THE ADAMS CHRONICLES (1976) – This mini-series of 13 50-minute episodes looked at historical giant John Adams and his descendants from the American Revolution up to the 1890s. Michael Tolan narrated 8 episodes.
EPISODE ONE: JOHN ADAMS, LAWYER (Jan 20th, 1976) – As a young man, John Adams (George Grizzard) suffers setbacks in his career as a lawyer, so he returns to the farm his father left him. His fiery cousin Samuel Adams (W.B. Brydon) tells him he made a mistake and should go back to practicing law. John meets Abigail Smith (Kathryn Walker), daughter of a Reverend (Addison Powell). He marries her and as they raise their children he returns to his career as an attorney.
Though he and Samuel Adams agree about the need to push back against increasingly suffocating British laws, they sharply disagree when John’s principles prompt him to become the lawyer defending the British soldiers facing charges in the Boston Massacre. John felt the men were being railroaded and when no one else would defend them, he stepped up and did so. Not for the last time, John Adams’s principles put him at odds with those closest to him.
This episode also starred John Houseman, Nancy Marchand, David Elliott, Curt Dawson as John Hancock and John Tillinger as King George III. Continue reading
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