Liberty's Kids (stylized on-screen as Liberty's Kids: Est. 1776) is an American animated historical fiction television series produced by DIC Entertainment Corporation, and originally aired on PBS Kids from September 2, 2002, to April 4, 2003, with reruns airing on most PBS stations until October 10, 2004.
The series was based on an idea by Kevin O'Donnell and developed for television by O'Donnell, Robby London, Mike Maliani, and Andy Heyward, initially under the name of Poor Richard's Almanac. It received two Daytime Emmy nominations in 2003 and 2004 for Outstanding Performer in an Animated Program (Walter Cronkite, playing Benjamin Franklin). Its purpose is to teach its viewers about the origins of the United States. Like the earlier cartoon mini-series This Is America, Charlie Brown, Liberty's Kids tells of young people in dramas surrounding the major events in the American Revolution and the American Revolutionary War.
The show features celebrity voice talents, such as CBS News anchorman Walter Cronkite (as Benjamin Franklin), Sylvester Stallone (as Paul Revere), Ben Stiller (as Thomas Jefferson), Billy Crystal (as John Adams), Annette Bening (as Abigail Adams), Dustin Hoffman (as Benedict Arnold), Michael Douglas (as Patrick Henry), Arnold Schwarzenegger (as Baron von Steuben), Liam Neeson (as John Paul Jones), Whoopi Goldberg (as Deborah Sampson), Charles Shaughnessy (as King George III), Michael York (as Admiral Lord Richard Howe), Don Francisco (as Bernardo de Gálvez), and Aaron Carter (as Joseph Plum Martin) who lend credence to characters critical to the forming of a free country, from the Boston Tea Party to the Constitutional Convention.
The episodes run a half-hour, including segments that include "The Liberty News Network" or LNN (a newscast delivered by Cronkite summarizing the events of the episode, with each including his trademark 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). The LNN segment art was directed by designer Mike Bundlie. During syndicated airings, these are replaced by commercials.
Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)
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