The program did not use the score written for the highly successful Mary Martin version which had previously been televised many times on NBC. Instead, it featured 14 new and now forgotten songs, written for the production by Anthony Newley and Leslie Bricusse. The story was adapted by Andrew Birkin (who would subsequently become a leading Barrie scholar) and Jack Burns. Although part-funded by NBC with two American stars, most of the cast was British and it was shot at ATV'sElstree Studios, near London.
This version of Peter Pan won an Emmy for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Children's Programming for Jenn de Joux's and Elizabeth Savel's visual effects, and was nominated for Outstanding Children's Special, however it was not rebroadcast. But it was featured in 2011 at the Paley Center in New York City as part of the New York Musical Theatre Festival.[2]
In 1976, this was the second of two TV musical adaptations of a children's classic which starred Danny Kaye opposite a woman playing the part of a young boy. On March 27, 1976, CBS telecast Pinocchio with Kaye as Gepetto and Sandy Duncan in the title role.
