The Berenstain Bears Meet Bigpaw

The Berenstain Bears Meet Bigpaw
Title screen from the original NBC TV special (1980)
Created by	Stan and Jan Berenstain
Written by	Stan and Jan Berenstain
Directed by	Mordicai Gerstein Al Kouzel
Narrated by	Ron McLarty (uncredited)
Theme music composer	Elliot Lawrence
Country of origin	United States
Original language(s)	English
Production
Producer(s)	Buzz Potamkin
Running time	25 minutes
Production company(s)	Perpetual Motion Pictures The Joseph Cates Company
Distributor	NBC Embassy Home Entertainment
Release
Original network	NBC
Original release	November 20, 1980 (1980-11-20)
Chronology
Preceded by	The Berenstain Bears' Christmas Tree (1979)
Followed by	The Berenstain Bears' Easter Surprise (1981)

The Berenstain Bears Meet Bigpaw is a Thanksgiving-themed animated television special based on the Berenstain Bears children's book series by Stan and Jan Berenstain. Produced by Buzz Potamkin and directed by Mordicai Gerstein and Al Kouzel, the program made its debut on NBC on November 20, 1980. The television special inspired a book, The Berenstain Bears' Thanksgiving, published by Scholastic in 1997.

Stan and Jan Berenstain's first animated holiday special aired on NBC in December 1979. The Berenstain Bears' Christmas Tree was the first of five annual animated specials that would air on NBC, produced by Joe Cates and the Joseph Cates Production Company. The Berenstain Bears Meet Bigpaw was the second in this series.

The Berenstains utilized rhyming couplets in the script - for both the narrator and the character dialogue. This element had also been used in the Christmas Tree special and was familiar to audiences since a similar type of writing was used in the Berenstain Bears Beginner Books series.

The special is officially the first appearance of the Bigpaw character in the Berenstain Bears series. A precursor to Bigpaw, Great Natural Bear, appeared in The Bears' Almanac in 1973 and is the basis on which Bigpaw was developed. Bigpaw appears in several subsequent books and in the CBS cartoon series.

The 25-minute special was created and written by Stan and Jan Berenstain and featured original music composed and conducted by Emmy-winning musician Elliot Lawrence, with lyrics provided by Stan Berenstain. The score included three original songs: "Thankfulness," "Bigpaw," and "A Stranger's Just Somebody (You Don't Already Know)."

The special starred Ron McLarty, Gabriela Glatzer, Jonathan Lewis, and Pat Lysinger as Papa, Sister, Brother, and Mama Bear, respectively. McLarty also doubled as the show's narrator. All four actors were reprising their vocal roles from The Berenstain Bears' Christmas Tree. Bob Kaliban was the voice of Bigpaw.