AMC Orders ‘Halt & Catch Fire,’ ‘Turn’ to Series Based on Washington’s Spies by Alexander Rose, Turn

If The CW’s Reign takes creative license in its story of Mary, Queen of Scots, AMC’s historical drama Turn is the opposite. “There’s a seedy underbelly to the war,” executive producer Craig Silverstein told reporters Saturday at the Television Critics Association press tour. “The vibe you get is it was so pure then; how did it get so complicated now?

STORY: AMC Orders ‘Halt & Catch Fire,’ ‘Turn’ to Series Based on Washington’s Spies by Alexander Rose, Turn tells the story of America’s first spy group, the Culper Ring. The 10-episode first season, which kicks off April 6 with a 90-minute premiere, will focus mainly on the formation of the Culper Ring. And should Turn return for additional seasons (though the story is finite), Silverstein insists they have a plan: to tell of the group’s “adventures, missions and the incredible tension they get into with Benedict Arnold.”

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Who Was The Father Of Anna Smith?

Many who were thrilled by the news that the AMC Channel was creating “Turn”, a television series to tell the true story of George Washington’s Long Island spy ring were startled to see glaring inaccuracies depicted, from the opening scene on April 6, 2014. In AMC’s sexed-up, Hollywood version, which opens in the year 1776, Anna is in her twenties, married to Selah Strong, a tavern keeper. Abraham struggles to be a good husband to Mary, and father to his infant son, but still loves Anna and eventually succumbs to her charms.

The facts: Anna Smith was born in 1740, ten years before Abraham Woodhull. Her husband, Selah Strong II, was a Patriot and a judge who purchased a Long Island manor on Strong’s Neck in Setauket. In 1776, the Honorable Judge Selah Strong II and Anna were Patriots living with their six children.

In 1776 Anna was 36; Abraham Woodhull, a great-grandson of another first settler, Richard Woodhull I, was 26 and unmarried. They would have two daughters and one son. Nancy and Selah had nine children; their last infant was born after the Revolution, when she was 43.

Richard Woodhull did not follow orders of Lieutenant Colonel Richard Hewlett to dig up gravestones of the Setauket Presbyterian Church, nor did he persuade other residents of Setauket to do so. British soldiers dug up the gravestones, as a barricade for the British garrison. A few other errors: The story of Abraham giving Hessian soldiers some cabbages in order to get news of the Hessians at Trenton in late December 1776 is pure fiction.

The credits for “Turn” still list Alexander Rose, author of Washington’s Spies: The True Story of America’s First Spy Ring. For the true story, I still recommend that you read Alexander Rose’s Washington’s Spies: The Story of America’s First Spy Ring. It’s the closest written version of the truth that we have.

What Is The Name Of The Tv Series That We’Ll Talk About Today?

In a first for Based on a True Story, today we’ll chat about the TV series Turn: Washington Spies. Joining me to dive behind the history of the popular AMC show is Michael Troy from the American Revolutions podcast. Subscribe to Michael’s podcast at: https://pod.amrevpodcast.com/ Did you enjoy this episode?

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