew the script would be expensive to produce: a snowstorm larger than any previously attempted on television, plus an enormous cast. He wrote it anyway, on the principle that the budget was someone else's problem.[5](https://zanotowane.pl/1154/1929/) ABC committed thirty-three million dollars to the project on the basis of three first-draft scripts, which were never significantly changed.[5](https://zanotowane.pl/1154/1929/) Craig R. Baxley directed; King and Mark Carliner served as executive producers.[2](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/storm_of_the_century/s01) King made a cameo as a "sleazy" lawyer in a television commercial visible in the background at Martha Clarendon's house.[12](https://stephenking.com/works/television/storm-of-the-century.html)
## Broadcast and reception
The miniseries aired on ABC over three nights beginning Sunday, February 14, 1999, at 9 p.m.[13](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1999-feb-12-ca-7254-story.html) Early ratings were weak: by the third night it had attracted the lowest ratings ever for a miniseries based on King's work, falling just below ABC's 1997 remake of *The Shining*.[14](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1999-feb-18-ca-9202-story.html)
Critical response was mixed. The Los Angeles Times's Howard Rosenberg found it entertaining at times but "rising barely midway up the horror scale";[13](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1999-feb-12-ca-7254-story.html) Tom Shales of The Washington Post called it derivative and overlong.[10](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/style/1999/02/14/storm-deja-boo-all-over-again/487f0c7d-37f2-481b-a3b3-f6d22b944bc4) Richard Corliss of TIME called it "a marathon of communal anxiety" and praised it as King's first original miniseries script.[2](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/storm_of_the_century/s01) Retrospective assessments have been warmer: Rotten Tomatoes records an 85% Tomatometer from 26 reviews, with a critics consensus crediting the performances and the moral dilemma, and [TV Guide](https://www.edgepedia.org/tv-guide) writes that more than any other King miniseries it "feels like a Stephen King novel."[2](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/storm_of_the_century/s01) • [15](https://www.tvguide.com/news/stephen-king-limited-tv-series-ranked/)
At the 1999 [Primetime Emmy Awards](https://www.edgepedia.org/primetime-emmy-awards) the production won Outstanding Sound Editing for a [Miniseries](https://www.edgepedia.org/miniseries), Movie or a Special, for part II, and was nominated for Outstanding Special Visual Effects for a Miniseries or a Movie, for part I.[6](https://www.televisionacademy.com/shows/stephen-kings-storm-century) It won the 2000 Saturn Award for Best Single Genre Television Presentation and the International Horror Guild Award for Best Television, with [Colm Feore](https://www.edgepedia.org/colm-feore) nominated for a Saturn as Best Genre TV Supporting Actor.[7](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0135659/awards)
## Place in King's television work
Sources differ on the work's ordinal place in King's screenwriting. The Washington Post and TIME describe it as the first time King scripted a story directly for television rather than adapting one of his novels,[10](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/style/1999/02/14/storm-deja-boo-all-over-again/487f0c7d-37f2-481b-a3b3-f6d22b944bc4) • [2](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/storm_of_the_century/s01) while the Los Angeles Times called it "only the second story he has written for TV," after *Golden Years* (1991).[13](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1999-feb-12-ca-7254-story.html) A survey of King's screen work counts his 1992 film *Sleepwalkers* as his first original screenplay not based on existing fiction, with *Storm of the Century* and *Rose Red* following as later original miniseries.[16](https://www.broadway.org.uk/sites/default/files/attachments/Stephen%20King%20-%20Kenton%20Hall%20-%20Week%208.pdf)
The Ringer places *Storm of the Century* among the original projects King "took a swing at" during the 1990s miniseries era, alongside *Golden Years*.[17](https://www.theringer.com/2020/12/17/tv/stephen-king-adaptations-tv-vs-movies-the-stand-it) The published screenplay has remained the work's only book form; readers looking for a novel find the script instead.[1](https://stephenking.com/works/screenplay/storm-of-the-century.html)
## References
1. [Storm of the Century (Screenplay), Stephen King official site](https://stephenking.com/works/screenplay/storm-of-the-century.html)
2. [Stephen King's Storm of the Century: Miniseries, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/storm_of_the_century/s01)
3. [The Films of Stephen King: From Carrie to Secret Window, Tony Magistrale (2008)](https://nnty.fun/downloads/books/TAEL/GENERAL%20KNOWLEDGE/FICTION%20STUDIES/MODERN/The%20Films%20of%20Stephen%20King.%20From%20Carrie%20to%20Secret%20Window%20-%20Tony%20Magistrale%20%282008%29.pdf)
4. [Storm of the Century - ABC Miniseries, TV Insider](https://www.tvinsider.com/show/storm-of-the-century/)
5. [Stephen King, Storm of the Century (author's afterword, transcribed)](https://zanotowane.pl/1154/1929/)
6. [Stephen King's Storm of the Century, Emmy Awards and Nominations, Television Academy](https://www.televisionacademy.com/shows/stephen-kings-storm-century)
7. [Storm of the Century (1999) - Awards, IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0135659/awards)
8. [Storm of the Century (TV Mini Series 1999) - Plot, IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0135659/plotsummary/)
9. [Storm of the Century Summary by Stephen King, BookBrief](https://bookbrief.io/books/storm-of-the-century-stephen-king)
10. ['STORM': DEJA BOO ALL OVER AGAIN, The Washington Post (Feb 13, 1999)](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/style/1999/02/14/storm-deja-boo-all-over-again/487f0c7d-37f2-481b-a3b3-f6d22b944bc4)
11. [Article from Boston Globe on "Storm of the Century", alt.books.stephen-king archive](https://groups.google.com/g/alt.books.stephen-king/c/P0Lig-JglOE)
12. [Storm of the Century (Television), Stephen King official site](https://stephenking.com/works/television/storm-of-the-century.html)
13. [Hurricane Andre Blows In for Sweeps, Los Angeles Times (Feb 12, 1999)](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1999-feb-12-ca-7254-story.html)
14. [Viewers Don't Take Shining to ABC's 'Storm', Los Angeles Times (Feb 18, 1999)](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1999-feb-18-ca-9202-story.html)
15. [Every Stephen King Limited Series, Ranked, TV Guide](https://www.tvguide.com/news/stephen-king-limited-tv-series-ranked/)
16. [Stephen King On Screen, Kenton Hall](https://www.broadway.org.uk/sites/default/files/attachments/Stephen%20King%20-%20Kenton%20Hall%20-%20Week%208.pdf)
17. [Is Stephen King Better Built for TV or the Big Screen?, The Ringer (Dec 17, 2020)](https://www.theringer.com/2020/12/17/tv/stephen-king-adaptations-tv-vs-movies-the-stand-it)
---
*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Series and fictional screen worlds › Scripted television and comedy series › Drama and prestige series (individual series) › Science fiction, horror, and supernatural*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license