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] | Title | Written by | Canadian air date [8] |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1a | "The Magic Hat" | Sally Ann Lever | September 3, 2001 |
| 1b | "The Lost Kite" | Sally Ann Lever | September 3, 2001 |
| 2a | "Mrs. Bumble's Birthday" | Simon Jowett | September 4, 2001 |
| 2b | "Henrietta's Cleaning Day" | Simon Jowett | September 4, 2001 |
| 3a | "Bears Who Go Bump in the Night" | Mike James | September 5, 2001 |
| 3b | "Family Portrait" | Mike James | September 5, 2001 |
| 4a | "The Telephone" | Sally Ann Lever | September 6, 2001 |
| 4b | "The Chimney Sweep" | Sally Ann Lever | September 6, 2001 |
| 5a | "The Lovely Day Outing" | Jeanne Willis | September 7, 2001 |
| 5b | "The Music Lesson" | Jeanne Willis | September 7, 2001 |
| 6a | "The Treasure Hunt" | Mike James | September 10, 2001 |
| 6b | "An Abundance of Peas" | Jennifer Lupinacci | September 10, 2001 |
| 7a | "Wash Day" | Simon Jowett | September 11, 2001 |
| 7b | "Arthur's Art Attack" | Simon Jowett | September 11, 2001 |
| 8a | "A Visit From Aunt Agatha" | Mike James | September 12, 2001 |
| 8b | "Fix-it Freddy" | Peter Hynes | September 12, 2001 |
| 9a | "The Bring 'n' Buy Sale" | Mike James | September 13, 2001 |
| 9b | "The Last Card" | Simon Jowett | September 13, 2001 |
| 10a | "Who's Calling?" | Jeanne Willis | September 14, 2001 |
| 10b | "Jumping to Conclusions" | Peter Hynes | September 14, 2001 |
| 11a | "Singing Contest" | Jeanne Willis | September 17, 2001 |
| 11b | "Star Maker" | Peter Hynes | September 17, 2001 |
| 12a | "The Pantomime At No. 49" | Adrian Besley | November 19, 2001 |
| 12b | "Babysitting Baby Arthur" | Adrian Besley | November 19, 2001 |
| 13a | "A Winter's Day" | Simon Jowett | December 7, 2001 |
| 13b | "Christmas Bears" | Jeanne Willis | December 7, 2001 |
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
- ^ "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) - ^ a b "Smile of a Child TV // Television Program Schedule". Archived from the original on 2009-04-27.
- ^ "WildBrain - Distribution Catalogue 2021 by WildBrain_Official - Issuu". September 2021.
- ^ "About | Carol Lawson".
- ^ a b "Canadians specialize at MIP".
- ^ a b "What's developing in kids production".
- ^ a b c d e "Toonhound - Upstairs Downstairs Bears (2001-2002)".
- ^ a b "Television Program Logs". Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission. 2016-03-02.[dead link] Alt URL
- ^ "Porterfields Art Licensing - Carol Lawson".
- ^ "Cascade's kid-friendly agenda".
- ^ "Bear-loving author sees books come to life on television". 8 February 2001.
- ^ "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) - ^ "Minimax.hu". Archived from the original on 2002-06-16.
- ^ "Israeli pre-school channel on UK shopping spree".
- ^ "Medvědí rodinka - iVysílání | Česká televize".
