SuperTed is a Welsh animated television series about a teddy bear with magical super powers. It first aired on 1 November 1982. It was produced by Siriol Animation for Welsh television channel S4C where it was aired in the Welsh language, and later aired in English throughout the whole of the United Kingdom on BBC1, and dubbed into Irish for RTE. The series won numerous awards, including the 1987 BAFTA for best animation.
SuperTed is the creation of Mike Young 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.
Knight Rider is an American television series that originally ran from September 26, 1982, to August 8, 1986. The series was broadcast on NBC and stars David Hasselhoff as Michael Knight, a high-tech modern crime fighter assisted by an advanced, artificially intelligent and nearly indestructible car.
Conceived and produced by Glen A. Larson, the show was an instant hit.
Self-made billionaire Wilton Knight rescues police Detective Lieutenant Michael Arthur Long after a near fatal shot to the face, giving him a new identity (via plastic surgery) and a new name: Michael Knight. Wilton selects Michael to be the primary field agent in the pilot program of his public justice organization, the Foundation for Law and Government (FLAG). The other half of this pilot program is the Knight Industries Two Thousand (KITT), a heavily modified Pontiac Firebird Trans Am with numerous features including an extremely durable shell and frame, controlled by a computer with artificial intelligence. Michael and KITT are brought in during situations where "direct action might provide the only feasible solution".
This animated sci-fi retelling of the Greek poet Homer's epic poem, "The Odyssey", was a French-Japanese co-production originally produced in 1981, with animation from premier Japanese animation studio TMS (Tokyo Movie Shinsha). The series was originally envisaged as being 52 episodes long, but production difficulties cut back the number of episodes to 26.
The show was written by the French writing team of Nina Wolmark and Jean Chalopin, before being animated by TMS in Japan. Many of the show's key Japanese staff came from the very popular (in France as well as Japan) anime, Rose Of Versailles (Lady Oscar), although the original director, Tadao Nagahama died after production of the first episode, leaving the remaining directors to carry on in a similar style. Some of the show's mechanical designs were also created by Shoji Kawamori and Studio Nue, the famed creators of Macross.
Although the show's worldwide debut was on September 12 1981, on Luxembourg's RTL channel, France's FR 3 (the first 'official' home of the series) was not far behind in showing the series. In the mid-1980's the show was given a very respectable and mature English dub by DIC, courtesy of Jean Chalopin and the cast and crew at Multidub International in Montreal, Canada. In the USA, the show was shown in syndication from September 13 1986 as part of Kideo TV a DIC-produced package of animated series such as The Get-Along Gang, Popples and Rainbow Brite (which Ulysses later replaced). The show was also shown on the UK's BBC and Channel 4 networks. Ironically, for a show co-produced by the Japanese, Ulysses 31 wasn't shown on Japanese television until February 6 1988, when a run of twelve episodes was shown there under the title of Space Legend Ulysses 31.
Dogtanian and the Three Muskehounds - October 1981 to December 1981
Dogtanian is a cartoon version of the classic Alexandre Dumas story of d'Artagnan and The Three Musketeers. Most of the characters are anthropomorphisms of dogs, hence the title of the cartoon. Exceptions to this are the temptress Milady (a cat); Pip, Dogtanian's sidekick mouse; the avian jewel thief Blue Falcon; Planchet (a bear), Dogtanian's main servant; and some random townspeople and guards of the Cardinal.
The cartoon was created by Spanish studioBRB Internacional and produced in Japan by Nippon Animation. It was first broadcast in Spain (D'Artacan y los tres mosqueperros) and Japan (ワンワン三銃士) (Wanwan Sanjushi) in 1981 (while the show aired in Japan first, the initial dub was Spanish). There was also an Afrikaans adaption that was broadcast on SABC during 1985 and the early 1990s. The name was changed to "Brakkenjan", which has become a popular name for dogs in South Africa. The voice for Brakkenjan in his earliest years, was done by Gerben Kamper during his time of working for SABC.
The partnership between BRB and Nippon Animation worked so well, that they collaborated in another successful animated series two years after Dogtanian called Around the World with Willy Fog in 1983.
The series began in 1963 with William Hartnell. By the 1980's the Doctor was in his 5th incarnation and saw Peter Davison play the Doctor Who charector from 1981 to 1984. The Fifth Doctor's era was notable for a "back to basics" attitude, in which "silly" humour (and, to an extent, horror) was kept to a minimum, and more scientific accuracy was encouraged by the producer, John Nathan-Turner. It was also notable for the reintroduction of many of the Time Lord's enemies; such as the Master, Cybermen, Omega (a founding-father of Gallifrey), the Black and White Guardians, the Sea Devils, and the Silurians.
The sixth Doctor was played by Colin Baker who remained in the role from 1984 to 1986. The Sixth's Doctor's brightly coloured, mismatched clothes and brash personality set him apart from all his previous incarnations. The Sixth Doctor appeared in three seasons; however, in Season 21 he appeared only in the final episode of The Caves of Androzani which featured the regeneration from the Fifth Doctor and thereafter in the following serial The Twin Dilemma to end that season. The Sixth Doctor's era is noted for the decision of BBC controller Michael Grade to put the series on an 18-month hiatus between seasons 22 and 23.
The seventh Doctor, played by Sylvestor McCoy saw the series to it's end in 1989.
In his first season, the Seventh Doctor started out as a comical character, mixing his metaphors ("Time and tide melt the snowman," for example), playing the spoons, and making pratfalls, but soon started to develop a darker nature and raised the profound question of who the Doctor actually is. The Seventh Doctor era is noted for the cancellation of Doctor Who after 26 years. It is also noted for the Virgin New Adventures, a range of original novels published from 1992 to 1997, taking the series on beyond the television serials.
Created by Richard and Esther Shapiro, the working title for Dynasty was Oil, and the starring role originally went to George Peppard (later of The A-Team). In early drafts of the pilot script the two main families featured in the series, the Carrington and Colby families, were written as Parkhurst and Corby respectively.
Peppard, who had difficulties dealing with the somewhat unsympathetic role of Blake,was replaced with John Forsythe (who voiced Charles Townsend in another Aaron Spelling production, Charlie's Angels). In the final production drafts the names Parkhurst and Corby were changed to Carrington and Colby, and their rivalry was written to emulate the Montagues and Capulets of Romeo and Juliet, that is, crossed in love and war.
The first season, filmed in 1980, was delayed by animosity between the networks and the partnership of the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, which caused a strike. Many new shows were delayed for months, and Dynasty did not see the light of day on ABC until the first weeks of 1981.
