Long Ago and Far Away

Oh, these are wonderful stories that children and adults know and love. So far, I can find a few on YouTube, but, being the needy student of life I am, I'd love to see all of them again.

I love the opening theme music, I absolutely love this post-Darth Vader James Earl Jones voice that introduces each episode, and even though I'm an adult. I love the various sorts of animation used in various stories.

My absolute favorites of these stories are: "Svathor" and "The Flying Ship and the Fool of the World" both from Russia, "The Talking Parcel", and "The Pied (meaning "colorful" Piper of Hamlin".

The children's literature series "Long Ago and Far Away", which aired on PBS in the late 1980's and early 1990's, needs to return! I am an elementary school teacher who recalls the rich and wonderful stories presented in this award-winning children's literature series, and would love to use them as part of my teaching. Years ago I even managed to secure a Discussion and Activity Guide, only to discover that the series was no longer available. To quote the guide's writer, Susan Hepler, "Television is a far-reaching, influential, and entertaining medium. Its potential for educating young children in the humanities, however, has largely been unrealized. Yet educators have seen the value of such public television programming... in motivating children to read the books that these programs feature. Long Ago and Far Away focuses on timeless stories, dramatizing or animating them to appeal to an audience of children five to nine years old and their families. The dramatizations are faithful to the spirit and intent of their literary sources. ... Subtleties in characterization and narrative, as well as the visual power of each film, invite children to experience the power of the story as it has been told or written. Consequently, when children encounter the actual book or a story similar to the one they have just viewed, they already have some familiarity with its content. This familiarity invites them to return to the literary source and to move into related literature." When there is something wonderful like this, and an enthusiastic audience waiting in the wings, why is it withheld for so long from the general public? Again, I appeal to a persuasive body to set this series in motion again. It is sorely needed.

When this most excellent series was being broadcast on PBS, we taped a few of them "As Long as He can Count the Cows" being the first one we kept. This grouping of programs is extraordinarily literate, well-produced, and of diverse style and ethnic background. I have spend many hours on the internet trying to purchase this series, to no avail. If anyone can direct us all to a source, it would be a real public service. The only copy I could find in my research was at a college library in California. This series should be brought back on air, it is a real treasure, especially in these times of such a dearth of children's quality programming.

I loved this when I was a kid. James Earl Jones narrates in a deep voice. Different media, topic, creator, and culture/country every week. Some deep philosophical topics (what if we were part of a dream?), fables/tales from different countries. This was really mind-bending and absorbing, and I'd love to own a DVD of this so I could share it with my daughter!

There was an episode that was animated (I think most of them were) but if I remember correctly, it involved some kids with fantasy creature friends and they had to rescue someone in a mountain fortress type thing. I also think that they discovered that water destroyed the monster creatures that were the "bad guys" in the episode. I really hope this rings a bell for somebody. It really is a shame these aren't readily available to anybody since so many people spent their childhood watching them. I remember another episode that I thought was about Johnny Appleseed but I guess it was called something else. Thanks for everyone's help.