You can find more information about the TV movie and other Twain films in my '"media Adaptations of Mark Twain's Work" in the Mark Twain Encyclopedia. I wrote that so long ago, I have no memory of any specific details. Perhaps someone here has a digital copy and can copy the data here? -----Original Message----- From: Mark Twain Forum [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Alan Eliasen Sent: Monday, October 16, 2017 5:45 AM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: Life on the Mississippi On 2017-10-13 22:26, Scott Holmes wrote: > I had never heard of this made-for-tv movie before I found it in > Kanopy (a service of the Los Angeles Public Library). Robert Lancing > did a great turn as Horace Bixby and I thought they did well by > putting Twain's words in his mouth at the end. I generally don't > much care for adaptations of Twain but this may be the best I've seen. I hadn't heard of the TV version of "Life on the Mississsippi", but it appears to be an episode of PBS's "Great Performances", apparently first aired 1980-11-24 in season 8 or 9. Sam Clemens was played by a young David Knell in his film debut (Also, it's Lansing, not Lancing) Here is Knell's page with a short excerpt which I found true to the spirit and the humor of the book, if not the letter: https://davidknell.com/life-on-the-mississippi-1980/ PBS's "Great Performances" website is a trash-fire, (multiple, multiple bugs are filed for everything I tried on that site) so you probably can't find any information about the episode there. But you can maybe find information about the episode elsewhere: * IMDb entry: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0081054/ * I searched on my TiVo device for "Life on the Mississippi", and it told me that the (for-pay, but with a 2-week free (?) trial available) EPiX video streaming service could stream it to me. I have not verified this. It claims to be able to stream to a variety of devices, but maybe not even to your main computer or proper TV. * An Amazon.com search for the title says both "Available to watch on supported devices" and "This title is currently unavailable" within the same block: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B009WVH5WY/ * As noted by Scott Holmes, you *may* be able to stream it from the Kanopy video service but probably only if your university has bought into this system and given you a usable password: https://www.kanopystreaming.com/product/life-mississippi * You can buy a VHS version of the movie on your favorite auction site. In some places, there are 5 tapes marketed under "Mark Twain Classics". I will warn you in advance that "The Innocents Abroad" is one of my favorite literary works ever and that the "Mark Twain Classics" video adaptation of "The Innocents Abroad" is one of the worst adaptations that has ever been made. At some point, Mark Twain has a wrestling match with the captain of the Quaker City, and the author and director ham-handedly destroy every joke that Clemens wrote, if they were to acknowledge them at all. They wrote their own "better" jokes. I have reviewed this elsewhere. I shall mention it no more. Avoid their version of The Innocents Abroad at all costs. But they do have "Pudd'nhead Wilson" and "The Mysterious Stranger" and "A Private History of a Campaign That Failed" in that series, which are hard to find. I do not vouch for any of these either. * Turner Classic Movies has Life on the Mississippi on DVD for sale. I am hesitant to mention this until I have received notification that my DVD has shipped and you all get in on it. It is nominally about $20 but was $10.95 (plus shipping) when I went to check out. They also have Pudd'nhead Wilson from American Playhouse in that series. http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/465863/Life-on-the-Mississippi/ http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/470909/Pudd-nhead-Wilson/ -- Alan Eliasen [log in to unmask] https://futureboy.us/