Peter Pan is a 1976 musical adaptation of J. M. Barrie's Peter Pan, or the Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up, produced for television as part of the Hallmark Hall of Fame, starring Mia Farrow as Peter Pan and Danny Kaye as Captain Hook, and with Sir John Gielgud narrating. Julie Andrews sang one of the songs, "Once Upon a Bedtime", off-camera over the opening credits. It aired on NBC at 7:30pm on Sunday, December 12, 1976, capping off the program's 25th year on the air. 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.
Acting
Danny Kaye's Hook chews scenery Mia Farrow's Peter barely touches.
Score
Newley-Bricusse songs: ambitious, dated, fascinatingly forgotten.
Production
Hallmark Hall of Fame 25th anniversary budget on full display.
Director
Dwight Hemion
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
This was Dwight Hemion's first dramatic directing credit after decades of variety specials—explaining the slightly surreal staging.
The 1976 broadcast competed against CBS's 60 Minutes and ABC's Six Million Dollar Man—family entertainment's last stand before the '70s got gritty.
US
