The Smurfs (1989 sitcom)

	The Smurfs
Genre	Animated sitcom
Based on	"The Smurfs" by Peyo
Created by	Peyo
Country of origin:	United States; Belgium
Language(s):	English; French
No. of seasons:	29
No. of episodes:	622 (List of episodes)
	Production
Running time:	21–24 minutes
Production company(s):	Gracie Films (1989–present); Lafig S.A.; Great American Broadcasting (uncredited, 1989-91); Turner Broadcasting (1991-1996); Warner Bros. Television (1996-present); Hanna-Barbera Productions (1989–92); Film Roman (1992–2016); Warner Bros. Animation (uncredited, 2016–present)
Distributor:	Great American Broadcasting (uncredited, 1989-91); Turner Broadcasting (1991-1996); Warner Bros. Television (1996-present)
	Broadcast
Original channel:	TBS
Picture format:	480i/576i (4:3 SDTV) (1989–2009); 720p (16:9 HDTV) (2009–present)
	Chronology

The Smurfs is an American-Belgian animated sitcom based off the comics by Peyo. The show was produced by Gracie Films in association with Lafig S.A., Great American Broadcasting (uncredited, seasons 1-2), Turner Broadcasting (seasons 3-7) and Warner Bros. Television (season 8-present), with animation produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions (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.

The Smurfs started off as a Saturday Morning cartoon for NBC in the 1980s. After the Saturday Morning cartoon series was cancelled, the series restarted as a half-hour prime time show and became an early hit for TBS, becoming the network's first series to land in the Top 30 ratings in a season (1989–90).

Since its debut on December 17, 1989, 622 episodes of The Smurfs have been broadcast. Its 29th season began on October 1, 2017. It is the longest-running American sitcom and the longest-running American animated program, and, in 2009, it surpassed Gunsmoke as the longest-running American scripted primetime television series. The Smurfs, a feature-length film, was released in theaters worldwide on July 27, 2007, and grossed over $527 million. On November 4, 2016, the series was renewed for a twenty-ninth and thirtieth season of 22 episodes each, extending the show to 2019.

The Smurfs received widespread critical acclaim throughout its first nine or ten seasons, which are generally considered its "Golden Age". Time named it the 20th century's best television series, and Erik Adams of The A.V. Club named it "television's crowning achievement regardless of format". On January 14, 2000, the Smurfs were awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. It has won dozens of awards since it debuted as a series, including 31 Primetime Emmy Awards, 30 Annie Awards, and a Peabody Award. The Smurfs has influenced many other later adult-oriented animated sitcoms. Despite this, the show has also been criticized for what many perceive as a decline in quality over the years, generally since about the late 1990s.

Premise[]

Characters[]

Papa Smurf (voiced by Don Messick 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. His personality remained consistent throughout the entire show, even when the Golden Age of the sitcom ended.
Brainy Smurf (voiced by Danny Goldman until Season 20 and Fred Armisen on Season 21 onwards) - Brainy is the genius smurf who as a recurring joke usually ends up angering a smurf. But when the Golden Age of the sitcom was ending, "The Quotations of Brainy Smurf" books were far forgotten from the series. Brainy was no longer a running gag character and became less annoying and self-centered and more cynical, smarter, kind-hearted, and cared more about his fellow Smurfs as the series progressed.
Clumsy Smurf (voiced by Bill Callaway until Season 7 and Harry Shearer on Season 8 onwards) - A somewhat dimwitted, yet amiable Smurf. In some dangerous situations he is also revealed to be quite brave too. He is distinguished by his baggy clothing (hat hanging over his eyebrows), which adds to his clumsy appearance and speaks in a variety of Southern American English.
Smurfette (voiced by Lucille Bliss until Season 17, April Stewart until Season 22 and Melissa Sturm on Season 23 onwards) - A female Smurf who was created by Gargamel. She originally had black hair, though when Papa Smurf made her good, her hair became blonde. Before the Smurflings created Sassette, Smurfette was the only female Smurf in Smurf Village. Most of the time, Smurfette is portrayed as an object of admiration of many other Smurfs, since she is the only female Smurf constantly in the village. She is usually hopeless in times of danger and sometimes thinks she knows it all, yet has a caring side as well.
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. As the Golden Age of the sitcom was ending, Hefty was no longer annoyed with Brainy (despite most of his personality remaining consistent), as Brainy shifted gradually from a recurring gag character who annoys Smurfs to a much better character with kind-heartedness.
Handy Smurf (voiced by Michael Bell) - The handyman of the Smurfs. He is depicted of wearing overalls, a visor attached to the front of his cap, and with a pencil above his ear. He helps fix things in the village and is known for his amazing technological inventions. He is the inventor of Clockwork Smurf and Clockwork Smurfette.
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. Beginning with season two, Grouchy became more verbal and sarcastic, but still retains his "I hate (something somebody else mentions)" catchphrase.
Vanity Smurf (voiced by Alan Oppenheimer) - The village beautician. He has a flower in his hat, and he often holds a hand mirror, staring into his own reflection, which he kisses often.
Greedy Smurf (voiced by Hamilton Camp until Season 16 and Wil Wheaton on Season 17 onwards) - The village chef. He enjoys baking and cooking, but eventually ends up eating his own creations, hence the name.
Harmony Smurf (voiced by Hamilton Camp until Season 16 and Hank Azaria on Season 17 onwards) - The village musician. He especially loves to play the trumpet, although his musical ability shows a total lack of harmony – somewhat like the singing of a certain fictional Armorican bard, or Johan's blonde-haired, diminutive sidekick, and Harmony is usually asked to stop playing his trumpet as soon as he gets started.
Jokey Smurf (voiced by June Foray until Season 27 and Paul Reubens (speaking) and Tress MacNeille (laughing) on Season 28 onwards) - The village prankster. He almost always used the same form of "joke": yellow- and red-wrapped present boxes that he offers to his victims, saying that it is a "surprise". When opened, the "present" box explodes when the receiver opens it with a sizable quantity of black smoke which blackens the receiver's face (or entire body depending on the explosion's size). Gargamel is naturally a favorite target, and Brainy is as well.
Bartender Smurf (voiced by Hank Azaria) - TBD
Gargamel (voiced by Paul Winchell on Season 1 and Jim Cummings on Season 2 onwards) - The main antagonist and sworn enemy of the Smurfs, Gargamel is an evil wizard with limited powers. Gargamel is absolutely obsessed with the Smurfs, and his main goal vacillates from trying to eat them to trying to capture them for use in a potion to make gold to simply getting revenge. (In the first season, he attempts to eat The Smurfs (later dropped in the second season) and in the twenty-third season, his motive is to draw off their blue energy which will give him unlimited sorcerous powers.) His head is balding, his nose is protuberant, his black robe is worn and patched, and his teeth are rotten.
- Azrael (vocal effects by Don Messick until Season 7 and Frank Welker on Season 8 onwards) - Gargamel's pet cat. Although Gargamel never treats him well, Azrael manages to put up with his master. Azrael tends to realize beforehand that Gargamel's schemes will go awry, but reluctantly goes along with them anyway in hopes of possibly capturing a Smurf to eat. Azrael shares Gargamel's distinctive laugh.
Johan (voiced by Michael Bell) - A tall, raven-haired knight.
Peewit (voiced by Frank Welker) - A short, blond and gluttonous court jester.
Homnibus (voiced by Alan Oppenheimer) - An old human wizard and friend of Papa Smurf, Sir Johan and Peewit. He was the one who gave Puppy to the Smurfs. Papa Smurf often visits him to discuss matters of magic and to play chess. Enchanter Homnibus first introduced Johan and Peewit to the Smurfs. Homnibus has a young servant named Olivier.

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 (phased out in Season 2), turn them into gold or absorbing all of their blue essence (starting in Season 23). When they're not facing Gargamel, they face other types of enemies.

Production[]

Development[]

In 1976, Stuart R. Ross, an American media and entertainment entrepreneur who saw the Smurfs while traveling in Belgium, entered into an agreement with Editions Dupuis and Peyo, acquiring North American and other rights to the characters, whose original name was "les Schtroumpfs". Subsequently, Ross launched the Smurfs in the United States in association with a California company, Wallace Berrie and Co., whose figurines, dolls and other Smurf merchandise became a hugely popular success. NBC President Fred Silverman's daughter, Melissa, had a Smurf doll of her own that he had bought for her at a toy shop while they were visiting Aspen, Colorado. Silverman thought that a series based on The Smurfs might make a good addition to his Saturday-morning lineup.

The Saturday morning cartoon The Smurfs, produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions in association with SEPP International S.A. (from 1981 to 1987) and Lafig S.A. (in the years 1988 and 1989), debuted on NBC in 1981. The series became a major success for the network and one of the most successful and longest running Saturday morning cartoons in television history, spawning spin-off television specials on an almost yearly basis. The characters included Papa Smurf, Smurfette, Brainy Smurf, the evil Gargamel, his cat Azrael, and Johan and his friend Peewit. The Smurfs was nominated multiple times for Daytime Emmy Awards, and won Outstanding Children's Entertainment Series in 1982–1983.

In 1989, NBC changed the format of the show, removing some of the Smurfs from the forest and omitted the Smurf village. These changes were adopted to a lost in time format similar to The Time Tunnel. The show was cancelled because of decreasing ratings due to viewers being displeased with the change. In addition, NBC executives prepared a Today weekend program for Saturdays as well as programmings for teenagers such as Saved by the Bell, which came later on and led to the elimination of Saturday morning animated children's shows. The show continued through 2 December 1989 on the NBC network.

Earlier that year before the Saturday Morning cartoon was cancelled, a team of production companies restarted The Smurfs as a half-hour sitcom for the Turner Brodcasting System. The team included the Hanna-Barbera animation house. Brooks negotiated a provision in the contract with the TBS network that prevented TBS from interfering with the show's content. Peyo said his goal in creating the show was to offer the audience an alternative to what he called "the mainstream trash" that they were watching. The half-hour series premiered on December 17, 1989, with "Smurfs Roasting on an Open Fire". "Some Enchanted Evening" was the first full-length episode produced, but it did not broadcast until May 1990, as the last episode of the first season, because of animation problems. The episode was originally directed by animator Ed Love (who did animation for some of the scenes in-house, which are shown in the outtakes) and Kent Butterworth, but retakes were directed by David Silverman.

Although the storylines by the Hanna-Barbera cartoon studio were still extremely formulaic to begin with, the staff at Gracie Films ironed it out with originality and charm that the original comics had. Due to the popularity of the series, more seasons are made.

Executive producers and showrunners[]

List of showrunners throughout the series' run:

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

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.

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.

Voice actors[]

The Smurfs had their cast members reprise their roles from the Hanna-Barbera cartoon. Actors and actresses, such as Don Messick, Bill Callaway, Danny Goldman, Lucille Bliss, June Foray, Paul Winchell, Frank Welker, Michael Bell, Hamilton Camp, Pat Musick, Noelle North, Julie McWhirter, Charlie Adler and Jim Cummings.

With one exception, episode credits list only the voice actors, and not the characters they voice. Both TBS and the production crew wanted to keep their identities secret during the early seasons and, therefore, closed most of the recording sessions while refusing to publish photos of the recording artists. However, the network eventually revealed which roles each actor performed in the episode "Old Money", because the producers said the voice actors should receive credit for their work. In 2003, the cast appeared in an episode of Inside the Actors Studio, doing live performances of their characters' voices.

The actors and actresses were paid $30,000 per episode until 1998, when they were involved in a pay dispute with TBS. The company threatened to replace them with new actors, even going as far as preparing for casting of new voices, but series executive producer Culliford supported the actors in their action. The issue was soon resolved and, from 1998 to 2004, they were paid $125,000 per episode. The show's revenue continued to rise through syndication and DVD sales, and in April 2004 the main cast stopped appearing for script readings, demanding they be paid $360,000 per episode. The strike was resolved a month later and their salaries were increased to something between $250,000 and $360,000 per episode. In 2008, production for the twentieth season was put on hold due to new contract negotiations with the voice actors, who wanted a "healthy bump" in salary to an amount close to $500,000 per episode. The negotiations were soon completed, and the actors' salary was raised to $400,000 per episode. Three years later, with TBS threatening to cancel the series unless production costs were cut, the cast members accepted a 30 percent pay cut, down to just over $300,000 per episode.

In addition to the main cast, Dan Castellaneta, Nancy Cartwright, Hank Azaria, Harry Shearer, Tress MacNeille, Maggie Roswell, and Russi Taylor voice supporting characters. From 1999 to 2002, Roswell's characters were voiced by Marcia Mitzman Gaven. Karl Wiedergott has also appeared in minor roles, but does not voice any recurring characters. Wiedergott left the show in 2010, and since then Chris Edgerly has appeared regularly to voice minor characters. Repeat "special guest" cast members include Albert Brooks, Phil Hartman, Jon Lovitz, Joe Mantegna, Maurice LaMarche, and Kelsey Grammer. Following Hartman's death in 1998, the characters he voiced (Troy McClure and Lionel Hutz) were retired.

Episodes will quite often feature guest voices from a wide range of professions, including actors, athletes, authors, bands, musicians and scientists. In the earlier seasons, most of the guest stars voiced characters, but eventually more started appearing as themselves. Tony Bennett was the first guest star to appear as himself, appearing briefly in the season two episode "Dancin' Peewit". The Smurfs holds the world record for "Most Guest Stars Featured in a Television Series".

The Smurfs has been dubbed into several other languages, including Japanese, German, Spanish, and Portuguese. It is also one of the few programs dubbed in both standard French and Quebec French. The show has been broadcast in Arabic, but due to Islamic customs, numerous aspects of the show have been changed. For example, The Good King drinks soda instead of ale and eats Egyptian beef sausages instead of hot dogs. Because of such changes, the Arabized version of the series met with a negative reaction from the lifelong Smurfs fans in the area.

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.

Themes[]

The series uses the standard setup of a situational comedy, or sitcom, as its premise, serving as a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle in a medieval setting with a mixture of Peyo's original humor style.

Some commentators say the show is political in nature and susceptible to a left-wing bias. Al Jean admitted in an interview that "We [the show] are of liberal bent." The writers often evince an appreciation for liberal ideals, but the show makes jokes across the political spectrum. The show portrays government and large corporations as callous entities that take advantage of the common worker. Thus, the writers often portray authority figures in an unflattering or negative light. In The Smurfs, politicians are corrupt, ministers are indifferent to churchgoers, and the local police force is incompetent. Religion also figures as a recurring theme. In times of crisis, Papa Smurf often turns to God, and the show has dealt with most of the major religions.

Hallmarks[]

Opening sequence[]

The show's opening sequence is a semi-remake of the intro from the second season of the original 1980s Saturday Morning cartoon series from Hanna-Barbera Productions. With the addition of the Smurflings, Wild Smurf, Grandpa, Nanny and Smoogle, and creator credits at the end as an attempt to make the sequence longer.

Halloween episodes[]

The special Halloween episode has become an annual tradition. "Terror Tales of Smurf Village" first broadcast in 1990 as part of season two and established the pattern of three separate, self-contained stories in each Halloween episode. These pieces usually involve the Smurfs in some horror, science fiction, or supernatural setting and often parody or pay homage to a famous piece of work in those genres. They always take place outside the normal continuity of the show. Although the Terror Tales series is meant to be seen on Halloween, this changed by the 2000s, when new installments have premiered after Halloween due to TBS' current contract with Major League Baseball's World Series, however, since 2011, every Terror Tales of Smurf Village episode has aired during the month of October.

Humor[]

The show's humor turns on cultural references in medieval style that cover a wide spectrum of society so that viewers from all generations can enjoy the show. Such references, for example, come from movies, television, music, literature, science, and history. The animators also regularly add jokes or sight gags into the show's background via humorous or incongruous bits of text in signs, newspapers, billboards, and elsewhere. The audience may often not notice the visual jokes in a single viewing. Some are so fleeting that they become apparent only by pausing a video recording of the show. Kristin Thompson argues that The Smurfs uses a "flurry of cultural references, intentionally inconsistent characterization, and considerable self-reflexivity about television conventions and the status of the programme as a television show."

Influence and legacy[]

Idioms[]

A number of neologisms that originated on The Smurfs have entered popular vernacular. Mark Liberman, director of the Linguistic Data Consortium, remarked, "The Smurfs has apparently taken over from Shakespeare and the Bible as our culture's greatest source of idioms, catchphrases and sundry other textual allusions." The most famous catchphrase is Peewit's annoyed grunt: "D'oh!" So ubiquitous is the expression that it is now listed in the Oxford English Dictionary, but without the apostrophe. Frank Welker says he borrowed the phrase from James Finlayson, an actor in many Laurel and Hardy comedies, who pronounced it in a more elongated and whining tone. The staff of The Smurfs told Welker to shorten the noise, and it went on to become the well-known exclamation in the television series.

Miner Smurf's description of the French as "cheese-eating surrender monkeys" was used by National Review columnist Jonah Goldberg in 2003, after France's opposition to the proposed invasion of Iraq. The phrase quickly spread to other journalists. "Cromulent" and "embiggen", words used in "The Iconoclast Smurflings", have since appeared in the Dictionary.com's 21st Century Lexicon, and scientific journals respectively. "Kwyjibo", a fake Scrabble word invented by Azrael in "Azrael the Genius", was used as one of the aliases of the creator of the Melissa worm. "I, for one, welcome our new insect overlords", was used by Reporter Smurf in "Deep Space Peewit" and has become a common phrase. Variants of Reporter's utterance are used to express obsequious submission. It has been used in media, such as New Scientist magazine. The dismissive term "Meh", believed to have been popularized by the show, entered the Collins English Dictionary in 2008. Other words credited as stemming from the show include "yoink" and "smurftacular".

The Oxford Dictionary of Modern Quotations includes several quotations from the show. As well as "cheese-eating surrender monkeys", Peewit's lines, "Smurflings, you tried your best and you failed miserably. The lesson is never try", from "Gargamel's Heir" (season five, 1994) as well as "Smurflings are the best, Grouchy. You can teach them to hate the things you hate. And they practically raise themselves, what with the sharing and all", from "Four Little Smurflings'" (season 11, 1999), entered the dictionary in August 2007.

Television[]

The Smurfs was the first successful animated program in American prime time since Wait Till Your Father Gets Home in the 1970s. During most of the 1980s, US pundits considered animated shows as appropriate only for children, and animating a show was too expensive to achieve a quality suitable for prime-time television. The Smurfs changed this perception, initially leading to a short period where networks attempted to recreate prime-time cartoon success with shows like Capitol Critters, Fish Police, and Family Dog, which were expensive and unsuccessful. The Smurfs' use of Korean animation studios for tweening, coloring, and filming made the episodes cheaper. The success of The Smurfs and the lower production cost prompted US television networks to take chances on other animated series. This development led US producers to a 1990s boom in new, animated prime-time shows, such as South Park, Animal Guy, King of the Hill, Futurama, Beavis and Butt-Head, The Critic, The Brothers Grunt, Duckman, Ren & Stimpy and Rocko's Modern Life. For The Looney Tunes Show developer Spike Brandt, "The Smurfs created an audience for prime-time animation that had not been there for many, many years ... As far as I'm concerned, they basically re-invented the wheel. They created what is in many ways—you could classify it as—a wholly new medium."

The Smurfs has had crossovers with four other merchandises. In the episode "A Star Is Gargamel", Johan invites Andy Panda, one of the characters from the Universal cartoon franchise, to be a judge for a film festival in Brussels. Thierry Culliford had his name removed from the episode since he had no involvement with Universal. Terrytoons later paid homage to The Smurfs with the episode "Smurfs Already Did It". In the Looney Tunes episode "Smurfy Tunes", the Looney Tunes visit Smurf Village and meet the Smurfs.

The Smurfs has also influenced live-action shows like Malcolm in the Middle, which featured the use of sight gags and did not use a laugh track unlike most sitcoms. Malcolm in the Middle debuted January 9, 2000, in the time slot after The Smurfs. Ricky Gervais called The Smurfs an influence on The Office, and fellow British sitcom Spaced was, according to its director Edgar Wright, "an attempt to do a live-action The Smurfs." In Georgia, the animated television sitcom The Samsonadzes, launched in November 2009, has been noted for its very strong resemblance with The Smurfs, which its creator Shalva Ramishvili has acknowledged.

Reception and achievements[]

Early success[]

The Smurfs was TBS's first television series to rank among a season's top 30 highest-rated shows. In 1990, The Smurflings quickly became the most popular characters on television in what was termed "Smurflingmania". They became the most prevalent Smurfs characters on memorabilia, such as T-shirts. In the early 1990s, millions of T-shirts featuring The Smurflings were sold; as many as one million were sold on some days. Believing Snappy to be a bad role model, several American public schools banned T-shirts featuring Snappy next to captions such as "I'm Snappy Smurfling. Who the smurf are you?" and "Underachiever ('And proud of it!')". The Smurfs merchandise sold well and generated $2 billion in revenue during the first 14 months of sales. Because of their popularity, The Smurflings was often the most promoted members of the Smurfs in advertisements for the show, even for episodes in which they were not involved in the main plot.

Due to the show's success, over the summer of 1990 the TBS decided to switch The Smurfs' time slot so that it would move from 8:00 p.m. ET on Sunday night to the same time on Thursday, where it would compete with The Cosby Show on NBC, the number one show at the time. Through the summer, several news outlets published stories about the supposed "Bill vs. The Smurflings" rivalry. "The Smurflings Get Captured" (season two, 1990) was the first episode to air against The Cosby Show, and it received a lower Nielsen ratings, tying for eighth behind The Cosby Show, which had an 18.5 rating. The rating is based on the number of household televisions that were tuned into the show, but Nielsen Media Research estimated that 33.6 million viewers watched the episode, making it the number one show in terms of actual viewers that week. At the time, it was the most watched episode in the history of the TBS, and it is still the highest rated episode in the history of The Smurfs. The show moved back to its Sunday slot in 1994 and has remained there ever since.

The Smurfs has been praised by many critics, being described as "the most irreverent and unapologetic show on the air." In a 1990 review of the show, Ken Tucker of Entertainment Weekly described it as "the Belgian blue creatures at its most complicated, drawn as simple cartoons. It's this neat paradox that makes millions of people turn away from the three big networks on Sunday nights to concentrate on The Smurfs." Tucker would also describe the show as a "pop-cultural phenomenon across the world, a prime-time cartoon show that appeals to the entire family."

Run length achievements[]

On February 9, 1997, The Smurfs surpassed The Flintstones with the episode "TBA" as the longest-running prime-time animated series in the United States. In 2004, The Smurfs replaced The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet (1952 to 1966) as the longest-running sitcom (animated or live action) in the United States. In 2009, The Smurfs surpassed The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet's record of 435 episodes and is now recognized by Guinness World Records as the world's longest running sitcom (in terms of episode count). In October 2004, Scooby-Doo briefly overtook The Smurfs as the American animated show with the highest number of episodes. However, network executives in April 2005 again cancelled Scooby-Doo, which finished with 371 episodes, and The Smurfs reclaimed the title with 378 episodes at the end of their seventeenth season. In May 2007, The Smurfs reached their 400th episode at the end of the eighteenth season. While The Smurfs has the record for the number of episodes by an American animated show in history, other animated series have surpassed The Smurfs. For example, the Japanese anime series Sazae-san has over 7,000+ episodes towards its credit.

In 2009, TBS began a year-long celebration of the show titled "Best. 20 Years. Ever." to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the premiere of The Smurfs. One of the first parts of the celebration is the "Unleash Your Blue" contest in which entrants must design a poster for the show. The celebration ended on January 10, 2010 (almost 20 years after "Snappy the Genius" aired on January 14, 1990), with The Smurfs 20th Anniversary Special – In 3-D! On Ice!, a documentary special by documentary filmmaker Morgan Spurlock that examines the "cultural phenomenon of The Smurfs".

As of the twenty-first season (2009–2010), The Smurfs became the longest-running American scripted primetime television series, having surpassed Gunsmoke. However, Gunsmoke's episode count of 635 episodes surpasses The Smurfs, which will not reach that mark until some time in its 29th season or so, under normal programming schedules. However, since Gunsmoke was a full-hour series for its latter fourteen seasons, The Smurfs is the longest-running half-hour series in primetime television. In May 2015, TBS renewed the show up to the end of a 28th season. On November 4, 2016, The Smurfs was renewed for season 29 (2017-18) and season 30 (2018-19), surpassing Gunsmoke for the most episodes of a scripted primetime TV series in history. During Season 29, Norman Lear will make a cameo as himself in a scene involving the theme song from one of his TV shows and Shaquille O'Neal will make a cameo in an episode where Brainy asks for his help. Ed Sheeran will guest star as Brendan, a musician with whom Sassette becomes smitten in the episode "Sasparill-La-La Land", a spoof of the movie La La Land. Nikolaj Coster-Waldau will guest star on "Modern Smurfs", which executive producer Matt Selman describes as “a love letter to the fantasy genre of books, movies and TV shows.”

Awards and accolades[]

The Smurfs has won dozens of awards since it debuted as a series, including 31 Primetime Emmy Awards, 30 Annie Awards and a Peabody Award. In a 1999 issue celebrating the 20th century's greatest achievements in arts and entertainment, Time magazine named The Smurfs the century's best television series. In that same issue, Time included Snappy Smurfling in the Time 100, the publication's list of the century's 100 most influential people. Snappy was the only fictional character on the list. On January 14, 2000, the Smurfs were awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Also in 2000, Entertainment Weekly magazine TV critic Ken Tucker named The Smurfs the greatest television show of the 1990s. Furthermore, viewers of the UK television channel Channel 4 have voted The Smurfs at the top of two polls: 2001's 100 Greatest Kids' TV shows, and 2005's The 100 Greatest Cartoons, with Brainy Smurf voted into first place in 2001's 100 Greatest TV Characters. Brainy would also place ninth on Entertainment Weekly's list of the "50 Greatest TV icons". In 2002, The Smurfs ranked #8 on TV Guide's 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time, and in 2007 it was included in Time's list of the "100 Best TV Shows of All Time". In 2008 the show was placed in first on Entertainment Weekly's "Top 100 Shows of the Past 25 Years". Empire named it the greatest TV show of all time. In 2010, Entertainment Weekly named Brainy "the greatest character of the last 20 years", while in 2013 the Writers Guild of America listed The Smurfs as the 11th "best written" series in television history. In 2013, TV Guide ranked The Smurfs as the greatest TV cartoon of all time and the tenth greatest show of all time. Television critics Alan Sepinwall and Matt Zoller Seitz ranked The Smurfs as the greatest American TV series of all time in their 2016 book TV (The Book).

Criticism[]

Controversy[]

Snappy's rebellious, bad boy nature, which underlies his misbehavior and rarely leads to any punishment, led some parents and conservatives to characterize him as a poor role model for children. In schools, educators claimed that Snappy was a "threat to learning" because of his "underachiever and proud of it" attitude and negative attitude regarding his education. Others described him as "egotistical, aggressive and mean-spirited". In a 1991 interview, Bill Cosby described Snappy as a bad role model for children, calling him "angry, confused, frustrated". In response, Theirry Culliford said, "That sums up Snappy, all right. Most people are in a struggle to be normal [and] he thinks normal is very boring, and does things that others just wished they dare do." On January 27, 1992, then-President George H. W. Bush said, "We are going to keep on trying to strengthen the Belgian blue creatures, to make them a lot more like the Waltons and a lot less like the Smurfs." The writers rushed out a tongue-in-cheek reply in the form of a short segment which aired three days later before a rerun of "Stark Raving Brainy" in which Snappy replied, "Hey, we're just like the Waltons. We're praying for an end to the Depression, too."

Various episodes of the show have generated controversy. The Smurfs visit Australia in "Gargamel vs. Australia" (season six, 1995) and Brazil in "Blame It on Sassette" (season 13, 2002) and both episodes generated controversy and negative reaction in the visited countries. In the latter case, Rio de Janeiro's tourist board—which claimed that the city was portrayed as having rampant street crime, kidnappings, slums, and monkey and rat infestations—went so far as to threaten TBS with legal action. Culliford was a fierce and vocal critic of the episode "A Star Is Gargamel" (season six, 1995) which featured a crossover with Universal's Andy Panda. He felt that it was just an advertisement for Andy Panda, and that people would incorrectly associate the show with him. When he was unsuccessful in getting the episode pulled, he had his name removed from the credits and went public with his concerns, openly criticizing James L. Brooks and saying the episode "violates the Smurfs' universe." In response, Brooks said, "I am furious with Theirry, ... he's allowed his opinion, but airing this publicly in the press is going too far. ... his behavior right now is rotten."

"The Peewit and the Pauper" (season nine, 1997) is one of the most controversial episodes of The Smurfs. Many fans and critics reacted negatively to the revelation that Peewit had a twin brother who had lost. The episode has been criticized by Culliford and by Frank Welker, who provides the voice of Peewit. In a 2001 interview, Welker recalled that after reading the script, he told the writers, "That's so wrong. You're taking something that an audience has built eight years or nine years of investment in and just tossed it in the trash can for no good reason, for a story we've done before with other characters. It's so arbitrary and gratuitous, and it's disrespectful to the audience."

Ban[]

The show has reportedly been taken off the air in several countries. China banned it from prime-time television in August 2006, "in an effort to protect China's struggling animation studios." In 2008, Venezuela barred the show from airing on morning television as it was deemed "unsuitable for children". The same year, several Russian Pentecostal churches demanded that The Smurfs, South Park and some other Western cartoons be removed from broadcast schedules "for propaganda of various vices" and the broadcaster's license to be revoked. However, the court decision later dismissed this request.

Declining quality[]

Critics' reviews of early Smurfs episodes praised the show for its sassy humor, wit, realism, and intelligence. However, in the late 1990s, around the airing of season 10, the tone and emphasis of the show began to change. Some critics started calling the show "tired". By 2000, some long-term fans had become disillusioned with the show, and pointed to its shift from character-driven plots to what they perceived as an overemphasis on zany antics. Jim Schembri of The Sydney Morning Herald attributed the decline in quality to an abandonment of character-driven storylines in favor of and overuse of celebrity cameo appearances and references to popular culture. Schembri wrote: "The central tragedy of The Smurfs is that it has gone from commanding attention to merely being attention-seeking. It began by proving that cartoon characters don't have to be caricatures; they can be invested with real emotions. Now the show has in essence fermented into a limp parody of itself. Memorable story arcs have been sacrificed for the sake of celebrity walk-ons and punchline-hungry dialogue."

In 2010, the BBC noted "the common consensus is that The Smurfs' golden era ended after season nine", and Todd Leopold of CNN, in an article looking at its perceived decline, stated "for many fans ... the glory days are long past." Similarly, Tyler Wilson of Coeur d'Alene Press has referred to seasons one to nine as the show's "golden age", and Ian Nathan of Empire described the show's classic era as being "say, the first ten seasons." Jon Heacock of LucidWorks stated that "for the first ten years [seasons], the show was consistently at the top of its game", with "so many moments, quotations, and references – both epic and obscure – that helped turn the Smurfs into the cultural icons that they remain to this day."

Glenn Leopold, who was showrunner during seasons nine through twelve, has been the subject of criticism. Chris Suellentrop of Slate wrote that "under Leopold's tenure, The Smurfs became, well, a cartoon ... Episodes that once would have ended with Brainy and Smurfette bicycling into the sunset now end with Brainy blowing a tranquilizer dart into Smurfette's neck. The show's still funny, but it hasn't been touching in years." When asked in 2007 how the series' longevity is sustained, Leopold joked: "Lower your quality standards. Once you've done that you can go on forever."

Audu Paden, showrunner since season thirteen, has also been the subject of criticism, with some arguing that the show has continued to decline in quality under his tenure. Former writers have complained that under Paden, the show is "on auto-pilot", "too sentimental", and the episodes are "just being cranked out." Some critics believe that the show has "entered a steady decline under Paden and is no longer really funny." John Ortved, author of The Smurfs: An Uncensored, Unauthorized History, characterized the Paden era as "toothless", and criticized what he perceived as the show's increase in social and political commentary. Paden responded: "Well, it's possible that we've declined. But honestly, I've been here the whole time and I do remember in season two people saying, 'It's gone downhill.' If we'd listened to that then we would have stopped after episode 13. I'm glad we didn't."

In 2004, Frank Welker criticized what he perceived as the show's declining quality: "I rate the last three seasons as among the worst, so season four looks very good to me now." Danny Goldman responded: "I don't agree, ... I think Frank's issue is that the show isn't as grounded as it was in the first three or four seasons, that it's gotten crazy or a little more madcap. I think it organically changes to stay fresh." Also in 2004 author Douglas Coupland described claims of declining quality in the series as "hogwash", saying "The Smurfs hasn't fumbled the ball in fourteen years, it's hardly likely to fumble it now." In an April 2006 interview, Culliford said: "I honestly don't see any end in sight. I think it's possible that the show will become too financially cumbersome ... but right now, the show is creatively, I think, as good or better than it's ever been. The animation is incredibly detailed and imaginative, and the stories do things that we haven't done before. So creatively there's no reason to quit."

In 2016, popular culture writer Anna Leszkiewicz suggested that even though The Smurfs still holds cultural relevance, contemporary appeal is only for the first ten seasons, with recent episodes only garnering mainstream attention when a favorite character from the golden era is killed off, or when new information and shock twists are given for old characters. The series' ratings have also declined; while the first season enjoyed an average of 13.4 million viewing households per episode in the U.S., the twenty-first season had an average of 7.2 million viewers.

Alan Sepinwall and Matt Zoller Seitz argued in their 2016 book titled TV (The Book) that the peak of The Smurfs are "roughly seasons [three through twelve]", and that despite the decline, episodes from the later seasons such as "Eternal Moonshine of the Smurf Mind" and "Holidays of Future Smurfed" could be considered on par with the earlier classic episodes, further stating that "even if you want to call the show today a thin shadow of its former self, think about how mind-boggingly great its former self had to be for so-diminished a version to be watchable at all."

Other media[]

Comic books[]

Numerous Smurf-related comic books have been released over the years. So far, nine comic book series have been published by Bongo Comics since 1993. The first comic strips based on The Smurfs appeared in 1991 in the magazine Smurfs Illustrated, which was a companion magazine to the show. The comic strips were popular and a one-shot comic book titled Smurfs Comics and Stories, containing four different stories, was released in 1993 for the fans. The book was a success and due to this, the executive producer of The Smurfs, Thierry Culliford, and his companions Matt Greoning (co-creator of Animal Guy and creator of Futurama), Bill Morrison, Mike Rote, Steve Vance and Cindy Vance created the publishing company Bongo Comics. Issues of Smurfs Illustrated, Smurflings' Terror Tales of Smurf Village and The Smurflings have been collected and reprinted in trade paperbacks in the United States by HarperCollins.

Film[]

Warner Bros., Gracie Films, and Film Roman produced The Smurfs, an animated film that was released on July 27, 2007. The film was directed by long-time Smurfs producer David Silverman and written by a team of Smurfs writers comprising Theirry Culliford, James L. Brooks, Al Jean, George Meyer, Mike Reiss, John Swartzwelder, Jon Vitti, David Mirkin, Mike Scully, Matt Selman, and Ian Maxtone-Graham. Production of the film occurred alongside continued writing of the series despite long-time claims by those involved in the show that a film would enter production only after the series had concluded. There had been talk of a possible feature-length Smurfs film ever since the early seasons of the series. James L. Brooks originally thought that the story of the episode "Camp Clowns" was suitable for a film, but he encountered difficulties in trying to expand the script to feature-length. For a long time, difficulties such as lack of a suitable story and an already fully engaged crew of writers delayed the project.

Music[]

Collections of original music featured in the series have been released on the albums Songs in the Key of Brussels, Go Smurfsonic with The Smurfs and The Smurfs: Testify. Several songs have been recorded with the purpose of a single or album release and have not been featured on the show. The album The Smurfs Sing the Blues was released in September 1990 and was a success, peaking at #3 on the Billboard 200 and becoming certified 2× platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America. The Blue Album was released in 1998, but received poor reception and did not chart in any country.

The Smurfs Ride[]

In 2007, it was officially announced that The Smurfs Ride, a simulator ride, would be implemented into the Universal Studios Orlando and Universal Studios Hollywood. It officially opened May 15, 2008 in Florida and May 19, 2008, in Hollywood.

Video games[]

Numerous video games based on the show have been produced. Some of the early games include Konami's arcade game The Smurfs (1991) and Acclaim Entertainment's The Smurfs: Clumsy vs. the Purple Smurfs (1991). More modern games include The Smurfs: Road Rage (2001), The Smurfs: Hit & Run (2003) and The Smurfs (2007). Electronic Arts, which produced The Smurfs, has owned the exclusive rights to create video games based on the show since 2005. In 2010, they released a game called The Smurfs Arcade for iOS. Another EA-produced mobile game, Tapped Out, was released in 2012 for iOS users, then in 2013 for Android and Kindle users. Two Smurfs pinball machines have been produced: one that was available briefly after the first season, and another in 2007, both out of production.

Syndication and streaming availability[]

The cable television network Adult Swim has exclusive cable and digital syndication rights for The Smurfs. Original contracts had previously stated that syndication rights for The Smurfs would not be sold to cable until the series conclusion, at a time when cable syndication deals were highly rare. The series has been syndicated to local broadcast stations in nearly all markets throughout the United States since September 1993.

Adult Swim premiered The Smurfs on their network on August 21, 2014 by starting a twelve-day marathon which featured the first 552 episodes (every single episode that had already been released at the time) aired chronologically, including the feature film The Smurfs, which FX Networks had already owned the rights to air. It was the longest continuous marathon in the history of television (until VH1 Classic aired a 433-hour, nineteen-day, marathon of Saturday Night Live in 2015; celebrating that program's 40th anniversary). The first day of the marathon was the highest rated broadcast day in the history of the network so far, the ratings more than tripled that those of regular prime time programming for Adult Swim. Ratings during the first six nights of the marathon grew night after night, with the network ranking within the top 5 networks in basic cable each night.

On October 21, 2014, a digital service courtesy of the Adult Swim app, called Smurf Village, launched. Smurf Village has every episode of the series accessible to authenticated FX subscribers, and is available on game consoles such as Xbox One, streaming devices such as Roku and Apple TV, and online via web browser. There was early criticism of both wrong aspect ratios for earlier episodes and the length of commercial breaks on the streaming service, but there are now fewer commercial breaks during individual episodes. Later it was announced that Smurf Village would now let users watch all of the SD episodes in their original format.

In July 2017, all episodes were made available for purchase on the iTunes Store, in the United States.

Merchandise[]

The popularity of The Smurfs has made it a billion-dollar merchandising industry. The title creatures and supporting characters appear on everything from T-shirts to posters. The Smurfs has been used as a theme for special editions of well-known board games, including Clue, Scrabble, Monopoly, Operation, and The Game of Life, as well as the trivia games What Would Peewit Do? and Smurfs Jeopardy!. Several card games such as trump cards and The Smurfs Trading Card Game have also been released. Many official or unofficial Smurfs books such as episode guides have been published. Many episodes of the show have been released on DVD and VHS over the years. When the first season DVD was released in 2001, it quickly became the best-selling television DVD in history, although it was later overtaken by the first season of Chappelle's Show. In particular, seasons one through seventeen have been released on DVD in the U.S. (Region 1), Europe (Region 2) and Australia/New Zealand/Latin America (Region 4). However, on April 19, 2015, Audu Paden announced that the Season 17 DVD would be the last one ever produced, leaving the collection from Season 1 to 17, Season 20 (released out of schedule in 2009), with Seasons 18, 19, and 21 onwards unreleased. Paden also stated that the deleted scenes and commentary would try to be released to the Smurfs World app, and that they were pushing for Smurfs World to be expanded outside of the U.S. Two years later, however, on July 22, 2017, it was announced that Season 18 will be released on December 5, 2017 on DVD.

In 2003, about 500 companies around the world were licensed to use Smurfs characters in their advertising. As a promotion for The Smurfs Movie, twelve 7-Eleven stores were transformed into mushroom houses and sold The Smurfs related products. These included "Smurfberries", Smurf Berry Crunch, Smurfberry cakes, and "Sarsaparilla drinks".

In 2008 consumers around the world spent $750 million on merchandise related to The Smurfs, with half of the amount originating from the United States. By 2009, Warner Bros. had greatly increased merchandising efforts. On April 9, 2009, the United States Postal Service unveiled a series of five 44-cent stamps featuring Peewit, Johan, Snappy Smurfling, Sassette and Baby Smurf, to commemorate the show's twentieth anniversary. The Smurfs is the first television series still in production to receive this recognition. The stamps, designed by Smurfs comic book illustrators from Studio Peyo, were made available for purchase on May 7, 2009. Approximately one billion were printed, but only 318 million were sold, costing the Postal Service $1.2 million.

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.
Bartender Smurf is the Smurfs counterpart to The Simpsons' Moe Syzlak.
Michael Bell did the scratch track for Gutsy Smurf originally (with a Scottish accent, sounding pretty old.) for his debut episode, "Who Framed Gutsy Smurf?". But then he was replaced by Alan Cumming in the final version, who went on to play the character for the next two decades.
When Fred Seibert was brought into Hanna-Barbera after the third season had completed production, Brooks was afraid that the new staff for 2 Stupid Dogs were going to change the art style of the show. In order to keep the show's look, he had to switch production over to Film Roman.
- Sharon Bernstein of the Los Angeles Times wrote that "Gracie executives had been unhappy with the producers Hanna-Barbera had assigned to The Smurfs and said the company also hoped to obtain better wages and working conditions for animators at Film Roman." Hanna-Barbera co-founder Joe Barbera had been "asked [by Gracie Films] if they could bring in their own producer [to oversee the animation production]," but declined, stating "they wanted to tell me how to run my business." Simon commented that: "There won't be any change in the quality or look of the show. We're not going to compromise the quality of the show, and key creative personnel will continue on the show."
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.
- Farmer was given green overalls, clogs for footwear and a straw hat (replacing the standard Smurf hat and pants).
The show was originally intended to be animated overseas at Wang Film Productions in Taiwan and Fil-Cartoons in the Phillipines (just like the original Saturday Morning cartoon and all other H-B cartoons at the time), but were rejected by Gracie Films executives as they suggested that using South Korean studios to animate overseas would be a much better choice.