The Great Adventure (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.

  • Poster for The Hunley

    The Hunley (Episode 1)

    Air date: 1963-09-27

    Overview: During the Civil War, an engineer working for the Confederacy develops a primitive submarine that can evade the Union ships blockading Southern ports.

  • Poster for The Death of Sitting Bull

    The Death of Sitting Bull (Episode 2)

    Air date: 1963-10-04

    Overview: 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.

  • Poster for The Massacre at Wounded Knee

    The Massacre at Wounded Knee (Episode 3)

    Air date: 1963-10-11

    Overview: 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.

  • Poster for Six Wagons to the Sea

    Six Wagons to the Sea (Episode 4)

    Air date: 1963-10-18

    Overview: 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.

  • Poster for The Story of Nathan Hale

    The Story of Nathan Hale (Episode 5)

    Air date: 1963-10-25

    Overview: American Continental soldier turns spy against the British and gives all for a concept called Democracy.

  • Poster for Go Down, Moses

    Go Down, Moses (Episode 6)

    Air date: 1963-11-01

    Overview: 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.

  • Poster for The Great Diamond Mountain

    The Great Diamond Mountain (Episode 7)

    Air date: 1963-11-08

    Overview: 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.

  • Poster for The Treasure Train of Jefferson Davis

    The Treasure Train of Jefferson Davis (Episode 8)

    Air date: 1963-11-15

    Overview: The Confederate Government of Jefferson Davis makes a futile attempt to escape Richmond and capture by the Union Army.

  • Poster for The Outlaw and the Nun

    The Outlaw and the Nun (Episode 9)

    Air date: 1963-12-06

    Overview: 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.

  • Poster for The Man Who Stole New York City

    The Man Who Stole New York City (Episode 10)

    Air date: 1963-12-13

    Overview: The rise and fall of Boss Tweed and his Tammany Hall political machine in 1860s New York City.

  • Poster for A Boy at War

    A Boy at War (Episode 11)

    Air date: 1963-12-20

    Overview: The future seventh president of the United States, Andrew Jackson, is a 13 year old boy soldier struggling to survive the American Revolution.

  • Poster for Wild Bill Hickok - the Legend and the Man

    Wild Bill Hickok - the Legend and the Man (Episode 12)

    Air date: 1964-01-03

    Overview: Down on his luck and in decline, Wild Bill Hickok arrives at the end of his trail in Deadwood in 1876.

  • Poster for The Colonel from Connecticut

    The Colonel from Connecticut (Episode 13)

    Air date: 1964-01-10

    Overview: The story of Col. Edwin Drake, the first man to drill for oil in the U.S.

  • Poster for Teeth of the Lion

    Teeth of the Lion (Episode 14)

    Air date: 1964-01-17

  • Poster for Rodger Young

    Rodger Young (Episode 15)

    Air date: 1964-01-24

    Overview: 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.

  • Poster for The Testing of Sam Houston

    The Testing of Sam Houston (Episode 16)

    Air date: 1964-01-31

    Overview: 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.

  • Poster for The Special Courage of Captain Pratt

    The Special Courage of Captain Pratt (Episode 17)

    Air date: 1964-02-14

    Overview: 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.

  • Poster for The Night Raiders

    The Night Raiders (Episode 18)

    Air date: 1964-02-21

    Overview: A recounting of the events leading to John Brown's disastrous raid on Harper's Ferry in 1859.

  • Poster for Plague

    Plague (Episode 19)

    Air date: 1964-02-28

    Overview: 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.

  • Poster for The Pathfinder

    The Pathfinder (Episode 20)

    Air date: 1964-03-06

    Overview: The meeting of two great American Legends in 1846 California - Colonel John C. Fremont and John Sutter - on the eve of war with Mexico.

  • Poster for The President Vanishes

    The President Vanishes (Episode 21)

    Air date: 1964-03-13

    Overview: 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.

  • Poster for The Henry Bergh Story

    The Henry Bergh Story (Episode 22)

    Air date: 1964-03-20

    Overview: A man crusades for better treatment of animals and forms the ASPCA in 1866. He later crusades for better treatment of children.

  • Poster for Kentucky's Bloody Ground

    Kentucky's Bloody Ground (Episode 23)

    Air date: 1964-04-03

    Overview: 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.

  • Poster for The Siege of Boonesborough

    The Siege of Boonesborough (Episode 24)

    Air date: 1964-04-10

    Overview: This two part episode recounts the story of Daniel Boone and the 1778 Siege of Boonesborough by the Shawnee.

  • Poster for Escape

    Escape (Episode 25)

    Air date: 1964-04-17

    Overview: 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.

  • Poster for The Pirate and the Patriot

    The Pirate and the Patriot (Episode 26)

    Air date: 1964-05-01

    Overview: 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.

The Great Adventure - Movie poster from The Movie Database (TMDB)