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 fled into the mountains when he was 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' closest companion. Adams has 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' hitherto unknown daughter to draw him back to civilization. In the end, Adams proved his innocence.

[edit] Production

Grizzly Adams was the creation of Sunn Classic Pictures, a company based in Park City, Utah which employed mostly Mormons and was operated by Christian founder Charles E. Sellier Jr. 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 and $132 million in merchandise. 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 Grizzly Adams, using a computer system that reportedly cost $5 million to develop. The Grizzly Adams series 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^[1]. Actual filming locations for the television series took place in the mountains near Ruidoso, New Mexico.

By late 1978, the series dropped in popularity largely due to plot recycling. The series is still remembered for its theme song, "Maybe" by Thom Pace, an upbeat song about love, sorrow and friendship. Two subsequent projects, not well known, starred other actors in the main role and were not produced by Sunn. Some films of the era of the show were obviously influenced by it, such as the notoriously bad movie The Grizzly and the Treasure.