The Upstairs Downstairs Bears

The Upstairs Downstairs Bears is a children's stop-motion animated series. Produced by Scottish Television Enterprises and Canada's Cinar in co-production with Egmont Imagination in Denmark, in association with Imagination Production and FilmFair Animation, it is based on the eponymous series of books by the show's creator Carol Lawson. The series was broadcast on CITV in the United Kingdom and Teletoon in Canada. It consists of a single season of 13 half-hour episodes, or 26 shorts.

Premise

The show is about two families of teddy bears who live in an Edwardian townhouse, and emphasizes the importance of sharing for the preschool audience.

Voice cast

Sonja Ball as Henrietta Bosworth
Kathleen Flaherty as Mrs. Bumble
Oliver Grainger as Henry Bosworth
Harry Hill as Barker
Emma Isherwood as Polly Bumble
Sally Isherwood as Alice Bosworth
Michael Lamport as Freddy

Production

Illustrator and teddy bear collector Carol Lawson was reportedly inspired to create the franchise when she came across "a 'downstairs' bear dressed as a maid". It follows in the vein of the similarly-titled 1971 ITV drama Upstairs, Downstairs, which also features the stories of two families living together under one townhouse roof.
Production of the series began in late 1998, with an anticipated budget of US$3 million. By early 2000, this had increased to US$3.7 million, similar to that of comparable children's television. The cost per episode was $430,000 as of October that year.
Egmont Imagination headquarters in Denmark handled construction of the puppets and backgrounds, which were then sent to the FilmFair studio in London for filming.

Broadcast

The Upstairs Downstairs Bears was first broadcast in English on CITV in the United Kingdom on April 9, 2001. On Teletoon in Canada, it originally aired from September 3, 2001 to December 7, 2001. In the United States, it was broadcast on Smile.
On the French-language Canadian channel Télétoon, it was aired as Les oursons du square Théodore. Internationally, it was also seen on Minimax in Hungary, and Hop! Channel in Israel.
Czech Television's ČT Déčko has made the full series available for digital streaming.

Reception

Toonhound had a positive impression of the series, stating: "With its period set details, golden brown shades and soft, sepia light this little show evokes just the right Edwardian atmosphere..."