Kent Smith
The Great Adventure (1963)
Season 1
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.
Released Sept. 27, 1963
Episode 44 min
None+
Genres: Drama
Keywords: tmdb.anthology, imdb.anthology
Network: CBS
Country: United States
Languages:
English
S1E1 - The Hunley
During the Civil War, an engineer working for the Confederacy develops a primitive submarine that can evade the Union ships blockading Southern ports.
Sept. 27, 1963, midnight
S1E2 - The Death of Sitting Bull
The first of a two part episode, the US Government believes that Sitting Bull has joined the Ghost Dancers, a Sioux religious movement the government believes will lead to another Indian War, and take action that ends in a double tragedy.
Oct. 4, 1963, midnight
S1E3 - The Massacre at Wounded Knee
The second of a two part episode. Days after Sitting Bull's death, the US Army's bungled attempt to disarm a party of Sioux results in the unnecessary deaths of over 300 men, women and children.
Oct. 11, 1963, midnight
S1E4 - Six Wagons to the Sea
The attempt in 1894 by farmers from California's Central Valley to get their produce to market by wagon despite attempts by the Southern Pacific Railroad to foil their efforts and preserve their monopoly of transporting produce.
Oct. 18, 1963, midnight
S1E5 - The Story of Nathan Hale
American Continental soldier turns spy against the British and gives all for a concept called Democracy.
Oct. 25, 1963, midnight
S1E6 - Go Down, Moses
Ruby Dee plays the escaped slave Harriet Tubman and her attempts to rescue enslaved family members and friends through the pre-Civil War Underground Railroad.
Nov. 1, 1963, midnight
S1E7 - The Great Diamond Mountain
In this humorous episode, two con men perpetrate the Diamond Hoax of 1872 in an attempt to swindle San Francisco banker William Ralston, played by Barry Sullivan.
Nov. 8, 1963, midnight
S1E8 - The Treasure Train of Jefferson Davis
The Confederate Government of Jefferson Davis makes a futile attempt to escape Richmond and capture by the Union Army.
Nov. 15, 1963, midnight
S1E9 - The Outlaw and the Nun
A nun comes to a town to teach school and finds that education is so undervalued by the community that she has only two pupils. She sets out to change that.
Dec. 6, 1963, midnight
S1E10 - The Man Who Stole New York City
The rise and fall of Boss Tweed and his Tammany Hall political machine in 1860s New York City.
Dec. 13, 1963, midnight
S1E11 - A Boy at War
The future seventh president of the United States, Andrew Jackson, is a 13 year old boy soldier struggling to survive the American Revolution.
Dec. 20, 1963, midnight
S1E12 - Wild Bill Hickok - the Legend and the Man
Down on his luck and in decline, Wild Bill Hickok arrives at the end of his trail in Deadwood in 1876.
Jan. 3, 1964, midnight
S1E13 - The Colonel from Connecticut
The story of Col. Edwin Drake, the first man to drill for oil in the U.S.
Jan. 10, 1964, midnight
S1E14 - Teeth of the Lion
Jan. 17, 1964, midnight
S1E15 - Rodger Young
James MacArthur plays Rodger Young. The story of a young man that enlists in the Army despite having poor eyesight and hearing and ends up earning the Medal of Honor for his deeds fighting the Japanese during WWII.
Jan. 24, 1964, midnight
S1E16 - The Testing of Sam Houston
In 1817, Andrew Jackson appoints a young Sam Houston to oversee the forced relocation of the Cherokee from Tennessee. He soon clashes with both Jackson and the US Government over his fair and humane treatment of the Cherokee.
Jan. 31, 1964, midnight
S1E17 - The Special Courage of Captain Pratt
Richard Pratt's now controversial efforts to assimilate Native Americans into "white" society by education and rejection of tribal traditions. He advocated for Native Americans and founded the Carlisle Indian Industrial School.
Feb. 14, 1964, midnight
S1E18 - The Night Raiders
A recounting of the events leading to John Brown's disastrous raid on Harper's Ferry in 1859.
Feb. 21, 1964, midnight
S1E19 - Plague
Dr. Benjamin Waterhouse attempts to convince the US Government and the public of the value of vaccinations against small pox. One of his first patients - the President of the United States Thomas Jefferson.
Feb. 28, 1964, midnight
S1E20 - The Pathfinder
The meeting of two great American Legends in 1846 California - Colonel John C. Fremont and John Sutter - on the eve of war with Mexico.
March 6, 1964, midnight
S1E21 - The President Vanishes
In 1893 President Grover Cleveland embarks on a mysterious voyage into Long Island Sound aboard a friend's yacht pursued by a suspicious reporter. It was twenty four years later that it was revealed that he had surgery to remove a tumor.
March 13, 1964, midnight
S1E22 - The Henry Bergh Story
A man crusades for better treatment of animals and forms the ASPCA in 1866. He later crusades for better treatment of children.
March 20, 1964, midnight
S1E23 - Kentucky's Bloody Ground
The first of a two part episode recalling Daniel Boone's attempt to settle Kentucky and the events leading to the siege of Boonesborough by the Shawnee in 1778.
April 3, 1964, midnight
S1E24 - The Siege of Boonesborough
This two part episode recounts the story of Daniel Boone and the 1778 Siege of Boonesborough by the Shawnee.
April 10, 1964, midnight
S1E25 - Escape
The true Civil War story of an escape by Union POWs from the Confederate Libby Prison in 1864. The POWs tunneled under the walls and into an adjoining building which gave them access to the street. While some were recaptured, a few got away, including Colonel Streight [Michael Constantine] who had organized the escape.
April 17, 1964, midnight
S1E26 - The Pirate and the Patriot
Thirty four years later, General Andrew Jackson, commanding the US Army defending New Orleans, is about to get revenge for his treatment by the British during the American Revolution with a little help from a local buccaneer.
May 1, 1964, midnight
Network: CBS
Episode Runtime: 44 min.
Season Runtime: 44 min.
Released: Sept. 27, 1963
Last Air Date: May 1, 1964, midnight
Status: Ended
Certification: NR
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