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Written by Michael Greenburg, Gerard de Marigny, and Tod Swindell
©2017 Grizzly Adams® LLC & Big Pix Inc. Registered WGA
Almost 40 years ago, Grizzly Adams rambled across the TV screens of millions of NBC viewers, braving the elements with his grizzly bear companion, and helping passers-by in the wilderness. “The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams” TV series was a spinoff of the popular 1974 feature film of the same name. Now, the gallant hero reemerges in an all-new series, Grizzly Adams: The Gold Rush Years.
Unlike the soft-spoken, animal-loving mountaineer Dan Haggarty portrayed, the 21st century Grizzly Adams brings to life the rugged adventurer, champion of the downtrodden, and extraordinary showman Adams really was. From the glitz and decadence of the Barbary Coast, to the magnificent vistas of the Pacific Northwest, Grizzly Adams: The Gold Rush Years is packed with new, colorful heroes, villains, intriguing women and ferocious beasts. In the City and Sierras, fortunes and friendships are forged in gold, and the claws of a ‘Grizzly’ sometimes delivers the justice!
SYNOPSIS:
Blackness explodes into an ominous lightning storm as a door bursts open, revealing John Adams being carried by a fellow pioneer into the home of a local Mexican woman. Adams is deathly ill. The woman has Adams lay on a cot. His body is soaked from sweat, as he shivers and mumbles incoherently. (SUPER: 1849 Northern Mexico)
Flashbacks are intercut to learn more about this man, John Adams.
First, we see Adams as a young child surrounded by wild, yet oddly fun-loving animals. Adams’ father, Eleazer teaches his son how to properly train the animals with treats and commands.
Returning to the present, the Mexican woman wipes sweat from Adams’ near-lifeless body. She notices rather large and long keloid wounds on his side and stomach.
Flashback: To the incident in a Bengal tiger cage that led to his scarring, where Adams was tricked into entering the cage by jealous coworkers of the animal-tracking company he worked for as a young man.
We return to the Mexican woman patting Adams’ stubbled face with a cool rag to soothe him. She notices two daguerreotypes among Adams’ belongings: one of Adams with his wife and children, and another with his father, Eleazer.
Flashback: To Adams reading from a newspaper article featuring the front-page headline “Gold! Gold! Gold! Found in California.” Adams is animated as he explains to his father how they can make a fortune selling shoes, to the droves of pioneers heading west through St. Louis to find gold in California. Reluctantly, Eleazer agrees to invest the family savings into the venture.
St. Louis, Missouri -- A terrible warehouse fire destroys Adams’ and Eleazer’s entire work boot inventory.
Tears fall from Adams’ unopened eyes, as we see them also falling from the Mexican woman’s. Suddenly, Adams’ eyes pop open as he cries out in his delirium, “Pa ... no, no, no!”
Flashback: To Adams coming upon his father’s lifeless body hanging from a noose. Gently, he lowers his father down and lies with him on the floor.
The Mexican woman tenderly wipes the tears from Adams’ eyes. We see his two-week stubble now fills in his face.
Flashback: Backlit by the huge setting Sun, Adams tells his wife Cylena and their three children, Arabella, Arathusa, and Seymour he has no choice and must go West to ‘right the wrong’ he’s brought onto the family. After long embraces and a tearful goodbye, Adams turns and walks into the setting Sun. His silhouette is absorbed by the light of the huge Sun perched on the western horizon.
Match Cut to: The morning Sun of the present as it radiates through the open windows driving away the storm, darkness and fear from the night before. A bird chirping outside the window awakens Adams. His body is no longer sweaty. His fever has broken, but he is still weak. Adams lifts his head to see the Mexican woman sleeping in a chair on the other side of his cot. We see his beard has taken on a full grizzly shape, an image of his iconic, future appearance. Adams attempts to rise to his feet, but only makes it as far as throwing his legs over one side of the bed, when the Mexican woman opens her eyes.
While Adams shaves, the Mexican woman stands with her hands on her hips telling him of the dangers that await him. “Another gold rusher. Do you know what lies between here and California? A vast desert that gets hotter than Hell by day. Beyond the desert rises a mountain range so tall it pierces the clouds to Heaven. And then, if by some slim chance you’re still alive and make it to California, you get the pleasure of being with every devilish man in the world.”
With the never-ending desert in the background, Adams thanks the Mexican woman for all she did for him then turns to continue his journey West. As he disappears from view, she calls out to him, “Vaya con Dios, Senor Adams!”
A Series of Shots:
The montage begins with Adams trekking through the relentless desert.
Close on a parched, sunburned and lip-cracked Adams sipping water from a small spring.
Reveal Adams staring up at towering mountains as a major storm builds. We pull back and widen out to capture the grandeur and height of the Sierra Nevada Range.
Adams hunkers down inside a small crevice within the mountains while the storm rages outside.
As we ramp to Super Slow Motion the falling raindrops morph into falling leaves through which Adams walks. In front of him a sign reads, “SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA.”
John Adams has arrived along with countless other Gold Rushers!
The journey west for John Adams ends where the legend of Grizzly Adams begins!!
Upon arriving at Sutter’s Mill, Adams finds himself immersed in a landscape of crime and vice. Brawls break out all around, as prostitutes approach him on the street. Wading through the morass, he spots a striking, feisty Latina surrounded by a gang of thugs. After she punches one and kicks another, they grab her. Adams steps in and confronts the thugs. The nastiest of the bunch, accompanied by a large, snarling beast of a dog, informs Adams of who they are, The Hounds, and who they work for, John Sutter. Adams is told the girl, named Juanita is owned by Sutter. Sutter’s men laugh as their leader adds, “If you want her, you can pay for her down at the brothel.”
Unimpressed, Adams takes Juanita by the hand and leads her away when the two hear growling behind them. They turn to see the dog was set loose. Pushing Juanita behind him, Adams approaches the vicious animal and their eyes meet. The taunts of Sutter’s men go quiet when--before their eyes--the dog become docile from the spiritual connection with Adams. Instead of attacking, the dog licks Adams’ face. Even Juanita is speechless as Adams pets the large hound on the head before leading her away. The report of the incident piques Sutter’s interest in Adams.
Adams soon makes friends with the later-to-be-famous chocolatier Domenico Ghirardelli, clothier Levi Strauss, and banker Henry Wells. Adams and Ghirardelli quickly become successful gold miners and ranchers, but their success is short-lived as Sutter carries out a plot to con them out of their fortunes.
Adams then attempts to unite Ghirardelli, Strauss, and Wells in an honest trade and supply business to rival the criminal one run by Sutter. He approaches San Francisco’s biggest banker, Henry Morris Naglee for a loan to start the enterprise, and there becomes acquainted with Naglee’s beautiful, debutant daughter Constance. Adams’ politeness and ruggedness infatuates Constance, arousing the ire of her over-protective father. She pursues Adams, unaware of her father’s underhanded dealings with Sutter.
Naglee informs Sutter of Adams’ scheme and the two conspire to deny the group any financing. Defeated again by Sutter and discouraged by the corruptness of society, Adams retreats to his sanctuary… the wilderness. There, in the Sierras, he makes friends with Native Americans and becomes a renowned tracker. He hones his supernatural gift with wildlife and amasses an array of bears, wildcats, and wolves willing to obey his commands and follow him wherever he goes.
While trekking through the High Sierra’s, Adams comes across a Native American facing off with a grizzly bear. Always ready to help, Adams springs into action attempting to use his extrasensory skills to calm the animal. He does so long enough to drag the Native American to safety, before the Grizzly charges him. Seeing white foam drool from the bear’s mouth--a sure sign of rabies--Adams does his best to fight off the rabid beast, but is mauled into unconsciousness.
Delirious with fever from his wounds, Adams experiences a powerful vision of the future. In it, he witnesses himself returning to civilization to protect his friends Ghirardelli, Strauss, and Wells and their businesses from Sutter and the Hounds, strangely, with the Native American he saved and his animal menagerie at his side. He foresees the confrontations but not the outcomes. He also sees both Juanita and Constance both in peril.
Adams awakes to find the Native American standing over him. He’s a half-breed warrior named Sykesy. Sykesy nurses Adams to health and pledges his loyalty, until the day he can save Adams’ life, in return. Having been saved by the grizzly attack, Sykesy bestows Adams with his legendary nickname, “Grizzly.” It’s a testament to his bear-like bravery and befitting the beard Adams has grown during his recovery. Utilizing his former clothes-making skills, Adams creates a buckskin outfit, completing his incredible transformation into the fabled mountain man, Grizzly Adams.
Adams soon receives word from a passing tracker about his old friend, Ghirardelli. He describes the rising violence in San Francisco, and how Ghirardelli, Strauss, and Wells are being forced into poverty by the devices of Sutter and The Hounds. To help his friends and guided by his vision, Grizzly Adams, Sykesy and his animal menagerie set out for San Francisco, determined to put an end to Sutter’s tyranny. More motivated than ever on rebuilding his fortune, this time Adams will preside over a wild animal show. The show will also act as Grizzly Adams’ franchise cover while combatting Sutter.
With spies everywhere, Sutter and his men are made aware of Adams’ return and set up an ambush on the road leading to The City. But Adams has spies too - Syksey and his wild animal companions, allowing Adams to set an ambush of his own. Walking alone, Adams is surrounded by the Hounds, accompanied by their mascot, the snarling large canine, but again, Adams makes eye contact inducing the hound to heel at his side.
As Sutter’s men raise their weapons, they follow Adams’ eyes behind them and see a terrifying sight – as if appearing from nowhere a ring of wildcats, wolves, and bears have encircled them. Adams calls out the name of the largest of the grizzlies, “Samson!” Suddenly, a huge grizzly charges out and takes his place in front of Syksey and him. Rising on his hind legs the mighty bear roars terrifying Sutter’s men into cowering and dropping their weapons.
Grizzly Adams returns to San Francisco parading his untethered wild animal menagerie down Market Street to the home of his new museum adjacent to the opulent Maguire Theater—where Adams is set to be a regular attraction. On the way, the parade passes by a shocked John Sutter and his bodyguards, and by the Government Building (soon to be the symbol of corruption), capturing the attention of the crooked politicians running the city.
Adams stops the procession directly in front of Sutter, who tries to mask his dismay with faux civility, “That’s quite a collection of animals, Mr. Adams.”
Adams motions to Syksey who leads a grizzly pulling a large cage filled with Sutter’s men right in front of Sutter. Adams nods to the cage, “You have quite a collection, yourself, Mr. Sutter. I believe these belong to you.”
Grizzly Adams and his new ‘Mountain Museum’ is also a stone’s throw from Jim and Belle Cora’s stylish Saloon, Gambling Hall & Brothel, a place Adams and Syksey are anxious to take in. Once there, the vivacious madam of the brothel comes out to greet them. It’s none other than Juanita, who explains how she ascended to her position after working there as a waitress, thanks to Adams’ earlier kindness.
Juanita leads Adams and Syksey inside Cora’s where Adams is surprised to encounter Ghirardelli, Strauss, and Wells seated at a large table with many other business owners from in and around The City. Adams joins his compadres in a reunion regaled by Juanita pouring champagne for all. The mood turns more somber, though, after the men fill Adams in on how Sutter’s corruption is choking the city and endangering anyone who stands up to him. Adams takes a moment to contemplate before getting to his feet with his glass raised, prompting everyone else to do the same, “Here’s to The City … our city! When right, to be kept right. When wrong, to be put right!” The crowd waits until they see Adams down his glass and smile before joining him. Cheers fill the saloon.
Hidden inside Cora’s, Sutter witnesses the revelry. Escaping out the backdoor, he enters his opulent brougham and sneers before tapping the roof with his hound-headed cane. The carriage disappears down the lamp-lit city street as both he and Adams know … the real battle has just begun!