Benjamin Franklin (2002 TV series)

(Redirected from Benjamin Franklin (documentary)) 2002 American documentary miniseries

This article does not cite any sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.
Find sources: "Benjamin Franklin" 2002 TV series – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (January 2018) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Benjamin Franklin
Written by	Ronald Blumer
Directed by	Ellen Hovde Muffie Meyer
Music by	Richard Einhorn
Original language	English
Production
Producers	Ellen Hovde Muffie Meyer
Cinematography	James Brown Robert Elfstrom Boyd Estus Tom Hurwitz Joel Shapiro Joe Vitagliano
Editors	Eric Davies Donna Marino Sharon Sachs
Running time	210 minutes
Original release
Network	PBS
Release	November 19 (2002-11-19) – November 21, 2002 (2002-11-21)

Benjamin Franklin is a 2002 American documentary miniseries about United States Founding Father Benjamin Franklin which premiered November 19–20, 2002, and was re-broadcast August 22–September 5, 2005. The series was produced by Twin Cities Public Television of Minneapolis-St. Paul.

Benjamin Franklin won an Emmy for Outstanding Nonfiction Special (Traditional) in 2003. Executive producers Catherine Allan and Jerry Richman accepted the award.

Episode 1: Let the Experiment Be Made

Franklin's first 47 years, a period that saw the birth of the Enlightenment. He took this intellectual revolution to heart, writing aphorisms based on it for the publication he founded, Poor Richard's Almanack. Franklin made significant contributions to his fellow Philadelphians, contributions which included the ideas of public libraries and a volunteer fire department. Richard Easton plays Franklin; Colm Feore narrates.

Episode 2: The Making of a Revolutionary

In 1757 Franklin moves to London, sent from Pennsylvania on a mission to allow the colony to tax the Penn family's lands. Franklin arrived as an ardent admirer of the empire as well as a lover of the American colonies (“There's nothing I want more than the prosperity of both,” he says). Seventeen years later, he left—a revolutionary.

Episode 3: The Chess Master

The final 14 years of Franklin's life, nine of which were spent in Paris as ambassador to France from the rebellious American colonies. His primary objective was to secure financial and military aid. To this he brought the skills of a chess master, able to think many moves ahead in the game.

Cast

Richard Easton - Benjamin Franklin
Matthew Bentley - Benjamin Franklin as a child
Dylan Baker - Benjamin Franklin as a young man
Colm Feore - Narrator
Gerry Bamman - Paul Wentworth
Blair Brown - Jane Franklin
Kathleen Chalfant - Silence Dogood
Anthony Cochrane - George III
John Curless - William Strahan
Peter Donaldson - John Adams
Jennifer Dundas - Catherine Ray
Peter Gerety - Joseph Galloway
Daniel Gerrol - Joseph Priestley
Ronald Guttman - Le Comte de Vergennes
Anthony Heald - Jonathan Austin
John Christopher Jones - Ephraim Eliot
Simon Jones - Thomas Penn
Eddie Korbich - Jared Ruggles
Roberta Maxwell - Deborah Read Franklin
Jefferson Mays - Elkanah Watson
Martin Rayner - Robert Whittington
Sebastian Roché - Vicomte
Natacha Roi - Madame Brillon de Joy
Andrew Seear - British government official
Josef Sommer - Cotton Mather
Jim True-Frost - William Franklin
Laurent St. Pierre - Count de Segur

VHS and DVD release

Benjamin Franklin is on VHS and DVD.

References

External links

Benjamin Franklin at IMDb
Benjamin Franklin on PBS

v t e Benjamin Franklin
President of Pennsylvania (1785–1788) Ambassador to France (1779–1785) Second Continental Congress (1775–1776)
Founding of the United States	Join, or Die. (1754 political cartoon) Albany Plan of Union Albany Congress Hutchinson letters affair Committee of Secret Correspondence Committee of Five "...to be self-evident" Declaration of Independence Model Treaty Franco-American alliance Treaty of Amity and Commerce Treaty of Alliance Staten Island Peace Conference 1776 Pennsylvania Constitution Libertas Americana Treaty of Paris, 1783 Delegate, 1787 Constitutional Convention Pennsylvania Provincial Assembly Postmaster General Founding Fathers
Inventions, other events	Franklin's electrostatic machine Bifocals Franklin stove Glass armonica Gulf Stream exploration, naming, and chart Lightning rod Kite experiment Pay it forward Associators 111th Infantry Regiment Junto club American Philosophical Society Library Company of Philadelphia Pennsylvania Hospital Academy and College of Philadelphia University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia Contributionship Union Fire Company Early American currency Continental Currency dollar coin Fugio cent United States Postal Service Street lighting President, Pennsylvania Abolition Society Master, Les Neuf Sœurs Gravesite
Writings	The Papers of Benjamin Franklin Founders Online Silence Dogood letters (1722) A Dissertation on Liberty and Necessity, Pleasure and Pain (1725) The Busy-Body columns (1729) The Pennsylvania Gazette (1729–1790) Early American publishers and printers Poor Richard's Almanack (1732–1758) The Drinker's Dictionary (1737) "Advice to a Friend on Choosing a Mistress" (1745) "The Speech of Polly Baker" (1747) Observations Concerning the Increase of Mankind, Peopling of Countries, etc. (1751) Experiments and Observations on Electricity (1751) Birch letters (1755) The Way to Wealth (1758) Pennsylvania Chronicle (1767) Rules by Which a Great Empire May Be Reduced to a Small One (1773) Proposed alliance with the Iroquois (1775) A Letter to a Royal Academy (1781) Remarks Concerning the Savages of North America (1784) "The Morals of Chess" (1786) An Address to the Public (1789) A Plan for Improving the Condition of the Free Blacks (1789) The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin (1771–1790, pub. 1791) Bagatelles and Satires (pub. 1845) Franklin as a journalist Franklin's phonetic alphabet
Legacy	Bibliography Franklin Court Benjamin Franklin House Benjamin Franklin Institute of Technology Benjamin Franklin Parkway Benjamin Franklin National Memorial Franklin Institute awards medal Benjamin Franklin Medal Royal Society of Arts medal Depicted in The Apotheosis of Washington Memorial to the 56 Signers of the Declaration of Independence Treaty of Paris (1783 painting) Benjamin Franklin Drawing Electricity from the Sky (1816 painting) Revolutionary War Door Boston statue Chicago statue Columbus, Ohio, statue University of Pennsylvania statue Portland, Oregon, statue San Francisco statue Stanford University statue Washington D.C. statue Jefferson Memorial pediment Refunding Certificate Franklin half dollar One-hundred-dollar bill Franklin silver dollar Washington–Franklin stamps other stamps Cities, counties, schools named for Franklin Benjamin Franklin College Franklin Field Mount Franklin State of Franklin Sons of Ben (Philadelphia Union) Ships named USS Franklin Ben Franklin effect
In popular culture	Ben and Me (1953 short) Ben Franklin in Paris (1964 musical play) 1776 (1969 musical 1972 film) Benjamin Franklin (miniseries) (1972) A More Perfect Union (1989 film) Liberty! (1997 documentary series) Liberty's Kids (2002 animated series) Benjamin Franklin (2002 documentary series) John Adams (2008 miniseries) Sons of Liberty (2015 miniseries) Benjamin Franklin (2022 documentary) Franklin (2024 miniseries)
Related	Age of Enlightenment American Enlightenment The New-England Courant The American Museum magazine American Revolution patriots Syng inkstand
Family	Deborah Read (wife) William Franklin (son) Francis Franklin (son) Sarah Franklin Bache (daughter) William Franklin (grandson) Benjamin F. Bache (grandson) Louis F. Bache (grandson) Richard Bache Jr. (grandson) Andrew Harwood (great-grandson) Alexander Bache (great-grandson) Josiah Franklin (father) James Franklin (brother) Jane Mecom (sister) Mary Morrell Folger (grandmother) Peter Folger (grandfather) Richard Bache (son-in-law) Ann Smith Franklin (sister-in-law)
Category

v t e Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Special
1990s	Vietnam POWs: A Story of Survival (1998) Thug Life in D.C. (1999)
2000s	Children in War (2000) Scottsboro: An American Tragedy (American Experience) (2001) 9/11 (2002) Benjamin Franklin (2003) The Forgetting: A Portrait of Alzheimer's (2004) Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson (2005) Rome: Engineering an Empire (2006) Ghosts of Abu Ghraib (2007) Autism: The Musical (2008) 102 Minutes That Changed America (2009)
2010s	Teddy: In His Own Words (2010) Gettysburg (2011) George Harrison: Living in the Material World (2012) Manhunt: The Inside Story of the Hunt for Bin Laden (2013) JFK (American Experience) (2014) Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief (2015) What Happened, Miss Simone? (2016) 13th (2017) The Zen Diaries of Garry Shandling (2018) Leaving Neverland (2019)
2020s	The Apollo (2020) Boys State (2021) George Carlin's American Dream (2022) Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie (2023) Jim Henson Idea Man (2024)

This article about a biographical documentary film is a stub. You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it.

Categories: