The Great Adventure (U.S. TV series)

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The Great Adventure

Lee Marvin Walter Koenig The Great Adventure 1963.JPG

Lee Marvin and Walter Koenig in "Six Wagons to Sea", 1963.
Genre Historical Anthology
Directed by Buzz Kulik
Philip Leacock
Joseph M. Newman
Denis Sanders
Robert Stevens (director)
Presented by Van Heflin
Theme music composer Richard Rodgers
Composer(s) Fred Steiner
Bernard Herrmann
Wilbur Hatch
Leon Klatzkin
Nathan Scott
David Buttolph
Robert Drasnin
Leigh Harline
Country of origin United States
Original language(s) English
No. of series 1
No. of episodes 26
Production
Executive producer(s) Bert Granet
Producer(s) John Houseman
Ethel Winant
Running time 44 mins.
Production company(s) CBS
Release
Original network CBS
Picture format Black-and-white
Audio format Monaural
Original release September 27, 1963 (1963-09-27) – May 1, 1964 (1964-05-01)

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.

History past events and their record

History is the study of the past as it is described in written documents. Events occurring before written record are considered prehistory. It is an umbrella term that relates to past events as well as the memory, discovery, collection, organization, presentation, and interpretation of information about these events. Scholars who write about history are called historians.

Anthology series radio or television series that presents a different story and a different set of characters in each episode

An anthology series is a radio, television or book series that presents a different story and a different set of characters in each episode or season. These usually have a different cast each week, but several series in the past, such as Four Star Playhouse, employed a permanent troupe of character actors who would appear in a different drama each week. Some anthology series, such as Studio One, began on radio and then expanded to television.

CBS is an American English language commercial broadcast television and radio network that is a flagship property of CBS Corporation. The company is headquartered at the CBS Building in New York City with major production facilities and operations in New York City and Los Angeles.

Contents

Synopsis

The series lasted for only 26 episodes, and showed, among others, stories on the Confederate submarine, the Hunley ; the life of Harriet Tubman; the Battles of Lexington and Concord; the trial and hanging of Nathan Hale; the life of "Boss" Tweed; the death of Sitting Bull; the siege of Boonesborough; the capture of Jefferson Davis; the life and death of Wild Bill Hickok; and the Battle of New Orleans.

<i>H. L. Hunley</i> (submarine) submarine

H. L. Hunley, often referred to as Hunley, was a submarine of the Confederate States of America that played a small part in the American Civil War. Hunley demonstrated the advantages and the dangers of undersea warfare. She was the first combat submarine to sink a warship, although Hunley was not completely submerged and, following her successful attack, was lost along with her crew before she could return to base. The Confederacy lost 21 crewmen in three sinkings of Hunley during her short career. She was named for her inventor, Horace Lawson Hunley, shortly after she was taken into government service under the control of the Confederate States Army at Charleston, South Carolina.

Harriet Tubman African-American abolitionist and humanitarian

Harriet Tubman was an American abolitionist and political activist. Born into slavery, Tubman escaped and subsequently made some thirteen missions to rescue approximately seventy enslaved people, family and friends, using the network of antislavery activists and safe houses known as the Underground Railroad. She later helped abolitionist John Brown recruit men for his raid on Harpers Ferry. During the American Civil War, she served as an armed scout and spy for the United States Army. In her later years, Tubman was an activist in the struggle for women's suffrage.

Battles of Lexington and Concord first military engagements of the American Revolutionary War

The Battles of Lexington and Concord were the first military engagements of the American Revolutionary War. The battles were fought on April 19, 1775 in Middlesex County, Province of Massachusetts Bay, within the towns of Lexington, Concord, Lincoln, Menotomy, and Cambridge. They marked the outbreak of armed conflict between the Kingdom of Great Britain and its thirteen colonies in America.

Notable guest stars

Among those who appeared in the series were:

Claude Akins American actor

Claude Aubrey Akins was an American character actor with a long career on stage, screen, and television. Powerful in appearance and voice, Akins could be counted on to play the clever tough guy, on the side of good or bad, in movies and television. He is remembered as Sheriff Lobo on the 1970s television series B. J. and the Bear, and later The Misadventures of Sheriff Lobo, a spin-off series.

Whit Bissell American character actor

Whitner Nutting Bissell was an American character actor.

Lloyd Bridges American film, stage and television actor

Lloyd Vernet Bridges Jr. was an American film, stage and television actor who starred in a number of television series and appeared in more than 150 feature films. He was the father of actors Beau Bridges and Jeff Bridges.

Episode list

Episode #Episode titleOriginal airdate
1-1 "The Hunley" September 27, 1963
1-2 "The Death of Sitting Bull" (part one) October 4, 1963
1-3 "The Massacre at Wounded Knee" (part two) October 11, 1963
1-4 "Six Wagons To Sea" October 18, 1963
1-5 "The Story of Nathan Hale" October 25, 1963
1-6 "Go Down, Moses" November 1, 1963
1-7 "The Great Diamond Mountain" November 8, 1963
1-8 "The Treasure Train of Jefferson Davis" November 15, 1963
1-9 "The Outlaw and the Nun" December 6, 1963
1-10 "The Man Who Stole New York City" December 13, 1963
1-11 "A Boy At War" December 20, 1963
1-12 "Wild Bill Hickok- The Legend and the Man" January 3, 1964
1-13 "The Colonel From Connecticut" January 10, 1964
1-14 "Teeth of the Lion" January 17, 1964
1-15 "Rodger Young" January 24, 1964
1-16 "The Testing of Sam Houston" February 7, 1964
1-17 "The Special Courage of Captain Pratt" February 14, 1964
1-18 "The Night Raiders" February 21, 1964
1-19 "The Plague" February 28, 1964
1-20 "The Pathfinder" March 6, 1964
1-21 "The President Vanishes" March 13, 1964
1-22 "The Henry Berch Story" March 20, 1964
1-23 "Kentucky's Bloody Ground" (part one) April 3, 1964
1-24 "The Siege of Boonesborough" (part two) April 10, 1964
1-25 "Escape" April 17, 1964
1-26 "The Pirate and the Patriot" May 1, 1964
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