I like the storyline of this show,it attract me so much

Plot so thin, it passes unnoticed.

Gripping story with well-crafted characters

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

This is not really a "Live" recording. This was not filmed in front of an audience. This is however taped on a soundstage and it is a first class production.Mary Martin plays "Peter Pan". She the originator of the musical adaption so all other versions will always be compared to Mary Martin! Even more modern television version may have bigger budgets that pale next to this version. The story is about the Darling family who get whisked away to Never Never Land. Where you don't have to grow up. There is no school but lots of danger including the pirate "Captain Hook" who is out to get Peter Pan at any cost!The other television adaptations had "Ashlie Williams" and "Cathy Rigby". "Cathy Rigby" version is the better version. The "Ashley Williams" version did not have actors "acting" is had actors "mugging". Christopher Walkin was wasted in that because he came across wasted.About this productionIn 1954, Fred Coe, production manager for NBC in New York, began work on Producers' Showcase, a 90-minute anthology series that aired every fourth Monday for three seasons. One aim of the series was to broadcast expensive color spectaculars to promote the new color television system developed by NBC's parent company RCA.On March 7, 1955, NBC presented Peter Pan live as part of Producers' Showcase (with nearly all of the show's original cast) as the first full-length Broadway production on color TV. The show attracted a then-record audience of 65-million viewers, the highest ever up to that time for a single television program. Mary Martin and Cyril Ritchard had already won Tony Awards for their stage performances, and Martin won an Emmy Award for the television production. It was so well received that the musical was restaged live for television (again on Producers' Showcase) on January 9, 1956. Both of these broadcasts were produced live and in color, but only black-and-white kinescope recordings survive.Peter Pan was restaged on December 8, 1960, this time in a 100-minute version rather than 90 minutes (not counting the commercials), and with a slightly different cast because the original children had outgrown their roles. Producers' Showcase had long since gone off the air, so the 1960 production was intended as a "stand alone" special instead of an episode of an anthology series. Act II was split into two acts, for a total of five acts instead of three, to allow for more commercial breaks. This version was videotaped in color at NBC's Brooklyn studio. Martin was also starring in Broadway's The Sound of Music at the time. The production was directed for television by Vincent J. Donehue, who received a Director's Guild Award for it. Peter Foy re-created the signature flying sequences he had staged for the 1954 Broadway production and the two Producers' Showcase broadcasts. This 1960 version was rebroadcast in 1963, 1966 and 1973. The video tape of that production was restored and rebroadcast by NBC on March 24, 1989, then again on March 31, 1991, after which it went to the Disney Channel, where it was shown several times more. Beginning in 1989, the program was slightly cut to make room for more commercial time. Eliminated completely was a dance that Liza (the Darling family maid) and the animals of Neverland perform to an orchestral version of Never Never Land. Also eliminated was Mary Martin's curtain speech at the end thanking NBC for making the program possible, which, in the 1960, 1963, and 1966 telecasts led directly into the closing credits. Gone also was the intertitle bearing the credit Peter Pan: Act III, but not the other intertitle credits, so that the show seemed to be performed in three acts, just as in the stage version.

I agree that the lead character of "Peter Pan" was masterfully played by the late Mary Martin. The dance routines with the "Indians" were very humorous, but may be considered racist today, especially since the chief was played by a blond (Sondra Lee). My children particularly liked the music and singing. Also they were thrilled with the movie magic of flight, which was pretty good, considering this was a televised stage play from over 40 years ago. I would say the biggest drawback to this movie is also its greatest attribute, which is Peter Pan himself (or herself). My 2 year old kept saying he is a girl. I know it has become a tradition for Peter to be played by a female, but it is rather confusing to young children.

In my opinion, this film should not be missed by any child, adolescent, or adult who likes music and loved J.M. Barrie's masterpiece novel. Unlike the animated Disney film made seven years earlier (also a classic musical), this film follows the original story more closely, as adapted by Jerome Robbins for the stage. The music is beautiful, catchy, and fun. Peter Pan is portrayed by a woman because any male old enough to play the role would have gone through puberty -- thus no longer looking or sounding like a 10 year old. In this day of shows about cross dressing and sexuality bending, is it really such a stretch to believe that a woman in costume is a little boy? Of course its special effects are lacking in quality: it was filmed in 1960, before the innovation of Lucasfilm, and is not just a movie, but a filming of an actual stageplay. This is the reason for the "poor" special effects. Sorry, videogame generation, there's no CGI, so you'll have to leave something to your imagination...if you still have some.

This version of Peter Pan is etched forever in my memory. A great score, a great cast -- what more is there to say.Yes, Miss Mary Virginia Martin was 40-something when she played the title part, all the while introducing the world to The Sound of Music on Broadway, and she played THAT splendidly as well.As this great story marks its centennial in 2004, it would be a coup to offer the 1960 version on DVD.Just think lovely thoughts.