Grizzly Adams
Encyclopedia
The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams is a 1972 novel by Charles E. Sellier Jr., a 1974 film
based on the novel, a two-season NBC
television series, and a 1982 TV movie. The title character, played by Dan Haggerty
, is loosely based on the actual trapper James "Grizzly" Adams.
Grizzly Adams (Haggerty) is a woodsman
during the frontier era 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.
In addition to Ben, there were many other named animals in the series, the most prominent being Number 7, Mad Jack's ornery mule
.
Gene Edwards—a stunt double for Dan Haggerty—later played Grizzly Adams in the otherwise unrelated 1990 film The Legend of a Grizzly Adams.
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 Germany's Goldene Europa
award for best song.
Television and film references to Haggerty's portrayal of Adams include SCTV
(1980–1981 season), Clerks
(1994 film), Happy Gilmore
(1996 film), the "Brian Wallows and Peter's Swallows
" episode of Family Guy
(2002), and What Just Happened?
(2008 film).
"Grizzly Adams" is also the name of a Mr. Bungle
song from album The Raging Wrath of the Easter Bunny, and a professional German ice hockey team
.
1974 in film
The year 1974 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*February 7 - Blazing Saddles is released in the USA.*August 7 - Peter Wolf, lead singer of The J...
based on the novel, a two-season NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
television series, and a 1982 TV movie. The title character, played by Dan Haggerty
Dan Haggerty
Dan Haggerty is an American actor, best known for the title role in The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams....
, is loosely based on the actual trapper James "Grizzly" Adams.
Grizzly Adams (Haggerty) is a woodsman
Woodsman
-History:Woodsmen or lumberjack competitions have their roots in competitions that took place in logging camps among loggers. As loggers were paid for piece work, the ability to perform a specific task more quickly, or with a degree of showmanship, was something to be admired...
during the frontier era who flees into the mountains after he is wrongly accused of murder. While struggling to survive, Adams discovers an orphaned grizzly bear
Grizzly Bear
The grizzly bear , also known as the silvertip bear, the grizzly, or the North American brown bear, is a subspecies of brown bear that generally lives in the uplands of western North America...
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
Denver Pyle
Denver Dell Pyle was an American film and television actor. He is best remembered for playing Uncle Jesse in The Dukes of Hazzard .-Early life:...
, commonly featured with a mule named "Number Seven") and a native American
Indigenous peoples of the Americas
The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...
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
Bounty hunter
A bounty hunter captures fugitives for a monetary reward . Other names, mainly used in the United States, include bail enforcement agent and fugitive recovery agent.-Laws in the U.S.:...
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.
Cast
- Dan HaggertyDan HaggertyDan Haggerty is an American actor, best known for the title role in The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams....
as James Capen 'Grizzly' Adams - Denver PyleDenver PyleDenver Dell Pyle was an American film and television actor. He is best remembered for playing Uncle Jesse in The Dukes of Hazzard .-Early life:...
as Mad Jack - Don Shanks as Nakoma
- John Bishop as Robbie Cartman
- Bozo (a grizzly bear) as Ben (named after Benjamin FranklinBenjamin FranklinDr. Benjamin Franklin was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. A noted polymath, Franklin was a leading author, printer, political theorist, politician, postmaster, scientist, musician, inventor, satirist, civic activist, statesman, and diplomat...
whom Adams revered as a great man)
In addition to Ben, there were many other named animals in the series, the most prominent being Number 7, Mad Jack's ornery mule
Mule
A mule is the offspring of a male donkey and a female horse. Horses and donkeys are different species, with different numbers of chromosomes. Of the two F1 hybrids between these two species, a mule is easier to obtain than a hinny...
.
Gene Edwards—a stunt double for Dan Haggerty—later played Grizzly Adams in the otherwise unrelated 1990 film The Legend of a Grizzly Adams.
Production
Grizzly Adams was the creation of Sunn Classic Pictures, a company based in Park City, UtahPark City, Utah
Park City is a town in Summit and Wasatch counties in the U.S. state of Utah. It is considered to be part of the Wasatch Back. The city is southeast of downtown Salt Lake City and from Salt Lake City's east edge of Sugar House along Interstate 80. The population was 7,558 at the 2010 census...
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
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
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
Environmental movement
The environmental movement, a term that includes the conservation and green politics, is a diverse scientific, social, and political movement for addressing environmental issues....
flourished.
In a 1978 interview with TV Guide
TV Guide
TV Guide is a weekly American magazine with listings of TV shows.In addition to TV listings, the publication features television-related news, celebrity interviews, gossip and film reviews and crossword puzzles...
, 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
Ruidoso, New Mexico
Ruidoso is a village in Lincoln County, New Mexico, United States, adjacent to the Lincoln National Forest. The population was 8,029 at the 2010 census...
.
The show's theme song, “Maybe,” was written and sung by Thom Pace
Thom Pace
Thom Pace is an American singer-songwriter, who is best-known for the song "Maybe," which became the theme of The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams....
. The song was released as a single in Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
, where it reached number one, and won Germany's Goldene Europa
Goldene Europa
The Goldene Europa award is the oldest German Television award for artists and entertainers. It was awarded from 1968 to 2003. In the years 1989 and 2001, there were no ceremonies...
award for best song.
Episode list
| Prod.# | Episode | Air date |
|---|---|---|
| The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams | ||
| 701 | "Unwelcome Neighbor" | |
| 702 | "Beaver Dam" | |
| 703 | "Blood Brothers" | |
| 704 | "Adam's Cub" | |
| 705 | "The Fugitive" | |
| 706 | "Howdy-Do, I'm Mad Jack" | |
| 707 | "The Tenderfoot" | |
| 708 | "Home of the Hawk" | |
| 709 | "Adam's Ark" | |
| 710 | "The Redemption of Ben" | |
| 711 | "The Unholy Beast" | |
| 712 | "The Rivals" | |
| 713 | "The Storm" | |
| 714 | "The Trial" | |
| 715 | "Survival" | |
| 716 | "A Bear's Life" | |
| 717 | "The Choice" | |
| 718 | "Hot Air Hero" | |
| 719 | "Track of the Cougar" | |
| 720 | "The Search" | |
| 721 | "Marvin the Magnificent" | |
| 722 | "Woman in the Wilderness" | |
| 723 | "The Orphans" | |
| 724 | "Gold Is Where You Find It" | |
| 725 | "A Time of Thirsting" | |
| 726 | "The Seekers" | |
| 727 | "The Spoilers" | |
| 728 | "The Stranger" | |
| 729 | "The Runaway" | |
| 730 | "A Gentleman Tinker" | |
| 731 | "The World's Greatest Bounty Hunter" | |
| 732 | "The Littlest Greenhorn" | |
| 733 | "The Great Burro Race" | |
| 734 | "The Quest" | |
| 735 | "The Skyrider" | |
| 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) |
Referenced in pop-culture
Dan Haggerty also played Jeremiah—a modern day version of Grizzly Adams—in the films Grizzly Mountain (1997) and Escape to Grizzly Mountain (2000).Television and film references to Haggerty's portrayal of Adams include SCTV
Second City Television
Second City Television is a Canadian television sketch comedy show offshoot from Toronto's The Second City troupe that ran between 1976 and 1984.- Premise :...
(1980–1981 season), Clerks
Clerks
Clerks is a 1994 independent comedy film written and directed by Kevin Smith, who also appears in the film as Silent Bob. Starring Brian O'Halloran as Dante Hicks and Jeff Anderson as Randal Graves, it presents a day in the lives of two store clerks and their acquaintances...
(1994 film), Happy Gilmore
Happy Gilmore
Happy Gilmore is a 1996 sports comedy film directed by Dennis Dugan and produced by Robert Simonds for Universal Studios. It stars Adam Sandler as the title character, an unsuccessful ice hockey player who discovers a talent for golf. The screenplay was written by Sandler and Tim Herlihy...
(1996 film), the "Brian Wallows and Peter's Swallows
Brian Wallows and Peter's Swallows
"Brian Wallows and Peter's Swallows" is the seventeenth episode of the third season of the animated comedy series Family Guy. It originally aired on Fox in the United States on January 17, 2002...
" episode of Family Guy
Family Guy
Family Guy is an American animated television series created by Seth MacFarlane for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series centers on the Griffins, a dysfunctional family consisting of parents Peter and Lois; their children Meg, Chris, and Stewie; and their anthropomorphic pet dog Brian...
(2002), and What Just Happened?
What Just Happened?
What Just Happened is a satirical comedy-drama directed by Barry Levinson & starring Robert De Niro.What Just Happened is an independent film, produced by 2929 Productions, Art Linson Productions and Tribeca Productions, and was released on October 17, 2008.The film is based on the book, What Just...
(2008 film).
"Grizzly Adams" is also the name of a Mr. Bungle
Mr. Bungle
Mr. Bungle was an experimental band from Northern California. The band was formed in 1985 while the members were still in high school and was named after a children's educational film. Mr. Bungle released four demo tapes in the mid to late 1980s before being signed to Warner Bros. Records and...
song from album The Raging Wrath of the Easter Bunny, and a professional German ice hockey team
EHC Wolfsburg Grizzly Adams
EHC Wolfsburg Grizzly Adams are a professional ice hockey club of the German professional ice hockey league Deutsche Eishockey Liga. They play their games at Eisarena in Wolfsburg...
.
External links
- GrizzlyAdams.net, a detailed site with behind the scenes photos and episode summaries.