A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court - Adaptations and References

Adaptations and References

Since the beginning of the 20th century, this famous story has been adapted many times to stage, feature-length motion pictures, and animated cartoons. The earliest film version was Fox's 1921 silent version. In 1927, the novel was adapted into the musical, A Connecticut Yankee, by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart. A 1931 film, also called A Connecticut Yankee, starred Will Rogers. The story was adapted as an hour-long radio play on the October 5, 1947 broadcast of the Ford Theatre, starring Karl Swenson. A 1949 musical film featured Bing Crosby and Rhonda Fleming, with music by Jimmy Van Heusen and Victor Young. In 1970, the book was adapted into a 74-minute animated TV special directed by Zoran Janjic with Orson Bean as the voice of the title character. A 1978 episode of Once Upon a Classic, "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court", was an adaptation. The TV series The Transformers had a second season episode, "A Decepticon Raider in King Arthur's Court", an episode that had a group of Autobots and Decepticons sent back to medieval times. In 1988, the Soviet variation called New adventures of a Yankee in King Arthur's Court. Fantasy over Mark Twain's theme appeared. More recently it was adapted into a 1989 TV movie by Paul Zindel which starred Keshia Knight Pulliam of The Cosby Show.

It has also inspired many variations and parodies, such as the 1979 Bugs Bunny special, A Connecticut Rabbit In King Arthur's Court. In 1995, Walt Disney Studios adapted the book into the feature film A Kid in King Arthur's Court.

In the Carl Sagan novel, Contact, the protagonist, Eleanor Arroway, is reading the A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, specifically the scene where Hank first approaches Camelot, when she finds out about her father's death. The quote “'Bridgeport?' Said I. 'Camelot,' Said he.” is also used later in the book, and the story is used as a metaphor for contact between civilizations at very different levels of technological and ethical advancement.