Famous Classic Tales


Famous Classic Tales is an American anthology series on CBS which aired animated television specials based on classic children's stories from 1970 to 1984. The series was produced by the Australian division of Hanna-Barbera and Air Programs International, also from Australia.

Overview

Famous Classic Tales was broadcast on CBS 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, Black Beauty, Moby-Dick, 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, Ohio. The series was created for a Sive client, toy manufacturer Kenner Products, 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 Hucker's studio, Air Programs International, of Sydney, Australia. API was purchased later by Hanna-Barbera Studios 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, was produced by Rankin/Bass 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, Fox-Lorber and Kids Klassics. Several other stories made it to DVD afterwards, including a 2007 release from Southern Star by Koch Vision 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.