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Bob the Builder
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Bob the Builder is a children's television character created by Keith Chapman. Bob appears as a building contractor specialising in masonry in a stop motion animated programme with his colleague Wendy, various neighbours and friends, and their gang of anthropomorphised work-vehicles and equipment (all made of clay). The show is broadcast in many countries, but originates from the United Kingdom where Bob is voiced by British actor Neil Morrissey.
In each episode, Bob and his gang help with renovations, construction, and repairs and with other projects as needed.
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Encyclopedia
Bob the Builder is a children's television character created by Keith Chapman. Bob appears as a building contractor specialising in masonry in a stop motion animated programme with his colleague Wendy, various neighbours and friends, and their gang of anthropomorphised work-vehicles and equipment (all made of clay). The show is broadcast in many countries, but originates from the United Kingdom where Bob is voiced by British actor Neil Morrissey.
In each episode, Bob and his gang help with renovations, construction, and repairs and with other projects as needed. The show emphasizes conflict resolution, co-operation, socialization and various learning skills. Bob's catchphrase is "Can we fix it?", to which the other characters respond with "Yes we can!" (a phrase later used by Barack Obama in his 2008 Presidential Election campaign). This phrase is also the title of the show's theme song, which was a million-selling number one hit in the UK. In the US the show started airing on Nick Jr. then the show moved to Noggin until 2005 when PBS Kids bought the rights to air the series, currently it airs on Fridays and Sundays and airs daily on PBS Kids Sprout. In Netherlands, it is currently aired on Jetix.
Characters
All the characters are adult humans, machines or animals, except for Spud the scarecrow who serves as the stand-in for a naïve child. It is Spud who must learn to be patient, not to eat all of the food, etc. Spud has a habit of trying to do work and with his limited intelligence getting it wrong and spoiling materials. The machines also often exhibit the behaviors of children, being impatient, not fully understanding the consequences of their actions, and generally acting like children. In these circumstances, Bob acts like their parent, patiently teaching them lessons and helping them fix the messes they've gotten themselves into.
Some have complained about technical errors and lack of proper safety practices in the program, especially the absence of protective eye-wear. However, in later episodes, Bob is seen wearing safety glasses.
Humans
- Bob the Builder – a construction worker and head of his own construction yard. He is the namesake of the show and also its main character. Some of the problems in the show arise from Bob's habit of forgetting to turn his mobile phone on. He is the owner of Pilchard the Cat.
- Wendy – Bob's business partner who runs the office and keeps the business in order, and often organizes tools and equipment. She is also seen doing construction work in many episodes. An underlying romantic tension between Bob and Wendy is hinted at in several episodes.
- Farmer Pickles – a nearby farmer who sometimes helps out with Bob's projects.
- Spud – a mischievous scarecrow (male voice; catchphrase: "OK, Farmer Pickles" & "Spud's on the job!").
Recurring human characters
- Mr Beasley - a Bobsville resident and a frequent customer
- Mr Bernard Bentley – the building inspector and later Mayor of Bobsville
- Mrs Barbara Bentley – his wife
- Mr Dixon – postman and brother to a famous football goalkeeper
- Mr Ellis – museum manager
- JJ – parts supplier
- Molly – JJ's daughter
- Mrs Percival – school headmaster
- Mrs Potts - a Bobsville resident and owner of Tommy the Tortoise.
- Mr Sabatini – runs the local pizza shop
Minor human characters
- Mr Costello – Drive-in movie manager
- Dora – Bob's aunt
- Dorothy – Bob's Mom
- Mr Fothergill - a Bobsville resident and Hamish's first owner
- Jenny – Wendy's sister
- Mavis – postwoman
- Pam
- Robert – Bob's Dad
- Mrs Sabatini
- Mr Stevens – an archaeologist
- Tom – Bob's fraternal twin brother
- Mr Williams – an airport manager
Vehicles
- Scoop – is a yellow backhoe loader and the unofficial leader of all the machines (male voice; catchphrase: "No prob, Bob!"). At some points there is hinted romance between him and Dizzy.
- Muck – is a red bulldozer with additional dumping bed who acts before he thinks and often gets in trouble for it, but finds his way back (male voice; female voice in US dub; catchphrase: "Muck to the rescue!").
- Dizzy – is an orange concrete mixer and one of the youngest in the yard. She is eager, curious, and easily excitable (female voice; catchphrase: "Brilliant!"). Dizzy sometimes appears to have a crush on Scoop.
- Roley – is a green steamroller, rounds out the "Can-Do Crew" (male voice; catchphrase: "Rock and roll!").
- Lofty – is a blue crane who isn't very confident; he is hesitant and timid, but with the encouragement of the team comes through in the end (male voice; female voice in US dub; catchphrase: "Uh ... yeah, I think so!", usually said in response to the question "Can we fix it?").
- Benny – is a darkish red excavator (female voice; catchphrase: "Unreal, banana peel!")
- Scrambler – is darkish blue quadbike (ATV) (male voice; catchphrases: "Let's Scram!", "Awesome!" and "Cool as a Mule")
- Sumsy – is a maroon & yellow striped forklift, owned by Farmer Pickles (female voice; catchphrase: "I can pack 'em, I can stack 'em!")
- Packer – is a red semi-trailer truck, owned by Farmer Pickles. It has two trailers, a flatbed trailer and a covered trailer. (male voice; catchphrases: "Pick up and Deliver!" and "Pack me up and watch me go-go").
- Dodger – is a lightish blue pickup truck, owned by Meg and carries milk. He has a crane with a grabber that lifts the milk. His horn makes honking sounds. (male voice; catchphrase: "Dodger Delivers").
- Tumbler – is a green, yellow, and nice concrete transport truck. (male voice; catchphrase: "I'm a Rumblin' and a Tumblin'")
- Flex – is a yellow cherry picker. (male voice; catchphrase: "Fantastic Flex!")
- Bristle - is a grey and blue street sweeper.
- Splasher - is a yellow & blue water vehicle, who works at Bobland Bay (male voice; catchphrase: "Never fear, Super Splasher is here!")
- Travis – is Farmer Pickles' cyan tractor. He helps out the crew when they need it and keeps an eye on Spud the scarecrow.
- Skip – is a yellow skip-carrier (male voice)
- Trix – is a purple forklift; belongs to J.J. (female voice; catchphrase: "Easy peasy!")
- Scoot – is a black & yellow snowmobile, owned by Tom (male voice)
- Zoomer – is a purple, Bobsville snowmobile (male voice; seen in 'Snowed Under')
- RV – is a light blue crane machine belonging to Bob's Dad. (male voice; catchphrase: "Amazing RV, that's me!").
- Jackaroo – is a blue pickup truck. He is owned in the Wild West by a female cowboy.
Animals
- Bird – is a bird, Roley's best friend
- Fin - Bob's pet fish.
- Hamish – became JJ and Molly's parrot after Mr. Fothergill found out he was allergic to him.
- Humpty – is a prize pig, owned by Farmer Pickles.
- Pilchard – Bob's pet cat and considered a part of the team. However, she's often sleeping when she's needed.
- Scruffty – a dog, owned by Farmer Pickles.
- Squawk – Another bird, friend of Bird
- Tommy – Mrs. Potts' tortoise
Project Build-It
In the second season, a sort of spin-off series was created titled "Project: Build-It". Bob hears of a contest to build a new community in a remote area called Sunflower Valley, outside of Bobsville. He moves from Bobsville (supposedly temporarily) with Wendy and the team and builds a new yard there. Bob convinces his father, Robert, to come out of retirement and take over the Bobsville building business. It is not known whether Bob will return to Bobsville or not.
For the US version of the Project Build-It series, different actors were found to do the voices for many of the human characters, including casting Greg Proops as the new voice of Bob, and Neil Morrissey, who played the original Bob, to be the voices of Spud the Scarecrow and Mr. Bentley. The show also added recycling and being environmentally friendly to its lessons, emphasising the phrase "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle".
International versions
Bob the Builder is shown in more than thirty countries, and versions are available in English, French, Spanish, Slovenian, German, Italian, Dutch, Hebrew, Hindi and Croatian, among other languages. It is shown on CBeebies on BBC television in the UK. Voice actors who have contributed to the original British version include Neil Morrissey, Rob Rackstraw, Kate Harbour, Rupert Degas, Colin McFarlane, Maria Darling, Emma Tate, Richard Briers, June Whitfield, Richard Herman, Wayne Forester
Australia
Bob the Builder is shown with the ABC Kids programming in Australia.
Czech Republic
"Borek stavitel" is aired on Ceská televize, the national public television.
Finland
"Puuha-Pete" is aired in Finland on Nelonen on Wednesday at 7.50 AM.
Philippines
The name is still "Bob the Builder" and it is broadcast in TV5.It is dubbed in Tagalog.
Poland
"Bob Budowniczy" is aired on TVP1 7.00PM
France
Beginning October 22, 2005, "Bob le Bricoleur" has been airing on France 5 in France. This is the second season (called "Project: Build It" in English): "Mission Nature".
Germany
Beginning February 2, 2001, "Bob der Baumeister" has been airing on Super RTL in Germany. Since then, 157 episodes have been aired.
Hungary
In 2007, beginning 20 November till the end of the year, “Bob, a mester” was aired every weekday (from 16:15) on Channel m1 of Hungarian Television. The names of the characters are either translated in a more or less literal way (Farmer Pickles, Pilchard, Lofty, Roley), left untranslated (Bob, Wendy), or replaced to a phonetically similar word (Muck became Muki, this similar-sounding word is semantically unrelated); in some cases, entirely new names were given, unrelated to the original ones both semantically and phonetically (Dizzy has become Trixi, Scoop has become Márkus, and Spud has become Piff, neither of these new names has any meaning in Hungarian). Bird is given a new name as well, a word meaning “short” in a countryside dialect (infiltrated into youth slang as well); but the choice may be motivated also by its onomatopoetic sounding. Not only the broadcast episodes have been translated, but also the 2006 Annual.
Japan
When being exported to Japan, it was reported that characters of Bob the Builder would be doctored to have five fingers instead of the original four. This was because of a practice among the Yakuza, the famed Japanese mafia, where members would "cut off their little fingers as a sign they can be trusted and have strength of character, and will stay through.".
Latin America
In the Spanish talking part of Latin America, the show is called "Bob, el Constructor" (literal translation of the title) and is aired by several public TV channels as well as by Discovery Kids. It was dubbed in México and some of the voice actors are: 'Arturo Mercado' (Bob), 'María Fernanda Morales' (Wendy) and 'Jesús "Chucho" Barrero' (Spud).
The Netherlands
Soon after the BBC started airing, Fox Kids and later Jetix aired the episodes of "Bob de Bouwer" in the Netherlands. Main voices are done by Bram Bart (Bob, Spud, Mr. Dickson, Mr. Ellis, Bennie), Caroline Mout (Wendy, Dizzie, Scrambler) and Fred Meyer (Scoop, Lofty, Mr. Beasley, Mr. Bentley, Mr. Fothergill, Pogo ), Laus Steenbeeke (Farmer Pickles, Jake, Mr. Adams, Mr. Sabatini, Mr. Stevens, Robert the Builder, Scip, Tom the Builder, Tony, Travis, Zoomer), Marjolein Algera (Aunt Doris, Charlene, Del, Dot the Builder, Jana von Strudel, Jenny, Marjorie Mayor, Molly, Mrs. Broadbent, Mrs. Percival, Mrs. Potts, Ms Barbara Bentley, Scoot, Trix) and Stan Limburg (Muck, Roley, JJ, Lenny Lazenby). Stan Limburg also is the Dutch voice-director.
North America
Treehouse TV and TVOntario air Bob the Builder in Canada, and it was shown on Nick Jr. from 2001 to 2005 in the United States until the 2005-06 season when it was moved to the PBS Kids network. The show also aired in the US on CBS between 2001 and 2002.
The North American version of the show uses the original British footage, but dubs the voices in local accents and slang -- for example, the word "soccer" is used instead of "football" to avoid confusion with American football or Canadian football (though sometimes this is done haphazardly; in one episode, a "soccer field" is referred to but later it talks about "football tricks"). The original North American voice of Bob (and Farmer Pickles/Mr. Beasley/Mr. Sabatini) was William Dufris, however, he was replaced with comedian Greg Proops.
Norway
In Norway the show is named "Byggmester Bob" and is being aired on TV2.
Quebec, Canada
In the province of Quebec, the series is entitled "Bob le Bricoleur" and airs on Télé-Québec.
Slovenia
In Slovenia the show is named "Mojster Miha" and is being aired on RTV slovenija channel TV Slovenija 1.
Spain
"Bob y sus amigos" is aired in Spanish on Playhouse Disney. Bob always asks "¿Podemos hacerlo?" and his friends answer "¡Sí, podemos!". The show is also aired in Catalan on TV3, the regional public television of Catalonia as "Bob el Manetes". Bob always asks "Ens en sortirem?" and his friends answer "Si, i tant".
Sweden
In Sweden the show is named "Byggare Bob" and is being aired on SVTs child times.
Great Britain (non-English languages)
The Welsh language version is called "Bob Y Bildar" and began airing on S4C in October 2006, as part of the Planed Plant Bach lunchtime segment between 12.30 and 1.30pm. The show has been dubbed into the Welsh language by record label Sain, which had previously provided Welsh dialogue for children's series Thomas the Tank Engine.
Malaysia
The name of the program remains unchanged, however the program has been dubbed into Malay.
The programme originally premiered on TV3 in Malaysia in January 2000. Shortly after, Astro picked it up for it's Astro Ria in-house channel. The version aired on Astro RIA is dubbed into Malay, with the original British English soundtrack is also available by using the audio language button on the satellite decoder's remote. TV3 stopped airing the programme in 2003, however resumed in 2006 for a short period of time. Shortly after, TV9 picked up the programme for a short period of time, however only the Malay dub soundtrack is transmitted. As of January 2009 the show airs on the Astro Ceria in-house channel, with the primary broadcast audio track being the Malay dub but the English dub is accessible through the audio language button on the satellite decoder's remote. The show is also known to air on NTV7.
Discography
Singles
Albums
Notable guest appearances
Celebrities who have provided voices for the series (usually for one-off specials) include John Motson, Sue Barker, Kerry Fox, Ulrika Jonsson, Alison Steadman, Stephen Tompkinson, Elton John, Noddy Holder, and Chris Evans (Bobsville's resident rock star Lennie Lazenby).
Other media
Bob the Builder was recently parodied in the Robot Chicken episode "More Blood, More Chocolate" with Bob voiced by Jamie Kaler and Spud, Roley, and Scoop voiced by Seth Green.
Bob the Builder has also been parodied by Comedy Inc. as Bodgy Builder.
External links
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