Awards for WonderWorks
Former PBS Kids original programming
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| WonderWorks | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Anthology series |
| Original release | |
| Network | PBS |
| Release | 1984 – 1992 |
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]
The series consisted of short, made-for-television films out of acclaimed children's books. They included adaptations of Lucy Maud'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]
The WonderWorks series' opening intro consisted of a computer-animated, lightbulb-shaped, hot air balloon with an airplane at the base of it under the name The WonderWorks Balloon Plane as the main focal point of the intro.
During 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 all of PBS stations: 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).
WonderWorks 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.
