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Grizzly Adams
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Grizzly Adams is the main character from The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams, a 1974 film. The movie spawned a two-season NBC television series of the same name in 1977 with 39 episodes. The title character was loosely based on an actual trapper, James/John Capen "Grizzly" Adams.
Grizzly Adams (Dan Haggerty) is a woodsman who flees into the mountains after he is wrongly accused of murder.
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Encyclopedia
Grizzly Adams is the main character from The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams, a 1974 film. The movie spawned a two-season NBC television series of the same name in 1977 with 39 episodes. The title character was loosely based on an actual trapper, James/John Capen "Grizzly" Adams.
Grizzly Adams (Dan Haggerty) is a woodsman who flees into the mountains after he is wrongly accused of murder. While struggling to survive, Adams discovers an orphaned grizzly bear cub whom he takes in and calls Ben. The bear, despite his huge adult size, becomes Adams's closest companion. Adams proves to have an uncanny link to most of the indigenous wildlife of the region, who have no fear of him. In return, he resolves never to harm another animal whenever possible. In the television series, Adams had two human companions, an old trader named Mad Jack the Mountain Man (Denver Pyle, commonly featured with a mule named "Number Seven") and a native American named Nakoma (Don Shanks). Together, they helped various visitors while protecting the wildlife.
The series was concluded with a 1982 TV movie called The Capture of Grizzly Adams where a bounty hunter used Adams's daughter–-not seen or mentioned since the 1974 film-—to draw him back to civilization. In the end, Adams proved his innocence.
Production
Grizzly Adams was the creation of Sunn Classic Pictures, a company based in Park City, Utah which was operated by founder Charles E. Sellier Jr., who had written the book on which first the 1974 movie, and then the series, was based. The studio successfully made up for its lack of experience with lavish marketing and promotional budgets. The 1974 movie was a runaway success, produced on a $140,000 budget but which went on to earn $65 million at theaters. The 43% market share captured by a 1976 airing of this film on NBC caused network executives to greenlight a television series. This series drew a 32% market share, a figure which still remains very significant to this day. The enterprise also came at a time when the environmental movement flourished.
In a 1978 interview with TV Guide, Sellier said that the company used extensive market testing to produce the series, which was based on tests showing that audiences liked stories about men and animals in the wilderness; that bears were favorite wilderness animals; and that grizzlies were the favorite type of bear. The actual filming locations for the television series took place in the mountains near Ruidoso, New Mexico.
The show's theme song, “Maybe,” was written and sung by Thom Pace. The song was released as a single in Europe, where it reached number one, and won the Goldene Europa award for best song.
Episode list
| Season | Prod.# | Episode | Air date |
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| 0 | | The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams | | | 1 | 701 | "Unwelcome Neighbor" | | | 1 | 702 | "Beaver Dam" | | | 1 | 703 | "Blood Brothers" | | | 1 | 704 | "Adam's Cub" | | | 1 | 705 | "The Fugitive" | | | 1 | 706 | "Howdy-Do, I'm Mad Jack" | | | 1 | 707 | "The Tenderfoot" | | | 1 | 708 | "Home of the Hawk" | | | 1 | 709 | "Adam's Ark" | | | 1 | 710 | "The Redemption of Ben" | | | 1 | 711 | "The Unholy Beast" | | | 1 | 712 | "The Rivals" | | | 1 | 713 | "The Storm" | | | 2 | 714 | "The Trial" | | | 2 | 715 | "Survival" | | | 2 | 716 | "A Bear's Life" | | | 2 | 717 | "The Choice" | | | 2 | 718 | "Hot Air Hero" | | | 2 | 719 | "Track of the Cougar" | | | 2 | 720 | "The Search" | | | 2 | 721 | "Marvin the Magnificent" | | | 2 | 722 | "Woman in the Wilderness" | | | 2 | 723 | "The Orphans" | | | 2 | 724 | "Gold Is Where You Find It" | | | 2 | 725 | "A Time of Thirsting" | | | 2 | 726 | "The Seekers" | | | 2 | 727 | "The Spoilers" | | | 2 | 728 | "The Stranger" | | | 2 | 729 | "The Runaway" | | | 2 | 730 | "A Gentleman Tinker" | | | 2 | 731 | "The World's Greatest Bounty Hunter" | | | 2 | 732 | "The Littlest Greenhorn" | | | 2 | 733 | "The Great Burro Race" | | | 2 | 734 | "The Quest" | | | 2 | 735 | "The Skyrider" | | | 2 | 736 | "The Renewal" (two hours) | | | 737 | Once Upon a Starry Night (two hours)
Theatrically released as Legend of the Wild |
November 1981 | | | The Capture of Grizzly Adams (two hours) | |
Trivia
- EHC Wolfsburg Grizzly Adams, a professional ice hockey team in the German Deutsche Eishockey-Liga, is named after Adams.
- In the Adam Sandler movie "Happy Gilmore," the villain Shooter McGavin sarcastically responds to a challenge by stating, "Yeah, right, and Grizzly Adams had a beard." However, he is corrected by Lee Trevino, who states that "Grizzly Adams did have a beard."
- Grizzly Adams inspires Peter Griffin to grow a beard, in the Family Guy episode "Brian Wallows and Peter's Swallows."
- Chief Eugene Standingbear (1906-1980), an Oklahoma native, appeared in the 1977 Grizzly Adams episode "A Bear's Life" and again in 1980 in the CBS miniseries The Chisholms.
- In the 1980-1981 season of SCTV, Dave Thomas starred in a sketch as "Grizzly Abrams," a mountain man who discovers an injured turtle, nurses it back to health, and becomes its friend, sharing adventures. When the rubbing together of two sticks to make a fire causes an explosion, wounding Abrams, he sends the turtle to get help, but the turtle cannot run as fast as the bear in "Grizzly Adams," and it takes a while before it can reach town, summon the help of Abrams's friends Doc (Joe Flaherty), Keith (Rick Moranis), and Pepe (Tony Rosato), and get them to where Abrams is, by which time Abrams is literally a skeleton. Doc angrily states he wants turtle soup, after which the turtle puts on a burst of speed and gets away.
External links
- , a detailed site with behind the scenes photos and episode summaries.
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