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Recap / The Smurfs S 3 E 32 Harmony Steals The Show

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Return to Recap: The Smurfs (1981).

In the episode, after hearing a wonderful recital by Poet Smurf, Harmony proclaims that he's going to create the most wonderful symphony of all and have it be ready to play on the following night. However, Harmony realizes how difficult it is to create such a symphony in a short period of time, as he is able to only write down a few notes. Enter Ghostwriter, a ghost who runs his own spectral nightclub who is having some problems of his own — namely, that his patrons are getting bored with his shows and are now demanding "live entertainment". He offers to give Harmony an original symphony that he created that Harmony could pass off as his own, as long as he signs a contract. Eager to have the symphony to play, Harmony signs the contract, not bothering to read where it says that he is now bound by contract to be Ghostwriter's eternal "live entertainer". After the symphony is played and Harmony receives applause, only to be instantly whisked away by Ghostwriter who reveals to the Smurfs what he has done to the musical Smurf, Papa Smurf decides to confront Ghostwriter about his contract and has his little Smurfs bring along their musical instruments. In a court session held before a spectral judge and a jury of deceased musicians, Papa Smurf and his little Smurfs replay the "original symphony" that Ghostwriter claimed to have created for Harmony, and the jurors recognized that the symphony consisted of musical pieces that were all taken from their own compositions, thus marking Ghostwriter as a plagiarist and making him guilty of perjury. After Ghostwriter is taken away and Harmony is reunited with his fellow Smurfs, he feels ashamed that he fooled the Smurfs into giving him applause for a symphony he didn't even create. However, Papa Smurf tells him that any symphony Harmony creates is worth a thousand symphonies because he created it himself.


This episode contains the following examples:

  • Deal with the Devil: Ghostwriter as the proverbial devil in this case has Harmony sign a contract that binds him as the ghost's eternal "live entertainer" in exchange for Harmony to claim Ghostwriter's symphony as his own. The deal was broken when Papa Smurf and his little Smurfs expose Ghostwriter's "original symphony" for what it really is.
  • Jury of the Damned: Harmony is tried before a court of ghosts for his very life.
  • Meaningful Name: Ghostwriter, who in fact is a ghost and a ghostwriter.
  • Plagiarism in Fiction: Harmony tries to pass off another being's symphony as his own, which in turn is revealed to be a series of musical pieces stolen from other musicians.

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