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WonderWorks is a U.S. children's anthology television series which ran from 1984 to 1992 for eight years. Produced by the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) along with Walt Disney Home Video purchased the home video rights to the series in 1987 and was responsible for making the series available to the public on VHS and later DVD in addition to airing some of the programs on the Disney Channel.[1]
| WonderWorks | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Anthology series |
| Original release | |
| Network | PBS |
| Release | 1984 – 1992 |
Films
editThe series consisted of short, made-for-television films out of acclaimed children's books. They included adaptations of Lucy Maud Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables, Bridge to Terabithia, All Summer in a Day, Jacob Have I Loved, The Box of Delights, C.S. Lewis' The Chronicles of Narnia series, Miracle at Moreaux, The Hoboken Chicken Emergency, Odile & Yvette at the Edge of the World, How to Be a Perfect Person in Just Three Days! (by Stephen Manes), Gryphon, A Little Princess, A Girl of the Limberlost, Sweet 15, A Waltz Through the Hills, The Canterville Ghost, Frog, The Haunting of Barney Palmer, Lone Star Kid, Caddie Woodlawn, The House of Dies Drear, and The Boy Who Loved Trolls. It also co-produced the Australian Clowning Around series.
WonderWorks also carried Traitor in My House (1990), a 50-minute film that tells the story of Elizabeth Van Lew, a Union sympathizer who lived in Richmond, Virginia during the Civil War.[2] The story is told through the eyes of Van Lew's niece, Louise Van Lew (age 12).[2] Traitor in My House stars Mary Kay Place, Charles S. Dutton, Harris Yulin, and Angela Goethals.[3] The film is directed by Nell Cox and was produced by the Educational Film Center.[3][4][5] Cate Adair provided costume design.[6]
Production
editDuring the airing of new productions, the series was retitled as The WonderWorks' Family Movie up until the series' ending in 1992.
The program was co-produced by numerous PBS stations, including WQED (Pittsburgh, PA), KCET (Los Angeles, CA), KTCA (St. Paul-Minneapolis, MN), WHRO (Hampton-Norfolk, VI), South Carolina Educational Television (SC), WETA (Washington, D.C.), and KERA (Dallas-Fort Worth, TX).
Broadcast and home media
editWonderWorks aired mainly on PBS in the 1980s, in addition to airing some of the programs on the Disney Channel until the mid-1990s. In 1987, the series' home video rights were picked up by Walt Disney Home Video to release all episodes on videocassette.[7]
In 1999, VHS rights to 55 WonderWorks specials were passed over to Canadian company CINAR Corporation (now in WildBrain),[8] who have since sold the rights to Questar Entertainment sometime in the 2000s.
References
edit- ^ "Home Video: Disney HV Gets Video Rights To 'Wonderworks'". Variety. 328 (4): 44. August 19, 1987.
- ^ a b Traitor in My House, Turner Classic Movies, Retrieved April 3, 2015, http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/475532/Traitor-in-My-House/
- ^ a b Traitor in My House, IMDb, Retrieved April 3, 2015, https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0294975/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
- ^ The Educational Film Center, University of Wisconsin System, Retrieved April 3, 2015, http://uwpress.wisc.edu/books/2424-edu-film-center.htm
- ^ EFC, Educational Film Center, Retrieved April 3, 2015, http://www.efcvideo.com/Pages/EfcVideoFrameset.html
- ^ Traitor in My House, Cate Adair Costume Design, Catherine Adair, Retrieved April 3, 2015, http://catherineadair.com/television/traitor-in-my-house/
- ^ "Disney HV Gets Rights To 'Wonderworks'". Variety. 1987-08-19. p. 44.
- ^ Kelly, Brendan (1999-12-02). "Cinar nabs Wonderworks' family pix". Variety. Retrieved 2022-07-04.
External links
edit- List of WonderWorks films on Movieretriever at the Wayback Machine (archived August 20, 2016)