RAI Radiotelevisione Italiana National Broadcasting Company (NBC) Procter & Gamble Productions (PGP) Marco Polo is a 1982 American-Italian television miniseries originally broadcast by NBC in the United States and by RAI in Italy.

The series also features appearances by Denholm Elliott, Anne Bancroft, John Gielgud, Burt Lancaster, Ian McShane, Leonard Nimoy, and others.

[contradictory] Set in the 13th century, the series follows the adventures of Marco Polo, who departs with his father and his uncle to China.

His journey through Asia lasts three and a half years and leads him through barren deserts and vast steppes.

Marco spends several years in Beijing as a guest of the Great Khan, earning the trust of and respect from the Emperor.

In the year 1299, in the Italian city of Genoa, Rustichello da Pisa is held in a prison cell and questioned for information about Marco Polo.

The people questioning him are Brother Damien of Milan and Fillipe of Genoa, both members of the Order of Saint Dominic.

The Doge of Venice however, sees the potential of the Polos' quest and advises them to return to China immediately.

Marco's father and uncle tell him of stories of the great Kublai Khan and his court in the Yuan Dynasty in China.

Niccolò and Maffeo realise that they must take Marco with them on their journey, but only as far as Jerusalem until the heat dies down in Venice.

A few days before arriving at Jerusalem, Marco has his first taste of the world when he witnesses a contingent of Crusaders massacre a tribe of Bedouin.

When they return to him he reveals that he has been chosen to be the new pope by the college of Cardinals, and is providing two priests to accompany them so they can tell Kublai Khan about Christianity.

As the Polo family ready themselves to go East again, they are caught up in an ambush that kills Marco's friend Giulo.

Picking up where he left off in the story, Rustichello says the party reaches Badakshan, Afghanistan in 1273 and hunts for food.

The next morning, Kublai Khan and his son, Prince Chinkin invite Marco Polo to a private meeting on the waterfront in a lake.

Later that night, Marco's good Chinese friend is executed because he witnessed the epilepsy of the son of Kublai.

In the autumn, Kublia Khan's subordinate in Persia, Ahmad Fanakati, returns to the Kublai's place, with the news that he has completed the conquest of the empire.

Kublai plans to invade Japan, but the advisers are cautious and believe it is foolish because they are experts on horseback and weak in the sea.

Second, he reveals that he is the master at the financial system of the Empire and wants to send Marco to the region of Yanzhou to help collect taxes to the treasury.

As Marco Polo arrives at Talib's place, he is told people know of the attempt on his life, since news travels extremely fast.

The next day, Wang Zhu takes the Polos to visit the Immortals, wise men who live in the mountain.

As Marco wants to see his departed father and uncle, the resident foreign lady, Monica wishes to take him to them.

Upon completion of the tax collection, Jacopo decides to stay while Marco and the family leave back to Kublai's court.

Rebels sneak into the imperial palace to assassinate Achmed as his corruption is ruining Chinese peasants' lives.