Rodgers & Hammerstein's THE SOUND OF MUSIC Returns to ABC This Holiday Season

Celebrate the Oscar-winning beloved classic, The Sound of Music, when the Rodgers & Hammerstein cinematic treasure airs Sunday, December 17 (7:00-11:00 p.m. EST).

Starring Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer, the heartwarming film features fan-favorite songs including “Edelweiss,” “My Favorite Things,” “Climb Ev'ry Mountain,” “Do-Re-Mi,” “Sixteen Going on Seventeen,” “The Lonely Goatherd” and “The Sound of Music.”

The Sound of Music airing on ABC has become an annual tradition, frequently playing on ABC throughout the holiday season.

The ABC air date comes after a new, super deluxe edition of the film's soundtrack is released on December 1.  With over 40 previously unreleased tracks, this definitive set collects every musical element from the film for the very first time, along with instrumentals of each song, plus 11 never-before-heard alternate takes from the cast. Pre-save the new soundtrack and get a first listen here.

One of the most enduring and successful musicals of all time, The Sound of Music was based on the memoir of Maria von Trapp: a young Austrian postulant who became the governess—and later stepmother—to the seven children of a widowed naval commander, all while the country was falling under Nazi occupation.

In 1959, their story was adapted for the stage, with music by the era-defining songwriting team of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II (Oklahoma!, South Pacific, Carousel). While the production marked the final collaboration of their highly influential careers (Hammerstein succumbed to cancer months after the show’s premiere), it was by far their most successful—leading to a 1965 film produced at 20th Century Fox.

Helmed by director Robert Wise (West Side Story, The Day the Earth Stood Still, The Haunting) and screenwriter Ernest Lehman (The King and I, West Side Story, North by Northwest), The Sound of Music incorporated the majority of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s now-classic songs from the stage musical (including “Edelweiss,” “My Favorite Things,” “Do-Re-Mi” and, of course, the title track), while Rodgers was enlisted to write the music and lyrics to two new songs: “I Have Confidence” and “Something Good.”

Watch the trailer for the film here:

Photo: Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp.