Campbell conceived of the original lectures, filmed over the last six years of his life, as a summation of what he had learned about the human mythic impulse, in terms of psychology, ethnology and comparative mythology—what he called "the one great story of mankind.

"[1] After Campbell's death and the posthumous celebrity brought by the airing in 1988 of The Power of Myth, the filmmakers who had recorded the lectures quickly cobbled together a much-abridged, hastily edited series for PBS entitled Transformations of Myth Through Time.

An even-more-highly redacted version was briefly released under the title The World of Joseph Campbell.

After these initial releases, the original distributor, Unipix, promptly went bankrupt, and production on the series halted.

The decision was eventually made that the planned fourth volume, dealing with James Joyce's novels, was to be released in 2013 as a separate product.