About this season
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.
Episodes (26)
1. The Hunley
Aired 27 September 1963
During the Civil War, an engineer working for the Confederacy develops a primitive submarine that can evade the Union ships blockading Southern ports.
2. The Death of Sitting Bull
Aired 4 October 1963
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.
3. The Massacre at Wounded Knee
Aired 11 October 1963
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.
4. Six Wagons to the Sea
Aired 18 October 1963
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.
5. The Story of Nathan Hale
Aired 25 October 1963
American Continental soldier turns spy against the British and gives all for a concept called Democracy.
6. Go Down, Moses
Aired 1 November 1963
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.
7. The Great Diamond Mountain
Aired 8 November 1963
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.
8. The Treasure Train of Jefferson Davis
Aired 15 November 1963
The Confederate Government of Jefferson Davis makes a futile attempt to escape Richmond and capture by the Union Army.
9. The Outlaw and the Nun
Aired 6 December 1963
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.
10. The Man Who Stole New York City
Aired 13 December 1963
The rise and fall of Boss Tweed and his Tammany Hall political machine in 1860s New York City.
11. A Boy at War
Aired 20 December 1963
The future seventh president of the United States, Andrew Jackson, is a 13 year old boy soldier struggling to survive the American Revolution.
12. Wild Bill Hickok - the Legend and the Man
Aired 3 January 1964
Down on his luck and in decline, Wild Bill Hickok arrives at the end of his trail in Deadwood in 1876.
13. The Colonel from Connecticut
Aired 10 January 1964
The story of Col. Edwin Drake, the first man to drill for oil in the U.S.
14. Teeth of the Lion
Aired 17 January 1964
15. Rodger Young
Aired 24 January 1964
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.
16. The Testing of Sam Houston
Aired 31 January 1964
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.
17. The Special Courage of Captain Pratt
Aired 14 February 1964
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.
18. The Night Raiders
Aired 21 February 1964
A recounting of the events leading to John Brown's disastrous raid on Harper's Ferry in 1859.
19. Plague
Aired 28 February 1964
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.
20. The Pathfinder
Aired 6 March 1964
The meeting of two great American Legends in 1846 California - Colonel John C. Fremont and John Sutter - on the eve of war with Mexico.
21. The President Vanishes
Aired 13 March 1964
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.
22. The Henry Bergh Story
Aired 20 March 1964
A man crusades for better treatment of animals and forms the ASPCA in 1866. He later crusades for better treatment of children.
23. Kentucky's Bloody Ground
Aired 3 April 1964
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.
24. The Siege of Boonesborough
Aired 10 April 1964
This two part episode recounts the story of Daniel Boone and the 1778 Siege of Boonesborough by the Shawnee.
25. Escape
Aired 17 April 1964
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.
26. The Pirate and the Patriot
Aired 1 May 1964
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.