''Famous Classic Tales'' is an animated anthology television series featuring

animated Animation is a method by which still figures are manipulated to appear as moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Today, most ani ...

adaptations of classic children's stories which aired on

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...

from 1970 to 1984. The series was produced by the Australian division of Hanna-Barbera and Air Programs International (API), also from Australia. However, the final installment was animated by Ruby-Spears Enterprises.

Overview

''Famous Classic Tales'' was broadcast on

and distributed by Kids Klassics Home Video and Storybook World. It had cartoons from API's '' Family Classic Tales''. Featured cartoons included adaptions of classic literature such as '' Gulliver's Travels'', ''

Treasure Island ''Treasure Island'' (originally titled ''The Sea Cook: A Story for Boys''Hammond, J. R. 1984. "Treasure Island." In ''A Robert Louis Stevenson Companion'', Palgrave Macmillan Literary Companions. London: Palgrave Macmillan. .) is an adventure no ...

'', ''

Black Beauty ''Black Beauty: His Grooms and Companions, the Autobiography of a Horse'' is an 1877 novel by English author Anna Sewell. It was composed in the last years of her life, during which she was bedridden and seriously ill.Merriam-Webster (1995). ...

'', ''

Moby-Dick ''Moby-Dick; or, The Whale'' is an 1851 novel by American writer Herman Melville. The book is the sailor Ishmael's narrative of the obsessive quest of Ahab, captain of the whaling ship ''Pequod'', for revenge against Moby Dick, the giant whi ...

'', and many others. The creation of a series of animated features based on classic children's stories was conceived by Jack Thinnes, Media Director at Sive Advertising in

Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

. The series was created for a Sive client, toy manufacturer

Kenner Products Kenner Products, known simply as Kenner, was an American toy company founded in 1946. Throughout its history, the Kenner brand produced several highly recognizable toys and merchandise lines including action figures like the original series of ' ...

, and each program was fully sponsored by Kenner on CBS Television Network on Sunday, late afternoon or early evening, during the prime toy selling season before Christmas. In 1983, the show was billed as ''Kenner Family Classics''. The idea to use classic children's books sprang from Thinnes' viewing of a two-minute demo of Dickens' '' A Christmas Carol'', which was produced by Walter J. Hucker's studio, Air Programs International (API), of Sydney, Australia. API was acquired by Hanna-Barbera in 1972 after Thinnes introduced the owners of the studios to one another. After the series ran on CBS for nearly ten years, it was moved into local syndication by Sive's syndication department. However, their adaptation of ''A Christmas Carol'' was such a favorite that it continued to run on the network for fifteen years. A similar series, ''

Festival of Family Classics ''Festival of Family Classics'' is a Rankin/Bass animated anthology series that originally aired between 1972 and 1973. The show originally aired in syndication. It was re-aired 1 November 2005 on the Boomerang channel and on 16 June 2011 via the ...

'', was produced by

Rankin/Bass Rankin/Bass Animated Entertainment (founded and formerly known as Videocraft International, Ltd. and Rankin/Bass Productions, Inc.) was an American production company located in New York City, and known for its seasonal television specials, usual ...

and aired in syndication in 1972–1973.

Episode list

Home video release

Several of the ''Famous Classic Tales'' specials were released on VHS by

GoodTimes Entertainment GoodTimes Entertainment, Ltd. was an American home video company that originated in 1984 under the name of GoodTimes Home Video. Though it produced its own titles, the company was well known due to its distribution of media from third parties and ...

, Fox-Lorber, Kids Klassics, Hanna-Barbera Home Video and

Turner Home Entertainment Turner Entertainment Company is an American multimedia company founded by Ted Turner in 1986. Purchased by Time Warner in 1996 as part of its acquisition of Turner Broadcasting System (TBS), the company was largely responsible for overseeing th ...

. Several other stories made it to

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...

afterwards, including a 2007 release from Southern Star by

Koch Vision Entertainment One Ltd., trading as eOne, is an American-owned Canadian multinational entertainment company. Based in Toronto, Ontario, the company is primarily involved in the acquisition, distribution, and production of films and television se ...

titled Hanna-Barbera Storybook Favorites which featured ''The Last of the Mohicans'', ''Black Beauty'' and ''Gulliver's Travels''. All of these are now out of print.

References

External links

* {{bcdb , Other_Studios/A/Air_Programs_International/Family_Classic_Tales/, Famous Classic Tales 1970 American television series debuts 1984 American television series endings 1970s American animated television series 1980s American animated television series 1970s American anthology television series 1980s American anthology television series 1970s American television specials 1980s American television specials American children's animated anthology television series 1970 Australian television series debuts 1984 Australian television series endings 1970s Australian animated television series English-language television shows CBS original programming CBS television specials Hanna-Barbera television specials Television series by Hanna-Barbera