History YMMV / FiremanSam

** Station Officer Steele's initial discomfort with the idea of a female firefighter when Penny debuted in 'Dily's Forgetful Day' can come off this way to a modern audience. In the 80s, a female firefighter was still a new concept.
** Some MoralGuardians (one of them being London's Fire Brigade Commissioner Dany Cotton) once demanded that Fireman Sam be renamed to Firefighter Sam under that "the show reinforces gender stereotypes and turns women off from becoming firefighters!" whilst gleefully ignoring the fact that one of the firefighters, Penny Morris, is "a woman" and that the name of the show is supposed to rhyme, and if the show's GrandfatherClause repeated. The name changed to Firefighter Sam; the rhyme would be ruined. Amusingly, this was [[HilariousInHindsight foreshadowed]] in the previous example, when Steele realised he'd need to call Penny "Firefighter Morris" instead of" "Fireman" Morris".

* AmericansHateTingle: Before010, the series hardly aired on Television in the Netherlands. It only did in 1990 on the VARA, which [[ScrewedByTheNetwork pulled the show after airing every episode only once with no repeats whatsoever]], and a two-year run on Kindernet in the early 2000s.

* Hilarious InHindsight: A portable games console used by James and Sarah is rectangular-shaped with the controls on the sides and the screen in the middle. Given the period of the episode airing, it was likely meant to be an {{Expy}} of the UsefulNotes/WiiU and the UsefulNotes/Nintendo3DS. Still, there's also a small slot at the top, which resembles a cartridge slot. This description nearly matches one for the portable mode of the UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch.

** Some also add to the interpretation that Sam is in fact Norman's dad (Usually [[LamarckWasRight citing the red hair as proof]]) and Norman's [[PyroManiac arsonist tendencies]] are either a way to see his dad consistently or to give his dad something to do.

** The rescue theme, an urgent but jaunty track that plays almost whenever the fire team go into action. A vocal version, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3EQpMLoSoI "The Person In Charge Is Officer Steele"]], was also made.

* AmericansHateTingle: Prior to 2010, the series hardly aired on Television at all in the Netherlands. The only times it did were in 1990 on the VARA, which [[ScrewedByTheNetwork pulled the show after airing every episode only once with no repeats whatsoever]], and a two-year run on Kindernet in the early 2000s.
* CargoShip: Elvis is very protective of Dolly, the fire station training dummy.
* DamselScrappy: Norman in the newer series. It doesn't help that [[TooDumbToLive he often gets into these situations due to his own stupidity.]]

* GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff: The show's popularity isn't just in the UK, it's also very popular in Germany, Spain and Mexico as well. The original series was also highly popular in Poland, but the revival show never caught up to similar levels of popularity.
* HilariousInHindsight: A portable games console used by James and Sarah is rectangular-shaped with the controls on the sides and the screen in the middle. Given the time period of the episode airing, it was likely meant to be an {{Expy}} of the UsefulNotes/WiiU and the UsefulNotes/Nintendo3DS, but there's also a small slot at the top which resembles a cartridge slot. This description nearly matches one for the portable mode of the UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch.

-->''SPECIAL K!'' (with superimposed image of said cereal's box)

** Pretty much every character's vocabulary is limited to memes. ([[NostalgiaFilter at least if you remember watching that cartoon when you were a kid]]) Take a sip of every time someone says "Mama mia! Cacosa!", "I've done this a thousand times, I have!", "Oh mam!", "NORMAN! SCRAM!", "That's uh... a bit torn, isn't it? Sorry!", or "It's Mr. Evans! He's hurt his arm!" and you'll explode with laughter in seconds!
** Fireman Sam is a very popular target for Youtube Poops, sometimes even [[WebVideo/ArsonSam playing in reverse and giving subtitles]] to make the characters [[ManipulativeEditing look like they're burning down the town]].
* NightmareFuel: A lot of the emergency situations are this in general due to a combination of how frequent they are and the fact that many of them involve young children at the forefront. But here are just some examples:
** “Case of the Liquoride Shoelaces” has Dilys come very to suffocating from smoke due to her not only forgetting to change the smoke alarm’s batteries but she also places newespapers right next to a heater while sleeping no less.
** “Deepwater” has Norman and Mandy search for treasure in Pontypandy and while hunting, a sinkhole suddenly devours Mandy causing her to not only be trapped in a cave, she’s broken her arm from the fall. And to make matters worse? The hole starts filling up with water. Thank goodness [[BigDamnHeroes Sam came when he did.]]
** “Froggy Fantasy” has Norman at his worst as he locks James into a changing room so he can be the star of the Froggy Fantasy. Things get much worse when a fire starts and it’s right next to the door where Norman locked James earlier. If not for Sam, things would’ve turned out much differently thanks to Norman’s selifish actions.
** Everything to do with the fire that occurs in “The Great Fire of Pontypandy.” Thanks to Norman and Derek getting the [[SarcasmMode utterly brilliant]] idea to bring and cook sausages in a forest, they end up starting the biggest fire in the show. By the time Sam and his crew get to the scene, [[spoiler: the fire has already spread to the point where the only feasible thing to do is to evacuate the town.]] Luckily, [[spoiler: rainfall is able to put out the fire just in time.]]

* SeasonalRot: When it kicks in depends strongly on who you ask, but a common consensus is that it happened when the series made its transition to CGI.
** For viewers in Wales, still the nominal setting, each successive iteration of the program had fewer distinctly Welsh features than before. The original show was made in Wales and created in Welsh originally; subsequent versions were produced and written by English studios. By the CGI era the characters still have Welsh accents but some changes - for example moving Pontypandy from the Valleys to the coast, the change of the hinterland around the village to be more GhibliHills than South Wales, and plot lines featuring things like Morris Dancing, which is English - eroded the distinctly Welsh flavour of the show, even in the Welsh dub, which is now translated from the English rather than the other way round.

* SpecialEffectsFailure: In the classic series, Sarah and James looked older than they actually should be, due to the crude nature of the models. From the fifth season onward, they look as young as they should.
* TearJerker: [[spoiler: In "Set For Action", Sam is fired. As he looks through his stuff, he has flashbacks to working at the fire station. The flashbacks are accompanied with extremely sad music, and will make anyone tear up.]]
** [[spoiler: The evacuation scene in "The Great Fire of Pontypandy." The music is very melancholy. Dylis has to leave her shop that she just cleaned the windows of. Bronwyn tearfully says "Bye bye little cafe," as they drive toward the dock. It is enough to make anyone tear up.]]
* UnintentionalUncannyValley: The CGI redesigns can sometimes invoke this next to the original stop motion ones, especially due to more realistic facial features like beadier eyes and visible coloured lips.

** Station Officer Steele's initial discomfort with the idea of a female firefighter when Penny made her debut can come off this way to a modern audience. In the 80s, a female firefighter was still a new concept.
** Some MoralGuardians (one of them being London's Fire Brigade Commissioner Dany Cotton) once demanded that Fireman Sam be renamed to Firefighter Sam under the view of "the show reinforces gender stereotypes and turns women off from becoming firefighters!" whilst gleefully ignoring the fact that one of the firefighters, Penny Morris, is ''a woman'' and that the name of the show is supposed to rhyme, and if the show's GrandfatherClause was repealed and the name changed to Firefighter Sam, the rhyme would be ruined. Amusingly this was [[HilariousInHindsight foreshadowed]] in the previous example, when Steele realised he'd need to call Penny "Firefighter Morris" instead of "''Fireman'' Morris".

** Everything to do with the fire that occurs in “The Great Fire of Pontypandy.” Thanks to Norman and Derek getting the [[SarcasmMode utterly brilliant]] idea to bring and cook sausages in a forest, they end up starting the biggest fire in the show. By the time Sam and his crew get to the scene, the fire has already spread where no amount of water the fire crew currently has is enough to put it out. It gets so bad that everyone has to [[spoiler: evacuate the town.]] Luckily, [[spoiler: rainfall is able to put out the fire just in time.]]

** Everything to do with the fire that occurs in “The Great Fire of PontyPandy.” Thanks to Norman and Derek getting the [[SarcasmMode utterly brilliant]] idea to bring and cook sausages in a forest, they end up starting the biggest fire in the show. By the time Sam and his crew get to the scene, the fire has already spread where no amount of water the fire crew currently has is enough to put it out. It gets so bad that everyone has to [[spoiler: evacuate the town.]] Luckily, [[spoiler: rainfall is able to put out the fire just in time.]]

* NightmareFuel: A lot of the emenrgcy situations are this in general due to a combination of how frequent they are and the fact that many of them involve young children at the forefront. But here are just some examples:

** [[spoiler: The evacuation scene in "The Great Fire of Pontypandy." The music is very melancholy. Dylis has to leave her shop that she just cleaned the windows of. Bronwyn tearfully says "Bye bye little cafe as drive toward the dock. It is enough to make anyone tear up.]]

* AlternateCharacterInterpretation:

* {{Animesque}}: The designs and art style of the stop motion models in the first 4 seasons had a slight resemblance to the Japanese topcraft puppets from the [[Creator/RankinBassProductions Rankin/Bass]]Christmas specials. However, when series 5 started, the show was revamped slightly, with the style looking more like ''WesternAnimation/BobTheBuilder'' and Creator/AardmanAnimations

* {{Animesque}}: The designs and art style of the stop motion models in the first 4 seasons had a slight resemblance to the Japanese topcraft puppets from the [[Creator/RankinBassProductions Rankin/Bass]]Christmas specials. However, when series 5 started, the show was revamped slightly, with the style looking more like ''Bob the Builder'' and Creator/AardmanAnimations

* {{Animesque}}: The designs and art style of the stop motion models in the first 4 seasons had a slight resemblance to the puppets from the [[Creator/RankinBassProductions Rankin/Bass]]Christmas specials when series 5 started, the show was revamped slightly, with the style looking more like ''Bob the Builder'' and Aardman

* {{Animesque}}: The designs and art style of the stop motion models in the first 4 seasons had a slight resemblance to the puppets from the [[Creator/RankinBassProductions Rankin/Bass]]Christmas specials, when series 5 started, the show was revamped slightly, with the style looking more like Bob the Builder and Aardman

* {{Animesque}}: The style of the stop motion models in the first 4 seasons had a slight resemblance to the puppets from the [[Creator/RankinBassProductions Rankin/Bass]]Christmas specials

* {{Animesque}}: The character puppet models from first four seasons of the "classic series" have a slight resemblance to the {{anime}}-style puppets used in the Rankin/Bass stop-motion Christmas specials (such as ''Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer'' and ''Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town'') co-produced by the Japanese studio, Topcraft, the style also resembles Osamu Tezuka's characters like Astro Boy, this is especially noticeable in how the faces are designed, the flickery eyes and big noses, Sam's hair cowlick (see the *idiot hair trope for context) just adds to the Animesque look of the classic era, it could be speculated that Rankin/Bass Productions were mentioned in the stop motion animation book that creators Dave Jones and Dave Gingell had bought prior to the series' production, the animesque style is less noticeable in series 5-onward as Hit Entertainment had bought the rights, wanting to update the style to be more like ''Bob the Builder'' and ''Aardman''

* {{Animesque}}: The character puppet models from first four seasons of the "classic series" have a slight resemblance to the {{anime|e}}-style puppets used in the Rankin/Bass stop-motion Christmas specials (such as ''Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer'' and ''Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town'') co-produced by the Japanese studio, Topcraft, the style also resembles Osamu Tezuka's characters like Astro Boy, this is especially noticeable in how the faces are designed, the flickery eyes and big noses, Sam's hair cowlick (see the *idiot hair trope for context) just adds to the Animesque look of the classic era, it could be speculated that Rankin/Bass Productions were mentioned in the stop motion animation book that creators Dave Jones and Dave Gingell had bought prior to the series' production, the animesque style is less noticeable in series 5-onward as Hit Entertainment had bought the rights, wanting to update the style to be more like ''Bob the Builder'' and ''Aardman''

* {{Animesque}}: The character puppet models from first four seasons of the "classic series" have a slight resemblance to the {{anim|e}}-style puppets used in the Rankin/Bass stop-motion Christmas specials (such as ''Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer'' and ''Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town'') co-produced by the Japanese studio, Topcraft, the style also resembles Osamu Tezuka's characters like Astro Boy, this is especially noticeable in how the faces are designed, the flickery eyes and big noses, Sam's hair cowlick (see the *idiot hair trope for context) just adds to the Animesque look of the classic era, it could be speculated that Rankin/Bass Productions were mentioned in the stop motion animation book that creators Dave Jones and Dave Gingell had bought prior to the series' production, the animesque style is less noticeable in series 5-onward as Hit Entertainment had bought the rights, wanting to update the style to be more like ''Bob the Builder'' and ''Aardman''

* {{Animesque}}: The character puppet models from first four seasons of the "classic series" have a slight resemblance to the anime-style puppets used in the Rankin/Bass stop-motion Christmas specials (such as ''Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer'' and ''Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town'') co-produced by the Japanese studio, Topcraft, the style also resembles Osamu Tezuka's characters like Astro Boy, this is especially noticeable in how the faces are designed, the flickery eyes and big noses, Sam's hair cowlick (see the *idiot hair trope for context) just adds to the Animesque look of the classic era, it could be speculated that Rankin/Bass Productions were mentioned in the stop motion animation book that creators Dave Jones and Dave Gingell had bought prior to the series' production, the animesque style is less noticeable in series 5-onward as Hit Entertainment had bought the rights, wanting to update the style to be more like ''Bob the Builder'' and ''Aardman''

* Animesque: The character puppet models from first four seasons of the "classic series" have a slight resemblance to the anime-style puppets used in the Rankin/Bass stop-motion Christmas specials (such as ''Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer'' and ''Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town'') co-produced by the Japanese studio, Topcraft, the style also resembles Osamu Tezuka's characters like Astro Boy, this is especially noticeable in how the faces are designed, the flickery eyes and big noses, Sam's hair cowlick (see the *idiot hair trope for context) just adds to the Animesque look of the classic era, it could be speculated that Rankin/Bass Productions were mentioned in the stop motion animation book that creators Dave Jones and Dave Gingell had bought prior to the series' production, the animesque style is less noticeable in series 5-onward as Hit Entertainment had bought the rights, wanting to update the style to be more like ''Bob the Builder'' and ''Aardman''

* Animesque : The character puppet models from first four seasons of the "classic series" have a slight resemblance to the anime-style puppets used in the Rankin/Bass stop-motion Christmas specials (such as ''Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer'' and ''Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town'') co-produced by the Japanese studio, Topcraft, the style also resembles Osamu Tezuka's characters like Astro Boy, this is especially noticeable in how the faces are designed, the flickery eyes and big noses, Sam's hair cowlick (see the *idiot hair trope for context) just adds to the Animesque look of the classic era, it could be speculated that Rankin/Bass Productions were mentioned in the stop motion animation book that creators Dave Jones and Dave Gingell had bought prior to the series' production, the animesque style is less noticeable in series 5-onward as Hit Entertainment had bought the rights, wanting to update the style to be more like ''Bob the Builder'' and ''Aardman''

Animesque: The character puppet models from first four seasons of the "classic series" have a slight resemblance to the anime-style puppets used in the Rankin/Bass stop-motion Christmas specials (such as ''Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer'' and ''Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town'') co-produced by the Japanese studio, Topcraft, the style also resembles Osamu Tezuka's characters like Astro Boy, this is especially noticeable in how the faces are designed, the flickery eyes and big noses, Sam's hair cowlick (see the *idiot hair trope for context) just adds to the Animesque look of the classic era, it could be speculated that Rankin/Bass Productions were mentioned in the stop motion animation book that creators Dave Jones and Dave Gingell had bought prior to the series' production, the animesque style is less noticeable in series 5-onward as Hit Entertainment had bought the rights, wanting to update the style to be more like ''Bob the Builder'' and ''Aardman''

"Animesque": The character puppet models from first four seasons of the "classic series" have a slight resemblance to the anime-style puppets used in the Rankin/Bass stop-motion Christmas specials (such as ''Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer'' and ''Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town'') co-produced by the Japanese studio, Topcraft, the style also resembles Osamu Tezuka's characters like Astro Boy, this is especially noticeable in how the faces are designed, the flickery eyes and big noses, Sam's hair cowlick (see the *idiot hair trope for context) just adds to the Animesque look of the classic era, it could be speculated that Rankin/Bass Productions were mentioned in the stop motion animation book that creators Dave Jones and Dave Gingell had bought prior to the series' production, the animesque style is less noticeable in series 5-onward as Hit Entertainment had bought the rights, wanting to update the style to be more like ''Bob the Builder'' and ''Aardman''

* Animesque: The character puppet models from first four seasons of the "classic series" have a slight resemblance to the anime-style puppets used in the Rankin/Bass stop-motion Christmas specials (such as ''Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer'' and ''Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town'') co-produced by the Japanese studio, Topcraft, the style also resembles Osamu Tezuka's characters like Astro Boy, this is especially noticeable in how the faces are designed, the flickery eyes and big noses, Sam's hair cowlick (see the *idiot hair trope for context) just adds to the Animesque look of the classic era, it could be speculated that Rankin/Bass Productions were mentioned in the stop motion animation book that creators Dave Jones and Dave Gingell had bought prior to the series' production, the animesque style is less noticeable in series 5-onward as Hit Entertainment had bought the rights, wanting to update the style to be more like ''Bob the Builder'' and ''Aardman''

''Animesque'': the character puppet models from first four seasons of the "classic series" have a slight resemblance to the anime-style puppets used in the Rankin/Bass stop-motion Christmas specials (such as ''Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer'' and ''Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town'') co-produced by the Japanese studio, Topcraft, the style also resembles Osamu Tezuka's characters like Astro Boy, this is especially noticeable in how the faces are designed, the flickery eyes and big noses, Sam's hair cowlick (see the *idiot hair trope for context) just adds to the Animesque look of the classic era, it could be speculated that Rankin/Bass Productions were mentioned in the stop motion animation book that creators Dave Jones and Dave Gingell had bought prior to the series' production, the animesque style is less noticeable in series 5-onward as Hit Entertainment had bought the rights, wanting to update the style to be more like ''Bob the Builder'' and ''Aardman''