I've seen quite a few of them, especially the older ones, and a few of the newer ones that interested me (Band of Brothers, Earth to the Moon, etc). Back before everyone had cable with hundreds of channels these tended to be a big deal and got big viewership, like Roots, was a huge thing, think was in 6th grade or something.

Oh yeah!

V - check
Brideshead Revisited - Check
I, Claudius - Check
Singing Detective- Check
Band of Brothers - Check
From the Earth to the Moon - Check
Shogun - Check
Thornbirds - Check
Roots - Check

Now, for the controversial part: Personally I never could get into BSG, it just never grabbed me.

edited rest of original post because I didn't understand or like what I'd written

I agree they left off a couple of shows that were excellent in my opinion. Rich Man Poor Man which I think was one of the first mini series and The Wire which to me was some of the best drama on TV although they mention The Corner by the same people.

I would say that Earth to the Moon, in addition to being great entertainment was one of the most educational and informative things I've ever seen on TV. A good DVD set to own since it's 12 hours long.

The Wire wasn't mentioned because it was a cable show and not a miniseries.

That could be Panzer but I thought The Corner was only shown on cable as well as the John Adams series.

V and Band of Brothers.

I bought "From the Earth to the Moon" and will watch it soon.

Well I've seen 12 of them, but that's not surprising seeming how many are British :P

Edge of Darkness is a surprising omission, I understand it's being re-imagined by an American team.

And can BSG count as a miniseries? I was under the impression that the key to a miniseries was that it never ran longer than a season (and usually 3-8 instalments)

Someone mentioned tearing up over an episode of Earth/Moon. One scene I remember that was very moving was the one where Frank Borman appears before congress to testify about the accident that took the lives of the three astronauts in a practice mission for Apollo 1. His testimony to a Senate panel investigating the accident was very emotional.

Another Borman contribution was the reading of Genesis during the first moon orbit in Dec. 1968.
His closing line was:
And from the crew of Apollo 8, we close with good night, good luck, a Merry Christmas, and God bless all of you—all of you on the good Earth.

– Frank Borman, live broadcast from lunar orbit (1968)

As an aside, I was doing some contract work in Las Vegas in 1970 when the news came over the TV in the Tropicana lounge that the Apollo 13 incident had happened and that the crew was in jeopardy of not making it back alive. Some of the hard core gamblers started making bets among themselves as to whether the crew would survive or not. Odds changed as the news continued to come in. I had a hard time convincing some people at home that this had happened, it was very business like.

BSG began life (well, second life) as a mini-series a year or so before the series itself started. Showed the betrayal and destruction of Caprica and the colonies, assembling the fleet and ends with the goal to find Earth.

I really need to see "I, Claudius". Derek Jacobi is a very talented actor. I thought he was great in "Gladiator".