Bilbo Baggins') aired on the Leningrad TV Channel. According to Wood, the release of the production on video has been repeatedly stopped by the Tolkien Estate.

It was narrated by Bernard Cribbins, Maurice Denham, Jan Francis and David Wood.

The BBC children's television series Jackanory, for its 3000th programme, presented an adaptation of The Hobbit in 1979.

The film was also nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, but lost to Star Wars. Romeo Muller won a Peabody Award for the teleplay.

The Hobbit, an animated version of the story produced by Rankin/Bass, debuted as a television movie in the United States in 1977.

The final project has very little to do with the source material. He later sold the rights for around $100,000 (not adjusted for inflation). The project fell through, but after the explosion in the novel's popularity, Snyder realized that his contract had not required the film to be of any length: he, therefore, instructed Deitch to create a 12-minute film based on his earlier work so that he could retain his rights. Snyder obtained the rights to the novel from the Tolkien estate very cheaply while it was still largely unknown, with the proviso that he produce a 'full-colour film' by 30 June 1966, and immediately set about producing a feature-length film, with a screenplay by Deitch. It was directed by Gene Deitch in Czechoslovakia.

The 1967 short animated film The Hobbit was the first film production of The Hobbit.

See also: Middle-earth in film Film and television

Peter and the Elven Songs by T.J. Dixon