1990: Australia's 'Bangkok Hilton' Debuts in US
On this day in 1990, TBS debuted Part 1 of the celebrated Australian miniseries, Bangkok Hilton. The recipient of Australia's version of the Emmy (and the country's highest-rated miniseries of 1989), Bangkok Hilton told the story of a young Australian woman who travels to Thailand to find the father she's never known and ends up in a Bangkok prison, wrongfully accused of smuggling heroin.
Bangkok Hilton was praised by U.S. critics for all aspects of its production, particularly the stellar performance of its lead actress, a then-little-known Nicole Kidman. At the time the miniseries ran on cable's TBS, the actress had appeared in mostly Australian productions, and was garnering press for her romance with Tom Cruise, her co-star in the 1990 summer release, Days of Thunder.
TBS presented the six-hour miniseries in two, three-hour parts.