Liberty's Kids is an animated educational historical fiction television series produced by DIC Entertainment, originally broadcast on PBS Kids from September 2, 2002 to April 4, 2003, although PBS continued to air reruns until August 2004. The show has since been syndicated by DiC to affiliates of smaller television networks such as The CW and MyNetworkTV and some independent stations so that those stations can fulfill FCC educational and informational requirements. Since September 16, 2006, the series aired on CBS's new block called KOL Secret Slumber Party on CBS, then it was aired on KEWLopolis, which taking September 12, 2009. In 2008 it ran on The History Channel. The series is currently on the Cookie Jar Toons block on This TV. In 2012, qubo announced the channel will air Liberty's Kids in fall 2012. The series was based on an idea by Kevin O'Donnell, developed for TV by Kevin O'Donnell, Robby London, Mike Maliani and Andy Heyward.
Its purpose is to teach its audience of 7 to 14 year olds about the origins of the United States of America. Much like the CBS cartoon mini-series based on Peanuts; This is America, Charlie Brown years before, Liberty's Kids tells of young people in dramas surrounding the major events in the Revolutionary War days. Celebrity voices such as Walter Cronkite (as Benjamin Franklin), Sylvester Stallone (as Paul Revere), Ben Stiller (as Thomas Jefferson), Billy Crystal (as John Adams), Dustin Hoffman (as Benedict Arnold), Arnold Schwarzenegger (as Baron von Steuben), and Don Francisco (as Bernardo de Galvez) lend credence to characters critical to the forming of a free country, from the Boston Tea Party to the Constitutional Convention.
The shows run a half-hour, including commercials. On public television, these are replaced by segments that include "The Liberty News Network" (a newscast delivered by Cronkite summarizing the events of the episode, with each including his signature sign off "that's the way it is"), "Mystery Guest" (a guessing game where the kids guess a historical figure, who often is a character in the episode), "Now and Then" (a segment comparing life in the Revolutionary Era and today), and "Continental Cartoons" (a rebus word guessing game).
Read more about Liberty's Kids: Fictional Characters, Additional Voices, Theme, Episodes, DVD Release
Famous quotes containing the words liberty and/or kids:
“To suppose that any form of government will secure liberty or happiness without any virtue in the people, is a chimerical idea.”
—James Madison (1751–1836)
“However strongly they resist it, our kids have to learn that as adults we need the companionship and love of other adults. The more direct we are about our needs, the easier it may be for our children to accept those needs. Their jealousy may come from a fear that if we adults love each other we might not have any left for them. We have to let them know that it’s a different kind of love.”
—Ruth Davidson Bell. Ourselves and Our Children, by Boston Women’s Health Book Collective, ch. 3 (1978)