In as much the same adventurous spirit as those who galloped headlong into a wild new territory in the Land Run of 1889, the Oklahoma Educational Television Authority (OETA) has ventured into the rugged world of dramatic filmmaking. The result is "Oklahoma Passage," a five-part mini-series tracing 150 years of Oklahoma's history. "Oklahoma Passage" focuses on the fictional Benton family. Through the eyes of six generations, the viewer witnesses more than 150 years of life in Oklahoma, from the Cherokee Indians' settlements in the mid-1830's through the Civil war years, the Land Run of '89, the constitutional convention leading to statehood in 1907, the feast of the oil boom in the teens and '20s, the famine of the Dust Bowl and beyond, climaxing in the near future with an Oklahoma-born astronaut taking the first step in man's journey to Mars.
