From left to right: Diesel, Johnson, McDuff, and Alfred.
Johnson and Friends is an Australian kids show that aired in the 90's, about a pink plush elephant toy named Johnson, who belongs to a boy named Michael, and the various adventures he has in Michael's bedroom with his other toys, such as a concertina named McDuff and a toy truck named Diesel.
Contains the following tropes:
- Amnesia Episode: "Diesel Who", where Diesel accidentally collides with a wall after trying to run over McDuff. The collision is hard enough that it leaves Diesel unable to remember who he is, or who any of his friends are, for the rest of the episode.
- Animate Inanimate Object: Alfred, a hot water bottle, technically isn't a toy but is still a recurring character.
- Balloonacy: The episode "The Birthday Balloon" is about the toys admiring some balloons Michael has brought home from a birthday party. Johnson ends up floating through the air while trying to grab them, and the others have to get him back down.
- Birthday Episode: "Birthday Party" is about Johnson's birthday.
- Blatant Lies: In the episode "Battle of the Bed", Alfred is on top of the bed and throws pillows at the toys just for a laugh. When he throws one at Diesel, he tries to convince him he didn't throw the pillow, which should be a pretty obvious lie given that Alfred's the only one on the bed...Alfred: What makes you think that I'd want to throw a pillow at you? I've never thrown a pillow in all my life!Diesel: Are you sure?Alfred: Look, I don't even know what a pillow looks like!Diesel: Mmm, alright. Don't let it happen again!
- Catchphrase: "Blithering blazes!" for Alfred.
- Christmas Episode: In "Christmas Presents", the toys give each other Christmas presents.
- Debut Queue: The first episode introduces Johnson, McDuff and Diesel. With Alfred and Squeaky introduced in following episodes.
- Easy Amnesia: In "Diesel Who", Diesel immediately develops amnesia after he collides with a wall. He gets his memory back when he collides with the bedroom door as the other toys close it to keep him from leaving.
- Gender-Equal Ensemble: From Season 3 onwards, the main cast consists of three boys (Johnson, Diesel, and Alfred) and three girls (McDuff, Squeaky, and Victoria).
- The Ghost: Michael and his family.
- Good Feels Good: In "Being Good" Diesel tries to be more helpful, ultimately he doesn't always have fun but he tells Johnson he gets a really good feeling inside when he helps the other toys.
- Heavy Sleeper: Michael. No matter how loud they are at night, the toys are unable to wake him up.
- Here We Go Again!: "Diesel Who" ends with Diesel regaining his memory... immediately followed by McDuff losing her memory due to Diesel accidentally crushing her.
- Injury Bookend: In "Diesel Who", Diesel's memory is restored when he bumps into the bedroom door. Colliding with a wall is exactly how he got amnesia in the first place.
- Instrumental Theme Tune: The theme song does not have any vocals.
- Living Toys: The entire main cast is comprised of these, obviously.
- Masquerade: Similar to Toy Story, the toys become inanimate when Michael is in the room, except for when he is sleeping.
- Minimalist Cast: Not counting Michael and his family, the show had only five characters, Johnson the plush elephant, McDuff the concertina, Diesel the monster truck, Squeaky the robot, and Alfred the hot water bottle. This number increased to six after season three, with the introduction of Victoria the dinosaur.
- New Year Has Come: "Happy New Year" takes place during New Year's Eve.
- People in Rubber Suits: All of the characters are full-body puppets.
- Picnic Episode: "The Picnic" is about Johnson organizing a picnic by the window in Michael's room.
- Playing Sick: In "Chicken Pox", Alfred places little pieces of confetti all over his body and pretends to have chicken pox so that he'll get some rest.
- Promoted to Opening Titles: Victoria in season 4. She even appears on the title card.
- Protagonist and Friends
- Second Episode Introduction: Alfred is introduced in the second episode, "Under the Bed".
- Seesaw Catapult: In "The Birthday Balloon", Alfred has Squeaky sit on one end of a xylophone and McDuff jump onto the other end to catapult Squeaky up into the air and bring Johnson and the balloons back down. McDuff jumps at the wrong time, sending Alfred into the air instead, but he still manages to bring Johnson back down.
- Sick Episode: In "Chicken Pox", Michael comes down with chicken pox, and the toys help him to get better while he is sleeping.
- Status Quo Is God: Enforced because of it's audience (pre-schoolers to 8-year-olds). In general, the following things happen Once an Episode:
- The character learns their lesson, then it's forgotten about a few episodes later.
- The characters have a birthday but their age isn't mentioned.
- Any moral they do learn quickly gets forgotten about, but justified as they're toys.
- No character can ever die; well, no toy can ever be broken permanently.
- The closest things the show has to a villain, well, the jerkasses, will never be rendered inert or as broken toys.
- Surprise Party: In "Birthday Party", the toys organize a surprise birthday party for Johnson.
- Two Girls to a Team: The main cast initially contains two girls, McDuff and Squeaky. The introduction of Victoria makes the cast a Gender-Equal Ensemble.
- Vanity License Plate: Diesel has one that reads "TOY 123".
- We Want Our Jerk Back!: Diesel tries to be good in "Being Good", and after discovering Good Feels Good he starts annoying the other toys with requests to help. Things change back when Johnson explains he doesn't have to be super helpful all the time, nor does he have to be such a menace.
