WonderWorks


WonderWorks is an anthology series which ran from 1984 to 1992 co-produced by The Walt Disney Company and PBS that made short, made-for-television films out of acclaimed children's books. They included adaptations of Anne of Green Gables, Bridge to Terabithia, All Summer in a Day, Jacob Have I Loved, The Box of Delights, 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!, 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, a 50-minute film that tells the story of Elizabeth Van Lew, a Union sympathizer who lived in Richmond, Virginia during the American Civil War. The story is told through the eyes of Van Lew's 12-year-old niece, Louise Van Lew. Traitor in My House stars Mary Kay Place, Charles S. Dutton, Harris Yulin, and Angela Goethals. The film is directed by Nell Cox and was produced by the Educational Film Center. Cate Adair provided costume design.
The WonderWorks series opening intro consisted of a computer animated light bulb shaped hot air balloon with an airplane at the base of it under the name The WonderWorks BalloonPlane as the main focal point of the intro.
Later productions of the show was renamed as The WonderWorks' Family Movie up until the series' end.
The program was co-produced by WQED-Pittsburgh, KCET-Los Angeles, KTCA-St. Paul/Minneapolis, WHRO-Hampton-Norfolk/Virginia, South Carolina Educational Television, WETA-Washington, D.C. and KERA-Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas.