History WesternAnimation / FiremanSam

Series 8 introduces Gareth Griffith, Bronwyn's father and Sarah and James's grandfather who's a retired Newtown train driver who now operates the Pontypandy Express to and from the Pontypandy Mountains, mountaineer Moose Roberts, a [[CanadaEh Canadian expat]] who runs Pontypandy Mountain's Mountain Activity Center, and the kids' school teacher Mrs. Chen and her toddler daughter Lily. Series 9 brings in the Sparkes family, Mechanic and [[BunglingInventor inventor Joe]] and his wife Lizzie, along with their wheelchair-user daughter Hannah, coastguard Ben Hooper who is the head of the newly opened Ocean Rescue Center, and in the second [[TheMovie movie special]] ''"Heroes of the Storm"''[[note]]Released in the US as ''"Ultimate Heroes"''[[/note]], [[SixthRanger Arnold [=McKinsley=] and Ellie Phillips]], 2 newly graduated firefighters that are brought to Pontypandy by Chief Fire Officer Boyce (himself introduced in Series 7 as an old friend and superior to Steele) to help round out the firefighters' newly built Fire Station. During Series 14, Sam and his crew got new uniforms, and the theme song was changed to have more focus on the rescue team, rather than Sam himself.

* BritishBrevity: The original series comprised of four seasons of only 8 or 9 episodes each. Subverted with most seasons of the revival series. The show currently totals to over 200 episodes.

* CanadaEh: Moose Roberts originally hails from Canada and has the accent (or lack-thereof) to prove it. And yes, he does sometimes finish his sentences with [[VerbalTic "eh?"]].

** [[CoolPlane Cool Helicopter]]: Tom Thomas' helicopter, the Wallaby 1, certainly qualifies. Also something of a [[SwissArmyWeapon Swiss Army Helicopter]] as it's always carrying the right equipment, despite being a bit on the small side to be carrying ''everything'' all the time. It's later upgraded with Wallaby 2.

* DaChief: Station Officer Steele.

* HeterosexualLifePartners: Elvis and Mike Flood play music together and are paired up for a three-legged race, to their evident delight. It's clear that they get on really well - possibly because they're the only ones daft enough to put up with each other.

* HoldingOutForAHero: Frequent examples.

** Even though his CatchPhrase is "Oh Mam!", Norman Price rarely gets punished for the many, ''many'' problems he causes. There was actually ONE episode, Floating Cart, where Sam made Norman go around fixing everything that he'd broken.

* {{Malaproper}}: Dilys.

* MeaningfulName: Bella Lasagne and Mandy Flood.
* MoodWhiplash: Happens frequently since in spite of cozy funny goings on in Pontypandy, the danger of the emergencies is often taken quite seriously. "Bentley the Robot" is a prime example, starting off as a DenserAndWackier episode about Sam's new invention going comically haywire. It shortly causes a fire however, in which Penny gets trapped and loses consciousness...

* {{Nephewism}}: Sarah and James are Sam's niece and nephew, and until recently, their parents were never seen.

* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: Elvis.
* NoNameGiven: Sam is nearly always referred to by his first name only. [[spoiler:His full name is Samuel Peyton-Jones]]

* NotEvenBotheringWithTheAccent: Especially the actors for the US version, though an occasional affected Jewish accent for the Flood Family not withstanding. Tom averts this trope, though; you'd never mistake him for ''not'' being from Australia.

-->'''Norman:''' Ellie said not to touch anything!
-->'''Sarah:''' Well since when have ''you'' ever done what you're told?

* SeenItAll: Averted. This is Pontypandy. Characters have been surprised by such emergency calls as a flare being spotted by a high flying space sandwich and a fire breathing dragon setting fire to Bessies's barn. Sometimes they mention they've thought they've seen it all though.
* ShipTease: Norman and Mandy in one episode, where they hold hands while lost in the smoke from a fire. Realising they're still holding hands several minutes after being rescued, Norman reacts with the appropriate disgust of an eight year old boy...

** Elvis has a habit of singing to the tune of the first 2 seasons of [[Series/HappyDays Happy Days]] when cooking or doing odd jobs.

** The start of the race in "The Pontypandy Cup" parallels the start of the race in Grease, including the line "the rules are, there are no rules."

* SmallNameBigEgo: Norman.

* TeamChef: Mainly Fireman Elvis Cridlington, though the original series had Penny take over the role from time to time.

* WomenAreWiser: Played straight with the Floods and Sparks families, with the fathers being {{Walking Disaster Area}}s ([[NotSoAboveItAll though the mothers do cause some emergencies as well]]). Played with elsewhere. Sometimes James is more cautious than Sarah, while Sam is arguably the most competent of the fire brigade team (if still sometimes eccentric).

* AnAesop: ''Fireman Sam'' had a OnceAnEpisode Aesop about some aspect of personal safety that was never even remotely subtle, but highly effective. Being [[BackedByThePentagon Backed By The Fire Brigade]] helped.

* EavesdroppingOutOfContext: In "Norman's Big Fossil Adventure", Station Officer Steele has a picture of the fire service together that it too big for a frame, and ponders on whether he should cut off Elvis or Penny. Elvis overhears this and thinks Steele is planning to fire either him or Penny, and starts intentionally pushing Steele's buttons to prevent Penny from losing her job.

* ThePrankster: Norman.

* PyroManiac: There are an ''awful'' lot of fires for such a small town. Sam really enjoys being a Hero, doesn't he?

** Averted in the season 5 episode, "Bathtime for Dusty", where Dusty, a mutt, is chosen to be the firehouse dog under the condition that he takes a bath, [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/HatesBaths something which he is not fond of]].

* NotMeThisTime: On a few occasions, the fire team are surprised when Norman ''isn't'' to blame for the current emergency. At times even Norman himself is.

* OlderIsBetter: Mostly averted, since while some apparatuses and virtues are maintained throughout the series, new machinery and upgrades are still often accepted to make lifesaving more effective, particularly when the brigade overhaul the fire station after the original risks being a health hazard. Even old fashioned vehicles like Bessie and Jupiter that have proved efficient have been given upgrades to improve their performance.

* SanityBall: In some cases Norman, of all people, can be the sensible one. In "Hot Air", Trevor was blinded by pride and opened the bonnet of his bus to check the overheated engine despite Norman's warnings, only to let in enough oxygen to set it alight. In "Cadet Catastrophe" he tries to prevent Sarah and Mandy from messing around with a petrol canister.

* SeenItAll: Averted. This is Pontypandy. Characters have been surprised by such emergency calls as a flare being spotted by a high flying space sandwich and a fire breathing dragon setting fire to Bessies's barn. Sometime's they've mention they've thought they seen it all though.

* StrawMisogynist: Minor example, but Steele, being the old-fashioned fellow he is, was genuinely shocked by the presence of a woman working in the fire brigade upon meeting Penny, though he tried to be polite about it (he wasn't sure how to address her, since he couldn't call her "Fireman Morris" - he finally settles for addressing her as "Firefighter"). By the end of the episode she's won him over, though. Being made in TheEighties, when female firefighters were a recent innovation, this was probably TruthInTelevision.

* SixthRanger: More new characters are added as the series pass, but the most prominent and obvious examples are Ben Hooper, a coastguard who is in charge of the Ocean Rescue Center (a parallel to Tom and the Mountain Rescue Center), and especially ''"[[TheMovie Ultimate Heroes]]"'''s two new firefighters to go with the newer, bigger Fire Station, Arnold [=McKinsley=] and Ellie Phillips, both of whom are fresh, top graduates from Newtown's Firefighter Academy.

* TaremeEyes: In the original series, all of the adult characters had curved,droopy eyes

* TransformationSequence: Whenever there's an emergency happens in Pontypandy, which is daily, the Fire Brigade have their emergency prep sequence, highlighted more in the fifth series where we see Sam,Elvis and Penny putting on their helmets and getting into their respective vechiles, adjusted in later series to include Tom's helicopter and the ocean rescue vechiles

There are, apparently, ''two'' English dubs of this show, one meant for the UK and one for the US (the US version is actually dubbed in Canada with a Toronto voice cast), with the strange exception of Tom, Bella, and Moose who have the same voice actor in both dubs, since they're supposed to be foreigners (Australian, Italian, and Canadian, respectively). In addition, Station Officer Steele is addressed as Fire Captain Steele and Chief Fire Officer Boyce is referred to as Fire Department Chief Boyce instead. The biggest differences with the voices is the general lack of assorted "British" accents, and in a couple of cases, less "harsh" sounding characters, notably with Sarah, James, and Norman, though Gareth inverts the trend. The "in-house" vibe of it makes it come off as a bit different from an out-right re-dub, and it would explain Tom and Moose. Note that the US version is not very common, only appearing on the Fireman Sam US Website/YouTube channel and the US Amazon Instant Videos. Beyond that, there's little evidence to suggest the dub even exists at all. Also, the US dub has only been made recently, as PBS Kids Sprout aired the series as late as 2014 with the UK dub.

''Fireman Sam'' (''Sam Tân'' in Welsh) is a 1987 [[StopMotion toymation]] animation series, about the fire service in the fictional Welsh town of Pontypandy. The original series was first broadcast on [=S4C=] in the Welsh language, then in English (on Creator/TheBBC) as of 1988. Originally narrated by John Alderton. Said series ended by 1995. Creator/HitEntertainment and Siriol produced a new series made with Claymation, lasting from 2005 to 2006. An ever newer CGI series debuted in 2008 (after [=S4C=] sold their stake in the Fireman Sam IP to [=HiT=]) and is currently broadcast on TV.

Series 8 introduces Gareth Griffith, Bronwyn's father and Sarah and James's grandfather who's a retired Newtown train driver who now operates the Pontypandy Express to and from the Pontypandy Mountains, mountaineer Moose Roberts, a [[CanadaEh Canadian expat]] who runs Pontypandy Mountain's Mountain Activity Center, and the kids' school teacher Mrs. Chen and her toddler daughter Lily. Series 9 brings in the Sparkes family, Mechanic and [[BunglingInventor inventor Joe]] and his wife Lizzie, along with their wheelchair-bound daughter Hannah, coastguard Ben Hooper who is the head of the newly opened Ocean Rescue Center, and in the second [[TheMovie movie special]] ''"Ultimate Heroes"'', [[SixthRanger Arnold [=McKinsley=] and Ellie Phillips]], 2 newly graduated firefighters that are brought to Pontypandy by Chief Fire Officer Boyce (himself introduced in Series 7 as an old friend and superior to Steele) to help round out the firefighters' newly built Fire Station. During Series 14, Sam and his crew got new uniforms, and the theme song was changed to have more focus on the rescue team, rather than Sam himself.

* AbortedArc: In 1989 a soundtrack album was released by Pickwick records of otherwise unreleased music, suggesting that the show may have been intended at one time to follow a similar format to contemporary stop-motion shows such as ''Postman Pat'' and ''Bertha'' by including songs about the characters in some episodes.

* AlliterativeName: James Jones, Gareth Griffiths, Tom Thomas (see also RepetitiveName).

* BlueIsHeroic: Sam,Elvis,Penny,Steele,Arnold and Ellie always wear their navy blue uniforms

* [[ButtMonkey Butt Monkeys]]: Trevor Evans, Mike Flood, and Charlie Jones. Elvis, too, at times. And as of Series 9, [[BunglingInventor Joe Sparkes]] can be added to the list.

-->'''Norman:''' ''*after seeing someone screw up royal*'' It's normally ''me'' that does that.

* LastSecondJokeProblem: The conclusion of "The Great Fire of Pontypandy" has everyone celebrating in the rain... until Radar finds sausages. Norman and his cousin Derek realise that it's '''their''' sausages, and everyone is '''extremely''' angry at them, because the sausages are the things that caused the forest fire in the first place.

'''Derek''': [[OhCrap I think]] '''[[OhCrap we're]]''' [[OhCrap the ones who need saving now..]]\\
'''Dilys''': (gasps) So '''that's''' why I could smell sausages! Were you cooking in the bushes, Norman?\\

* TalkingtoHimself: John Alderton voiced ''all'' the characters in the original series, [[CrossDressingVoices even the females]].

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/fireman_sam_9347.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:Sam is TheHero next door![[labelnote:Left to right:]]Penny Moris, Station Officer Steele, Fireman Sam, and Elvis Cridlington. The dog is Radar.[[/labelnote]]]]