Customer Reviews

Huckleberry Finn and His Friends (1979)

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I have watched over 50 miniseries based on classic works of British or American literature, and I have to say that this miniseries is one of my very favorite, if not my very favorite. ["Bleak House" (2005) and "Kidnapped" (1978) would be its main competitors.]

This 1979 television series covers both of Mark Twain's novels about Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn (i.e. "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" and "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn").

The acting in this nearly 700 minute series is excellent. Huckleberry Finn is played by Ian Tracey. Tom Sawyer is played by Sammy Snyders. Both Ian and Sammy are wonderful actors, at least in this production. Also, the script for the production is quite good and very accurate to Twain's novels. The only somewhat major deviation occurs when the scriptwriters alter a few events and add some plot details to allow for a smooth transition between "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" and "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn." However, I would not say that this deviation detracts from the overall quality of the production.

Below is some additional information covering the episodes. Episodes 1-11 cover "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer". Episodes 14-26 cover "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn." Episodes 12-13 are transition material between Twain's two novels, especially transition material that better explores Huck's life with the Widow Douglas and Miss Watson.

Episode List: (Each episode is approximately 25 minutes.)

1. Welcome neighbour
2. Love in bloom
3. Engagement
4. Mystery at midnight
5. The Pirates
6. How nice to be missed
7. Such a lovely funeral
8. Muff Potter's trial
9. Buried treasure
10. Huck is a hero
11. Millionaires
12. I want to be free
13. Huck becomes the victim
14. Huck gets away
15. Huck finds Jim
16. The rains come
17. Smallpox
18. Meet the Grangerfords
19. The thing about feuding
20. The end of the feud
21. Meet the Duke and Dauphin
22. Romeo where art thou
23. Jim disappears
24. Huck Sawyer - Tom Finn
25. The rescue
26. The whole truth.

Caution:
I am writing this review before the production is officially released in the U.S. Therefore, I do not know what the film transfer is like nor do I know what the DVD quality is like. Hence, I have no idea if the DVD quality of this region 1 transfer is as good as its UK region 2 release.

This is a wonderful series, easily the best rendition of Twain's stories that I've ever seen, "an American Institution" for the generation of TV viewers that grew up in the 1970s. I was all geared up to order it upon its release in N. America, when Amazon abruptly displayed the notice that it has been "discontinued by the manufacturer." Whatever the problem is, I sure hope they get it resolved soon!

Yes, that's the best version of the adventures of huck and tom combined together in an epic 10 hours +++ mini series broadcasted 30 years ago in in 1979 when i was a 10 year old boy who grew up with this series and tom sawyer was his kid hero in those good ole days...
This series is not to miss especially for you who are now in your 40s and have lived the legend of tom and huck 30 years ago in this canadian production when u were just kids.

OK I am the BIGGEST Tom Sawyer/Huck Finn fan EVER and I have seen ALLLLLL the productions of this gem of a story and I MUST tell you none compare to this one. Thank GOD for the internet and for whoever decided to make this rendition available to the public. Look no further, people...THIS IS THE ONE!!!

I saw this series on the Showtime channel in the early 1980s. It was called "Mark Twain Theater" when it was on Showtime.

I'm a fan of Mark Twain's novels, and I found this series to be very entertaining. I was able to see it only once as a kid when it was on 30 years ago, but I saved the Showtime guide from back then.

I am so looking forward to getting the DVD and seeing it again! The price looks good, too. I would highly recommend this series to any Tom Sawyer/Huckleberry Finn fan!