Here’s some teachers’ notes which were sent to schools in advance of the 1979 CBS broadcast of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe cartoon.
DVD cover for the full version of the cartoon
I had a moment of nostalgia reading these discussion points. First, they seem very literary and in-depth compared to the notes which would be written for students today. I can’t imagine a 10 or 11 year old answering any of them or even knowing what they mean. Perhaps students then had an attention span that doesn’t exist anymore. Oh wait, I was a student back then. I know I did.
Second, in the 1970s, 80s, and early 90s television was truly mass media in a way that wouldn’t exist today, with its plethora of disparate alternate media. Nearly all the U.S. public had a TV set or access to one; TV specials like, say, Jacques Cousteau, pre-empted normal programming and were Big Events to the schoolchildren of the day. If teachers assigned a TV special to be watched, it would be watched, unless the child’s family was away from home doing something else.
Third, the reference to The Phantom Tollbooth, a prominent YA book of the 1970s that, for some reason, has gone out of fashion for today’s audiences.
Unlike the press announcement I showed in Part 1, these notes are typeset. I’m guessing the producers wanted them to stick around a while in case the special re-broadcast, which it was (and eventually turned up in VHS and DVD forms.)
Fun fact: The actor who voiced Mr. Tumnus was Victor Spinetti, who also appeared in the musical version of The Little Prince and The Beatles’ Magical Mystery Tour!
