*** Welcome to piglix ***

The Smurfs (Hanna-Barbera series)

The Smurfs
The Smurfs (1981 TV series) title card.jpg
The Smurfs international title card
Genre
Created by Pierre "Peyo" Culliford
Directed by
  • Bob Hathcock (Season 1–2, Season 5)
  • George Gordon (Season 1–4)
  • Rudy Zamora (Season 1–6)
  • Carl Urbano (Season 1–6, Season 8)
  • John Walker (Season 3–4)
  • Oscar Dufau (Season 3–4, Season 9)
  • Alan Zaslove (Season 4–5)
  • Don Lusk (Season 5–6, Season 8–9)
  • Jay Sarbry (Season 6&9)
  • John Kimball (Season 7)
  • Bob Goe (Season 7–8)
  • Paul Sommer (Season 7–9)
  • Ray Patterson (supervising director)
Voices of
Theme music composer
  • Mireille Delfosse (S01–06, WW version)
  • Hoyt Curtin (Season 1–8, U.S. version)
  • Tom Worrall (Season 9, U.S. version)
Opening theme "The Smurfs Song" by The Smurfs
Ending theme "The Smurfs Song" (Instrumental)
Composer(s)
  • Hoyt Curtin
  • Clark Gassman (Season 9 only)
Country of origin United States
Belgium
Original language(s) English
No. of seasons 9
No. of episodes 256 (418 segments)(list of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s)
Producer(s)
  • Gerard Baldwin (Season 1–3; supervising producer, Season 4–5)
  • Bob Hathcock (Season 4–6)
  • Don Jurwich and Walt Kubiak (Season 7)
  • Paul Sabella (Season 8–9)
    Iwao Takamoto (creative producer, S01–05)
  • Associate producers: Bob Hathcock (S03), and Charles Grosvenor (Season 6)
Editor(s) Gil Iverson
Running time 22 minutes
Production company(s)
Distributor
Release
Original network NBC
Audio format
Original release September 12, 1981 (1981-09-12) – December 2, 1989 (1989-12-02)
Chronology
Related shows
External links
Website

The Smurfs (syndicated as Smurfs' Adventures) is an American-Belgian animated fantasy-comedy television series that aired on NBC from September 12, 1981, to December 2, 1989. Produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions, it is based on the Belgian comic series by the same name, created by Belgian cartoonist Peyo (who also served as story supervisor of this adaptation) and aired for 256 episodes with a total of 418 stories, excluding three cliffhanger episodes and seven specials.

In 1976, Stuart R. Ross, an American media and entertainment entrepreneur who saw the Smurfs while traveling in Belgium, entered into an agreement with Editions Dupuis and Peyo, acquiring North American and other rights to the characters, whose original name was "les Schtroumpfs". Subsequently, Ross launched the Smurfs in the United States in association with a California company, Wallace Berrie and Co., whose figurines, dolls and other Smurf merchandise became a hugely popular success. NBC President Fred Silverman's daughter, Melissa, had a Smurf doll of her own that he had bought for her at a toy shop while they were visiting Aspen, Colorado. Silverman thought that a series based on the Smurfs might make a good addition to his Saturday-morning lineup.

The Saturday morning cartoon The Smurfs, produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions in association with SEPP International S.A. (from 1981 to 1987) and Lafig S.A. (in the years 1988 and 1989), debuted on NBC in 1981. The series became a major success for the network and one of the most successful and longest running Saturday morning cartoons in television history, spawning spin-off television specials on an almost yearly basis. The characters included Papa Smurf, Smurfette, Brainy Smurf, the evil Gargamel, his cat Azrael, and Johan and his friend Peewit. The Smurfs was nominated multiple times for Daytime Emmy Awards, and won Outstanding Children's Entertainment Series in 1982–1983.


...
Wikipedia

...