# Mario Puzo's The Godfather: The Complete Novel for Television (1977)

> A chronological seven-hour television edit of The Godfather films that traces the Corleone crime family from Vito's Sicilian youth to Michael's rule over organized crime.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/36404

## Facts

- Seasons: 1
- Episodes: 4
- Episode runtime: 423 min
- Status: Ended
- Genres: crime, drama
- Created by: Francis Ford Coppola
- Network: NBC
- Cast: Al Pacino, Marlon Brando, Robert De Niro, Robert Duvall, James Caan, John Cazale, Diane Keaton, Talia Shire
- TMDB rating: 9.5/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0809488/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: measured
- Intensity: strong
- Complexity: dense
- Violence: moderate
- Tone: brooding, operatic, tense, melancholic

## What critics say

Viewers broadly acclaim this seven-hour chronological recut of The Godfather films as a dense, emotionally powerful family epic with a commanding cast.

## Synopsis

The Godfather: The Complete Novel for Television (1977) is an American crime drama miniseries created by Francis Ford Coppola for NBC. Adapting Mario Puzo's novel into a single continuous seven-hour edit, it recasts the two Godfather films in chronological order, with restored scenes added for the television run. Marlon Brando plays patriarch Don Vito Corleone, and Robert De Niro plays his younger self in the Sicilian and early New York flashbacks. Al Pacino stars as Michael Corleone, the reluctant son who slowly takes over the family business. Robert Duvall plays the family counselor Tom Hagen, and James Caan plays the volatile Sonny. The engine of the story is a family's struggle to protect its power, with rival gangs, betrayals, and police corruption pushing every decision toward violence. Set in 1950s America and in Sicily, it moves through the Corleone family's rise across four long episodes. Its tone is operatic and heavy, dense with dread, ambition, and grief. Fans of The Godfather, The Sopranos, and Boardwalk Empire will find resonance in its mafia saga and its portrait of a family consumed by its own empire.

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