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Alvin and the Chipmunks (TV series)
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Alvin and the Chipmunks is an American animated television series to feature the singing characters The Chipmunks, produced by Bagdasarian Productions in association with Ruby-Spears Productions from 1983-87, and DIC Entertainment from 1988-90. It aired from 1983 to 1990 on NBC and was based on 1961–62's The Alvin Show. The show introduced The Chipettes, three female versions of the Chipmunks with their own human counterpart, Miss Beatrice Miller (who joined the cast in 1986).
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Encyclopedia
Alvin and the Chipmunks is an American animated television series to feature the singing characters The Chipmunks, produced by Bagdasarian Productions in association with Ruby-Spears Productions from 1983-87, and DIC Entertainment from 1988-90. It aired from 1983 to 1990 on NBC and was based on 1961–62's The Alvin Show. The show introduced The Chipettes, three female versions of the Chipmunks with their own human counterpart, Miss Beatrice Miller (who joined the cast in 1986). In 1988, the show switched production companies to Murakami-Wolf-Swenson (and shortly after that, to DiC Entertainment) and was renamed just The Chipmunks.
In 1987, during the show's fifth season, the Chipmunks' first animated feature film, The Chipmunk Adventure, was released to theaters by The Samuel Goldwyn Company. The film was directed by Janice Karman and featured the Chipmunks and Chipettes in a contest traveling around the world.
In its eighth and final season, the show again switched titles to The Chipmunks Go to the Movies. Each episode was a spoof of a Hollywood film like Back to the Future or King Kong. Several television specials featuring the characters were also released.
In 1990, the documentary The Chipmunks: Rockin' Through the Decades was produced. That year, the Chipmunks also teamed up with other contemporary cartoon characters (such as Bugs Bunny and Garfield) for the drug abuse-prevention special Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue.
Between the late-1990s to early-2000s, Nickelodeon and later Cartoon Network aired 65 of the 102 episodes in syndication (including the Valentine's and Reunion specials from 1984 and 1985 respectively). While the show is currently no longer in syndication in the U.S., it is being broadcasted in Canada on Teletoon Retro.
Characters
- The Chipmunks: The main characters of the series
- Alvin Seville: The leader of the Chipmunks, Alvin is the talented troublemaker of the group.
- Simon Seville: The tallest brother. Simon is the intelligent realist and the most responsible of the group.
- Theodore Seville: The youngest brother. Theodore is the cute innocent butterball of the group.
- The Chipettes: The Chipmunks' female counterparts and on-and-off girlfriends
- Brittany Miller: Brittany, the leader of the Chipettes, is Alvin's counterpart. She is a equally as vain and self-centered as Alvin. But like him, she really does care about others.
- Jeanette Miller: Jeanette is Simon's counterpart. However, unlike Simon, who stands up to Alvin easily, she is unlikely to stand up to Brittany as easily. She is also very smart, which is what she does have in common with Simon. However, she is very shy and clumsy.
- Eleanor Miller: Eleanor is Theodore's counterpart. She shares his love for food and cooking. But she is more athletic, more caring, and more likely to stand up to Brittany than Theodore is to Alvin.
- David "Dave" Seville: The Chipmunks' adoptive father, songwriter and manager, Dave's patience is tested nearly everyday by Alvin, usually to the point where he yells "ALVIN!!!".
- Miss Beatrice Miller: The kindly, absent-minded adoptive mother of the Chipettes. She occasionally babysits the Chipmunks and has a crush on Dave, even though she's old enough to be his mother. In her youth, she was part of an all-girl singing group called "The Thrillers".
- Lilly: The Chipmunks' Rossini puppy who they adopted from the shelter following the death of their original pet, Cookie Chomper III, a kitten.
- Vinny: The Chipmunks' birth mother. The Chipmunks find their long-lost mother after days of searching. Alvin gets upset because he doesn't understand why she abandoned them. Their mother explains that the year she abandoned them there was a horrible winter and all of the animals in the forest were forced to leave their homes. She realized that they wouldn't survive the journey if she brought them with her, so she decided to leave them with a nice man who was always kind to the forest animals (Dave). She told them that when spring came and she could finally return to get them, she saw how happy they were with Dave, and thought they would be better off with him. Eventually, Alvin forgives his mother, and they all part ways on a good note: promising to keep in touch. She returns in a later episode where she and Dave clash on how to bring the boys up. Eventually they make up. The song "Vinny's Lullaby" is performed by June Foray and Machiko Soga in the Japanese version.
Voice actors
Episodes
Original Network Run
The series made it debut on September 17, 1983 on NBC, originally under the name Alvin and The Chipmunks, and was animated by Ruby-Spears Productions. In 1988, the series had switched animation companies Murakami Wolf-Swenson Productions for the first half of season 6, and then with DIC Entertainment for the remainder of the series' run. By this time, the series had been renamed The Chipmunks, due to the fact that The Chipettes had been regular fixtures on the series for some time now, and that it wasn't all about Alvin. During its final season in 1991, the series was renamed again, this time, The Chipmunks Go to the Movies, as all episodes in this season were spoofs of popular Hollywood movies. The series was cancelled afterwards.
Syndication Package
When the series was syndicated in the 1990s, the series went back to the original Alvin and The Chipmunks title, and originally contained the first 52 episodes (#901-952, including the Valentines and reunion specials, which were syndicated as regular episodes) - these were all the episodes that had originally aired under the Alvin and The Chipmunks title from the first 5 seasons. However, due to FCC regulations that a weekly animated series requires a minimum of 65 episodes to be syndicated, an additional 11 episodes were purchased for the package - these were the first 11 episodes from the sixth season that were originally aired under The Chipmunks title. Also, syndicated reruns of the show were time compressed, thus resulting in an increase in pitch. All episodes of the show that have been released on VHS and DVD thus far, have the original proper pitch reinstated. The title cards that opened each episode were intact on local syndication, and on Nickelodeon, but were completely absent on Cartoon Network. Some VHS and DVD releases have them, others don't. Oddly enough, Cartoon Network kept Alvin's introductions from the first season that featured clips from today's episode(s). A modern Bagdasarian Productions logo replaced the earlier ones that were used from 1983-1987.
External links
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