The Great Adventure

It's difficult to believe this was only on for a single season. I remember them as well written drama's that humanized history and count them as a critical factor in nurturing my interest in History so much as to pursue a degree in it. Episodes like "Roger Young", "The Hunley", "The Story of Nathan Hale" and "A Boy at War" were amazing. The talent was there, the story was there, only the audience was missing. I guess folks were too busy watching the Flintstones. I would really love to see these issued on DVD or Video. Appearances by Joseph Cotton, James MacArthur, Peter Graves, Ricardo Montalban, Noah Berry, Claude Akins, Jackie Cooper, Lloyd Nolan, Earl Holliman and George Kennedy to name just a few.

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.

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.

I watched this show religiously when I was a fourth grader (1963-1964), and it profoundly affected my life! I have been a fanatical lover of History since then, and I teach US History at the University level. I hated it when the series did not continue, and I have wanted to see it again ever since then. This is not only the best History series ever made, but one of the best TV series of all time. I rank it as one of the greats.

I wish that the series was on video/DVD. I have tried to email CBS about this, with no success; it is doubtful that they even own the series. I hope that someone will get the idea to release it, and do so soon. I also hope that somebody gets the notion to do a new "Great Adventure" someday.

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?