The Distant Drummer is a short-lived series of four 22-minute American documentary films produced in the early 1970s as a societal warning against the proliferation of drugs during the counterculture of the 1960s. Directed by William Templeton and written by Don Peterson, the series was produced by Airlie Foundation and George Washington University Department of Medical and Public Affairs and lists "in cooperation with" credits for the American Academy of General Practice, the District of Columbia Medical Society and the National Institute of Mental Health.