The Great Adventure

This series still carries strong memories. Though only nine years old when it debuted, the storytelling always spoke to the best moments of this country. Indeed, I hear the echo of my own voice in the comments that others have left on this site.

In addition to the Confederate sub, one of my favorite tales was the struggle of the Italian immigrant to get his produce to market in California.

I noted that one of the other readers came across the theme song 'on the Internet.' Finding that instrumental has been my personal holy grail since first hearing it. Time has faded the memory of the tune, but it left a nine year old with a lump in his throat, as he watched the intro and closing credits with the rotating stars (believe they were part of the opening and/or closing credits). Anyway, if anyone has a link to the theme song, would love to see it posted.

Thanks for rekindling some great memories.

It had a theme song by Richard Rogers, and was narrated by Van Heflin. It told stories with performers of quality: Bob Cummings as "Dr. Benjamin Waterhouse" a pioneer in inoculation for smallpox fighting prejudice in Thomas Jefferson's day; Jackie Cooper as the commander of the Confederate submarine " C.S.S.Hunley" on it's fateful cruise to sink the "U.S.S. Housatonic"; Barry Sullivan as "Holland" the reporter who discovered that President Grover Cleveland (Leif Ericsson) had a secret operation for cancer; Sullivan again, taken in by prospectors John McGiver and John Fiedler, in buying the land of their great diamond field sight unseen - only to have J.D.Cannon (as Clarence King)show that everyone has been fooled by them; Lee Marvin as a California raisin grower fighting the railroads there in 1905. These episodes have not been seen in decades, and deserve to be seen again. Like PROFILES IN COURAGE it has been relegated to the obscurity bin of (ironically enough) history.

Was this show only on for one season? That amazes me because I still remember many of the episodes so vividly. I was about 10 years old when "The Great Adventure" was on television and I always wondered why my history classes in school couldn't be this engrossing. I still remember the farms on the western plains being attacked by swarms of locusts, a young Andrew Jackson being struck by a British officer's sword, the founding of the Society for the prevention fo Cruelty to Children", and the claustrophobic feeling inside the USS Monitor. Why don't they have programs like this today? Why don't they run this series again on TVLand?

After reading all the comments of this series I realize this Great Adventure show must have had an impact on the few that did watch as a child. I remember it as being very dramatic. I remember well many of the details of some of the episodes. I can see Lloyd Bridges playing Wild Bill and sitting at a table playing cards and getting shot in the back.I remember seeing the hole through his coat. In another episode, not sure which one,I remember drilling for oil and striking at the conclusion. I was in third grade and remember it being on Friday nights. My sisters and brother all watched. I couldn't remember how the theme song went but I do remember that it was powerful. I searched for a long time and findly found it on the Internet. I would like to see the series return on TV or DVD.

ATTENTION READERS: It has been mentioned several times about the theme song. I want to say I found it at www.wavethemes.net. Click on the online TV theme song catalog and look under the G's

Like "The Americans" which concentrated on the American Civil War, "The Great Adventure" was a quality show which each week presented a dramatization of a person or event in American history. Like "The Americans," "The Great Adventure" was ignored by the American public which, according to the ratings, was far and away more attracted to "Peyton Place," "My Mother the Car," "Car 54 Where Are You?" and other broadcasts which earned television the epithet of "The Vast Wasteland." Van Heflin concluded each episode of "The Great Adventure" by encouraging the American public to read history since, "Learning is the Great Adventure." Not enough of the American public heeded Mr. Heflin's advice.