The Smurfs (1989 sitcom)

The Smurfs is an American-Belgian animated sitcom based off the comics by Peyo. The show was produced by Gracie Films, Great American Broadcasting (uncredited, seasons 1-2), Turner Broadcasting (seasons 3-7), Warner Bros. Television (season 8-present), with animation produced by Hanna-Barbera Cartoons (seasons 1-3), Film Roman (seasons 4-27), and Warner Bros. Animation (season 28-present). The show premiered December 17, 1989 on TBS. The show's original showrunners were Peyo, James L. Brooks and Sam Simon. In 1993, Theirry Culliford took over for his father as one of the executive producers, credited as Peyo.

Characters

 * Papa Smurf (voiced by until Season 7 and Scott Innes on Season 8 onwards) - Papa Smurf is the leader, father, chief, king of the Smurfs, and can be easily distinguished by his red clothes and bushy white beard. Smurfs turn to Papa Smurf when things go wrong. Papa Smurf is skilled in making magical spells and potions. He is much older than the other Smurfs. (except for Grandpa and Nanny, who are older than Papa.) Papa Smurf often serves other Smurfs with his knowledge and wisdom and usually devises a plan how to get out of trouble or save the Smurf village from attacks of Gargamel.
 * Brainy Smurf (voiced by Danny Goldman and later Fred Armisen) - TBD
 * Clumsy Smurf (voiced by Bill Callaway) - TBD
 * Hefty Smurf (voiced by Frank Welker) - Hefty Smurf has incredible strength and often is seen doing a lot of the heavy work in the village. He also has a tattoo on his right arm (or sometimes both of his arms) of a red heart with an arrow through it. His favorite activity is lifting weights and doing other forms of exercise, and is often the one to kick Brainy out of the village whenever he is boasting. Hefty takes pride in being tough, sometimes doing it just for attention.
 * Handy Smurf (voiced by Michael Bell) - TBD
 * Grouchy Smurf (also voiced by Michael Bell) - Grouchy Smurf is the misanthropic grouch of the Smurf village. His catchphrase is "I hate (something somebody else mentions)", yet it shown during the show is good observer and notices kindness in others even if not playing active role in an event. Even though Grouchy Smurfs portrays a role of a moaner within the group, he mostly wishes others to be happy and successfully to get out problematic situation. Grouchy usually has a scowl on his face. But despite his grouchiness, he has a soft spot for Baby Smurf and the Smurflings.
 * Vanity Smurf (voiced by Alan Oppenheimer) - TBD
 * Greedy Smurf (voiced by Hamilton Camp and later Wil Wheaton) - TBD
 * Smurfette (voiced by until Season 17 and April Stewart on Season 18 onwards) - TBD
 * Gargamel (voiced by Paul Winchell on Season 1 and Jim Cummings on Season 2 onwards) - TBD
 * Azrael (vocal effects by until Season 7 and Frank Welker on Season 8 onwards) - TBD

Setting
The show is set in medieval Belgium, with Johan and Peewit as the main subplot focus. The Smurfs go through misadventures in Smurf Village, alongside the town of Brussels (a reference to Peyo's hometown), while outsmarting Gargamel who tries to either eat them, turn them into gold or absorbing all of their blue essence.

Executive producers and showrunners
List of showrunners throughout the series' run: Peyo and James L. Brooks have served as executive producers during the show's entire history, and also function as creative consultants. Sam Simon, described by former Smurfs director Brad Bird as "the unsung hero" of the show, served as creative supervisor for the first four seasons. He was constantly at odds with Peyo, Brooks and the show's production company Gracie Films and left in 1993. Before leaving, he negotiated a deal that sees him receive a share of the profits every year, and an executive producer credit despite not having worked on the show since 1993, at least until his passing in 2015. A more involved position on the show is the showrunner, who acts as head writer and manages the show's production for an entire season.
 * Season 1–2: Peyo (1989-1992), Theirry Culliford (1993-present), James L. Brooks, & Sam Simon
 * Season 3–4: Al Jean, Mike Reiss & Yvan Delporte
 * Season 5–6: David Mirkin
 * Season 7–8: Bill Oakley & Josh Weinstein
 * Season 9–12: Glenn Leopold
 * Season 13–present: Audu Paden

Writing
The first team of writers, assembled by Sam Simon, consisted of John Swartzwelder, Jon Vitti, George Meyer, Jeff Martin, Al Jean, Mike Reiss, Jay Kogen and Wallace Wolodarsky. Newer Smurfs ' writing teams typically consist of sixteen writers who propose episode ideas at the beginning of each December. The main writer of each episode writes the first draft. Group rewriting sessions develop final scripts by adding or removing jokes, inserting scenes, and calling for re-readings of lines by the show's vocal performers. Until 2004, George Meyer, who had developed the show since the first season, was active in these sessions. According to long-time writer Jon Vitti, Meyer usually invented the best lines in a given episode, even though other writers may receive script credits. Each episode takes six months to produce so the show rarely comments on current events.

Credited with sixty episodes, John Swartzwelder is the most prolific writer on The Smurfs. One of the best-known former writers is Conan O'Brien, who contributed to several episodes in the early 1990s before replacing David Letterman as host of the talk show Late Night. English comedian Ricky Gervais wrote the episode "TBA", becoming the first celebrity to both write and guest star in an episode. Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, writers of the film Superbad, wrote the episode "TBA", with Rogen voicing a character in it.

At the end of 2007, the writers of The Smurfs went on strike together with the other members of the Writers Guild of America, East. The show's writers had joined the guild in 1998.

Animation
Several different U.S. and international studios animate The Smurfs. Throughout the run of the 1980s animated Saturday morning cartoon of the same name, the animation was produced domestically at Hanna-Barbera (although they've switched to outsourced studios starting with Season 6). With the debut of the sitcom, because of an increased workload, TBS subcontracted production to several local and foreign studios. These are AKOM, Anivision, Rough Draft Studios, USAnimation, and Toonzone Entertainment.

For the first three seasons, Hanna-Barbera animated The Smurfs in the United States. In 1992, the show's production company, Gracie Films, was afraid that Hanna-Barbera would re-brand its studio soon (due to its downfall on Saturday morning shows) and switched domestic production to Film Roman, who continue to animate the show until 2016. In Season 14, production switched from traditional cel animation to digital ink and paint. The first episode to experiment with digital coloring was "TBA" in 1995. Animators used digital ink and paint during production of the season 12 episode "TBA", but Gracie Films delayed the regular use of digital ink and paint until two seasons later. The already completed "TBA" was broadcast as made.

The production staff at the U.S. animation studio, Film Roman, draws storyboards, designs new characters, backgrounds, props and draws character and background layouts, which in turn become animatics to be screened for the writers at Gracie Films for any changes to be made before the work is shipped overseas. The overseas studios then draw the inbetweens, ink and paint, and render the animation to tape before it is shipped back to the United States to be delivered to TBS three to four months later.

The series began high-definition production in Season 20; the first episode, "TBA", aired February 15, 2009. The move to HDTV included a new opening sequence. Thierry Culliford called it a complicated change because it affected the timing and composition of animation.

Trivia

 * As production began on the sitcom, James L. Brooks tended to get rid of the simple basic, cartoony gags, such as...
 * Brainy being thrown out of the village for when he starts talking too much.
 * The male Smurfs falling madly in love in Smurfette and sometimes fighting for her affection. One of them would attempt to marry her quickly.
 * Surrealistic gags, such as flattening a Smurf with a rock and/or Smurfs able to sometimes powerfully distort their bodies were not present.
 * The second season had changes of color (characters' outfits and/or skin for example) and reworking of character designs, such as...
 * Handy's workman overalls being recolored navy blue and the buckles of his overalls golden yellow.