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PASADENA, Calif. — NBC will go back into its past for its next attempt at live musical theater on television, bringing back the classic “Peter Pan” for a holiday season viewing next Dec. 4.

The network is following up the enormous success it had this past December with “The Sound of Music,” which drew an audience of more than 18 million people and prompted NBC to quickly announce its intention to make live theater an annual event. Looking for a property that would fill its main requirements — familiarity and appeal to the whole family — “Peter Pan” was a logical choice.

“Peter Pan” also evokes the early days of both the television industry and NBC. Mary Martin starred in a much-beloved live production on NBC in 1955. (NBC also mounted versions in 1956 and 1960.)

Robert Greenblatt, the chairman of NBC Entertainment, who has been an ardent advocate of bringing Broadway to network television, announced the new production here Sunday at a session with reporters covering the television business.

He said a cast for the production would be announced later, but he acknowledged he did have a “dream choice” he did not want to name until the person was contacted.

The same team, led by the experienced producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron, will be in charge of the show.

Mr. Greenblatt also made several other announcements, including the guest list for the final show of Jay Leno’s tenure as host of the “Tonight” show on Feb. 6. Billy Crystal, who was Mr. Leno’s first guest on his first show in 1992, will return, joined by Garth Brooks.

In the final weeks the guests will include Betty White on Feb. 3, Matthew McConaughey on Feb. 4 and Sandra Bullock on Feb. 5. In an interesting move, Jimmy Fallon, Mr. Leno’s successor, will also be a guest on Feb. 3, when Mr. Leno will symbolically “pass the baton,” as Mr. Greenblatt put it.

When Mr. Leno took over from Johnny Carson in 1992, his producer wanted Mr. Carson to hand off a microphone to Mr. Leno in a kind of symbolic passing of the torch, but Mr. Carson wanted no part of it. Mr. Leno did not appear in any of the final weeks of Mr. Carson’s “Tonight” show, so Mr. Fallon’s visit will be a clear contrast to that more contentious transition.

Mr. Greenblatt praised Mr. Leno’s contributions to the network and said he was very interested in finding a way to continue the star’s relationship with NBC. He mentioned ideas like specials, something Mr. Leno has not shown much interest in previously.