Fireman Sam

Fireman Sam is a British animated comedy children's television series about a fireman named Sam, his fellow firefighters, and other residents in the fictional Welsh rural village of Pontypandy (a portmanteau of two real towns, Pontypridd and Tonypandy). The original idea for the show came from two ex-firemen from London, England, who took their idea to artist and writer Rob Lee who developed the concept, and the show was commissioned.

Fireman Sam
Genre
Created by
  • Rob Lee
  • Dave Gingell
  • Dave Jones
Written byVarious
Voices of
Narrated byJohn Alderton (1987–1994)
Music by
  • Ben Heneghan
  • Ian Lawson
  • David Pickvance (2008-2019)
  • Blain Morris (2020-present)
Country of originWales, United Kingdom
Original languagesBritish-English, Welsh
No. of series12
No. of episodes213 (list of episodes)
Production
ProducerVarious
Running time
  • 10 minutes (series)
  • 20 minutes (Christmas special episode)
Production companies
Distributor
Release
Original network
Picture format
  • 576i (4:3 SDTV) (1987–1994)
  • 576i (16:9 SDTV) (2005–2012)
  • 1080i (16:9 HDTV) (2012–present)
Audio format
  • Stereo
  • 5.1 Surround Sound
Original release17 November 1987 (1987-11-17)[2] –
present
External links
Website

Fireman Sam first appeared as Sam Tân (Fireman Sam in Welsh) on S4C on 1 November 1987,[3] and a few weeks later on BBC One on 17 November. The original series finished in 1994, and a new series that expanded the character cast commenced in 2005. The series was also shown as Sam Smalaidh in Gaelic in Scotland. The series was sold to over 40 countries and has been used across the United Kingdom to promote fire safety.

The theme song was performed by Mal Pope in a classic rock style from 1987 to 1994, then by a different singer in a 2000s alternative rock style since the 2005 new episode broadcasts.

Development

The original idea came about from two ex-firemen from London, England – Dave Gingell and David Jones after purchasing the stop motion animation drawn by artist Anthony Miller. They approached Mike Young, creator of SuperTed, in Barry, Wales, and asked them to further develop their concept. The idea was then brought to S4C's Director of Animation, Chris Grace, who had previously commissioned SuperTed, saw potential in the idea and commissioned the series. The characters and the storylines were created by Rob Lee, an illustrator from Cardiff, and the programme was made using stop motion. It could take up to four days to produce one minute of this form of puppet animation. Fireman Sam has to this day been translated into over 25 different languages including Mandarin.[4]

In the original series, all the character voices were performed by John Alderton. The later series used several actors' voices.

History

Original series (1987–1994)

The original series comprised 32 ten-minute episodes and a 20-minute Christmas special.[5] The narration and all the character voices were done by John Alderton. Fireman Sam is the main character and interacts with both colleagues at the fire station and fellow villager. Despite being so small, and with so little activity, the village sees its fair share of fires, which Sam and his team can easily handle. The vehicles at the fire station include a four-wheeled Bedford TK fire engine called Jupiter, a six-wheeled 1982 Range Rover Rescue Tender named Venus, and Trevor's Bus, a 1985 Ford Transit Dormobile. Fireman Sam's colleagues are Elvis Cridlington, Station Officer Basil Steele (renamed Norris Steele in the new CGI series) and later Penny Morris (who hailed from Newtown with the fire tender). The villagers are bus driver/auxiliary firefighter Trevor Evans, Italian café owner Bella Lasagne, troublemaker Norman Price, Norman's mother Dilys Price, and the twins Sarah and James Jones. The objects include M.O.P., Bentley the Robot, and Mechanical Master Chef.

When it was launched in 1987, the original series aired on S4C, on BBC One, during Children's BBC timeslots. In the original series produced in 1987 to 1994, the firefighters had yellow and black uniforms, whereas in the 2005 series and the 2008 CGI series, the firefighters now have yellow and blue uniforms.

In 1988, the Original series was nominated for a BAFTA Award for the Best Short Animated Film. The potential recipients were Ian Frampton and John Walker.[6]

In November 2020, the full series (plus Series 5) was made available on BBC Iplayer. [7]

2005 series

In 2005, a new Fireman Sam series was produced by Siriol Productions for HIT Entertainment, comprising twenty-six episodes, each ten minutes in length. These episodes used more modern techniques of stop motion claymation including mouths that move with the dialogue. This series featured all the original characters, but also introduced some new faces, such as Tom Thomas, the Australian pilot of the rescue helicopter Wallaby One and the Mountain Rescue 4×4 Jeep, an unnamed photographer/news reporter, and the Flood family; consisting of Mike The Plumber, his wife Helen The Nurse, and their daughter Mandy. Though still loosely based on a Bedford TK, the updated Jupiter has six wheels, with a slightly revised livery and appearance. Venus also received an update, with its design sporting a more generic modern appearance, though not based on any real-life model in particular. The main characters in this series were voiced by John Sparkes, Joanna Ruiz and Sarah Hadland. The series premiered on CBeebies in 2005 and repeats were shown until 2007.

CGI series (2008–)

The series was revamped in 2008 which saw the show convert to CGI. Pontypandy is now a seaside fishing village instead of a village set deep in the hills, though the main locations remained in the same places. Another change in this series is that the twins' parents appear for the first time; their new-age mother Bronwyn, and fisherman father Charlie, Sam's brother, who runs a café/fish-and-chip shop called the 'Whole Fish Café'. The series was produced by Xing-Xing from 2008 to 2016 and DHX Media (Later WildBrain)/Island of Misfits for HIT Entertainment (Later Mattel Creations, then Mattel Television) from 2017–present.

Jupiter was updated again, now with a front end taken from a Volvo FL6. A yellow stripe was added to the front of the fire engine. Minor changes were made to Venus which included a water nozzle added to the top of its roof. Trevor's bus was updated to a more modern look with angled headlights. New vehicles introduced included Mike Flood's Van in the sixth season, as well as Mercury (fire quad bike), Saturn (infrared drone), The Pontypandy Flyer (Steam Locomotive), and Bessie (Steele's first fire engine) which were introduced from the eighth season onwards.

The outfits were updated throughout the series (except for Norman Price). This included an update to the firefighter's outfits which added reflective stripes and extra badges to their tunics. Dilys Price received a large makeover which saw her getting makeup, glasses, black hair, a necklace and an updated outfit. The rest of the characters also received minor updates to their clothing.

Thus, many characters also had aspects of their personalities made more apparent. Norman Price is far more mischievous and inconsiderate than in the 2005 series where his pranks were often planned out and his accidents were due to badly planned ideas instead of outrageous schemes. For example, in the episode "Pontypandy Extreme", Norman gets trapped down a wishing well after attempting to climb down in order to retrieve the coins from the bottom. Other examples are Station Officer Steele's strictness and maturity and Elvis's decrease in general competence. For example, in one episode where a first aid training exercise is taking place, Elvis is told off by Steele for dancing with the dummy that is being used. At the same time, Steele is not afraid to unleash the child within him, showing an interest in kite flying and paper planes. He also occasionally causes emergencies himself and often gasps when an emergency comes in. Also, Station Officer Steele's name has changed to Station Officer Norris Steele.

Other changes include the removal of Bella, although her café can still be seen opposite Dilys' shop, now a 7-Eleven-esque convenience store called the "Cut-Price-Supermarket". However, Bella made her first appearance in CGI in the tenth season, where the reason behind her absence was revealed as her moving to Newtown. Penny also now has another string to her bow, as she is a trained ocean rescuer and the helmsman of Neptune (the village's lifeboat). Also, Rosa and Dusty have been replaced by Lion, Nipper, and Radar.

Since 2012, additional characters were introduced: Chief Fire Officer Boyce, one animal called Norris the Guinea Pig, five new villagers named Derek Price (originally introduced in season 6 as a minor character but then recurring since The Great Fire of Pontypandy), Moose Roberts, Gareth Griffiths, Lily, and Mrs Chen.

In 2014, other characters were introduced: a coastguard named Ben Hooper, a mechanic & inventor named Joe Sparkes with his vet wife Lizzie Sparkes, and their daughter Hannah Sparkes. Also, new vehicles were introduced: a jet ski named Juno and a fire boat named Titan.

The characters in this series are voiced by Steven Kynman, Tegwen Tucker, David Carling and Su Douglas. In 2012, John Hasler, Ifan Huw Dafydd and Nigel Whitmey joined the cast, Alex Lowe and Jo Wyatt joined the cast in 2014 and Harriet Kershaw joined the cast in 2015.

CBeebies last aired the final episode of the previous series Fireman Sam on 28 December 2007, before Channel 5 (from 2011) and Cartoonito started airing this series from 11 February 2008.

Episodes
Main article: List of Fireman Sam episodes

The following is a list of the original broadcast in British-English.

Season Episodes Originally aired
First aired Last aired
1 8 17 November 1987 (1987-11-17) 5 January 1988 (1988-01-05)
2 8 25 October 1988 (1988-10-25) 22 December 1988 (1988-12-22)
3 9 15 October 1990 (1990-10-15) 10 December 1990 (1990-12-10)
4 8 25 October 1994 (1994-10-25) 17 November 1994 (1994-11-17)
5 26 4 April 2005 (2005-04-04) 25 December 2005 (2005-12-25)
6 26 11 February 2008 (2008-02-11) 17 March 2008 (2008-03-17)
7 26 18 January 2009 (2009-01-18) 20 April 2009 (2009-04-20)
8 26 3 March 2012 (2012-03-03) 10 November 2012 (2012-11-10)
9 25 7 April 2014 (2014-04-07) 3 September 2014 (2014-09-03)
10 25 15 February 2016 (2016-02-15) 26 August 2016 (2016-08-26)
11 13 18 November 2017 (2017-11-18) 9 May 2018 (2018-05-09)
12 13 26 October 2020 (2020-10-26) 9 December 2020 (2020-12-09)

Computer games

Spin-offs

In 1996, a stage production was turned into a feature, Fireman Sam In Action, and released on BBC Video.

In 2009, Fireman Sam appeared with other animated children's TV characters in a Children in Need single. The single was put together by Peter Kay.

The show saw its first feature-length movie, The Great Fire of Pontypandy, released to DVD and iTunes in 2010, and was shown in select cinemas.

Fireman Sam was adapted into a live musical theatre show, which began touring the UK in June 2011.

In 2014, Amazon Prime released Fireman Sam using American voices instead of British voices for children in the US. However, the characters of Tom Thomas, Moose Roberts and Bella Lasagna have their regular, respective Australian, Canadian and Italian voices (instead of their being dubbed them with a US voice actor) due to their accents. This cast includes the voices of Andrew Hodwitz, Jonah Ain, Maraget Brock, Lily Cassano, Dave Pender, Jacob James, Scott Lancastle, Ashley Magwood, Mike Pongrazc, Becky Shrimpton, Sarah Lynn Strange, Carter Treneer, Joe Marth (later replaced by Dave McRae), Adam Turgeon and Chrstia Clahane.

In 2015, the show's second feature-length movie Heroes of the Storm (also known as Ultimate Heroes in the US) was due to be released in September 2015; however, it was released for American audiences in November 2014.[8]

Reception

The ABC website said of the series, "All the characters blend together into an appealing mixture of fun and entertainment for children everywhere."[9]

Common Sense Media recommended the 2005 series for ages three and up, praising it for showing how to "stay calm in a crisis" and rely on a team to solve problems. The American website found that the "distinctly Welsh characters, community, accents, and expressions may pose some minor comprehension problems for kids on this side of the pond", but considered it a useful example of life in another part of the world.[10]

Controversies
A page from the Quran appearing in Fireman Sam.

In July 2016, it emerged that in Series 9, Episode 6 – in which the character Elvis slips on a piece of paper and falls into a stack of paper, causing them to fly everywhere – one of the flying pages that briefly came into view was identified as a page from the Quran: "Surah Mulk (67), verses 13–26".[11] The production company Mattel apologised for this accident, removed the episode from broadcast, and ceased work with Xing Xing, the animation company responsible for the error. Mattel stated: "Someone from the production company thought they were just putting in random text.[11] We have no reason to believe it was done maliciously."[11] The BBC received more than 1,000 complaints and forwarded them to Channel 5 as the BBC has not aired Fireman Sam since 2008.[11]

In October 2017, the London Fire Commissioner Dany Cotton highlighted Fireman Sam in a campaign fighting sexism and promoting the gender-neutral term firefighter. She proposed that Fireman Sam should be renamed "Firefighter Sam", and said that research showed that women are put off a career in the fire service because it is seen as a job for men. She also claimed that as Fireman Sam is seen by children from an early age, he reinforces this stereotype.[12]

Notes
  1. Known as DHX Studios Halifax during Season 11. Credited as an outsourcer in Season 12.
  2. Vancouver studio.

References
  1. "Wildbrain and Mattel TV Come to the Rescue with Fireman Sam season 12". WildBrain.
  2. Shuttleworth, Peter (17 November 2017). "Happy 30th birthday Fireman Sam" – via www.bbc.com.
  3. Regional Television Variations. Date: Saturday, Oct. 31, 1987 Publication: The Times (London, England) Sunday: 1st 7.20. Sam Tân
  4. "About Sam". Retrieved 4 January 2011.
  5. Crump, William D. (2019). Happy Holidays—Animated! A Worldwide Encyclopedia of Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa and New Year's Cartoons on Television and Film. McFarland & Co. p. 105. ISBN 9781476672939.
  6. "Awards for "Fireman Sam" (1987)". Retrieved 4 January 2011.
  7. "Fireman Sam" – via www.bbc.co.uk.
  8. Fireman Sam: Heroes of the Storm (Video 2014), retrieved 16 January 2018
  9. "Fireman Sam at ABC". Retrieved 4 January 2011.
  10. "Fireman Sam at commonsensemedia". Retrieved 4 January 2011.
  11. Evans, Patrick (27 July 2016). "Fireman Sam episode pulled amid Quran row". BBC. Retrieved 30 July 2016.
  12. "Why We Are Campaigning To Shake Off The Outdated Term 'Firemen'". HuffPost UK.
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