Ralph Raccoon
| The Raccoons | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Genre | Family Comedy-Drama |
| Created by | Kevin Gillis |
| Directed by | Kevin Gillis Sebastian Grunstra Paul Schibli |
| Voices of |
Len Carlson Michael Magee Linda Feige (Season 1) Bob Dermer Marvin Goldhar Sharon Lewis Keith Hampshire (Season 5) Lisa Lougheed (Seasons 4-5) Stuart Stone (Season 5) Noam Zylberman Nick Nichols (Seasons 1–4) Susan Roman (Seasons 2–5) |
| Narrated by | Geoffrey Winter |
| Theme music composer | Kevin Gillis Jon Stroll |
| Ending theme | Run with Us |
| Country of origin | Canada |
| Original language(s) | English French |
| No. of seasons | 5 |
| No. of episodes | 60 (plus 4 specials) (list of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) | Sheldon S. Wiseman |
| Producer(s) | Kevin Gillis |
| Running time | 25 mins |
| Production company(s) | Gillis-Wiseman Productions, Evergreen Raccoons Television Productions |
| Distributor | Skywriter Media & Entertainment Group (2009–present) |
| Release | |
| Original network | CBC Television (Canada) |
| Picture format | 480i (SDTV) |
| Audio format | Stereo Mono (some episodes) |
| Original release | July 4, 1985 – August 28, 1992 |
The Raccoons is a Canadian animated series which was originally broadcast from 1985 to 1992, with three preceding television specials from its inception in 1980, and one direct to video special in 1984. The franchise was created by Kevin Gillis with the co-operation of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (French: Société Radio-Canada).
The series revolves around Bert Raccoon and married couple Ralph and Melissa Raccoon, of whom Bert is a friend and roommate. The series mostly involved the trio's efforts against the industrialist forces of greedy aardvark millionaire Cyril Sneer, who usually tries to destroy the forest for a quick buck. However, the Raccoons would always save their forest from Cyril's schemes, with help from their forest friends including Schaeffer, a gentle sheepdog; Cedric, Cyril's college graduate son; and Sophia Tutu, Cedric's girlfriend. But, as the series progressed, Cyril became more of a sympathetic character, eventually becoming an antihero.
Lessons featured in the series mainly included environmentalism, but also included other lessons, including friendship and teamwork.
The Raccoons franchise was originally conceived by Kevin Gillis in the 1970s, while appearing in shows like Celebrity Cooks and Yes You Can. The initial idea for the show was created by Gillis and columnist Gary Dunford (they drew their inspiration for Ralph Raccoon from a dilemma that happened at a cottage in Ottawa). Dunford backed out, but Gillis took his idea to Ottawa lawyer Sheldon S. Wiseman, who saw a potential in Gillis' idea and put together a large group - animators, musicians, and writers, to create the first special to star the characters known as The Christmas Raccoons. Production on the special began in 1979 and completed in 1980, and the special was shown on the December of that same year on CBC Television. It was also shown in countries around the world, including the United States and the United Kingdom. The special was a huge hit and resulted in two sequel specials The Raccoons on Ice and The Raccoons and the Lost Star and a direct-to-video special, The Raccoons: Let's Dance!. In 1981, United States TV networks CBS, NBC and ABC approached Sheldon Wiseman about producing a 13 episode Raccoons TV series. In 1984, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and the Disney Channel began funding on the television series, which cost about $4.5 million to make. In the United States, the show was run on The Disney Channel from July 4, 1985, to August 28, 1992. In Canada, it was shown on CBC on Monday evenings and later in a block consisting of The Wonderful World of Disney and Fraggle Rock.
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