''WonderWorks'' is a U.S.

children's A child () is a human being between the stages of birth and puberty, or between the developmental period of infancy and puberty. The term may also refer to an unborn human being. In English-speaking countries, the legal definition of ''child ...

anthology In book publishing, an anthology is a collection of literary works chosen by the compiler; it may be a collection of plays, poems, short stories, songs, or related fiction/non-fiction excerpts by different authors. There are also thematic and g ...

television series which ran from 1984 to 1992 for eight years. Produced by the

Public Broadcasting Service The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia Arlington County, or simply Arlington, is a County (United States), county in the ...

(PBS) along with

Walt Disney Home Video Buena Vista Home Entertainment, Inc. (doing business as Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment) is the home entertainment distribution arm of the Walt Disney Company. The division handles the distribution of Disney's films, television series, an ...

purchased the home video rights to the series in 1987 and was responsible for making the series available to the public on

VHS VHS (Video Home System) is a discontinued standard for consumer-level analog video recording on tape cassettes, introduced in 1976 by JVC. It was the dominant home video format throughout the tape media period of the 1980s and 1990s. Ma ...

and later

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 ki ...

in addition to airing some of the programs on the

Disney Channel Disney Channel is an American pay television television channel, channel that serves as the flagship (broadcasting), flagship property of Disney Branded Television, a unit of the Disney Entertainment business segment of the Walt Disney Company ...

Films

The series consisted of short, made-for-television films out of acclaimed

children's books A child () is a human being between the stages of birth and puberty, or between the developmental period of infancy and puberty. The term may also refer to an unborn human being. In English-speaking countries, the legal definition of ''chi ...

. They included adaptations of

Lucy Maud Montgomery Lucy Maud Montgomery (November 30, 1874 – April 24, 1942), published as L. M. Montgomery, was a Canadian author best known for a collection of novels, essays, short stories, and poetry beginning in 1908 with '' Anne of Green Gables''. Sh ...

's ''

Anne of Green Gables ''Anne of Green Gables'' is a 1908 novel by Canadian author Lucy Maud Montgomery (published as L. M. Montgomery). Written for all ages, it has been considered a classic children's novel since the mid-20th century. Set in the late 19th century, t ...

'', '' Bridge to Terabithia'', '' All Summer in a Day'', '' Jacob Have I Loved'', '' The Box of Delights'', C.S. Lewis' ''

The Chronicles of Narnia ''The Chronicles of Narnia'' is a series of seven portal fantasy novels by British author C. S. Lewis. Illustrated by Pauline Baynes and originally published between 1950 and 1956, the series is set in the fictional realm of Narnia (wor ...

'' 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 Stephen Manes (born January 8, 1949) is an American author, magazine columnist, and screenwriter known for the 2011 nonfiction book ''Where Snowflakes Dance and Swear: Inside the Land of Ballet.'' Its subject, the workings of a ballet company, ma ...

), ''Gryphon'', '' A Little Princess'', ''A Girl of the Limberlost'', '' Sweet 15'', '' A Waltz Through the Hills'', ''

The Canterville Ghost "The Canterville Ghost" is a humorous short story by Oscar Wilde. It was the first of Wilde's stories to be published, appearing in two parts as "The Canterville Ghost – A Hylo-Idealistic Romance: The Redemptive Heroine" in '' The Court and S ...

'', ''

Frog A frog is any member of a diverse and largely semiaquatic group of short-bodied, tailless amphibian vertebrates composing the order (biology), order Anura (coming from the Ancient Greek , literally 'without tail'). Frog species with rough ski ...

,'' ''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 Richmond ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the Commonwealth (U.S. state), U.S. commonwealth of Virginia. Incorporated in 1742, Richmond has been an independent city (United States), independent city since 1871. ...

during the

Civil War A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same Sovereign state, state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies.J ...

.Traitor in My House, Turner Classic Movies, Retrieved April 3, 2015, https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/475532/traitor-in-my-house The story is told through the eyes of Van Lew's niece, Louise Van Lew (age 12). ''Traitor in My House'' stars

Mary Kay Place Mary Kay Place (born September 23, 1947) is an American actress. She is best known for portraying Loretta Haggers on the television series '' Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman'', a role that won her the 1977 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Suppor ...

, Charles S. Dutton,

Harris Yulin Harris Bart Goldberg (November 5, 1937 – June 10, 2025), known professionally as Harris Yulin, was an American actor who appeared in over a hundred film and television series roles, such as '' Night Moves'' (1975; filmed in 1973) with Gene Hack ...

, and

Angela Goethals Angela Bethany Goethals ( ; born May 20, 1977) is an American film, television and stage actress. Goethals made her acting debut as a child actor in the 1987 Broadway production of '' Coastal Disturbances'', and was 14-years-old when she won th ...

.Traitor in My House, IMDb, Retrieved April 3, 2015, https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0294975/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1 The film is directed by Nell Cox and was produced by the Educational Film Center. Cate Adair provided costume design.

Production

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 numerous PBS stations, including WQED (Pittsburgh, PA),

KCET KCET (channel 28) is a secondary PBS member television station in Los Angeles, California, United States. It is owned by the Public Media Group of Southern California alongside the market's primary PBS member, Huntington Beach–licensed KOC ...

(Los Angeles, CA), KTCA (St. Paul-Minneapolis, MN), WHRO (Hampton-Norfolk, VA),

South Carolina Educational Television South Carolina Educational Television (branded South Carolina ETV, SCETV or simply ETV) is a state network of PBS member television stations serving the U.S. state of South Carolina. It is operated by the South Carolina Educational Television C ...

(SC), WETA (Washington, D.C.), and KERA (Dallas-Fort Worth, TX).

Broadcast and home media

''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

to release all episodes on videocassette. In 1999, VHS rights to 55 ''WonderWorks'' specials were passed over to Canadian company CINAR Corporation (now in WildBrain), who have since sold the rights to Questar Entertainment sometime in the 2000s.

References

External links

* {{Former PBS Kids original programming PBS original programming PBS Kids shows Television series by Disney 1980s American anthology television series 1990s American anthology television series 1980s American children's television series 1990s American children's television series 1984 American television series debuts 1992 American television series endings