Sunn Classic Pictures no longer exists, but the Utah studio, founded by author Charles Sellier, Jr. may be most famous for films like "The Adventures of the Wilderness Family" and "The Life & Times of Grizzly Adams", the latter of which was adapted from Sellier's 1972 novel, and would later be adapted again for television.
The Life & Times of Grizzly Adams only ran for 2 seasons on NBC, starting as a midseason replacement in 1977, nearly 3 years after the movie had been released. Loosely based on real-life trapper James Capen "Grizzly" Adams, it told the story of how Adams (Dan Haggerty) had been forced to retreat into the mountains after being wrongly accused of murder. As it turns out, Sellier might've had Doctor Doolittle in mind when he created Adams, as Adams had developed a rapport with the animals of the forest.
Adams only had 2 human allies--Mad Jack (Denver Pyle, ex-The Doris Day Show), who served as the show's narrator, and Nakoma, a Native American (Don Shanks) who was to Adams what Mingo was to Daniel Boone a decade earlier, a trusted friend. Other than that, there was Ben, a grizzly bear that Adams had saved when Ben was a cub. Jack had #7, a pack mule that was his regular companion.
I should note that Thom Pace, who wrote & recorded the show's theme song, "Maybe", took it to the top of the charts----in Germany---a year after the series ended, and won the European equivalent of a Grammy. Go figure.
Here's a promo from Shout Factory for a DVD release. The intro, narrated in character by Denver Pyle, is here, but "Maybe" is not.
So why only 2 seasons? Viewer indifference, I'd guess. NBC was struggling to find a hit show other than Little House on the Prairie, but counter-programming, likely on ABC, led to an early end. The storyline was finally resolved in a 1982 TV-movie. Stunt double Gene Edwards took over the role in a 1990 movie that had no connection to the earlier works.
Rating: A.
I used to watch and liked the show. The episode "The Renewal" was shown every year at Easter on WPIX for a few years after. Part of it involved Adams teaching Nakoma's tribe's children the story of Easter and The Resurrection.
ReplyDeleteI always thought of Nakoma as like Tonto - then again, at that time I didn't know who Mingo was, and Tonto was the best comparison for me.
Denver Pyle jumped into Dukes of Hazzard soon after didn't he? Or was he working both shows at the same time?
Dukes of Hazzard debuted in February 1979, so it marks its 35th anniversary this year. Yes, that was Denver Pyle's next series. Quite the busy fella, wasn't he?
ReplyDeleteHmmmm, seems you never saw much of Daniel Boone, did you? Grizzly Adams had more in common with Boone than he did with the Lone Ranger, anyway.
No, Daniel Boone was a character for my history books, not for TV. It wasn't until the show turned up on TV Land that I even knew about it (not to mention explaining why Ed Ames was throwing tomahawks on Carson!)
ReplyDeleteOh. Ames was famous before Daniel Boone as a member of the Ames Brothers, so that alone would've gotten him on Carson.
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