CBS Storybreak

CBS Storybreak is a Saturday-morning animated literary anthology series. It was a co-production between America's Hanna-Barbera Australia and Australia's Southern Star Entertainment for CBS Entertainment. It ran for three seasons, premiering on CBS 30 March 1985 and concluding 28 January 1989. It was often pre-empted for weekend sports in many time slots.

Overview[]

Each half-hour episode was based on a different children's book, such as How to Eat Fried Worms, Dragon's Blood, and Ratha's Creature, essentially making them one-shots, and the variety format of episodes featured an inconsistent, revolving cast of characters, with the exception of Raggedy Ann and Andy and The Camel with The Wrinkled Knees, as it was spun-off into The Adventures of Raggedy Ann and Andy, airing on the same channel. The episodes would be shown between the live-action wraparounds, in which the original host, Bob Keeshan (a.k.a. Captain Kangaroo), appeared at the beginning to introduce the books and episodes of the same titles. Afterward, he would reappear to close out the show and recommend other books by the U.S. Library of Congress, and/or the preview of the next episode was shown.

When the series returned to air for repeats during the mid- to late 1990s, Malcolm-Jamal Warner replaced Keeshan as the host. The program was similar to the ABC Weekend Special, but also different in its own right in that all the episodes were animated only, whereas the ABC Weekend Special featured both live-action and animated episodes. Furthermore, some of the specials were split into two or three parts, making them mini-series, which was never the case with any of the episodes of this. Another thing of note is that a few of the specials had sequels, unlike this series. Although those focused mainly on adaptations of books, there were exceptions. Like the ABC Weekend Special, the purpose of CBS Storybreak was to encourage children to get interested in literacy.

Unusual for an American TV series, CBS Storybreak featured open captions by the Caption Center for the Hearing Impaired. Not only was this beneficial to the hearing impaired, but the captions also allowed those who could hear to read along with the stories.

Episodes[]

The Great Ringtail Garbage Caper
Yeh-Shen: A Cinderella Story from China
Robbut: A Tale of Tails
How to Eat Fried Worms
Zucchini
Hank the Cowdog
The Double Disappearance of Walter Fozbek
Chocolate Fever
Dragon's Blood
Arnold of the Ducks
C.L.U.T.Z.
Witch-Cat
The Pig Plantagenet
Harry, the Fat Bear Spy
Hugh Pine
The Roquefort Gang
Mama Don't Allow
The Shy Stegosaurus of Cricket Creek
What Happened in Hamelin
The Monster's Ring
Max and Me and the Time Machine
The Gammage Cup
Jeffrey's Ghost
Grinny
Raggedy Ann and Andy and the Camel with the Wrinkled Knees
Ratha's Creature

Trivia[]

CBS Storybreak was the first animated series produced in-house by CBS since the original Terrytoons.
It was nominated for a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Animated Program during the 1985/86 season.
Crew member Sander Schwarz would be a future president of Warner Bros. Animation in 2002.
The Raggedy Ann and Andy episode is the only one that was spun-off into its own, separate series, The Adventures of Raggedy Ann and Andy, which also aired on CBS.

Availability[]

In 1992, "Arnold of the Ducks", "C.L.U.T.Z.", "Chocolate Fever", and "How to Eat Fried Worms" were released on VHS. In 1998, "Yeh-Shen: A Cinderella Story" and "Robbut: A Tale of Tails" were released on VHS.