The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (1979 film) video. The CBS program had 37 million viewers. It would win an Emmy Award. The only actor to appear in both versions was Stephen Thorne (who portrayed Aslan). The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (1979 film) The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is an animated television film that was broadcast on CBS in 1979, based on the novel of the same name by C. S. Lewis. When four children Lucy, Susan, Edmund and Peter stumble into an old Wardrobe they find themselves in a magical land called Narnia with talking animals, fauns, hags, the Wicked White Witch and
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe Witch and the Wardrobe" was complete by the end of March 1949. Lucy Barfield received it by the end of May. When on 16 October 1950 Geoffrey Bles in London published the first edition, three new "chronicles", "Prince Caspian", "The Voyage of the Dawn Treader" and "The Horse and His Boy", had also been completed. Lewis's publisher, Geoffrey Bles, allowed him to choose the illustrator for the novel and the "Narnia" series. Lewis chose Pauline Baynes, possibly based on J. R. R. Tolkien's recommendation. Baynes had greatly impressed Tolkien with her illustrations for his "Farmer Giles of Ham" (1949). However,