The Smurfs (1981 TV series)


The Smurfs is an animated fantasy-comedy children's television series that originally aired on NBC from September 12, 1981 to December 2, 1989. Produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions, it is based on the Belgian comic series of the same name, created by Belgian cartoonist Peyo and aired for 256 episodes with a total of 417 stories, excluding three cliffhangers and seven specials.
WWW Official Site

History

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 the Saturday-morning cartoon lineup.
The Smurfs, produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions in association with SEPP International S.A. and Lafig S.A., debuted on NBC at 8:30 AM 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 seven 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.
By 1989, the show was in its ninth season and had reached the 200-episode threshold, an extreme rarity when most cartoons were gone after two seasons and 22 episodes. In an effort to come up with new ideas to keep the show fresh, NBC changed the format of the show, taking some of the Smurfs out of the forest and omitting the Smurf Village. These changes were adopted to a lost-in-time format similar to The Time Tunnel. The show continued through the end of the season, airing the last original episode 2 December 1989 on NBC, after a decade of success, NBC later cancelled The Smurfs along with other Saturday-morning cartoons to make way for another block of live-action programming on 9 April 1990. The Smurfs had its last re-run on NBC on 25 August 1990. The total number of individual eleven minute and twenty-two minute cartoons in the entire series run came to 417.

Voice cast and characters

Production

Animation work was done in-house by Hanna-Barbera Productions for the first 5 seasons, production work was done by Wang Film Productions/Cuckoo's Nest Studios for seasons 6-7 and, only for Season 7, by Toei Animation.

Use of classical music

The background music for The Smurfs was composed by Hoyt Curtin, Hanna-Barbera's primary musical director, but Curtin's work on the series is noted for its frequent use of classical music as themes or leitmotifs. Notable classical works excerpted in The Smurfs include:

Syndication

A half-hour version for syndication was broadcast under the title Smurfs' Adventures since 1986. Although each season had its own unique opening song during the original broadcast, syndicated airings usually use a shortened version of the season 4 opening. The series aired on Cartoon Network in the past and currently on Boomerang. On August 7, 2023, the series began airing on Discovery Family, and on MeTV Toons when it launched on June 25, 2024.

Home media

Region 1

Warner Home Video released the complete first season on DVD in a two-volume set in 2008. Despite high sales of both sets, no further seasons have been released. Warner Home Video later released a series of three single-disc releases of The Smurfs in 2009, each containing five episodes from the second season. A two-disc DVD was set to be released in 2011 to tie into the theatrical film with 10 episodes which would be culled from the entire run of the series, instead, it included episodes from the second season. Another DVD with both Smurfs Christmas specials was released later that year. As of 2026, it is still unknown if Warner Archive will release the rest of the show's complete seasons on blu-ray.
In 2020, HBO Max released seasons one to four on its online streaming platform. The available seasons are presented in 1080p high definition.

Region 2

Fabulous Films and Arrow Films have released the first five seasons on DVD in the UK.
The company has also released the film The Smurfs and the Magic Flute on Blu-ray and DVD, as well as several compilation DVDs, containing themed specials from the show.
DVD nameEp #Release date
Complete 1st Season275 July 2010
Complete 2nd Season246 September 2010
Complete 3rd Season311 July 2013
Complete 4th Season281 July 2013
Complete 5th Season251 July 2013
The Complete Seasons 1–51351 December 2014
The Smurfs – Four Smurf-tastic Episodes430 July 2011
The Smurfs and the Magic Flute 011 October 2011
The Smurfs: 'Tis the Season to Be Smurfy45 November 2011
The Smurfs: My Smurfy Valentine48 January 2012
The Smurfs Springtime Special617 March 2012
The Smurfs: The Smurfic Games74 June 2012
The Smurfs Halloween Special61 October 2012
The Smurfs: Love, Smurfette61 July 2013
The Smurfs: Papa Smurf Rocks!61 July 2013
The Smurfs: World Cup Carnival523 June 2014

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment has announced the release of the full Series in 9 Season Sets on DVD in Germany, with German sound only, beginning in August 2011.
DVD nameEp #Release date
Die komplette erste Staffel274 August 2011
Die komplette zweite Staffel244 August 2011
Die komplette dritte Staffel3114 October 2011
Die komplette vierte Staffel2814 October 2011
Die komplette fünfte Staffel2516 August 2012
Die komplette sechste Staffel3916 August 2012
Die komplette siebte Staffel4025 July 2013
Die komplette achte Staffel16 25 July 2013
Die komplette neunte Staffel2625 July 2013
Collector's Edition 2724 July 2013

Region 4

Magna Home Entertainment has released various best-of volume collections on DVD.
  • The Smurfs and the Magic Flute has been released, but in a new 'Original Collector's Edition' with new packaging released on 2 September 2011.
  • The Smurfs – Time Travellers was released on 5 November 2008.
  • The Smurfs – Smurfette Collection was released on 1 September 2009.
  • The Smurfs – Papa Smurf Collection was released on 4 November 2009.
  • The Smurfs – Favourites Collection was released on 29 June 2010.
  • The Smurfs – Just Smurfy 1 was released on 3 November 2010.
  • The Smurfs – Just Smurfy 2 was released on 3 November 2010.
  • The Smurfs – Just Smurfy 3 was released on 1 December 2010.
  • The Smurfs – Just Smurfy 4 was released on 2 March 2011.
  • The Smurfs – Complete Season 1 and The Smurfs – Complete Season 2 were released on 24 August 2011.
  • The Smurfs – Complete Season 3 and The Smurfs – Complete Season 4 were released on 5 October 2011.
  • The Smurfs – Complete Season 5 was released on 1 December 2011.
  • The Smurfs – Complete Season 6 was released on 4 January 2012.
  • The Smurfs – Complete Season 7, The Smurfs – Complete Season 8 were released on 1 August 2013.
  • The Smurfs – Complete Season 9 was released on 14 August 2013.
  • The Smurfs – Ultimate Collection 1: Limited Edition – Seasons 1–5 released on 24 August 2011.
  • The Smurfs – Ultimate Collection 2: Limited Edition – Seasons 6–9 released on 2 November 2011.

In popular culture

  • The animated versions of Papa Smurf and Brainy Smurf were featured in Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue. Hefty Smurf also makes a brief cameo in the beginning of the movie with the other Smurfs, his only line being, "Who smurfed the bell?" Smurfette is shown on the promotional poster and VHS cover artwork, but was not seen in the special. Harmony Smurf made a small cameo as the Smurfs comic book was flipping through pages.
  • Gargamel and Azrael made guest appearances on Family Guy in 2009.
  • The Smurfs were often parodied in Robot Chicken where Danny Goldman reprises his role of Brainy Smurf, while Dan Milano voiced Papa Smurf and Seth Green voiced Gargamel.
  • In the Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law episode "Guitar Control", a tank can be seen destroying a Smurf house.
  • In the 2001 Jake Gyllenhaal movie Donnie Darko, the titular character is seen on-screen giving an exposition regarding the origin of Smurfette to his two friends.

2021 reboot

In 2017, the Belgian companies IMPS and Dupuis Audiovisuel began production on an updated Smurfs series with CG animation, similar to Smurfs: The Lost Village. The series made its world premiere, on RTBF's OUFtivi channel in Belgium, on 18 April 2021. It premiered on Nickelodeon and Nicktoons in September 2021 in the U.S., with other international markets following soon.