A new miniseries premiering next month on the History Channel tells the back story of America's Founding Fathers, who started out as a ragtag band of secretive young radicals. "Sons of Liberty" retraces the steps of Samuel Adams, John Hancock, Paul Revere and other luminaries. Cast members say the powdered wigs and oil paintings don't tell the full story of the revolutionaries' furtive efforts to turn a colony into a country.

The History Channel's Dirk Hoogstra says Adams and his comrades were untrained and disorganized. Hoogstra says that makes their decision to take on the British even more remarkable. At the time Britain was the greatest military power in the world. The six-hour series is filmed in Romania. It airs starting Jan. 25.

- Associated Press