The Upstairs Downstairs Bears
Also known asUpstairs Downstairs Bears[1][2]
GenrePreschool
Stop motion[3]
Created byCarol Lawson
Gresham Films
Based onThe Upstairs Downstairs Bears book series
by Carol Lawson
Voices ofSonja Ball
Kathleen Flaherty
Oliver Grainger
Harry Hill
Emma Isherwood
Sally Isherwood
Michael Lamport
Theme music composerMark Giannetti
ComposerJeff Fisher
Country of originUnited Kingdom
Canada
Original languageEnglish
No. of seasons1
No. of episodes13 (26 shorts)
Production
Executive producersElizabeth Partyka
Poul Kofod
David Ferguson
ProducersCharlotte Damgaard
Cassandra Schafhausen
Kath Yelland (for FilmFair)
Running time22 minutes (11 minutes per short)
Production companiesScottish Television
CINAR Corporation
Egmont Imagination
Original release
NetworkITV (CITV) (UK)
Teletoon (Canada)
ReleaseSeptember 3 (2001-09-03) –
December 7, 2001 (2001-12-07)

The Upstairs Downstairs Bears is a British-Canadian children's stop-motion animated series. The series was co-produced by Scottish Television Enterprises and Canada's Cinar in co-production with Egmont Imagination in Denmark, in association with Imagination Production and FilmFair Animation.[4] The series was broadcast on CITV in the United Kingdom and Teletoon in Canada. It consists of a single season of 13 half-hour episodes, or 26 shorts.[5]

Based on the eponymous series of books by the show's creator Carol Lawson, the show is about two families of teddy bears who live in an Edwardian townhouse, and emphasizes the importance of sharing for the preschool audience.[6]

Episodes

No. [7]TitleWritten byCanadian air date [8]
1a"The Magic Hat"Sally Ann LeverSeptember 3, 2001 (2001-09-03)
1b"The Lost Kite"Sally Ann LeverSeptember 3, 2001 (2001-09-03)
2a"Mrs. Bumble's Birthday"Simon JowettSeptember 4, 2001 (2001-09-04)
2b"Henrietta's Cleaning Day"Simon JowettSeptember 4, 2001 (2001-09-04)
3a"Bears Who Go Bump in the Night"Mike JamesSeptember 5, 2001 (2001-09-05)
3b"Family Portrait"Mike JamesSeptember 5, 2001 (2001-09-05)
4a"The Telephone"Sally Ann LeverSeptember 6, 2001 (2001-09-06)
4b"The Chimney Sweep"Sally Ann LeverSeptember 6, 2001 (2001-09-06)
5a"The Lovely Day Outing"Jeanne WillisSeptember 7, 2001 (2001-09-07)
5b"The Music Lesson"Jeanne WillisSeptember 7, 2001 (2001-09-07)
6a"The Treasure Hunt"Mike JamesSeptember 10, 2001 (2001-09-10)
6b"An Abundance of Peas"Jennifer LupinacciSeptember 10, 2001 (2001-09-10)
7a"Wash Day"Simon JowettSeptember 11, 2001 (2001-09-11)
7b"Arthur's Art Attack"Simon JowettSeptember 11, 2001 (2001-09-11)
8a"A Visit From Aunt Agatha"Mike JamesSeptember 12, 2001 (2001-09-12)
8b"Fix-it Freddy"Peter HynesSeptember 12, 2001 (2001-09-12)
9a"The Bring 'n' Buy Sale"Mike JamesSeptember 13, 2001 (2001-09-13)
9b"The Last Card"Simon JowettSeptember 13, 2001 (2001-09-13)
10a"Who's Calling?"Jeanne WillisSeptember 14, 2001 (2001-09-14)
10b"Jumping to Conclusions"Peter HynesSeptember 14, 2001 (2001-09-14)
11a"Singing Contest"Jeanne WillisSeptember 17, 2001 (2001-09-17)
11b"Star Maker"Peter HynesSeptember 17, 2001 (2001-09-17)
12a"The Pantomime At No. 49"Adrian BesleyNovember 19, 2001 (2001-11-19)
12b"Babysitting Baby Arthur"Adrian BesleyNovember 19, 2001 (2001-11-19)
13a"A Winter's Day"Simon JowettDecember 7, 2001 (2001-12-07)
13b"Christmas Bears"Jeanne WillisDecember 7, 2001 (2001-12-07)

Production

Illustrator and teddy bear collector[9] Carol Lawson was reportedly inspired to create the franchise when she came across "a 'downstairs' bear dressed as a maid".[7] It follows in the vein of the similarly-titled 1971 ITV drama Upstairs, Downstairs,[7] which also features the stories of two families living together under one townhouse roof.

Production of the series began in late 1998, with an anticipated budget of US$3 million.[10] By early 2000, this had increased to US$3.7 million, similar to that of comparable children's television.[6] The cost per episode was $430,000 as of October that year.[5]

Egmont Imagination headquarters in Denmark handled construction of the puppets and backgrounds, which were then sent to the FilmFair studio in London for filming.[7]

Broadcast

The Upstairs Downstairs Bears was first broadcast in English on CITV in the United Kingdom on April 9, 2001.[11] On Teletoon in Canada, it originally aired from September 3, 2001 to December 7, 2001.[8] In the United States, it was broadcast on Smile.[2]

On the French-language Canadian channel Télétoon, it was aired as Les oursons du square Théodore.[12] Internationally, it was also seen on Minimax in Hungary,[13] and Hop! Channel in Israel.[14]

Czech Television's ČT Déčko has made the full series available for digital streaming.[15]

Reception

Toonhound had a positive impression of the series, stating: "With its period set details, golden brown shades and soft, sepia light this little show evokes just the right Edwardian atmosphere..."[7]

References

  1. ^ "Archived copy". www.teletoon.com. Archived from the original on 7 January 2002. Retrieved 28 September 2022.((cite web)): CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  2. ^ a b "Smile of a Child TV // Television Program Schedule". Archived from the original on 2009-04-27.
  3. ^ "WildBrain - Distribution Catalogue 2021 by WildBrain_Official - Issuu". September 2021.
  4. ^ "About | Carol Lawson".
  5. ^ a b "Canadians specialize at MIP".
  6. ^ a b "What's developing in kids production".
  7. ^ a b c d e "Toonhound - Upstairs Downstairs Bears (2001-2002)".
  8. ^ a b "Television Program Logs". Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission. 2016-03-02.[dead link] Alt URL
  9. ^ "Porterfields Art Licensing - Carol Lawson".
  10. ^ "Cascade's kid-friendly agenda".
  11. ^ "Bear-loving author sees books come to life on television". 8 February 2001.
  12. ^ "Archived copy". www.teletoon.com. Archived from the original on 6 January 2002. Retrieved 28 September 2022.((cite web)): CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  13. ^ "Minimax.hu". Archived from the original on 2002-06-16.
  14. ^ "Israeli pre-school channel on UK shopping spree".
  15. ^ "Medvědí rodinka - iVysílání | Česká televize".

External links

Teletoon (now Cartoon Network (Canada)) original programming
Teddy bears
Categories