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CBS Storybreak is a Saturday morning anthology television series that originally aired on the CBS network from 1985 to 1989.[1] Hosted by Bob Keeshan (and in its 1993 return by Malcolm-Jamal Warner), the episodes are half-hour animated adaptations of children's books published at the time of airing, including Chocolate Fever. Other episodes included Dragon's Blood and Ratha's Creature. The show grew out of a feature on Keeshan's Captain Kangaroo series.[2]
| CBS Storybreak | |
|---|---|
 CBS Storybreak logo, as seen on the show's opening sequence. | |
| Presented by | Bob Keeshan (1985–1989) Malcolm-Jamal Warner (1993–1994) |
| Country of origin | United States Australia |
| Original language | English |
| No. of seasons | 3 |
| No. of episodes | 26 |
| Production | |
| Running time | 30 minutes |
| Production companies | Southern Star/Hanna-Barbera Australia CBS Entertainment Productions |
| Original release | |
| Network | CBS |
| Release | March 30, 1985 – January 28, 1989 |
CBS' first in-house cartoon series since their original Terrytoons, it was nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Animated Program in the 1985–1986 season. It continued in repeats until 1991 and returned to air in reruns (with Jamal-Warner replacing Keeshan as host) from the 1993–94 to 1997–98 seasons. Select episodes were released on home video in 1992 under the title Video Storybreak.
Unique for an American television series, the series featured open captions captioned by the National Captioning Institute for the hearing impaired during its 1993 reairing, instead of the usual closed captioning. In addition to being a convenience for the hearing-impaired, this also allowed those who could hear to read along with the story. The episodes were produced by Australia's Southern Star/Hanna-Barbera Australia for CBS Entertainment Productions. The series featured regular Read More About It project selections from the Library of Congress in Washington DC, that were highlighted at the end of show by both Keeshan and Jamal-Warner.
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Season 1 (1985)
| No. overall | No. in season | Title | Original air date |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | "The Great Ringtail Garbage Caper" | March 30, 1985 |
| 2 | 2 | "Yeh-Shen: A Cinderella Story from China" | April 6, 1985 |
| 3 | 3 | "Robbut: A Tale of Tails" | April 13, 1985 |
| 4 | 4 | "How to Eat Fried Worms" | April 20, 1985 |
| 5 | 5 | "Zucchini" | April 27, 1985 |
| 6 | 6 | "Hank the Cowdog" | May 4, 1985 |
| 7 | 7 | "The Double Disappearance of Walter Fozbek" | May 11, 1985 |
| 8 | 8 | "Chocolate Fever" | May 18, 1985 |
| 9 | 9 | "Dragon's Blood" | May 25, 1985 |
| 10 | 10 | "Arnold of the Ducks" | June 1, 1985 |
Season 2 (1985)
| No. overall | No. in season | Title | Original air date |
|---|---|---|---|
| 11 | 1 | "C.L.U.T.Z." | September 14, 1985 |
| 12 | 2 | "Witch-Cat" | September 21, 1985 |
| 13 | 3 | "The Pig Plantagenet" | September 28, 1985 |
| 14 | 4 | "Harry, the Fat Bear Spy" | October 12, 1985 |
| 15 | 5 | "Hugh Pine" | October 26, 1985 |
| 16 | 6 | "The Roquefort Gang" | November 9, 1985 |
Season 3 (1987–1989)
| No. overall | No. in season | Title | Original air date |
|---|---|---|---|
| 17 | 1 | "Mama Don't Allow" | September 19, 1987 |
| 18 | 2 | "The Shy Stegosaurus of Cricket Creek" | September 26, 1987 |
| 19 | 3 | "What Happened in Hamelin" | October 3, 1987 |
| 20 | 4 | "The Monster's Ring" | October 10, 1987 |
| 21 | 5 | "Max and Me and the Time Machine" | October 17, 1987 |
| 22 | 6 | "The Gammage Cup" | October 24, 1987 |
| 23 | 7 | "Jeffrey's Ghost" | September 17, 1988 |
| 24 | 8 | "Grinny" | September 24, 1988 |
| 25 | 9 | "Raggedy Ann and Andy and the Camel with the Wrinkled Knees" | October 1, 1988 |
| 26 | 10 | "Ratha's Creature" | January 28, 1989 |
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- Network Ten (Australia)
- Channel 5 (Singapore)
- RTÉ (Ireland)
- The Pagemaster, a film with a similar premise
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