The Great Adventure

1963

The Great Adventure

8.3 | en | Drama

The Great Adventure is a historical anthology series that appeared on CBS for the 1963-1964 television season. The series, narrated each week by Van Heflin, and featuring theme music by Richard Rodgers, presented a weekly one-hour dramatization of the lives of famous Americans and important historical events in American History.

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Seasons & Episodes

EP1 The Hunley

Sep. 27,1963

During the Civil War, an engineer working for the Confederacy develops a primitive submarine that can evade the Union ships blockading Southern ports.

EP2 The Death of Sitting Bull

Oct. 04,1963

The first of a two part episode, the US Government believes that Sitting Bull has joined the Ghost Dancers, a Sioux religious movement the government believes will lead to another Indian War, and take action that ends in a double tragedy.

EP3 The Massacre at Wounded Knee

Oct. 11,1963

The second of a two part episode. Days after Sitting Bull's death, the US Army's bungled attempt to disarm a party of Sioux results in the unnecessary deaths of over 300 men, women and children.

EP4 Six Wagons to the Sea

Oct. 18,1963

The attempt in 1894 by farmers from California's Central Valley to get their produce to market by wagon despite attempts by the Southern Pacific Railroad to foil their efforts and preserve their monopoly of transporting produce.

EP5 The Story of Nathan Hale

Oct. 25,1963

American Continental soldier turns spy against the British and gives all for a concept called Democracy.

EP6 Go Down, Moses

Nov. 01,1963

Ruby Dee plays the escaped slave Harriet Tubman and her attempts to rescue enslaved family members and friends through the pre-Civil War Underground Railroad.

EP7 The Great Diamond Mountain

Nov. 08,1963

In this humorous episode, two con men perpetrate the Diamond Hoax of 1872 in an attempt to swindle San Francisco banker William Ralston, played by Barry Sullivan.

EP8 The Treasure Train of Jefferson Davis

Nov. 15,1963

The Confederate Government of Jefferson Davis makes a futile attempt to escape Richmond and capture by the Union Army.

EP9 The Outlaw and the Nun

Dec. 06,1963

A nun comes to a town to teach school and finds that education is so undervalued by the community that she has only two pupils. She sets out to change that.

EP10 The Man Who Stole New York City

Dec. 13,1963

The rise and fall of Boss Tweed and his Tammany Hall political machine in 1860s New York City.

EP11 A Boy at War

Dec. 20,1963

The future seventh president of the United States, Andrew Jackson, is a 13 year old boy soldier struggling to survive the American Revolution.

EP12 Wild Bill Hickok - the Legend and the Man

Jan. 03,1964

Down on his luck and in decline, Wild Bill Hickok arrives at the end of his trail in Deadwood in 1876.

EP13 The Colonel from Connecticut

Jan. 10,1964

The story of Col. Edwin Drake, the first man to drill for oil in the U.S.

EP14 Teeth of the Lion

Jan. 17,1964

We don't have an overview of this episode, please check back later.

EP15 Rodger Young

Jan. 24,1964

James MacArthur plays Rodger Young. The story of a young man that enlists in the Army despite having poor eyesight and hearing and ends up earning the Medal of Honor for his deeds fighting the Japanese during WWII.

EP16 The Testing of Sam Houston

Jan. 31,1964

In 1817, Andrew Jackson appoints a young Sam Houston to oversee the forced relocation of the Cherokee from Tennessee. He soon clashes with both Jackson and the US Government over his fair and humane treatment of the Cherokee.

EP17 The Special Courage of Captain Pratt

Feb. 14,1964

Richard Pratt's now controversial efforts to assimilate Native Americans into "white" society by education and rejection of tribal traditions. He advocated for Native Americans and founded the Carlisle Indian Industrial School.

EP18 The Night Raiders

Feb. 21,1964

A recounting of the events leading to John Brown's disastrous raid on Harper's Ferry in 1859.

EP19 Plague

Feb. 28,1964

Dr. Benjamin Waterhouse attempts to convince the US Government and the public of the value of vaccinations against small pox. One of his first patients - the President of the United States Thomas Jefferson.

EP20 The Pathfinder

Mar. 06,1964

The meeting of two great American Legends in 1846 California - Colonel John C. Fremont and John Sutter - on the eve of war with Mexico.

EP21 The President Vanishes

Mar. 13,1964

In 1893 President Grover Cleveland embarks on a mysterious voyage into Long Island Sound aboard a friend's yacht pursued by a suspicious reporter. It was twenty four years later that it was revealed that he had surgery to remove a tumor.

EP22 The Henry Bergh Story

Mar. 20,1964

A man crusades for better treatment of animals and forms the ASPCA in 1866. He later crusades for better treatment of children.

EP23 Kentucky's Bloody Ground

Apr. 03,1964

The first of a two part episode recalling Daniel Boone's attempt to settle Kentucky and the events leading to the siege of Boonesborough by the Shawnee in 1778.

EP24 The Siege of Boonesborough

Apr. 10,1964

This two part episode recounts the story of Daniel Boone and the 1778 Siege of Boonesborough by the Shawnee.

EP25 Escape

Apr. 17,1964

The true Civil War story of an escape by Union POWs from the Confederate Libby Prison in 1864. The POWs tunneled under the walls and into an adjoining building which gave them access to the street. While some were recaptured, a few got away, including Colonel Streight [Michael Constantine] who had organized the escape.

EP26 The Pirate and the Patriot

May. 01,1964

Thirty four years later, General Andrew Jackson, commanding the US Army defending New Orleans, is about to get revenge for his treatment by the British during the American Revolution with a little help from a local buccaneer.

8.3 | en | Drama | More Info

Released: 1963-09-27 | Released Producted By: , Country: United States of America Budget: 0 Revenue: 0 Official Website:

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Genre

Drama

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Cast

Director

Bert Granet

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Crew

Bert Granet

Producer

John Houseman

Producer

The Great Adventure Audience Reviews

Sexylocher Masterful Movie

Kaydan Christian A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

Michelle Ridley The movie is wonderful and true, an act of love in all its contradictions and complexity

Scotty Burke It is interesting even when nothing much happens, which is for most of its 3-hour running time. Read full review