La grande avventura

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.

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.

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?

I too enjoyed the Great Adventure series. I can still remember small parts of them after 40 years.

My favorite show was the one about the CSS Hunley. This show inspired me to read more about the various Civil War battles that took place on water.

I also enjoyed the show about Jean LaFitte's contribution to the War of 1812.

I do recall that one of the originals was re-released after the series had ended. It was about Harriet Tubman. It would be good to see the whole series released in a DVD collection, but I have gotten nowhere with this request.

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.