Remember that one day when you could wake up without an alarm? When you would get your favorite bowl of cereal and sit between the hours of 8 and 12? This is a blog dedicated to the greatest time of our childhood: Saturday mornings. The television programs you watched, the memories attached to them, and maybe introducing you to something you didn't realize existed. Updated every weekend.
The
Smurfs is a successful franchise spinning out of a Belgium comic
created by Pierre Culliford, better known
as Peyo. Appearing in the pages of Spirou in October of 1958, the
Smurfs are long-lived little blue creatures that live in the middle of a
medieval forest in a village comprised of mushroom houses. Initially supposed
to be just a one-shot guest in Peyo’s already-running strip, Johan and
Peewit, they proved popular enough to be upgraded to their own feature.
Merchandisers quickly fell in love with them as much as audiences as their
similar appearance meant they had to do very little work to produce each
character.
NBC president Fred
Silverman decided that the Smurfs would make a good cartoon and
negotiated for their rights. The
Smurfs debuted on the network on September 12, 1981 and their
popularity only continued to grow. The show was quickly expanded to an hour,
then 90 minutes with syndicated reruns starting in 1986. It would go on to run
for 9 seasons, and changes made to the characters to better distinguish them
from each other would become the default appearance for those characters going
forward.
As part of
the merchandising blitz that followed the cartoon, Post joined in with a new cereal in 1983:
Smurfberry Crunch, named for the fruit that served as the primary food source
for the Smurfs. The cereal was comprised of berry-flavored red and dark blue
pieces that were six tiny balls assembled in a star shape. A number of premiums
were included during the cereal’s run, including Smurf rub-ons,
glow-in-the-dark
stickers, cut-out
award buttons, Presidential
campaign buttons, a game
on the back panel, tin
signs, and a contest to win an entertainment center. Most of the
commercials were animated, featuring the Smurfs producing the cereal and
singing a jingle to the tune of Tchaikovsky’s
“The Nutcracker Suite”
(which was in keeping with original showrunner Gerard Baldwin’s desire to
feature classical music in the series). Most of the primary cast reprised their
respective roles for the various commercials. Actor and musician Jack Black has claimed to have
appeared in a non-animated commercial being pulled in a red wagon (although
no visual evidence has been found as yet).
A small
issue arose with the cereal. Apparently, the blue dye used, if eaten in enough quantities,
would turn excrement blue. While not as concerning as the Franken
Berry incident a decade prior, Post still decided to address it by
rebooting the cereal in 1987. Now called Smurf Magic Berries, the cereal
maintained the same shapes but replaced the blue coloring with orange and yellow.
Also, white marshmallow stars were added to symbolize the magic; as evidenced
by Papa Smurf(Don
Messick) casting a spell with them against their enemy, Gargamel, in the
new commercial. It finally left shelves for the last time around the time the
cartoon was cancelled. Premiums for this version included gummi candies, simple magic tricks
and a game on
the back panel.
The Smurfsis a media franchise that began life as a comic
by Belgian artist Peyo (the pen name of Pierre Culliford).In 1947, Peyo started a comic
strip called Johan that was initially published in the newspaper La Derniere Heurebefore moving over to the Editions Dupuis publication Spirou.The strip
was set in an unnamed European kingdom in the Middle Ages and centered on the
titular Johan, young page to the King. Johan was brave and gallant, and always went
headfirst to resolve any kind of trouble with his trusty horse, Bayard. In 1954, Johan was joined by a comedic sidekick named Pirlouit (aka Peewit,
who would become Peyo’s all-time favorite character) and his goat, Biquette (named after Peyo’s
wife’s childhood pet), and the strip was renamed Johan et Pirlouit. Unlike Johan, Peewit was diminutive, cowardly,
and quick to complain about the adventures he and Johan went on. However, he
was loyal to his friend and his King.
A translated and recolored page of Johan and Peewit meeting the Smurfs.
In October of 1958, the Schrtumpfs (or
Smurfs, as they were translated into by the Dutch and adopted into English)
were introduced, inspired when Peyo saw his daughter playing with a dwarf
figurine. The Smurfs are long-lived (aging centuries) little creatures said to
be “3 apples high” (a literal translation of the description haut comme
trois pommes, which was more akin to the expression “knee-high to a
grasshopper”), and were virtually indistinguishable from each other as they all
had the same blue skin (suggested by his wife, who worked as a colorist on some
of his books) and tails and wore white trousers and a white Phrygian cap. Only
their leader, Papa Smurf (or Grand Schtroumpf), initially had any differences
as he wore red clothing and had a full beard. Originally, they lived in a village in a part of the world called “Le Pays Maudit” (French for “the Cursed Land”) that was peppered with dense forests, deep marshes, a desert and a
high mountain range in houses that resembled large mushrooms, and relied on
storks to transport them to other places. Later, their village would simply be
located in the forest, concealed from discovery by magic unless led there by a
Smurf. Their primary food source was sarsaparilla leaves (suggested by his Spirou
editor-in-chief, partner and translator Yvan Delporte who found the name “magical”) worked into
various dishes.
The Smurfs proved immensely popular with
readers and soon got their own feature in Spirou in 1959. This led Peyo to
create a studio where he would supervise the production of Smurfs adventures
while he would continue to personally work on Johan and Peewit. Their
stories were fairly simple, dealing with life around their village that often
led to comedic situations with political and social subtext (such as one Smurf declaring himself king of the village in
Papa Smurf’s absence), or put at odds against the evil wizard Gargamel and his cat,
Azrael, who wanted to catch the Smurfs in order to use them as an ingredient to
make gold (or to eat, depending on the story). Initially, none of the Smurfs
had names beyond Papa Smurf, but as the strip continued their names and
personalities (usually related to each other) began to take form, and
individual flourishes were added to their appearance. For instance, Grouchy is
eternally grumpy and is typically seen scowling and announcing what he doesn’t
like; Clumsy is always tripping over or dropping something; Lazy is generally
sleeping while others work; Vanity always had a mirror accessible to stare at
his reflection; Jokey is always laughing and carrying exploding gift boxes; Brainy
is the glasses-wearing know-it-all whose annoying need to be right often
outpaced his good sense; Hefty is the village strongman who carried heavy loads;
Chef was the village cook whose hat resembled a chef’s and also wore an apron;
etc.
The Smurfs meet The Smurfette.
Notably,
all of the Smurfs were male; with any new Smurfs being delivered by stork. In
1966, the first female Smurf was introduced named Smurfette (originally a
designation as THE Smurfette more than a name, defying the naming convention),
with long black hair and a white dress instead of trousers. She was created by
Gargamel from clay to spy on the Smurfs and cause dissent among them with her
feminine charms. Papa Smurf cast a spell to make her a real Smurf, symbolized
by her hair becoming blonde. While she stuck around for a bit, her continued
presence drove the other Smurfs mad with lust and she left of her own volition;
making infrequent appearances in the years following.
A poster of Smurf figurines.
The similar appearances of the Smurfs made
them merchandising darlings as manufacturers had to make very little changes
between the various characters. Smurf figurines have been in production since
1959, only missing two years of releases. This led to the creation of SEPP
International S.A. (la Societe d’Edition, de
Presse et de Publicite) by Freddy Monnickendam to manage the
merchandising of the Smurfs franchise. In 1961, the first animated adaptation
of the comics came from TVA Dupuis and aired on RTB (now RTBF) in Belgium for 6 years. It only featured 9
episodes—direct adaptations of the comics—and was animated using cutouts; with
the final two being in color during RTB’s first year of offering colorized
broadcasts. Five of the episodes would be combined into the 1965 film Les Adventures des Schtroumpfs. A more traditional animated effort came in 1976
with Belvision Studios’ film The Smurfs and the Magic Flute, adapting the Smurfs’ first appearance.
The Belgium animated effort.
The popular account goes that American
media and entertainment entrepreneur Stuart R. Ross discovered the
Smurfs while he was traveling in Belgium that same year. He quickly made a deal
with Dupuis and Peyo to bring the Smurfs to North America. Wallace Berrie and Co. produced various
Smurf merchandise that became widely successful.NBC President Fred
Silverman’s daughter was the possessor of one of those dolls, and he was
convinced they would make a good television series. Despite the reservations of
others at the network, Silverman pressed forward and secured the rights through
Monnickendam and assigned production to his go-to studio, Hanna-Barbera. Gerard Baldwin was put in charge of
overseeing and developing the series.
The animated adaptation of the Smurfs' first appearance.
Baldwin worked with Peyo as
directly as possible, aided by Delporte. Both wanted to keep the Smurfs as
close to the source material as possible, and Peyo held veto power over
anything he didn’t like and contributed designs and ideas. An early problem
arose when many of the story pitches involved money in some form (inheritance,
treasure, selling property, etc.). Money held no value for the Smurf as
everyone had a role to fulfill in the village and did so out of nothing more
than a sense of community. Monnickendam also had his own plans and wanted to
make the show as widely accessible and mainstream as possible to drive
merchandise sales. One of his many proposed changes was to make Jokey Smurf basically
resemble Harpo
Marx.
When he kept meeting with resistance, Monnickendam sought out another property
that would be more receptive, leading to the development of the Snorks series (which Baldwin also headed up and
starred several Smurfs cast members). Baldwin received pushback from the
network for his desire to include classical music in the soundtrack as “kids
didn’t like it” (forgetting that generation was coming up on constant reruns of
Looney Tunes).
Character models.
The Smurfs debuted on NBC on September 12,
1981 and it became a tremendous hit for the network; marking it one of the few
high points of Silverman’s otherwise disastrous tenure. So much so, NBC
expanded it to a full hour for the second season, and then 90 minutes (until it
was scaled back again in season 8), as well as several independent holiday-themed
specials. Although some of that time was supplemented with reruns of previous
episodes, the production soon found themselves making, as Baldwin described,
“the equivalent of a feature film a week” with a six-to-eight-week turnaround
after writing, storyboarding and recording. The network continued to push for
the removal of the classical music, but fortunately there was no money in the
budget to license anything else. The rest of the series’ music, including the
simple-yet-catchy theme, was composed by Hoyt Curtin.
Besieged by the Purple Smurfs.
The show was largely adapted from
the original comics—primarily using the English translations done by Random
House
and Hodder and Stoughton—until they exhausted the material,
necessitating the creation of original plots. Minor changes for American
television were made, such as having the black Smurfs—Smurfs infected with
a disease that changed their color and personality—become purple Smurfs in order to avoid any racial connotations and
the addition of moral lessons to the stories. To reduce instances of imitable
violence, instead of Brainy Smurf being whacked in the head whenever he doled
out one of his know-it-all lectures or became generally annoying, a running gag
was added where he was physically thrown out of the village. The Smurfs’
personalities were also softened from mischievous to easygoing and friendly
with a tendency to break out into song. Papa Smurf (Don Messick) in particular
had his temper, well, tempered to be more patient and father-like to his
“little Smurflings”. Their favorite food was changed to be berries they called
“Smurfberries”, and modern themes began to be incorporated such as neighborhood
projects, awards and modern-esque technology with a medieval flair; the latter
usually courtesy of Handy Smurf (Michael Bell) in an attempt to make the
Smurfs’ lives and chores a bit easier. Additionally, alterations to the stories
occurred in order to have them fit into either a 22 or 11-minute format; both
of which were used throughout the show’s run.
More character models.
Although all of the Smurfs (99+)
were depicted in group shots, the series primarily focused on a select few
rotating in importance between episodes. Additionally, to help them stand out a
bit more from each other, their characters were given additional physical
flourishes that would eventually find their way into the comics themselves. Among
them were Papa, Brainy (Danny Goldman), Clumsy (whose hat was depicted as being
too big, voiced by William Callaway), Farmer (Alan Young), Greedy (who was
combined with Baker and Chef from the comics and ate as much as he cooked,
voiced by Hamilton Camp), Grouchy (Bell), Handy (given coveralls, a brim on his
hat, and a pencil always behind his ear), Hefty (shown with a heart tattoo on
his arm, voiced by Frank Welker), Jokey (June Foray), Lazy (Bell), Harmony
(whose name was ironic as he played his trumpet terribly, voiced by Camp), Painter
(who wore a painter’s coat, large bowtie and a drooped hat, voiced by Callaway
with a French accent), Poet (Welker), Smurfette (Lucille Bliss), Tailor (generally
seen with a tape measure around his neck and pins in his hat, voiced by Kip
King) and Vanity (Alan Oppenheimer). Some of the adapted stories were altered
to include these characters, such as Brainy being the one to become the
aforementioned King Smurf.
Royal Pals: Johan and Peewit with the King, Princes Sabina and Dame Barbara.
No Smurf is an island, and despite
living in relative secrecy from the rest of the world, the Smurfs managed to
make a number of non-Smurf friends and allies. Among them were old friends
Johan (Bell) and Peewit (Welker), who got their own adventures during the
second season aiding their King (Bob Holt), Princess Sabina (Jennifer
Darling)
and her governess, Dame Barbara (Linda
Gary),
while also sometimes appearing with the Smurfs in their own; Feathers, a large stork that provided the Smurfs with air transportation and
delivered messages; Enchanter Homnibus (Jack Angel), an old human wizard who was a good friends with Papa and
often played games of chess with him; Mother Nature (Foray), the magical woman
in charge of keeping nature running as intended; Father Time (Oppenheimer), a
wise old man with a scythe who was the keeper of time; magical couple Tallulah and Selwyn, who constantly
bickered and attempted to turn each other into various things, that lived in Quarrel Castle with
their ghostly uncle, Fenwick,
and pet gargoyle, Tharp; Gourdy (Marvin Kalplan), a genie freed
from a gourd by Farmer who desires to be helpful with his magic but somehow
manages to foul things up; The Pussywillow Pixies—protective leader Elderberry (Peggy Webber), clumsy Pansy (Susan
Blu),
vain Lilac, young Acorn (Patricia
Parris),
green-clad Bramble and Holly—who initially feared
the Smurfs until they were rescued by them; Laconia, a mute wood elf that used sign language to communicate; Clockwork
Smurf (Welker), a wooden robot built by Handy who gained sentience of his own
and took up residence with the King, eventually joined by a Clockwork Smurfette; and Marina, a beautiful mermaid and Handy’s love interest, among others.
Clockwise from top: Snappy, Grandpa, Sassette, Slouchy and Nat.
As the show went on, all-new new
primary characters were added. In season 3, Baby Smurf (Julie McWhirter) was
delivered by a stork to the village. For a baby, he was very bright and had a
proclivity for magic; although his spellcasting often went unnoticed by the
others. In season 5, three Smurfs were
accidentally de-aged by one of Father Time’s clocks, turning them into the
Smurflings. They were Natural, aka Nat (Joe Camen as adult, Charlie Adler as
Smurfling), a nature lover who communicated with animals; Slouchy (Noelle
North), a laid-back Smurf; and Snappy (Pat Musick), a rambunctious Smurf who
liked to get his own way and be in the middle of the action. Slouchy and Snappy
were the few Smurfs to wear a shirt; with Slouchy’s being red and Snappy’s
yellow with a storm cloud. A fourth Smurfling would later be introduced:
Sassette (McWhirter). She was a sassy tomboy created from the same clay and
spell used by Gargamel to create Smurfette, made by the other Smurflings to
give Smurfette a female friend. That season also introduced Puppy (Taylor &
Welker), who wore a magic locket that contained “the key to all magic” and
could only be opened by one person (which ended up being Baby). He was given to
the Smurfs by Homnibus and was often seen with the Smurflings. Originally,
Puppy was going to be a Smurf-sized pet for Baby, but Peyo rejected the idea
and helped redesign him as a magical being that resembled a dog. In season 6,
Grandpa (Jonathan Winters), Papa’s predecessor, returned to the village after a
500-year journey to find the materials needed to recharge the Long Life Stone: the object that allowed Smurfs to live a long
time. He enjoyed telling stories (although his memory got fuzzy at times) and kept
a cache of items inside his very long beard. In season 7, Wild (Welker) was
discovered having accidentally been lost in the forest when he was delivered to
and raised by a family of squirrels (a pastiche of Tarzan). Brainy took it
upon himself to tutor Wild in the ways of being a Smurf to try and shed his
wild habits. Wild continued to live with the squirrels, his best friend being
one named Chitter (Messick).
Gargamel concocting in his hovel with Azrael sleeping nearby.
The main antagonist of the show was
Gargamel (Paul Winchell), with the aid of his cat, Azrael (Messick). As in the
comics, he was always attempting to catch the Smurfs either to eat or to
complete his formula to create gold and improve his lot in life from his
ramshackle hovel. After season 3, his plans were aided by his Great Book of Spells, which provided him
with magical schemes to use against the Smurfs; however, it could only be
activated on the night of the final phase of the full moon and would only
remain so until the following evening. In season 6, he was given an all-new
nephew character named Scruple (Brenda Vaccaro), who was dumped on Gargamel for
an apprenticeship after he constantly caused trouble at his wizard school.
Gargamel, who had no tolerance for Scruple, usually just made him do chores
instead of actually teaching him. Occasionally, Gargamel’s mother, called
simply “Mummy” (Foray), would drop in unannounced and berate him for his
inability to catch the Smurfs. While not really a malicious antagonist, both
the Smurfs and Gargamel were frequently besieged by a large ogre (a giant in
the comics) named Bigmouth (Lennie Weinrib) who was rude and
oblivious to others’ feelings so long as it led to a chance to stuff his face
with food. Not only did he frequently help himself to the Smurfs’ Smurfberry
harvest, but often dropped in on Gargamel to eat him out of house and home.
Hogatha and Harold.
Newly created was Hogatha (Janet Waldo), a portly and ugly
witch whose main desire was to become attractive enough to have the man of her
dreams fall in love with her. She sometimes snorted like a pig when talked or
laughed and rode around on a vulture named Harold. Occasionally, her plans brought her into conflict with the Smurfs.
Then there was Lord Balthazar (Keene
Curtis),
Gargamel’s godfather who was even more wicked and cruel and a much better
wizard. Chlorhydris (Amanda
McBroom),
was an aging sorceress who became cold and bitter after bad personal
relationships and was determined to make the entire world feel as she did. There
were also several races of brutal humanoid creature—including the toad-like Wartmongers, the fish-like Water Harpies and the pig-like Truffle Trolls—and a variety of one-off villains of human,
mystical and supernatural persuasions.
Miner leading the Smurfs into the Earth.
Despite the large cast of
characters to choose from, Hanna-Barbera created several Smurfs of their own as
situations required. These included Miner (Young with a Scottish accent), who
always had his trusty pickaxe and a candle affixed to his hat; Architect
(Vaccaro); Tracker(Henry Polic II), a red
feather-wearing Smurf whose keen sense of smell helped him live up to his name;
Cobbler (Camp), the resident shoemaker; the depressed introvert Dabbler
(Welker) who could never stick to one vocation; Nobody, who suffered from self-esteem issues; Editor
(Messick), who published the village’s newspaper; an unnamed Smurf who spoke
with a Scottish accent and invented the game of golf; Pushover (Ronnie Schell), whose name says it
all; Tuffy (Pat
Fraley),
who was quick to challenge others to fights (which he would promptly lose); and
Wooly (Dick
Gautier,
using a Texan accent), who acquired the wool needed to make the Smurfs’
clothing and wore a fluffy hat.
Smurfette not quite enjoying having Nanny and Smoogle as roommates.
Bucking the established canon of
the franchise, a new female Smurf named Nanny (Blu) was introduced in the 8th
season. As previously seen, Smurfs were always depicted as male when delivered
by the stork, and previous female Smurfs were all the creation of magic.
However, Nanny was said to have left the village with Grandpa and had been held
as a prisoner in Castle Captor for over 100 years. The character’s design was
recycled from the aged Smurfette in “Smurfquest” and her elderly disguise from
“Smurf Van Winkle”. She was accompanied by Smoogle (Taylor), a marsupial-like animal who only
said “smoogle”—however, everyone seemed to understand what he was saying—and
could replicate noises. A new villain was introduced: the evil wizard Nemesis
(Welker), who became a hideous hiccupping creature after a magical accident and
kept his face hidden by his purple robe’s hood. He was Grandpa’s arch-enemy who
sought the Long Life Stone for his own purposes. They also gained a new ally in
Denisa (Katie
Leigh),
the niece of Lord Balthazar who befriended Sassette.
Behind the scenes, things weren’t
quite so Smurfy. Monnickendam’s bid to match and possibly surpass The Smurfs
resulted in failure, and his having bypassed Dupuis led to the dissolution of
their relationship and the disbandment of SEPP International S.A. with
licensing going over to Lafig S.A. Further, his
relationship with Peyo deteriorated quickly, ending up in lawsuits about the
division of rights and money over The Smurfs. Dupuis came under new
management in 1985 and after fulfilling his obligations to them, Peyo left in
1988 and attempted to start his own publishing effort, Cartoon Creations.
Issues also arose between Peyo and Hanna-Barbera when he learned they were
making moves behind his back; such as going forward with their veiled anti-drug
episode, “Lure of the Orb”, meant to support then-First Lady Nancy Reagan’s anti-drug campaign, that he had expressly vetoed. Production on
the show almost ceased right there until Delporte talked him out of it.
Peyo’s hefty workload that
persisted for most of his professional life began to take its toll on the artist,
and his health was in steady decline. As a result, he loosened his grip on the show
and allowed Hanna-Barbera more creative freedom, leading to the production of
the controversial 9th and final season of The Smurfs. It was
decided to move the Smurfs out of their village and to have them become
stranded in time when they lost the magic key that was used to control their
time crystals and Time Scrolls. As a result, they were jumping from period to
period, attempting to find their way home while encountering new perils, new
friends, and new foes (which were largely period-accurate versions of their
established foes as their own ancestors).
Hefty, Brainy, Wild, Handy, Painter and Papa in the past.
The cast was also severely cut
down, featuring only Papa, Smurfette, Clumsy, Brainy, Lazy, Hefty, Snappy,
Sassette, Greedy, Jokey, Vanity, Painter, Grandpa, Wild, Smoogle, Baby and
Handy on a rotating basis. It was at this time that Winchell left the show,
allegedly being disgusted by the scripts. Any representation of Gargamel’s
character was voiced by Bell for the season. Ratings, which had begun to
steadily decline by this point, went into a freefall. NBC unsurprisingly
cancelled it at the end of the season, leaving it with an unresolved
cliffhanger. During its run, the series was nominated multiple times for Daytime
Emmy Awards, winning for “Outstanding Children’s Entertainment” in 1983. Papa and
Brainy would go on to appear in the anti-drug special Cartoon
All-Stars to the Rescue a few months after the series ended.
Smurfette making use of Handy's washing machine.
Each season had a unique opening
sequence and ending theme. The intros all typically showed different scenes of
the Smurfs engaging in their daily lives before transitioning over to
Gargamel’s attempted capture of them. Prominent new characters introduced
within that season were incorporated. The end of the sequence usually featured
a Smurf or several Smurfs sliding down a hollow log and running over to where
the show’s title was, sitting on top of a mushroom over it while other Smurfs
appeared behind the letters; initially as eyeballs and later popping into full
view. The 1st season’s featured an opening narration introducing the
audience to the world of the Smurfs, while the 2nd season’s had the Smurfs singing actual lyrics to their
theme song. The 8th season intro had more of a
narrative element to it, as Hefty and Sassette were on a mission to bring Papa
Smurf a book from which he would read to the other Smurfs. That book would
serve as the transition to the title screen, bypassing the log sliding portion.
The 9th season’s intro set up the time traveling premise and showed
the Smurfs escaping from some period threats before heading towards a
stone-carved version of the show’s logo. The 4th season intro is
probably the most recognized out of all them as a truncated version was used
for the syndicated rerun series Smurfs’ Adventures.
Beginning in 1986, these syndicated
episodes featured some minor edits and time-compression (which resulted in the
voices sounding a bit higher than normal) in order to allow two stories to run
in a half-hour. For the first four seasons of episodes, the season 4 closing
theme was also used over the end credits. Starting with season 5 episodes, the respective
original ending themes were used. Adventures would air on
various independent stations before going to USA
Network
in the early 1990s, and then to Cartoon
Network,
where it would run throughout the 90s, and Boomerang, remaining until
2022 and eventually returning in 2023. It also aired on Teletoon Retro in Canada.
If Smurfs merchandise was selling
well before, it exploded during the show’s run with things like trading
cards, Halloween costumes,
and breakfast cereals. As with Peyo’s own comics that came out around the same
time, products incorporated the cosmetic changes the cartoon introduced to
various characters, such as Handy and Hefty, and new characters, such as Baby. The
show’s theme was also used in a number of video games
that followed. Random House, along with reprinting the original comics
translated, published a series
of children’s books that coincided with the show. Marvel Comics
acquired the rights to publish a 3-issue
mini-series featuring two stories per issue and
several one-page sketches created by Peyo.
