SuperTed

SuperTed
Created by	Mike Young
Written by	Mike Young Robin Lyons
Directed by	David Edwards
Starring	Derek Griffiths Melvyn Hayes Roy Kinnear Jon Pertwee Victor Spinetti Sheila Steafel Myfanwy Talog
Narrated by	Peter Hawkins
Country of origin	Wales
Original language(s)	Welsh, English
No. of series	3
No. of episodes	36
Production
Executive producer(s)	Mike Young Roger Fickling
Running time	10 mins
Production company(s)	Siriol Animation S4C Williams and Glyn Leasing Group Ltd.
Release
Original network	S4C (in Welsh) BBC1 (in English) RTÉ 2 (in Irish) TF1 (in French)
Picture format	4:3
Original release	4 October 1983 – 20 February 1986

SuperTed is a fictional anthropomorphic bear character created by Welsh writer and animator Mike Young. Originally created by Young as a series of stories to help his son overcome his fear of the dark, SuperTed became a popular series of books and led to an animated series produced from 1983 to 1985. American-produced series, The Further Adventures of SuperTed, was produced by Hanna Barbera in 1989. It aired in Australia on ABC (27 April 1987 - 13 May 1997).

"SuperTed" was created by Mike Young in 1978 for his son to help him overcome his fear of the dark. Later Mike decided to put the stories into book form. Superted originally was a bear from the woods who was also afraid of the dark, until one day Mother Nature gave him a magic word which gives him superpowers and transform him into SuperTed. After a while, Mike started to write actual story books about SuperTed. Then after some unsuccessful attempts, he was able to get his book published by a local printer. This led Mike to a successful career, writing and publishing over 100 SuperTed books, with illustrations done by Philip Watkins, until 1990. Just after his first book was published, his wife suggested he should produce a stuffed toy version of SuperTed, which was done in 1980.

The process also drew the attention of Warner Brothers, who in 1980 made an offer of £250,000 for the film rights. Mike was determined to keep SuperTed Welsh, as he wanted to help create local jobs and prove that places outside London had talent. In 1981, S4C enquired about making SuperTed into animations, but Mike decided to create Siriol Productions to produce the series himself. Siriol management wished to create SuperTed in a way which their own kids could be proud of, free from facile plots and hard-line violence. This concept continued to be adopted in all series made by Siriol, which proves that "soft edge and quality animation can be more appealing to children than any amount of violence". Superted was also turned into a stage show. Melvyn Hayes reprised his role but other parts were taken by other actors. Superted's popularity even led to the production of a line of vitamin supplements for children.

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Wikipedia