NF Who thinks a Dan Sickles Mini-Series would be awesome?

Non-Fiction
And we can have "Lt. Dan," a young member of Sickles' staff, who is used for comic relief and tries to talk him out of doing crazy things...but is actually only a figment of his imagination and manifestation of Dan Sickles' conscience. He looks like a young version of General Sickles and doesn't interact with any of the other characters.

Basically what Buster Killrain was originally supposed to be to Colonel Chamberlain in Gettysburg. Only perhaps more comical, and crazy, since this IS Sickles after all...

It's funny that you think that Dan Sickles had a conscience. :biggrin:

In all seriousness, he was an only child, spoiled and indulged by a relatively wealthy couple whose emotions lay very close to the surface (calling him emotional is not inaccurate). All of that can definitely be played for drama, especially since his life was full of drama anyways.

Ryan
 
@BronxYankee I've only seen Daniels in Gettysburg and God's and Generals so my opinion may be colored by his character in those movies. He just doesn't seem the type to play a somewhat shady politician character. Just to show how out of touch I am with current movies, I don't even know who Billy Bob Thornton is!

I will try to check into Billy Bob and see what I think of him. Thanks!

John
 
@BronxYankee I've only seen Daniels in Gettysburg and God's and Generals so my opinion may be colored by his character in those movies. He just doesn't seem the type to play a somewhat shady politician character. Just to show how out of touch I am with current movies, I don't even know who Billy Bob Thornton is!

I will try to check into Billy Bob and see what I think of him. Thanks!

John
Lol. That’s fine. Billy Bob Thornton has been around for a while and a fine actor. He’d be perfect for a shady character😄👍
 
Love him or hate him, his is a truly fascinating story. I think my first real exposure to it in any depth was reading an article in an old True magazine from the 1950s. (I wish now that I had kept the old, dusty magazine.)
It really is a story a fiction writer just couldn't make up!
 
In my opinion...the man who got away with murder a scoundrel a thief a Liar and an insubordinate officer can anyone add anything ?


Narcissist. I realize we get in trouble for throwing diagnostic terms around but really, holy heck he'd be a the gold star standard. Ok and snake in the grass.

Drat it, there's an old school actor who'd have made a terrific Sickles and I can't think of his name. I'm terrible with new actors unless they've been in Star Wars. :D
 
In my opinion...the man who got away with murder a scoundrel a thief a Liar and an insubordinate officer can anyone add anything ?

Narcissist. I realize we get in trouble for throwing diagnostic terms around but really, holy heck he'd be a the gold star standard. Ok and snake in the grass.

The man out snaked Jay Gould. That alone speaks volumes of him being a snake in the grass.
 
Love him or hate him, his is a truly fascinating story. I think my first real exposure to it in any depth was reading an article in an old True magazine from the 1950s. (I wish now that I had kept the old, dusty magazine.)
It really is a story a fiction writer just couldn't make up!

His life is indeed one a fiction writer couldn't dream up. Add too perhaps, but not create. Him presenting a "lady of the night" to Queen Victoria under the name of one of his enemies, his affair with the deposed Queen of Spain, crowbarring Jay Gould, and him making himself something of a war hero with his record.

You literally can't make that stuff up! Be honest I'm surprised he ain't had a movie made of him already.
 
In the spirit of a thread awhile back that took off with a great discussion (https://civilwartalk.com/threads/who-thinks-a-forrest-mini-series-would-be-awesome.166307/) I've had a thought...

Wouldn't the life of Dan Sickles make a very great mini-series?

Came from nothing, opened a law practiced before he passed the bar, had a penchant for "soiled doves" (even after he got married), rose through Tammany Hall and NY Democrat politics like a rocket only to fall even faster after killing his wife's lover which had the first temporary insanity plea, (Edwin Stanton was his lawyer), recruited a brigade from scratch and fought to get his General's star, and on and on.

His famous stand ( I say screw up) at Gettysburg doesn't even begin to scratch the surface of the nutcase's life. I think a mini-series of the "Yankee King of Spain's" life would be an entertaining watch. Sure it'd be a picture into the worst of America at the time (Can we really say he was great guy? I mean come on...) but I reckon it'd make for a good watch.

What do y'all think?
It sure sounds like it would be entertaining
 
I still think that Dan and Jubal should have opened a law office together after the War. There would have been more than enough drama coming out of that to fuel any number of real-life mini-series 150-years-later.
 
The Excelsior Brigade monument at Gettysburg was supposed to have included a bust of him , but Sickles embezzled $28,000 from the monument fund . I think it might be very hard to do a successful mini-series on such an unsympathetic character .
Do you remember Dallas and JR???
 
Do you remember Dallas and JR???


Yes, but some genius gave us Major Nelson as JR, we knew he wasn't real. The Man From Atlantis won once in awhile too.

Sickles was such a despicable, plain, old rotten to the core, black hearted excuse for a human being, you'd know next week's episode would be even more depressing than the one you just watched. The only ' good ' thing about a series like this would be how writers would feel no need to make anything up.
 
Sickles led a life that is the stuff of a just such a mini-series. Problem however, is that most people have probably never heard of Dan Sickles and while they would be interested in the story of his murder trial, his CW career would probably not provoke much interest (except of course to CW buffs like those on this forum!)
 
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