LotR as a Series

OK, this idea may have been thought of before and some may think it to be ridiculous, but i personally think it to be the best way to portray the Lord of the Rings trilogy as close to Tolkien's story as possible. The idea has been suggested by Ian McKellen for The Hobbit - a miniseries on television so that all the pieces of the story could be included. This would be a much larger undertaking for the Lord of the Rings, but if done right, i think it would have pleased tolkien fans much more than the current trilogy from Peter Jackson and co. Don't get me wrong, i love jackson's trilogy and it will forever be among the greatest achievements in film. <BR>I know this is farfetched but i have given this a lot of thought and i think it would work.<P>-it could be a 3 year tv series (fellowship, towers, and rotk - 1 each yr), maybe on HBO or something<BR>-length would not matter like it does for the movies<BR>-everything that tolkien fans missed from the movies could be added in with norestrictions for pacing<BR>-each episode could have its own 'adventure' if u will, (ie. Tom Bombadil/barrow downs, weathertop/flight to the fords, etc), while still being one large story<BR>-amount of characters would not matter as much - more time to explain all of them (dunedain, Imrahil, Glorfindel, Bombadil, and all the others left out of the films would be able to be in it)<BR>- the first episode could be a 1 hr prologue w/ things like the last alliance, gladden fields and a more in depth history of the ring<BR>- the scouring of the shire could easily be in<P>i have more ideas, but i just wanted to see what you guys thought of it. I only hope that if LotR is ever remade in the future, that it will be done this way with as good of a director and crew as Jackson's trilogy had, but more devoted to Tolkien's exact words.