The Smurfs (syndicated as Smurfs' Adventures) is an animated fantasy-comedy children's television series that originally aired on NBC from 12 September 1981 to 2 December 1989. Produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions, it is based on the Belgian comic series of the same name, created by Belgian cartoonist Peyo (who also served as story supervisor of this adaptation) and aired for 256 episodes with a total of 417 stories, excluding three cliffhangers episodes and seven specials episodes.

History

In 1976, Stuart R. Ross, an American media and entertainment entrepreneur who saw the Smurfs while traveling in Belgium, entered into an agreement with Editions Dupuis and Peyo, acquiring North American and other rights to the characters, whose original name was "les Schtroumpfs". Subsequently, Ross launched the Smurfs in the United States in association with a California company, Wallace Berrie and Co., whose figurines, dolls and other Smurf merchandise became a hugely popular success. NBC President Fred Silverman's daughter, Melissa, had a Smurf doll of her own that he had bought for her at a toy shop while they were visiting Aspen, Colorado. Silverman thought that a series based on the Smurfs might make a good addition to the Saturday-morning cartoon lineup. The Smurfs, produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions in association with SEPP International S.A. (from 1981 to 1987) and Lafig S.A. (in the years 1988 and 1989), debuted on NBC at 8:30 AM in 1981. The series became a major success for the network (one of the few hits to emerge from the Silverman era) and one of the most successful and longest-running Saturday morning cartoons in television history, spawning seven spin-off television specials on an almost yearly basis. The characters included Papa Smurf, Smurfette, Brainy Smurf, the evil Gargamel, his cat Azrael, and Johan and his friend Peewit. The Smurfs was nominated multiple times for Daytime Emmy Awards and won Outstanding Children's Entertainment Series in 1982–1983. By 1989, the show was in its ninth season and had reached the 200-episode threshold, an extreme rarity when most cartoons were gone after two seasons and 22 episodes (it also far exceeded the typical 65-episode run of a first-run syndicated show of the era). In an effort to come up with new ideas to keep the show fresh, NBC changed the format of the show, taking some of the Smurfs out of the forest and omitting the Smurf Village. These changes were adopted to a lost-in-time format similar to The Time Tunnel (at the same time NBC had a hit with the prime time series Quantum Leap which also dealt with time travel). The show continued through the end of the season, airing the last original episode 2 December 1989 on NBC, after a decade of success, NBC later cancelled The Smurfs along with other Saturday-morning cartoons to make way for another block of live-action programming on 9 April 1990. The Smurfs had its last re-run on NBC on 25 August 1990. The total number of individual eleven minute and twenty-two minute cartoons in the entire series run came to 417.

Episodes

Voice cast and characters

Production

Outsourced production work was done by Wang Film Productions/Cuckoo's Nest Studios and, only for Season 7, by Toei Animation.

Use of classical music

The background music for The Smurfs was composed by Hoyt Curtin, Hanna-Barbera's primary musical director, but Curtin's work on the series is noted for its frequent use of classical music as themes or leitmotifs. Notable classical works excerpted in The Smurfs include:

Syndication

A half-hour version for syndication was broadcast under the title Smurfs' Adventures since 1986. Although each season had its own unique opening song during the original broadcast, syndicated airings usually use a shortened version of the season 4 opening. The series aired on Cartoon Network and Boomerang until 7 April 2023. On 7 August 2023, the series began airing on Discovery Family, and on MeTV Toons on 25 June 2024.

Home media

Region 1

Warner Home Video released the complete first season on DVD in a two-volume set in 2008. Despite high sales of both sets, no further seasons have been released. Warner Home Video later released a series of three single-disc releases of The Smurfs in 2009, each containing five episodes from the second season. A two-disc DVD was set to be released in 2011 to tie into the theatrical film with 10 episodes which would be culled from the entire run of the series, instead, it included episodes from the second season. Another DVD with both Smurfs Christmas specials was released later that year. It is unknown if Warner Archive will release the rest of the show's seasons (uncut and unedited) on MOD DVD. In 2020, HBO Max released seasons one to four on its online streaming platform. The available seasons are presented in 1080p high definition.

Region 2

Fabulous Films and Arrow Films have released the first five seasons on DVD in the UK. The company has also released the film The Smurfs and the Magic Flute on Blu-ray and DVD, as well as several compilation DVDs, containing themed specials from the show. Sony Pictures Home Entertainment has announced the release of the full Series in 9 Season Sets on DVD in Germany, with German sound only, beginning in August 2011.

Region 4

Magna Home Entertainment has released various best-of volume collections on DVD.

In popular culture

2021 reboot

In 2017, the Belgian companies IMPS and Dupuis Audiovisuel began production on an updated Smurfs series with CG animation, similar to Smurfs: The Lost Village. The series made its world premiere, on RTBF's OUFtivi channel in Belgium, on 18 April 2021. It premiered on Nickelodeon & Nicktoons in September 2021 in the U.S., with other international markets following soon.