The Great Adventure (American TV series)

starring Lee Marvin
narration by Van Heflin: "The year nineteen-o-seven is a good one for the farmers of the Great California Valley. Most of them are immigrants from Italy, Greece and Turkey. For these new Americans this year brings a bumper crop and a rich harvest. Now, with the hard work over, it is time to celebrate."
"For people of the California Valley this is a memorable year. The year they've been waiting for. The chance to pay their debts, to put money in the bank. The world's market stirred by unforeseen events came a demand that drove the price of raisins from five to six to eight and finally to ten cents a pound laid on the dock in San Francisco."
"News traveled fast throughout the valley and by midday two more farmers joined Misok Bedrozian on his way to the Embarcadero in San Francisco. Now there are six, all willing to risk their hopes, even their lives, rather than submit to the oppression they'd left the Old World to escape."
"Now there are five and, always hanging over them, the threat of the railroad."
"Now there are four. They pass through parched country covered with sun-scorched grass, then along slopes of manzanita and mesquite which rose toward the Gabilan Mountains and the dangers of Pacheco Pass."
"Now there are three. Before them the Coastal Plains. Another two days, it passed through Gilroy, Morgan Hill, San Jose. Now that the farmers along the way, they have become a symbol of all the dreams that brought them from all over the world to California."
"It has taken them almost two weeks to cover the distance from Fresno to South San Francisco, but now they can feel the breezes coming in off the ocean. Just one more day and they will discharge their crops from the dock of the Embarcadero."
"Now there is one. Just one to face the vast power of the railroad concentrated in San Francisco."
"Because of Misok Bedrozian, California's Governor-elect Hiram Johnson finally established the principle that in cases involving the public service, the state had not only the right, but the obligation to protect the people's interest. It happened because one small obstinate group of Americans refused to accept an authority they considered unjust."
Announcer: "Before previewing next week's Great Adventure, here is Gerald Gough, a teacher and a member of the National Education Association, with a postscript on tonight's story."
Gerald Gough: "One man against many. One single wagon got through and even the six that started were so few, so small a force, but Misok Bedrozian had the most powerful force in the world, a belief, the miracle of an idea and the conviction to carry it out against whatever odds. In our country, one man can stand up for his rights and start a chain reaction. Maybe at the beginning he acts just for himself, but often one man's problem becomes everyone's concern. Misok Bedrozian's victory turned out to be not just his, but his whole state's. He learned the lesson of faith in one's convictions. Justice which we prize is not just learned, it is earned and earning it can be The Great Adventure."

narration by Van Heflin: "Seventeen-seventy-six. The war for freedom which had begun so gloriously at Lexington and Concord has become a desperate struggle for survival. Washington's beleaguered army is reeling back from a defeat at Brooklyn Heights and for the lonely patriots who have tried to aid him, retribution is swift and often terrible."
starring Jeremy Slate
Nancy Malone
Torin Thatcher
co-starring John Anderson, Sean McClory
"Harlem Heights on the island of Manhattan, seventeen-seventy-six. General Washington's exhausted troops are licking the wounds of a half-dozen defeats. Nothing but a miracle it seems can save the remnants of the tattered Continental Army."
"But seventeen-seventy-six was a time of miracles and for one unknown captain in Washington's army it was a moment of destiny."
"By a circuitous route Nathan Hale is brought to a lonely cove on the shores of Long Island behind the British lines. He's unfamiliar with the territory in which he's about to move. He's totally inexperienced in the art of espionage and he has been told that he has only a few brief days in which to get the information that may save the Continental Army."
"Major Jerome Hardwick had never been more wrong. Through five more bloody years of war, the name of Nathan Hale was to echo and re-echo in the ears of British soldiers who were to die on American soil. His name became a rallying cry for Colonial troops and the words he is reputed to have spoken a moment before he died are part of the heritage of a nation of two hundred million people — 'My only regret is that I have but one life to give for my country.'"
Announcer: "Before previewing next week's Great Adventure, here is Gerald Gough, a teacher and a member of the National Education Association, with a postscript on tonight's story."
Gerald Gough: "Spy? The word has a distasteful ring to it. Intelligence — that word sounds more respectable — decidedly acceptable. Until our own century armies marched into battle in precise formation. The art of war was pursued according to set rules. Spying did exist, but it was officially ignored and thought of as despicable and infamous. Nathan Hale, as you have just seen, was promptly rejected by his friends when he volunteered to spy to serve his country. Today we know that most governments are engaged officially and extensively in gathering intelligence. Nathan Hale had to act against the ethics and emotions of his time. He is remembered because he knew that a man must be guided by his own convictions and his own sense of duty and not by the opinions of others."