Trivia / The Smurfs (1981)

• Actor Allusion: Not the first time both Paul Winchell and Don Messick worked together as a villain and his pet.
  • Don Messick voiced three other cats before Azrael named Ruff, Sebastian and Spot.
  • Before Miner Smurf, Alan Young provided a Scottish accent to David Filby and Wilbur Post's father.
  • In the episode 'The Masked Pie Smurfer', Papa tries to solve the identity of the titular Masked Pie Smurfer. Not only are both Scooby-Doo and Papa voiced by Don Messick, but Hefty's voiced by Fred Jones himself.
  • During 'The Crooner Smurf', Harmony gains the ability to sing like a professional. In actuality, Hamilton Camp is a songwriter/musician.
  • If Henry Polic II provided the voice of Tracker, who plays the role of a guard in "The Adventures of Robin Smurf", than Polic had worked in a Robin Hood production before as Sheriff of Nottingham alongside Dick Gautier, the voice of Wooly Smurf as well as additional voices, who played the titular outlaw.
    • Dutch film director and voice actor Arnold Gelderman, the Netherlands' dubbed voice for Jokey, played said outlaw in the Disney version of the folklore. Likewise, Brainy and Clumsy's French dubbed voice actor, Francis Lax, as well has Hefty's French dubbed voice actor, Albert Augier, provided the voices of Nutsy and Trigger, the two vultures.
  • Gargamel brings Jokey's caricature dummy of said wizard to life to cause havoc in Smurf Village to which Paul Winchell voiced. Winchell was a ventriloquist star from 1950s and 1960s television and films.
  • Ray Walston, who was the voice of Scruple's teacher in "The Enchanted Quill", was also Jeff Spicoli's teacher in Fast Times at Ridgemont High.
  • Farmer Smurf's voice actor, Alan Young, played a farmer before, in the 1952 movie Aaron Slick from Punkin Crick as titular Aaron Slick. Farmer even refers to himself as a 'country bumpkin' in one episode!
• Acting for Two:
  • Hamilton Camp - On RARE occasions did Harmony and Greedy interact. When one of them usually did, the other remained silent or, in one case, Greedy was in a deathlike sleep at the time...
  • Michael Bell - Handy, Lazy and Grouchy had subtly exchanged words.
    • Grouchy and his statue, Grouchous Smurfus.
  • Alan Young - Farmer and Miner in "The Root of Evil", are discussing the irrigation system the coalminer constructed while working in the field and later got into a brawl courteous of some root of evil.
  • Alan Oppenheimer - Vanity and Homnibus at the beginning of "To Smurf a Thief".
  • Paul Winchell - Gargamel (disguised as a Baby Smurf in a first season episode) and Flighty Smurf.
  • Julie McWhirter - Baby Smurf (real) and Sassette.
  • June Foray - Jokey gives Mother Nature a huge surprise box full of flowers at the end of "The Smurfs' Springtime Special".
  • Frank Welker - Hefty has interacted with Clockwork, Pushover, Wild and Poet.
  • Don Messick - Papa, Dreamy, Sweepy and even Azrael interacted though not all to one another.
  • Bill Callaway - Clumsy and Painter
  • In the Dutch dub, Arnold Gelderman is Jokey and Tailor.
  • In the European French dub, Gérard Hernandez is Papa, Grouchy, and Peewit, Albert Augier is Hefty, Greedy, and Bigmouth, Francis Lax is Brainy, Clumsy, Grandpa, Homnibus, and the King (from Johan and Peewit), and Philippe Dumat is Gargamel and Sassette.
  • In the Mexican Spanish dub, Alfonso Obregon is Brainy and Johan.
    • Taken further with Arturo Mercado who had at least three Smurfs consistently (Hefty, Clumsy, and Jokey), at least another three one-shot characters, and even had to cover for some other main characters from time to time.
  • In the Italian dub, Giuppy Izzo is Grouchy, Hefty, Baby Smurf, Nat Smurfling and Azrael, Mauro Gravina is Lazy, Harmony, Farmer, Slouchy, and Johan, Marco Guadagno is Brainy and Peewit, and Fabrizio Mazzotta is Clumsy and Painter.
  • In the Brazilian dub, Sílvio Navas voiced Papa Smurf, Farmer and Vanity.
• Adored by the Network: Before their rebrand, Boomerang used to constantly air this show, give it tons of advertising and the show would frequently be chosen for Boomeroyalty.^note  A mini-marathon that featured episodes based on a certain character from a show; Smurfette would usually be picked the most for Boomeroyalty. Even after the rebrand, it was one of the few classic cartoons to still air on the channel, an honor it holds to this very day.
• Celebrity Voice Actor: Yep, some before becoming voice actors but we have Lynnanne Zager, Alan Young, Jonathan Winters, Lennie Weinrib, Peggy Webber, B. J. Ward, Peggy Walton-Walker, Ray Walston, Janet Waldo, Brenda Vaccaro, Susan Tolsky, Les Tremayne, Fred Travalena, John Stephenson, Hal Smith, Susan Silo, Mimi Seaton, Avery Schreiber, Marilyn Schreffler, Ronnie Schell, William Schallert, Michael Rye, Joseph Ruskin, Robert Ridgely, Phil Proctor, Henry Polic II, Vic Perrin, Clare Peck, Alan Oppenheimer, Larry Moss, Sidney Miller, Allan Melvin, Joseph G. Medalis, Amanda McBroom, Edie McClurg, Kenneth Mars, Patty Maloney, Marilyn Lightstone, Michael Lembeck, Ruta Lee, Robbie Lee, Kip King, Aron Kincaid, Zale Kessler, Marvin Kaplan, Arte Johnson, Tony Jay, John Ingle, Jerry Houser, Sterling Holloway, Phil Hartman, Ernest Harada, Barry Gordon, Danny Goldman, Justin Gocke, Ed Gilbert, Dick Gautier, Steve Franken, Paul Eiding, Bernard Erhard, Richard Erdman, Walker Edmiston, Richard Dysart, Jeff Doucette, Patti Deutsch, Jennifer Darling, Keene Curtis, Tandy Cronyn, Henry Corden, Selette Cole, William Christopher, Mary Jo Catlett, Victoria Carroll, Roger C. Carmel, Hamilton Camp, Ruth Buzzi, Peter Brooks, Sorrell Booke, Lucille Bliss, Michael Bell, Bernard Behrens, Ed Begley Jr., Jered Barclay, Bever-Leigh Banfield, René Auberjonois, Lewis Arquette and Bob Arbogast.
• Creator Backlash: Gerard Baldwin (producer of the first three seasons) and Frances Novier (a writer on the show) were unhappy with the changes the executives were making after the fourth season had finished production. In Gerard Baldwin's autobiography, "From Mr. Magoo to Papa Smurf", he remarked that "The wonderful concept had been destroyed and was now empty of meaning. It was now just another same-as show."
• Crossdressing Voices:
  • Vocal legend June Foray as Jokey.
  • Brenda Vaccaro as Scruple and, in one episode, Architect Smurf.
  • Pat Musick as Snappy.
  • Noelle North as Slouchy and Blue Eyes.
  • Julie McWhirter Dees as the real Baby Smurf (not impersonated by Gargamel).
  • Mona Marshall as Weepy in his first appearance.
  • Francine Witkin (if not Brenda Vaccaro) as Ripple the mischievous nymph from "The Smurfling's Unsmurfy Friend".
  • In the original Greek dub broadcasted by ERT, Annetta Papathanasiou alternated with Louiza Mitsakou as the voice of Brainy. Also, in some episodes, Lazy was voiced by Natalia Tsaliki.
    • Likewise, Tzini Papadopoulou voiced Brainy (as well as other smurfs on several occasions in seasons 1-3) in the new dub broadcasted by STAR. Sofia Kapsambeli did the voice of Clumsy in seasons 5-9, as well as in the "Johan and Peewit" episodes.
  • In the European French dub, Philippe Dumat (the voice of Gargamel) as Sassette.
• Directed by Cast Member: The European French dub was directed by Francis Lax, who also voiced Brainy, Clumsy, Grandpa, Homnibus, and the King (from Johan and Peewit).
• Dueling Dubs:
  • The series has three Greek dubs. It was originally dubbed on ERT, but the masters for the original dub were lost and only 45 episodes are known to have been saved. The second dub was mainly used for VHS releases, while the more recent dub first aired on STAR and exists currently on DVD releases.
  • The show also had two German dubs. The original dub was made only for the first two seasons on ZDF from 1983-1984. This dub was widely forgotten (and currently extinct), after the more recent and well-known dub first aired on Tele 5 in 1988. Aside from sharing Gargamel's voice actor, the second dub also featured a new cast and kept Clumsy's English name intact. (The ZDF dub occasionally named him "Trotteli" from the comic books.)
  • The Polish version (known as Smerfy) is a bit complicated:
    • The series was originally dubbed from 1987 to 1999 on TVP. Seasons 1-3, 5, and (partially) 6-8 were done first, while seasons 4 and 9 (and the rest of season 7) were later done in the 90s.
    • In 2005, TVP re-broadcasted seasons 5, 6, 7, and 9 in 2005, but at the time, a majority of the original master tapes were either lost or damaged. So, from 2006 to 2009, seasons 1-4 were redubbed by TVP's personal studio with new voices for some characters (but with the same recording of the theme from the original dub), though some episodes kept their original dub intact. Several episodes that have not received a Polish version yet were later dubbed for the first time in 2010.
  • In Czechoslovakia/the Czech Republic, the show's first five seasons were originally dubbed on the channel ČST from 1988 to 1993. Seasons 6 through 8 were later dubbed from 1997 to 2000 for the channel TV Nova, and then the entire series (including season 9) was re-dubbed in 2010 for TV Barrandov.
  • It also had two Arabic dubs, both made in Lebanon. While the latter was made for the Arabic Cartoon Network (presumably because Turner Broadcasting could not get the rights to broadcast the original, as that dub's rights were held by Spacetoon), the original dub was restored for online and DVD releases.
  • It was also dubbed into Brazilian Portuguese twice. The original was done for Rede Globo by Herbert Richers in 1982 and the newer was made for DVD at Dublavideo in 2011.
  • There were also two Turkish dubs as well; both were done for TRT, while the newer was preserved for Cartoon Network.
  • The show also had two dubs in Finland. The first dub was made for VHS releases. It was basically a Voiceover Translation over the Swedish dub with the songs (and the theme) remaining in Swedish as well. The second (fully dubbed) aired on MTV3 Juniorilla.
  • It also has two Serbian dubs (not counting the old RTB voice-over from the 1980s): one in 2009 for TV on B92 and the other in 2011 for DVD.
  • The series was dubbed into Croatian twice, first during its original run in the 80s by TVZ and then a second time later on in the late 90s/early 2000 by HRT. While the first dub is mostly absent from official releases on DVDs and VHS tapes as well as TV re-runs, several season 1 episodes with the original dub are featured on the DVDs and re-runs and the rest are no longer officially available.
  • The show has also received at least four Slovenian dubs. There's the original TV dub from 1987, a home video dub from the early 2000s, the 2011 DVD re-dub by SDI Media, and the 2014 TV re-dub by Studio Menart for POP TV. Most of the surviving voice actors from the 1987 dub reprised their roles in the 2014 POP TV re-dub.
  • The show was first dubbed in Hebrew by Raz Films in 1983 and featured an known smaller voice cast, airing on Channel 1, and only received a DVD release in 2010, with a few episodes of the dub being missing. Years later, a well-known second dub was made by Tomitoot Productions and aired on many Israeli television channels (including Fox Kids), and this dub was also used for the official YouTube releases.
• Edited for Syndication: When episodes from The Smurfs cartoon show started appearing in the syndicated Smurfs Adventures show, there were not only cuts from the shorter episodes to make two of them fit within a 30-minute showing time, but there were also episodes where the audio was noticeably sped up, resulting in the Smurfs and even Gargamel sounding more helium-ish. Some of the season set volumes of The Smurfs that were released in Australia and the United Kingdom even featured the episodes that were edited for syndication instead of their original unedited versions.
  • When Season 2 begun airing in Belgium, Germany, Austria, The Netherlands, and Italy. Episodes featuring Johan and Peewit would became a separate show alongside gaining two brand new theme songs. There was even a tie-in album that was exclusively sold in Belgium in 1984 called "Les chansons de Johan et Pirlouit" that was made to promote "Johan Et Pirlouit" series.
• Executive Meddling: "The Purple Smurfs" were black in the original book. Also, the Swoofs from "the Astrosmurf" were changed from orange to green.
  • Starting from Season 5 onwards, Hanna-Barbera was ordered to tone down the dark elements shown in most of Season 1-3 by NBC executives.
  • In Season 9, the NBC executives came up with the idea of taking the Smurfs from the village and putting them in time travel. The experiment clearly didn't work as American audiences started to lose interest and the show was cancelled thereafter.
• Fake Brit:
  • Don Messick voices Sweepy Smurf, who pay homage to Dick Van Dyke in Mary Poppins, in a fake Cockney accent — though, it must be admitted, much less exaggerated than the inspiration…
  • In both the cartoon show and the American dub of The Smurfs and the Magic Flute Johan speaks in a vague approximation of an upper-class English accent.
• I Am Not Spock: In the Mexican Spanish dub, Francisco Colmenero is still remembered for his voice as Papa Smurf in Spanish (along with Peg-Leg Pete). Same for Esteban Siller as Gargamel.
  • Ditto for Sofoklis Peppas and Nikos Skiadas as Papa Smurf and Gargamel respectively in the original Greek dub.
• Keep Circulating the Tapes: The Smurfs has its entire series released on DVD in Australia and Germany. In the US, however, the only episodes that have been released on DVD (for now) are season 1 (in two separate volumes, along with "The Smurfs Springtime Special"), individual episodes from season 2, and the holiday specials. The rest of season 2, along with seasons 3 through 9 (and the rest of the specials) have yet to be released on DVD, although individual episodes from those seasons are currently available on iTunes and Amazon.
  • Recently, it's been announced that all of the episodes from the series will be digitized and released on YouTube on a special branded channel, courtesy of IMPS, ODMedia, and Expoza.
  • In Croatia, there were two DVD sets (each having 10 DVDs) and a VHS set released, but they don't cover all existing episodes. As the matter of fact, none of them even cover one whole season; for instance, you're going to find season 1 episodes like "The Fake Smurf", "King Smurf" and "Jokey's Medicine", but not episodes like "Painter and Poet", "The Astrosmurf" and "Spelunking Smurfs", and a few season 1 episodes like "The Smurfette" have a different dub than the rest (and those (used to) have the same set of voice actors). Any other episode dubbed in this language is a rare find available only from bootleg recordings of TV airings (this especially includes season 1 episode with the original dub) that are next to impossible to find on the Internet unless one finds a person who possesses such recordings.
• Missing Episode: Before premiering on American television in 1981. Hanna-Barbera created a test pilot for the series in 1979 as a pitch to NBC. The only characters that appeared was Papa Smurf, Brainy Smurf, Smurfette, and Gargamel with the Classic intro having altered lyrics and a different pitch. Very little is know about the 1979 pilot and has never been released to the public.
• No Export for You: The cartoon show has an inverted problem: Foreign distributors are able to release season sets (and even the specials) on DVD without a hassle, but Warner Bros. is only able to make season sets available through download streaming services, with much of Season 2 (and the specials "The Smurfic Games" and "Smurfily Ever After") excluded from availability.
  • Played straight with the Croatian release; the DVDs and VHS tapes released so far don't even cover all episodes from a single season (let alone all of them), not to mention some season 1 episodes use an alternate, newer dub when compared to the rest of season 1 episodes (and they also had a version with the original dub).
• Out of Order: Constantly. While this was usually never a bad thing, the Smurflings appear in "Stuck On Smurfs", even though the episode where they reversed aged aired after the episode. Said episode also had Sassette, who's introduction episode also aired after.
  • "The Smurfette"^note  The one where Gargamel creates Smurfette aired as the 36th episode in Season 1, even though it was the first episode produced.
• The Other Darrin:
  • Weepy Smurf was voiced by Mona Marshall in his first appearance but by a different person in his next.
  • Michael Bell did the voice of Gargamel's ancestors in Season 9, replacing Paul Winchell.
  • Norma MacMillan voiced little witch Brenda in her first appearance and then by Russi Taylor for her second.
• Playing Against Type: Songwriter and singer Hamilton Camp as Harmony.
  • Another songwriter/singer example is Amanda McBroom, who voices Chlorhydris, a character who loathes music.
  • In the Animax's Japanese dub, Dreamy Smurf is voiced by Chinami Nishimura, a voice actress well-known for voicing very feminine roles like Reika Aoki and Princess Asuka.
• Screwed by the Network: For its final season, NBC made a number of significant changes as a result of budget cuts to its cartoons. Several fan favorite characters were removed, and the season centered mostly around a cliche lost-in-time plot. Viewers were not pleased with the changes, resulting in its cancellation.
• Star-Making Role: Nat Smurfling for Charlie Adler.
• Tie-In Cereal: The series had Smurfberry Crunch cereal during its original run. When the show ended, the cereal faded into obscurity. The cereal was brought back in 2011 to promote the live-action film for a limited time.
• Troubled Production:
  • When the series began, Peyo originally made corrections on tracing paper, having received drafts by the animators at Hanna-Barbera. But by the time they were sent back to the studio, the production of the episode was practically over. The extremely tight deadline and limited budget were the reason why Peyo was less involved in the series and is only there to approve and/or veto production material.
  • The first season suffered from inconsistent staging and/or drawings of characters (which were drawn off-model). This was because the layout artists and animators were having a hard time drawing and animating the characters. Retakes at this point were unheard of in Saturday morning television (hencing the sloppy, uneven quality of the animation and the occasional recycling of previous bits to cut costs). Thankfully, Hanna-Barbera chose to farm their work overseas around the latter half of the fifth season and the switch became permanent in Season 6.
• Unspecified Role Credit: They would never credit the characters attached to their voices, meaning the same voices appeared in every episode.
• What Could Have Been:
  • During development of the series, there were designs that didn't make it to the final show. Hefty's original design included a white vest, while Jokey was originally going to have a Harpo Marx-esque wig and hat.
  • At one point, Fred Silverman originally suggested the music should be changed and have a laugh track (in the similar vein of The Flintstones and Scooby-Doo).

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