Marco Polo is an American-Italian television miniseries originally broadcast by NBC in the United States, by Antenne 2 in France and by RAI in Italy in 1982. It starred Kenneth Marshall as Marco Polo, the 13th-century Venetian merchant and explorer. The series also featured appearances by Denholm Elliott, Anne Bancroft, John Gielgud, Ian McShane, Leonard Nimoy, and others. It was originally broadcast in four episodes, where episodes 1 and 4 were twice as long as episodes 2 and 3. The series is sometimes divided into six equally long episodes.
Assigned to accompany two priests on a mission to convert the court of Kublai Khan to Christianity, Marco Polo is abandoned in the mountains when the priests, doubting the very existence of China, turn back. Polo eventually pushes bravely forth alone toward the fabled country where he is accepted as an envoy into Khan's court. Marooned on the far side of the world, Polo, accompanied by his servant, Pedro, advances as a Mongol grandee for twenty extraordinary years. What he eventually brings back with him to the West is a chronicle that changed history forever.
„Marco Polo“ ist ein Abenteuer-Epos, das die jungen Jahre des gleichnamigen Entdeckungsreisenden bei seinen Reisen auf der exotischen Seidenstraße an den Hof des Kublai Khan nachzeichnet. Schon bald muss Marco in einer Welt voller Habgier, Betrug, sexueller Intrigen und Rivalitäten bestehen. Zwar erlangt er allmählich die Gunst des Khans, doch dessen unnachgiebiges Streben nach der Weltherrschaft bringt tödliche Gefahren mit sich.