John Gay

Around the World in 80 Days

3 Episode s . Around the World in 80 Days is a 1989 three-part television Eastmancolor miniseries originally broadcast on NBC. The production garnered three nominations for Emmy awards that year. The teleplay by John Gay is based on the Jules Verne novel of the same title. Starring Pierce Brosnan as Phileas Fogg, Eric Idle as Passepartout, Julia Nickson as Princess Aouda, and Peter Ustinov as Detective Fix, the miniseries featured multiple cameo appearances, including Patrick Macnee, Simon Ward, and Christopher Lee as members of the Reform Club, and Robert Morley, who had a cameo in the 1956 film adaptation, and Roddy McDowall appear as officials of the Bank of England. Other familiar faces, credited as guest stars and in more substantial roles, include John Hillerman, Jack Klugman, Darren McGavin, Henry Gibson and John Mills. The heroes travel a slightly different route than in the book, and the script makes several contemporary celebrities part of the story who were not mentioned in the book, such as Sarah Bernhardt, Louis Pasteur, Jesse James, Cornelius Vanderbilt and Queen Victoria.