Adventures from the Book of Virtues

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Adventures from the Book of Virtues is an American animated television series based on the books The Book of Virtues: A Treasury of Great Moral Stories, and The Children's Book of Virtues, both by William Bennett, who served as Secretary of Education under President Ronald Reagan. The program focuses on two main human characters, Zach and Annie, who learn various life lessons from their friends Plato the bison, Aurora the red-tailed hawk, Aristotle the prairie dog, and Socrates the bobcat. These lessons are told in the form of animated segments based on stories from a variety of sources including Bible stories, fairy tales, fables, mythology, and folk stories from different cultures.

Adventures originally aired as part of PBS's children's programming block from September 2, 1996 until the show's discontinuation in December 2000. There was a two-year gap in between the second and third seasons. Reruns of the series were broadcast on Qubo from November 3, 2008 until September 24, 2017.

Video Adventures from the Book of Virtues

Production

Much of the history of the production of Adventures From the Book of Virtues is situated within the strident culture wars within American politics in the 1990s. In June 1994, television producer Bruce D. Johnson, then an executive vice-president at Hanna-Barbera, was browsing through a bookstore in Washington, DC when he stumbled upon Bennett's 1993 book of moral tales, The Book of Virtues. Compelled by the book's themes, Johnson called Bennett with the idea of an animated television program for children based upon the book. According to Johnson:

"...I placed a cold call to William Bennett. To my surprise, he takes the call; to my chagrin, he informs me that 19 other companies have already approached him, including Disney, and that he was 'down the road' on a probable deal at that moment. Nevertheless, I inform him of my experience producing anthologies and express an interest in producing his book wherever it ended up. We have a pleasant conversation, and he offhandedly asks me to fax my resume to him. I do."

Johnson and Bennett eventually met and bonded over their shared dedication to children's television and moral philosophy. From there, the two agreed to begin production on what would become Adventures.

That same year in the 1994 midterm elections, the Republican Party won control of the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate, giving the Party control of Congress for the first time in four decades. In January 1995, Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich expressed publicly his desire to "zero out" federal funding for PBS, stating, "Why would you say to some poor worker out here with three kids, 'We're now going to take your money and tax you for a program that you may never watch?'" As the debate over federal funding for public broadcasting was being waged in Congress, Johnson shopped the developing project around to various networks, hoping to find one that would air Adventures in a prime time slot. According to conservative commentator L. Brent Bozell III, the show was rejected by CBS, while ABC, Family Channel and HBO were interested but ultimately did not take it. The final taker was PBS. Many conservative figures, including Bozell, approved of PBS's pickup of the series. When asked whether PBS was attempting to appease Congressional Republicans by accepting a series developed by a well-regarded Reagan cabinet appointee, PBS President Ervin S. Duggan denied, stating, "We are not buying Bill Bennett's opinions... The series is not political at all."

The show sought to illustrate themes of common virtues through well-known international heroes and stories, based on Bennett's Book of Virtues. The core audience were families with children who were between the ages of 3 and 10 years old. Music was produced by J.A.C Redford.

Maps Adventures from the Book of Virtues

Plot

The series focuses on two best friends: 10-year-old Zach Nichols, who is Caucasian American, and Annie Redfeather, who is Native American. In each episode of the series, one of them commits an act contrary to that day's chosen virtue (loyalty, compassion, courage, moderation, honesty, etc.) and suffers pain as a result (be it physical or moral). They seek counsel of one of Annie's animal friends. These animal friends are four anthropomorphic mountain-dwelling entities who between them possess immense knowledge of legends and literature as well as common sense and a lively sense of fun. They utilize classical works of famous authors, philosophers, poets, as well as fables and myths to communicate the truth of virtue to Zach and Annie. Plato, the oldest, is a scholarly bison; Aurora, the most gentle, is a Red-tailed Hawk; Socrates "Soch" is a rambunctious bobcat; and Aristotle is a prairie dog who is seldom without his bag of books. These four, whose existence seems a secret from the majority of humans in the town of Spring Valley, advise Annie and Zach patiently and often. The children then proceed to live according to the virtue of the day, completing what they have begun.

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Episodes List

Series overview

Season 1: 1996-1997

Season 2: 1998

Season 3: 2000

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Cast

Principal voice actors

• Pamela Adlon - Zach Nichols (Seasons 1-2)
• Andrew Francis - Zach Nichols (Season 3)
• Kath Soucie - Annie Redfeather (Seasons 1-2), Aurora (Season 1-2)
• Adrienne Carter - Annie Redfeather (Season 3)
• Kevin Michael Richardson - Plato (Seasons 1-2)
• Christopher Judge - Plato (Season 3)
• Gillian Barber - Aurora (Season 3)
• Frank Welker - Socrates (Season 1-2), Aegeus, Minotaur, Dharma, Mongal Dog, The Man, The Dog
• Michael Donovan - Socrates (Season 3)
• Jim Cummings - Aristotle (Season 1-2), Pythias, Camel, Ox, Genghis Khan, Mordecai
• Lee Tockar - Aristotle (Season 3)

Special appearances

Adventures from the Book of Virtues featured prominent celebrity voice talents, with 32 such recognizable voices appearing on the show's 39 episodes, including the following:

• Edward Asner - Daniel
• Kathy Bates - Girls' Mother
• Scott Bakula - Elbagast
• Irene Bedard - Morning Light, Sharp Eyes
• Ed Begley, Jr. - William Tel, Alec
• Dean Cain - King Charlemagne
• Tim Curry - King Minos, Albrecht Gessler
• Olivia d'Abo - Anne Sullivan
• Daniel Davis - Horse
• Pam Dawber - Liese
• Michael Dorn - Apollo
• Shelley Duvall - Fairy
• John Forsythe - Daedalus
• Henry Gibson - Dick's Please
• Joanna Gleason - Della
• Mark Hamill - Theseus
• Mark Harmon - Ulysses
• Tippi Hedren - Madame Sofroni
• Charlton Heston - Cincinnatus
• Michael Horse - Strong Wind
• Arte Johnson - John's Please
• Dean Jones - Chauncey
• Andrew Lawrence - Ben Rogers
• Matthew Lawrence - Tom Sawyer
• Malcolm McDowell - Indra
• Ricardo Montalbán - Brother Pedro, Merchant
• Esai Morales - Guillermo
• Pat Morita - Mr. Straw
• Kathy Najimy - Old Woman
• Paige O'Hara - Princess
• Brock Peters - King Ahasuerus
• Lou Diamond Phillips - Martin
• Paula Poundstone - Jinn
• Clive Revill - King Midas
• Julian Sands - Henry
• Chris Sarandon - Jim
• Ben Savage - Jinkyswoitmaya
• George Segal - Eli
• Charles Shaughnessy - Charles
• Kath Soucie - Aunt Polly, Queen Vashti
• Wes Studi - Scarface
• Joan Van Ark - Queen Esther
• Elijah Wood - Icarus
• Alfre Woodard - Harriet Tubman
• Michael York - Androcles

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Home releases

Turner Home Entertainment, under license to PBS Home Video, released various videotapes of the series during 1996-1997. They were later re-released through Warner Home Video and Paramount Home Entertainment. During 2008 and 2010, PorchLight Entertainment released various DVDs of the series.

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References

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External links

• Official website (Archive)
• Adventures From The Book of Virtues on IMDb

Source of article : Wikipedia