CBS Children's Film Festival
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CBS Children's Film Festival was a television series of live action films from several countries that were made for children (several of them dubbed into English). Originally a sporadic series airing on Saturday mornings, Sunday afternoons, or weekday afternoons during the summer from 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.
Kukla, Fran and Ollie were dropped from the series in 1977 and the program was renamed CBS Saturday Film Festival. CBS cancelled the program in 1984 after several years of irregular broadcasts.
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 Catholic boy and the other a Jewish girl.
In addition to many American and British films, the series also featured motion pictures from Russia, France, Bulgaria, Japan, Sweden, Italy, China, Australia, South Africa, and Czechvokia as well as several other countries.
Other films that aired during the series run include the Oscar-winning French film The Red Balloon, Skinny and Fatty from Japan, and Digby, the Biggest Dog in the World from Great Britain.
