All sorts of LOTR specials are popping up with the latest film release. I approached A&E's Journey to Middle-Earth with some scepticism. However, I was surprised by how good it was. It lacked the "typical" interviews and focused more on the actors during shooting (ie - specific scenes and backstage antics).
Did anyone else get to see this one?
I didn't get to see that unfortunately. But a few weeks ago, I saw Sean Astin on the Ellen Degeneres show. He had an interview with her. I was surprised to find out that his father played the father in the "Adams Family". His mother is Patty Duke, and he said that she was selling one of her houses, or her house (I can't remember) on ebay. Sean also appeared in "The Goonies". He was the boy with the inhaler.
Emilie
I saw it and enjoyed it. You can pick up a lot from these specials. The films plus all the attending TV specials and extra features on the extended DVD's have put the books in a new light. I'm rereading the FOTR now and plan to read them all through by April if I can.
I still think the National Geographic special was the best one. It was very objective.
I saw Elijah Wood (Frodo) on David Letterman a few weeks back before the ROK premiere. On the show he said that started reading FOTR but got busy with the film and never finished it. He only knows Peter Jackson's vision of Middle Earth, not the one that you can conjure up yourself by reading the books. What a pity! As creative as he is, he's left the most creative part of enjoying these stories up to someone else.