La légende d'Adams et de l'ours Benjamin

My father was a forest ranger at the Soapstone Guard Station for nearly 30 years. As a child and early teen, the Uinta Mountains, where many of Sun Productions' films and TV series were filmed, was "my childhood back-yard." With my dirt bike allowing me access to miles of travel all around the area, along with my intimate knowledge of the area and any big events occurring in or around it, I was able to watch many, many days of scenes being set-up and filmed.

Grizzly Adams with Doug Suess' huge grizzly-bear Ben, was one of my favorites. Doug and his son Clint still live in the Heber City area and have quite a stable of film-ready "wild animals" for hire. Another classic movie filmed in and around the area was Robert Redford's "Jeremiah Johnson." Still classic films... and even fonder memories.

Just watched this lovely series from start to finish on DVD & I am almost embarrassed to say it made me cry. The beautiful location shoots, gorgeous animals & simple stories with the best moral messages I have ever seen on film, all rolled into one show. Grizzly Adams made me realise that life is a gift & we should not waste it. It also made me want to sling on my backpack (again!) & run off to live a simple, fulfilling life in the mountains! However it is almost a crime that this delightful show will never grace mainstream telivision today. This is so sad. The star of the show though is clearly Ben the Grizzly bear (in real life a female Grizzly called Bozo) who's bear acting skilled paved the way for Grizzly superstar "Bart the Bear" (Bart can be seen in the opening shots as he plays the cub rescued by Adams) who graced many excellent films.

Anyway onto some critique.

Most of the stories are very simple. Perhaps too simple to keep some people engaged. However it is the messages that these stories convery to the audience that make the difference. Grizzly Adams, Ben, Mad Jack, Nakoma & Number 7 teaches us lessons on the priceless values of having decent virtues & good, solid morality as well as friendship, trust, compromise, teamwork & a love & respect for nature & animals. Ofcourse Grizzly Adams does have it's faults, but it comes pretty close to being the perfect family entertainment show. But as lovely as it is this would never be shown on mainstram tv today. & even if it were the show would be accused of "white Saviousism" as Adams saves the life of a Native American Warrior (Nakoma) whithout looking at the fact that it is Nakoma who teaches Adams the life saving lessons of living in the wild & being a real mountain man. Adams would have never made it in the wild if it was not for Nakoma! & then there is the plain simple fact this show is simply "Too Nice" to be shown today.

If everyone today lived our lives with the lessons Grizzly Adams shares of freidship, teamwork, respect & compromise, this world would be a much better place...."Maybe..."

I watched this with my mother in the tender teen years, lol. Then, once I grew up and actually learned things, it came on a cable network. My mother loved it, so I taped the episodes and sent them to her (before anything was released). My word, what a completely awful show full of stupid thinking and excruciating pap. I had t leave the room when it was on fearing the mental midget supposed "thought" would infect me. I wouldn't let any of my family watch it fearing they'd never be able to use their brains after watching this stupid crap. What a bunch a dribble. Thank God for high school and college that taught me to think- because watching this crap will actually kill brain cells. It's a shame, because as an unthinking kid, I liked the show- probably because my parents liked it. Needles to say, today I actually like things that require thought, not the pablum stupid political bent this show had. I have no idea if this show was actually popular during it's heyday, but I do know Haggerty's drug bust (speeding down the highway pitching drugs out the window) ended this horrible show.

Just recently the TV series was aired again on German TV for an... x number of times. It "realizes" everyone´s dream to just leave this hectic, violent world behind. The plots are simple, which isn´t necessarily negative. As a matter of fact, it is one of the few TV series with little to no violence. It brings back memories of one´s own youth and dreams of a perfect world in which all problems will be solved in a nice way at the end. An entertaining series with good actors, beautiful sights of nature and unforgettable Ben.

While I know that this show was no emmy-winning fare, it brings backs memories of my youth and gaining an appreciation for nature and all animals.

Somewhere in all of us, lies that Walden-esque desire to abandon the trappings of modern life and live in the wilderness among nature. While this was merely a television program, and undoubtedly fraught with errors and impossibilities (i.e. raising an orphan cub to be your "buddy"), it allowed for soles young and old to live out that Western fantasy, albeit vicarisely. I miss those days curled up with a pillow on my Grandma's floor and imersing myself in Grizzly Adam's world.