The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams television series (Photo by Getty)
It’s not often that you come across a man named Grizzly with a pet bear named Ben. While in pursuit of a new life in the American West, John “Grizzly” Adams found companionship not in the other gold rush forty-niners, but in a bear cub he had captured while hunting. The bear, which he decided to call Ben Franklin, became so loyal to his master that he risked his life saving Grizzly from another, fiercer grizzly.
The tale became so popular it spawned a novel that later became a television series –