CBS Children's Film Festival

The CBS Children's Film Festival was an award-winning Anthology series made up of live action films for children from countries around the world. Originally a sporadic series airing variously on Saturday mornings, Sunday afternoons, or weekday afternoons during the summer starting in 1967, it became a regularly scheduled program in 1971 on the CBS Saturday morning lineup, running one hour with some films apparently edited down to fit the time slot. The program was hosted by 1950s television act "Kukla, Fran and Ollie", aka puppeteer Burr Tillstrom and actress Fran Allison.

In 1977, Kukla, Fran and Ollie were dropped from the series and the program was renamed CBS Saturday Film Festival. In 1978 CBS canceled the show in favor of the youth-targeted magazine show 30 Minutes (modeled on 60 Minutes). CBS canceled 30 Minutes in 1982 and brought back Saturday Film Festival which ran for two more seasons before being cancelled for good in 1984. During this period actor Ray Bolger occasionally served as narrator.

Films that aired as part of the series run include the Oscar-winning French film The Red Balloon, The Johnstown Monster from Ireland, Skinny and Fatty from Japan, Digby, the Biggest Dog in the World from Great Britain, Tillie, the Unhappy Hippopotamus from Czechoslovakia, and Mi-Mi, the Lazy Kitten from China. Perhaps the most famous "episode" of the series was the 1960 British film Hand in Hand, the story of a deep friendship between two elementary school students, one a Roman Catholic boy and the other a Jewish girl.


 * Anthology Series
 * Dubbing: Most films from non-English-speaking countries were dubbed.
 * Narrator: Ray Bolger, during the 1980s.
 * Uncanceled: In 1982, after a four-year hiatus.