Snow White TV Special (50th Anniversary - 1987)

We wrap up our month-long look at the Snow White 50th Anniversary with a television show.

Screen captures via DTVzone.

This 45 minute NBC special, Disney's Golden Anniversary of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, originally aired on May 22, 1987. It was then shown later on their weekly series The Magical World of Disney. A Michael Eisner introduction was added to the rerun, and from his comments, it's clear the re-airing occurred around Christmastime.

Michael Eisner intro

Hosted by Dick van Dyke, the show included live-action and animated segments telling the history of the film and revealing for the first time the deleted "soup-eating" and "bed-building" scenes.

Dick van Dyke

The special guest-stars included Jane Curtin as the Evil Queen and Sherman Hensley as the Magic Mirror. The storyline that runs throughout the other historical and musical segments of the program has the Queen placing a spell on Grumpy in an attempt to get him to persuade the other Dwarfs to retire. Much of the show was shot on location at night throughout Disneyland with a couple of singing and dancing numbers by Dick Van Dyke and the Seven Dwarfs.

Jane Curtin

Sherman Hensley

Dwarfs exit "mine shaft" at Big Thunder Mountain

Fantasyland song and dance

Partway through the show, things slowed a little with a weaker musical number by a few television stars of the day. Yet, Dick van Dyke picked things up, and Linda Ronstadt, singing at Snow White's Grotto, finished it off in style with Some Day My Prince Will Come .

Linda Ronstadt at Snow White's Grotto

The program was online in six parts, but because of copyright infringements, it was taken down from youtube. So instead, here's a short medley excerpt from the show...

Videos posted by WhereMagicLives95.

You might think a Snow White television program from 1987 might not hold up too well in today's video game, action adventure society. Yet, in fact, it does. Dick van Dyke is timeless, and following his lead, the program is informative and entertaining...even 24 years after its original airing.