SuperTed is a
WelshWales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom, bordered by England to its east, and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It is also an elective region of the European Union...
animated television series about a
teddy bearThe teddy bear is a stuffed toy bear. It is an enduring, traditional form of a stuffed animal, often serving the purpose of entertaining children. In recent times, some teddy bears have become collector's items.- History :...
with magical super powers. It first aired on 1 November 1982. It was produced by Siriol Animation for Welsh television channel
S4CS4C , currently branded as S4/C, is a Welsh television channel broadcast from the capital, Cardiff. The first television channel to be aimed specifically at a Welsh-speaking audience, it is the fourth oldest British terrestrial television channel S4C , currently...
where it was aired in the
WelshWelsh is a member of the Brythonic branch of Celtic spoken natively in Wales, in England by some along the Welsh border and in the Welsh immigrant colony in the Chubut Valley in Argentine Patagonia....
language, and later aired in English throughout the whole of the
United KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
on BBC1, and dubbed into Irish for
RTE-Organisations:* Raidió Teilifís Éireann , the public broadcasting service of the Republic of Ireland* Réseau de transport d'électricité, the French Transmission System Operator -Computing:* Real Time Enterprise...
. The series won numerous awards, including the 1987
BAFTAThe British Academy Television Awards, also known as the BAFTAs — or, to differentiate them from the BAFTA Film Awards, the BAFTA Television Awards — are the most prestigious awards given in the British television industry, analogous to the Emmy Awards in the United States...
for best
animationAnimation is the rapid display of a sequence of images of 2-D or 3-D artwork or model positions in order to create an illusion of movement. It is an optical illusion of motion due to the phenomenon of persistence of vision, and can be created and demonstrated in a number of ways...
.
SuperTed is the creation of
Mike YoungMichael Young , is a Welsh born, US domiciled, Emmy and BAFTA Award-winning television producer, and the co-founder of the animation studios Kalato Ltd and Mike Young Productions.-Biography:...
and Robin Lyons, who runs his own animation company called Calon in Cardiff, Wales.
Young created SuperTed in stories he told his stepson, before writing over 100 SuperTed books.
SuperTed is a
WelshWales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom, bordered by England to its east, and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It is also an elective region of the European Union...
animated television series about a
teddy bearThe teddy bear is a stuffed toy bear. It is an enduring, traditional form of a stuffed animal, often serving the purpose of entertaining children. In recent times, some teddy bears have become collector's items.- History :...
with magical super powers. It first aired on 1 November 1982. It was produced by Siriol Animation for Welsh television channel
S4CS4C , currently branded as S4/C, is a Welsh television channel broadcast from the capital, Cardiff. The first television channel to be aimed specifically at a Welsh-speaking audience, it is the fourth oldest British terrestrial television channel S4C , currently...
where it was aired in the
WelshWelsh is a member of the Brythonic branch of Celtic spoken natively in Wales, in England by some along the Welsh border and in the Welsh immigrant colony in the Chubut Valley in Argentine Patagonia....
language, and later aired in English throughout the whole of the
United KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
on BBC1, and dubbed into Irish for
RTE-Organisations:* Raidió Teilifís Éireann , the public broadcasting service of the Republic of Ireland* Réseau de transport d'électricité, the French Transmission System Operator -Computing:* Real Time Enterprise...
. The series won numerous awards, including the 1987
BAFTAThe British Academy Television Awards, also known as the BAFTAs — or, to differentiate them from the BAFTA Film Awards, the BAFTA Television Awards — are the most prestigious awards given in the British television industry, analogous to the Emmy Awards in the United States...
for best
animationAnimation is the rapid display of a sequence of images of 2-D or 3-D artwork or model positions in order to create an illusion of movement. It is an optical illusion of motion due to the phenomenon of persistence of vision, and can be created and demonstrated in a number of ways...
.
Creation
SuperTed is the creation of
Mike YoungMichael Young , is a Welsh born, US domiciled, Emmy and BAFTA Award-winning television producer, and the co-founder of the animation studios Kalato Ltd and Mike Young Productions.-Biography:...
and Robin Lyons, who runs his own animation company called Calon in Cardiff, Wales.
Young created SuperTed in stories he told his stepson, before writing over 100 SuperTed books. S4C then approached him about a SuperTed animated series.
Story
Every episode starts with the tale of how SuperTed came to life: He was a
teddy bearThe teddy bear is a stuffed toy bear. It is an enduring, traditional form of a stuffed animal, often serving the purpose of entertaining children. In recent times, some teddy bears have become collector's items.- History :...
found to be defective in the toy factory where he was made, and then disposed of into an old storeroom. A Spotty man found him there and brought him to life with his "cosmic dust". He was later taken to
Mother NatureMother Nature is a common representation of nature that focuses on the life-giving and nurturing features of nature by embodying it in the form of the mother. Images of women representing mother earth, and mother nature, are timeless...
and given magical powers that enabled him to fight evil. This evil invariably takes the form of Texas Pete (an evil cowboy, the antagonist of the series) and his gang; Bulk (an overweight, bumbling fool) and Skeleton (an undead, outrageously camp, cowardly skeleton with pink slippers). Texas Pete's plots are generally aimed at advancing his own wealth, ruling the world and the power or the destruction of SuperTed, his nemesis.
SuperTed's powers are activated by his "secret magic word", which (as the name suggests) remains a secret. SuperTed whispers it every time he or someone else is in peril and he transforms into a
SupermanSuperman is a fictional character, a comic book superhero widely considered to be an American cultural icon. Created by American writer Jerry Siegel and Canadian-born artist Joe Shuster in 1932 while both were living in Cleveland, Ohio, and sold to Detective Comics, Inc...
-like red suit with rockets built in to the boots. These allow him to fly. In one episode, Bulk overhears the secret magic word and also whispers it, briefly acquiring identical powers to SuperTed. However, he subsequently forgets the word.
The episodes take place all over the world (but quite often in Wales) and even in space (SuperTed is the owner of his own space station). He also has a tree house in an unspecified
jungleA jungle is usually a dense forest in a hot climate, such as a tropical rainforest. The word jungle originates from the Sanskrit word jangala which refers to uncultivated land, among other meanings. The term is prevalent in many languages of the Indian subcontinent and particularly Urdu and Hindi...
.
Characters
- SuperTed - A teddy brought to life by "cosmic dust", and given special powers by Mother Nature. The main hero of the series. He is voiced by Derek Griffiths
Derek Griffiths is a British actor who appeared in numerous British children's television programmes in the 1960s to 1980s and more recently has played parts in TV drama.- Career :...
.
- Spotty - SuperTed's bumbling companion and best friend, a yellow alien covered in green spots, from planet Spot. He is voiced by Jon Pertwee
John Devon Roland Pertwee , better known as Jon Pertwee, was an English actor. Pertwee is best known for his role in the BBC science fiction television series Doctor Who, where he played the third incarnation of the Doctor from 1970 to 1974 and as the title character in the series Worzel Gummidge...
.
- Blotch - Spotty's sister. She is voiced by Shelia Steafel.
- Texas Pete - An evil cowboy. Superted's nemesis, the main villain of the series. He is voiced by Victor Spinetti
Victor Spinetti is a Welsh comic actor.-Early life:Spinetti was born in Cwm, Wales of Welsh and Italian heritage from a grandfather who is said to have walked from Italy to Wales to work as a coal miner. His parents, Giuseppe and Lily , owned the chip shop in Cwm, over which premises the family...
.
- Skeleton - A very cowardly, camp skeleton. Hence his name. He is voiced by Melvyn Hayes
Melvyn Hayes is an English actor.He is probably best known for playing the effeminate Gunner 'Gloria' Beaumont in the BBC sitcom It Ain't Half Hot Mum,...
.
- Bulk - An overweight fool with intense stupidity. He is voiced by Roy Kinnear
Roy Mitchell Kinnear was an English character actor.-Early life:Kinnear was born in Wigan, Lancashire, England, the son of Annie Smith and Roy Muir Kinnear...
.
- Mother Nature - Mother Nature, portrayed as a fairy that grants SuperTed magical powers.
American releases
In 1984, SuperTed became the first British cartoon series to be aired on The Disney Channel in the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. Walt Disney Home Video subsequently released all 36 episodes on six videocassettes.
In 1989, SuperTed was revived in America by Hanna Barbera (who also made
Fantastic MaxFantastic Max is an animated cartoon series created by Mike Young. An American/Welsh co-production, the series was produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions and Kalato Ltd in association with S4C...
, another Mike Young creation), this time named
The Further Adventures of SupertedThe Further Adventures of SuperTed is an animated television series produced by Hanna-Barbera and originally broadcast on The Funtastic World of Hanna-Barbera in 1989.-Synopsis:...
. Only
Jon PertweeJohn Devon Roland Pertwee , better known as Jon Pertwee, was an English actor. Pertwee is best known for his role in the BBC science fiction television series Doctor Who, where he played the third incarnation of the Doctor from 1970 to 1974 and as the title character in the series Worzel Gummidge...
returned from the original cast to voice Spotty. The new series takes on a more epic format, often splitting its episodes into two parts. Texas Pete, Bulk, and Skeleton are joined also by new villains, and the theme song was replaced with a more dramatic overture. This SuperTed series did not last beyond one season. When the original season of SuperTed had phased out, Fantastic Max took over from it and the rhyming garbage man Dumping Jack Trash was the replacement character for Texas Pete.
Public Service Film
SuperTed also appeared in a
Public Information FilmPublic Information Films are a series of government commissioned short films, shown during television advertising breaks in the UK. The US equivalent is the Public Service Announcement .-Subjects:...
, along with Spotty & his sister, Blotch. The film, commissioned by the
Central Office of InformationThe Central Office of Information is the UK government's marketing and communications agency. Its Chief Executive, currently Mark Lund, reports to the Minister for the Cabinet Office...
, was entitled "Supersafe with SuperTed", and featured the three characters being flown to Earth by SuperTed, in order to teach Spotty how to cross the road safely. A flashback during the short reveals an incident when Spotty very nearly got killed, running across the road on the planet Spot (his home), to talk to his sister.
SuperTed proceeds during the animation, to teach Spotty the right way to cross the road, including not running, not standing behind vehicles, etc. He then warns the viewer that he "can't always be there to save you, especially on planet Earth".
The animated "setting" for the film was a based on a real street in
CardiffCardiff is the capital, largest city and most populous county of Wales. The city is Wales' chief commercial centre, the base for many national cultural and sporting institutions, the Welsh national media, and the seat of the National Assembly for Wales. According to recent estimates, the...
,
WalesWales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom, bordered by England to its east, and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It is also an elective region of the European Union...
with
Cardiff CastleCardiff Castle is a medieval castle and Victorian architecture Gothic revival mansion, transformed from a Norman keep erected over a Roman fort in Cardiff, the capital of Wales.-The Roman fort:...
as a backdrop.
DVD releases
The Complete original series of Superted was released on June 2008 in Region 2 (UK). Further Adventures of SuperTed has yet to be released.
External links