The Upstairs Downstairs Bears
Animated children's television series
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The Upstairs Downstairs Bears is a children's stop-motion animated series. Produced by Scottish Television Enterprises and Canada's Cinar (now WildBrain) in co-production with Egmont Imagination in Denmark, in association with Imagination Production and FilmFair Animation,[5] it is based on the eponymous series of books by the show's creator Carol Lawson. 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.[6]
Gresham Films
by Carol Lawson
| The Upstairs Downstairs Bears | |
|---|---|
| |
| Also known as | Upstairs Downstairs Bears[1][2] |
| Genre | Preschool Stop motion[3] |
| Created by | Carol Lawson Gresham Films |
| Based on | The Upstairs Downstairs Bears series by Carol Lawson |
| Voices of | Sonja Ball Kathleen Flaherty Oliver Grainger Harry Hill Emma Isherwood Sally Isherwood Michael Lamport |
| Theme music composer | Mark Giannetti |
| Opening theme | "The Upstairs Downstairs Bears" |
| Ending theme | "The Upstairs Downstairs Bears" (instrumental) |
| Composer | Jeff Fisher |
| Countries of origin | United Kingdom Canada |
| Original language | English |
| No. of seasons | 1 |
| No. of episodes | 13 (26 segments) |
| Production | |
| Executive producers | Elizabeth Partyka Poul Kofod David Ferguson |
| Producers | Charlotte Damgaard Cassandra Schafhausen Kath Yelland (for FilmFair) |
| Running time | 22 minutes (11 minutes per short) |
| Production companies | Scottish Television Enterprises CINAR Corporation CINAR Europe Egmont Imagination FilmFair[4] |
| Original release | |
| Network | ITV (CITV) (UK) Teletoon (Canada) |
| Release | September 3 – December 7, 2001 |
Premise
Voice cast
- Sonja Ball as Henrietta Bosworth
- Kathleen Flaherty as Mrs. Bumble
- Oliver Grainger as Henry Bosworth
- Harry Hill as Barker
- Emma Isherwood as Polly Bumble
- Sally Isherwood as Alice Bosworth
- Michael Lamport as Freddy
Episodes
| No. [8] | Title | Written by | Canadian air date [9] |
|---|---|---|---|
| 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[10] Carol Lawson was reportedly inspired to create the franchise when she came across "a 'downstairs' bear dressed as a maid".[8] It follows in the vein of the similarly titled 1971 ITV drama Upstairs, Downstairs,[8] 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.[11] By early 2000, this had increased to US$3.7 million, similar to that of comparable children's television.[7] The cost per episode was $430,000 as of October that year.[6]
Egmont Imagination headquarters in Denmark handled construction of the puppets and backgrounds, which were then sent to the FilmFair studio in London for filming.[8]
Broadcast
The Upstairs Downstairs Bears was first broadcast in English on CITV in the United Kingdom on April 9, 2001.[12] On Teletoon in Canada, it originally aired from September 3, 2001, to December 7, 2001.[9] 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.[13] Internationally, it was also seen on Minimax in Hungary,[14] and Hop! Channel in Israel.[15]
Czech Television's ČT Déčko has made the full series available for digital streaming.[16]
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