Teletubbies in Tubbyopolis (2012 series)

Teletubbies in Tubbyopolis is a British children's television series created by Herbert Stone and Will Harland for CITV and CBeebies. It is produced by Harland-Stone Children's Entertainment, Kindle Entertainment, and DHX Media. HIT Entertainment was also involved in producing the series until season 2 aired in 2014, where they were replaced by DHX Media. It is a spinoff based on the children's television series Teletubbies by Anne Wood and Andrew Davenport. The series first aired on CITV in the United Kingdom from May 7, 2012 to November 9, 2015.

Overview/Plot
The programme features Tinky Winky, Dipsy, Laa-Laa, and Po, who had just moved from their "Tubbytronic Superdome" earth home implanted in the grassy landscape of Teletubbyland to the city of Tubbyopolis, where the inhabitants are almost the same kind as the Teletubbies yet are also all very different. The Teletubbies in this series also slightly differ from the original series in appearance and are depicted as being much older, behaving much like school age children. They still refers to themselves in the third person, but they are now able to speak full sentences. The Teletubbies mostly live in a building called Tubby Tower located on a busy street near the Tubbyopolis Town Hall and The Magic Windmill. The narrator is mostly absent in the series as he was replaced by a fifth Teletubby known as Dee Dee who mostly lives around the city; more specifically in the countryside in a house that she shares with the Teletubbies. This house being very much similar to the one built into a hill back in Teletubbyland. She also looks after the Teletubbies and mostly serves as a nanny or motherly figure to them. Despite this, Both Dee Dee and The Narrator seem to take turns for each episode; The narrator occasionally makes appearances in certain episodes when Dee Dee is absent and Dee Dee sometimes does the narration when the narrator himself is absent.

The Teletubbies in the series also are almost able to speak full English, but they often simply groan in disapproval in situations where one would become angry. The Teletubbies' retain their signature baby talk, but unlike the original show, phrases like "Eh-oh", "Uh-oh", "Run away! Run away!", and "Bye-bye" are said less often due to them being able to speak in complete sentences. They also occasionally put the iconic phrase "Big hug!" in a sentence, however they still exclaim it as is before a group hug.

Episode Format
At the beginning of each episode, the intro from the original 1997 Teletubbies series plays. The Sun Baby rises, as the sky turns from dawn to morning. However, the baby's face looks a little different, more so slightly resembling Berry's from the reboot instead of Jessica's from the original. The intro goes normally until the camera pans to the Tubbytronic Superdome. A voice trumpet then rises off-screen and asks "where have the Teletubbies gone". Starting from Season 2, we also get a brief of the Noo Noo looking for the Teletubbies within the dome. After this, the entire opening sequence then fades into a panorama of a bustling city which is referred to as Tubbyopolis by Dee Dee's following narration. Eventually it pans on the Tubbyopolis skyline. Depending on episode, it then either cuts to a shot of Dee Dee's earth home in the countryside or it pans to a shot of the Town Hall and with a grassy skyscraper in the distance.

Then, one by one, the Teletubbies each come out of either the grassy skyscraper or Dee Dee's earth home as a male voice (female voice in the US version) counts them off. However, there is one Teletubby missing, who sometimes comes out a little late. Then after the title is shown, it then cuts to multiple shots of the city, as the opening credits are shown and the theme song plays. After the theme song finishes, it cuts to the Teletubbies who run to a park adjacent to the windmill. The Teletubbies then introduce themselves by name (one after another) as Dee Dee asks for the name of each Teletubby. The Magic Windmill then starts to spin, and the Teletubbies say "Uh oh!" before running off to start the show. Dee Dee walks up to say "Eh Oh" before cutting to the Sun Baby who laughs and smiles before cutting to the opening segment.

After the into is finished, the episode's opening segment is usually seen. It usually comprises of the Teletubbies following a series of actions or showing behaviors related to the episode such as The Teletubbies getting Tubby Toast from the Tubby Toaster or Tubby Custard from the Tubby Custard Fountain, each Teletubby getting turns cleaning Tubby Tower or Dee Dee's house, getting themselves into trouble by Dee Dee, etc. However, the episode can sometimes start off with the news and weather forecast being displayed on Dee Dee's TV stomach as each Teletubby watches the forecast and news with the same fascination as when they watch the TV events in the original series. Following this, Dee Dee sometimes assigns them a task that varies depending on each episode, such as the Teletubbies helping the citizens with their jobs, but often messing up. It is then followed by a TV event where footage of children is displayed on the screens on the Teletubbies' stomachs. From there, the kid in the video will show what he/she is doing. Sometimes, they will sing, act out, dance, or do daily activities, such as drawing, riding tricycles, learning about colors or numbers, or do daily routines. After this, it's followed by either another set of episode related actions, Dee Dee taking the Teletubbies out to a place in the city that its related to the topic of the episode, or them just staying at home. For example: Dee Dee would take the Teletubbies to the city park to play, to the pool to swim or go to an amusement park to ride on the Tubby Custard Ride. They usually make it back in time for a magical event to occur. The event differs each time; it is often caused inexplicably and is frequently strange yet whimsical. Each episode is closed by the Tubby Bye Bye sequence, which is similar when compared to the revival series that aired after the last season.

Like in the original series, the Tubby Bye Bye sequence almost goes as normal, except every Teletubby is called to the Tubbyopolis Town Hall instead where the sequence takes place. The narrator also does not bid each Teletubby goodbye as Dee Dee bids them farewell instead regardless of episode. As Dee Dee says bye to each Teletubby, they disappear, but reappear a moment later saying "Boo!". Dee Dee then says "No", (which they copy) and she says Bye once again to them to them which all four Teletubbies reply "bye-bye" back. Following this, they either drive off in the tubby car or board a bus to go home. The sun is then shown setting followed by the Teletubbies getting of the bus at a bus stop and walking to either Tubby Tower or Dee Dee's house or driving up to either one or the other via the Tubby Car depending on the episode. From there, the door is seen to be kept open and the boo shouter says goodbye again, before walking back inside via the door. This is followed by the rest of the Teletubbies waking in to the house and Dee Dee, who pokes out of the door and bids farewell to the viewer before she closes it. The credits start to roll at this point as the sun baby looks over the Tubbyopolis city skyline getting darker as nightfall starts to occur due to the sun itself setting. The baby sun then sets into the ground, chucking in the process.

Production
The show was first conceived by Herbert Stone and Will Harland in 2008 after they mused about a show aimed at preschoolers. They initially mused on creating an original children's anthology television series containing fairy tales and nursery rhymes but with a twist as their concern about "how children were adapting to the technological environment of the modern world" got the better of them. Eventually the plan was scrapped, but it was eventually picked up by children's TV director and close friend Mavis Kander in 2010. Several ideas for children's TV series that they came up with had already been proposed at this point, this includes an idea for a show where a boy raises search and rescue pups that would become eventually become Paw Patrol. Still needing a show to serve as their first foray into the children's tv business, the idea of making a spinoff of an existing children's show came up and was ultimately chosen. By 2011, the two spent almost a year discussing about which show to do. Ideas for Barney and Bob the Builder spinoffs were proposed, but those were ultimately pushed aside because they were not able to get the rights for the shows from the respective production companies. Eventually a Teletubbies spinoff came up during a luncheon with Kander as she had a lot of knowledge of the show because she had a long history with Anne Wood, serving as a creative consultant and a children's book localizer for her. The two men then settled on this idea and started to put together a pitch which CITV picked up. The idea revolved around the Teletubbies moving from Teletubbyland and into in a big city called Tubbyopolis. This idea mostly arose in part because of a guest trip by the Teletubbies themselves to New York City.

With Production starting, both Herbert Stone and Will Harland, alongside HIT Entertainment licensed the rights to use the Teletubbies intellectual property from Ragdoll Productions. Production was a major hurdle as they wanted to film the production's "Tubbyopolis" scenes on location in Berlin, Germany and Glasgow, UK. Despite attempts, they were not allowed to film the actors dressed in Teletubby costumes interacting with the citizens.

They ended up filming on a blue screen stage in a private studio facility in London. The city was rendered in CGI, where footage of the actors in Teletubby costumes is laid onto the CG environment. The rest of the Teletubby residents were also CGI, but when the four Teletubbies are interacting with these other Teletubby inhabitants, footage of suited actors was used instead. They also filmed scenes near buildings on the stage where they had to be life sized, especially in closeup scenes where a Teletubby interacts with the building in some way. After the show took off, its popularity caused the Studios to be flooded, causing a switch over to the Elstree Studios in Borehamwood within southern Hertfordshire, England. Eventually, the team took measures to secure their privacy when the old studio reopened, including blindfolding visitors coming to the studio and creating a tent for the actors to change in secret.

Trivia

 * Teletubbies in Tubbyopolis is one of two spinoffs of the Teletubbies That doesn't entirely feature the Noo-Noo. He does make cameos in the show starting from Season 2, but a non-anthropomorphic looking but still sentient vacuum cleaner takes his place for the majority of the series.
 * Teletubbies in Tubbyopolis is also the only Teletubbies related show where the narrator is absent.
 * Tubbyopolis was largely inspired in part by European cities in contrast to a more stereotypical city found in a children's series. Despite the Spanish and Italian influenced concept art, Tubbyopolis ended up being rather reminiscent of Berlin, Germany and Glasgow, UK.
 * Since the series is set in the city of Tubbyopolis, the Tubby Car was introduced this early as a primary mode of transport for the Teletubbies within the city as well as for Dee Dee. Another notable feature of this show was the introduction of a theme park, which also featured an early version of the Tubby Custard Ride. The windmill shown in this series also initially looked reminiscent of its original pinwheel incarnation from the 1997 series, However it started to resemble a real windmill during season 2. This windmill also has speckles in place of the sparkles throughout the show's run. The speckles are initially white, but starting from season 2, they shift into a Teletubby's color as a way to foreshadow which Teletubby gets the TV transmission.
 * The windmill's design from the original series was also rendered in CGI for the pilot series. However, for shots focused on the windmill, scenes were recycled from the original 1997 series.
 * Taking this into consideration, this series was the very first exposure of the changes that would be present in the then-unaired revival series/reboot. This was because Herbert Stone and Will Harland gave the production reins of Teletubbies in Tubbyopolis to Canadian DHX Media, who also acquired the rights to the original Teletubbies series it was based on. Some of these changes actually did make it into the reboot, but the rest were discarded. The Tubby Car and Tubby Custard Ride are the most well known examples from the spinoff series that ended up in the reboot. However, they were very different in many ways from their equivalents in the Teletubbies in Tubbyopolis series. The feature of the speckles changing color was also carried over to the reboot's windmill. However instead of speckles, they are star particles.
 * The pilot episode Ned's Scooter ends with an unusual scene in which the tune for a magical event begins but it transitions into the tune that plays when the windmill is slowing down/stopping as the magic windmill grinds to a halt and sparkles are flung everywhere. Early episodes of the second season would also end this way due to a post production error, especially in the US versions of said episodes.