The Telebugs
The Telebugs is a cartoon from the 1980s about the adventures of three robots with televisions for heads.[1]
| The Telebugs | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Animation |
| Created by | John M. Mills Elphin Lloyd-Jones |
| Voices of | Ron Moody Suzy Westerby |
| Music by | Andy Murray |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Original language(s) | English |
| No. of series | 3 |
| No. of episodes | 86 |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) | Anna Home |
| Producer(s) | Telemagination Telebug Enterprises |
| Running time | 5 mins |
| Production company(s) | Television South HIT Entertainment |
| Release | |
| Original network | ITV |
| Original release | 6 January 1986 – 15 December 1987 |
Overview
The robots' names are C.H.I.P. (Coordinated Hexadecimal Information Processor), S.A.M.A.N.T.H.A. (Solar Activated Micro Automated Non-inTerference Hearing Apparatus) and B.U.G. (Binary Unmanned Gamma camera) - who were accompanied by a flying video pack called M.I.C. (Mobile Independent Camera). They were invented by Professor Brainstrain (who is also known as Pwofessor Bwainstwain, owing to his unfortunate speech impediment) to stop enemies such as Baron Bullybyte, Magna, Angel Brain, Z.U.D.O (Zero-failure Universal Data Optimizer) Bug and Arcadia, whilst working as reporters for a TV executive named Mr McStarch.[1]
A total of 3 seasons and 86 episodes were produced by Telemagination for Telebug Enterprises and broadcast on Children's ITV in the United Kingdom from 1986–1987.
It was the very first television series made and produced by Telemagination (the company later went onto make several other animated series for children such as The Animals of Farthing Wood, Noah's Island and The Cramp Twins).
It also aired on ABC TV in Australia from 6 July 1988 to 13 December 1991, on RTB in Brunei, on TV1 in Malaysia, on Italia 1 in Italy, on Saudi 2 in Saudi Arabia, on M-Net in South Africa and on TVNZ 2 in New Zealand.
The series was also noted for its closing theme song. An extended version of the opening theme had been used at the end of season 1. However, in season 2 the short song "I Have a Heart", written by American singer, pianist and songwriter Mort Shuman (who has lived in both the UK and France), sung by Suzy Westerby (as Samantha), and played out over a closing credit sequence featuring a still of Chip, Samantha and Bug, with Mic's face briefly appearing at the closeout, was used as the closing theme. This version was the best-known theme. An extended version of "I Have A Heart", sung by American disco singer George McCrae and played out over a sequence showing Chip, Samantha and Bug orbiting the earth and performing pirouettes, was used for the end of the original transmissions of the third, and final, season. However, as this version was almost three minutes long, it was considered too lengthy for such a short cartoon, and was replaced with the same extended version of the opening theme used at the end of season 1 for all future repeats of season 3.
The series also aired on GBC TV in Gibraltar, where it regularly served as a filler during children's programming in the 6:30 - 7:30pm slot during the mid to late 1980s.
The series was also broadcast on cable and satellite television on The Children's Channel.
In the 1990s the show was sold to HIT Entertainment but this time, the name was changed to The Gigglebytes. The series with the name change was also broadcast in Singapore on Prime 12 as part of their lineup of children's programming Kidz Blitz.
Voice cast
Transmission guide
Series 1
| UK Broadcast Date | Title |
|---|---|
| 06.01.1986 | Angel Brain (1) |
| 07.01.1986 | Apple Hi (2) |
| 08.01.1986 | Fair Play (3) |
| 09.01.1986 | Jupiter Moon (4) |
| 10.01.1986 | Telebugs in Danger (5) |
| 13.01.1986 | Zudo Bug (6) |
| 14.01.1986 | Signal Seizure (7) |
| 15.01.1986 | Submarine Snack (8) |
| 16.01.1986 | Oil Strike (9) |
| 17.01.1986 | Digger Dumped (10) |
| 20.01.1986 | Hijack Hacker (11) |
| 21.01.1986 | Zap Code (12) |
| 22.01.1986 | Bank Byte (13) |
| 23.01.1986 | City Stopper (14) |
| 24.01.1986 | The Telebugs Strike Back (15) |
| 27.01.1986 | Power Pirate (16) |
| 28.01.1986 | Robocars (17) |
| 29.01.1986 | Magnetic Madness (18) |
| 30.01.1986 | Flood (19) |
| 31.01.1986 | Flight Plan (20) |
| 03.02.1986 | Return of Zudo (21) |
| 04.02.1986 | TV Terror (22) |
| 05.02.1986 | Complex Confusion (23) |
| 06.02.1986 | Enter the Professor (24) |
| 07.02.1986 | Lethal Lift Off (25) |
| 10.02.1986 | Professor in Danger (26) |
Series 2
| UK Broadcast Date | Title |
|---|---|
| 10.11.1986 | Star Venture (1) |
| 11.11.1986 | Parsec Pirates (2) |
| 12.11.1986 | Deep Space Decoy (3) |
| 13.11.1986 | Stardon De–Programme (4) |
| 14.11.1986 | Angel Overload (5) |
| 17.11.1986 | The Binods (6) |
| 18.11.1986 | Scrambling Ray (7) |
| 19.11.1986 | Cave Knaves (8) |
| 20.11.1986 | Scrambled Samantha (9) |
| 21.11.1986 | Binod Rebound (10) |
| 24.11.1986 | Space Age Snooker (11) |
| 25.11.1986 | Culture Crazy (12) |
| 26.11.1986 | Arcadia Goes West (13) |
| 27.11.1986 | Panel Panic (14) |
| 28.11.1986 | Lifo Makes Friends (15) |
| 01.12.1986 | Cosmic Castaway (16) |
| 02.12.1986 | Lebab Goes Ape (17) |
| 03.12.1986 | Lebab Rocks the Moon (18) |
| 04.12.1986 | Rescue (19) |
| 05.12.1986 | Death Station Zudo (20) |
| 08.12.1986 | Shadow of the Past (21) |
| 09.12.1986 | Castle Cyphernal (22) |
| 10.12.1986 | Pit of Peril (23) |
| 11.12.1986 | The Rose of Infinity (24) |
| 12.12.1986 | Lifo to the Rescue (25) |
| 15.12.1986 | The Gate of Swords (26) |
| 16.12.1986 | The Battle Of The Air (27) |
| 17.12.1986 | Ordeal by Fire (28) |
| 18.12.1986 | The Lake and the Key (29) |
| 19.12.1986 | The Shrinking Cage (30) |
| 05.01.1987 | Time Shift (31) |
| 06.01.1987 | Roman Doom (32) |
| 07.01.1987 | The Two Caesars (33) |
| 08.01.1987 | Telebugs in Rome (34) |
| 09.01.1987 | All Hail Bug (35) |
| 12.01.1987 | Bait for the Badz (36) |
| 13.01.1987 | Digit Digger (37) |
| 14.01.1987 | Peanut Icicles (38) |
| 15.01.1987 | Brain Lock (39) |
| 16.01.1987 | Flame Out (40) |
Series 3
| UK Broadcast Date | Title |
|---|---|
| 17.11.1987 | Pyramids Pyrotechnics (1) |
| 18.11.1987 | Volcano Adventure (2) |
| 19.11.1987 | Magic Megaliths (3) |
| 20.11.1987 | Temple of the Sun (4) |
| 23.11.1987 | Inter-terrain Maze (5) |
| 24.11.1987 | Holographic Holiday (6) |
| 25.11.1987 | Monster Mash (7) |
| 26.11.1987 | Castle Creepers (8) |
| 27.11.1987 | Frankenheim's Monsters (9) |
| 30.11.1987 | Laser Blases (10) |
| 01.12.1987 | The Palace of Science (11) |
| 02.12.1987 | Colossus (12) |
| 03.12.1987 | Zombie Profs (13) |
| 04.12.1987 | Robot Rampage (14) |
| 07.12.1987 | The Sphere (15) |
| 08.12.1987 | Telesonic Rock (16) |
| 09.12.1987 | Digger Decoy (17) |
| 10.12.1987 | The Tea Party (18) |
| 11.12.1987 | Disarray (19) |
| 15.12.1987 | Mulch to the Rescue (20) |
References
External links
- The Telebugs on IMDb