The Smurfs (originally broadcast as Smurfs and syndicated as Smurfs' Adventures) is an animated sitcom 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 (who also served as story supervisor of this adaptation) and aired for 256 episodes with a total of 417 stories, excluding three cliffhangers and seven specials. It was the longest-running Saturday morning animated series in the United States until Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles surpassed it in 1996 with its tenth season.

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.

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 in an hour-long timeslot. The series became a major success for the network (one of the few hits to emerge from the Silverman era) 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 (it also far exceeded the typical 65-episode run of a first-run syndicated show of the era). 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 (at the same time NBC had a hit with the prime time series Quantum Leap which also dealt with time travel). 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. In addition, Smurfs creator Peyo ended further collaborations between The Smurfs and Hanna Barbara in protest to their decision to use the Smurfs in the April 1990 special Cartoon All Stars to the Rescue without his permission; he would later die in December 1992. 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.

Episodes

Voice cast and characters

Charlie Adler as Nat Smurfling, Glut (in "Clumsy's Cloud"), Grogg (in "The Smurfs That Time Forgot") Jack Angel as Enchanter Homnibus, Additional voices Marlene Aragon as Additional voices Bob Arbogast as Additional voices Lewis Arquette as Additional voices René Auberjonois as Additional voices Jered Barclay as Additional voices Bernard Behrens as Additional voices Michael Bell as Grouchy Smurf, Handy Smurf, Lazy Smurf, Johan, Painter Smurf (in "The Hundredth Smurf"), Gargamel (Season 9), Additional voices Gregg Berger as Additional voices Joe Besser as Cupid Lucille Bliss as Smurfette Susan Blu as Nanny Smurf, Pansy Sorrell Booke as Additional voices Peter Brooks as Additional voices Greg Burson as Additional voices Ruth Buzzi as Additional voices William Callaway as Clumsy Smurf, Painter Smurf, Don Smurfo, Additional voices Joey Camen as Natural Smurf (adult form) Hamilton Camp as Greedy Smurf, Harmony Smurf, Woody, Additional voices Roger C. Carmel as Additional voices Victoria Carroll as Additional voices Mary Jo Catlett as Madame Hildegarde (in "Stop and Go Smurfs") William Christopher as Angel Smurf Philip L. Clarke as Additional voices Selette Cole as Additional voices Townsend Coleman as Additional voices Henry Corden as Grako (in "The Magic Fountain") Regis Cordic as Additional voices Peter Cullen as Zeus (in "The Smurf Odyssey"), Gluttonous the Gourmet (in "A Fish Called Snappy"), Additional voices Brian Cummings as Additional voices Jim Cummings as the Sultan of Sweets (in "Sky High Surprise") Keene Curtis as Lord Balthazar Jennifer Darling as Princess Sabina, Additional voices Leo De Lyon as Additional voices Barry Dennen as Additional voices Bronwen Denton-Davis as Additional voices Patti Deutsch as Bignose, Additional voices Walker Edmiston as Additional voices Marshall Efron as Sloppy Smurf Paul Eiding as Additional voices Richard Erdman as Additional voices Bernard Erhard as Timber Smurf June Foray as Jokey Smurf, Mother Nature, Gargamel’s mother, Additional voices Pat Fraley as Tuffy Smurf, Additional voices Teresa Ganzel as Additional voices Linda Gary as Dame Barbara, Chlorhydris (all episodes except the special "My Smurfy Valentine") Dick Gautier as Wooly Smurf Joan Gerber as Priscilla (in "The Tear of a Smurf"), Gowagga Puppet (in "Snappy's Puppet"), Additional voices Henry Gibson as Additional voices Ed Gilbert as Additional voices Patty Glick as Additional voices Danny Goldman as Brainy Smurf Barry Gordon as the Gamemaster (in "The Grouchiest Game in Town") Joy Grdnic as Additional voices Ernest Harada as Additional voices Phil Hartman as Additional voices Billie Hayes as Drusilla (in "Chlorhydris’s Lost Love") Bob Holt as the Good King Jerry Houser as Ripple (in "The Smurflings' Unsmurfy Friend"), Tebuli the Genie (in "The Clumsy Genie"), Additional voices John Ingle as Additional voices Robert Ito as Additional voices Tony Jay as Merlin (in "The Smurfs of the Round Table") Arte Johnson as Devil Smurf Marvin Kaplan as Gourdy (in "Farmer's Genii", "The Tallest Smurf", and "Master Scruple") Zale Kessler as Additional voices Aron Kincaid as Additional voices Kip King as Tailor Smurf Paul Kirby as Additional voices Clyde Kusatsu as Additional voices Robbie Lee as Additional voices Ruta Lee as Evelyn (in "Gargamel's Sweetheart"), Morgan le Fay (in "The Smurfs of the Round Table") Katie Leigh as Denisa (in "A Smurf for Denisa", "Denisa's Greedy Doll", and "Denisa's Slumber Party") Michael Lembeck as Additional voices Marilyn Lightstone as Additional voices Keye Luke as Additional voices Allan Lurie as Additional voices Jim MacGeorge as Additional voices Norma MacMillan as Brenda (in "The Littlest Witch") Tress MacNeille as Simon (in "The Littlest Giant"), Sylvia (in "The Smurf Odyssey"), Additional voices Patty Maloney as Blue Eyes (in "The Little Orange Horse with the Gold Shoes" and "Blue Eyes Returns") Danny Mann as Additional voices Kenneth Mars as King Bullrush, Julius Geezer (in "Gnoman Holiday"), Additional voices Mona Marshall as Weepy Smurf, Flowerbell (in "Papa's Wedding Day"), Andria (in "Wedding Bells for Gargamel") Amanda McBroom as Chlorhydris (in the special "My Smurfy Valentine"), Additional voices Chuck McCann as Additional voices Julie McWhirter as Baby Smurf, Sassette Smurfling Allan Melvin as Dufus the Giant (in "Gargamel's Giant"), Additional voices Don Messick as Papa Smurf, Azrael, Dreamy Smurf, Chitter the Squirrel, Sickly Smurf, Sweepy Smurf, Additional voices Sidney Miller as Additional voices Larry Moss as Additional voices Janice Motoike as Additional voices Pat Musick as Snappy Smurfling Frank Nelson as Nosey Smurf, Additional voices Noelle North as Slouchy Smurfling Alan Oppenheimer as Vanity Smurf, Father Time, Additional voices Patricia Parris as Acorn Rob Paulsen as Marco Smurf, Additional voices Clare Peck as Additional voices Diane Pershing as Additional voices Brock Peters as the Ambassador of Zad (in "The Moor’s Baby") Patrick Pinney as Additional voices Henry Polic II as Tracker Smurf, Keswick (in "Legendary Smurfs"), Additional voices Philip Proctor as King Gerard Clive Revill as Additional voices Robert Ridgely as Additional voices Neil Ross as Additional voices Joseph Ruskin as Additional voices Will Ryan as Slime the Wartmonger, Anton (in "Legendary Smurfs") Michael Rye as Morlock (in "The Prince and the Hopper" and "Gargamel's New Job"), Additional voices Bob Sarlatte as Additional voices Ronnie Schell as Pushover Smurf, Reporter Smurf, Jokey Smurf (in "The Smurfette" and "Vanity Fare"), Dreamy Smurf (in "The Astrosmurf"), Additional Voices Marilyn Schreffler as Additional voices Avery Schreiber as Additional voices Franklin Seales as Additional voices Susan Silo as Petaluma (in "Smurfette's Flower"), Additional voices Hal Smith as Sludge the Wartmonger, Dismal Boggs (in "The Secret of Shadow Swamp"), Additional voices Kath Soucie as Adella (in "Stop and Go Smurfs"), Ali Baby (in "Sky High Surprise"), Additional voices John Stephenson as the Treasure Hunter Imp and the Spirit of the Ancient Trolls (in "Smurfette's Dancing Shoes"), Malakov (in "Dancing Bear" and "I Was a Brainy Weresmurf"), Additional voices Kris Erik Stevens as Additional voices Alexandra Stoddart as Additional voices Andre Stojka as Additional voices Dee Stratton as Additional voices George Takei as Additional voices Mark L. Taylor as Additional voices Russi Taylor as Smoogle, Brenda (in "Scruple's Sweetheart"), Additional voices Susan Tolsky as Additional voices Fred Travalena as Additional voices Marcelo Tubert as Additional voices Brenda Vaccaro as Scruple, Architect Smurf Janet Waldo as Hogatha Ray Walston as Additional voices Peggy Walton-Walker as Additional voices B. J. Ward as Hermes (in "The Smurf Odyssey"), Additional voices Peggy Webber as Elderberry Lennie Weinrib as Bigmouth Frank Welker as Hefty Smurf, Clockwork Smurf, Peewit, Poet Smurf, Puppy, Wild Smurf, Nemesis, Sandman, Additional voices Paul Winchell as Gargamel (Season 1–8), Flighty Smurf, Additional voices Jonathan Winters as Grandpa Smurf Francine Witkin as Lady Luck (in "Bad Luck Smurfs") Anderson Wong as Additional voices Michael Wong as Additional voices Alan Young as Farmer Smurf, Miner Smurf, Scaredy Smurf, Milton McKilty (in "Phantom Bagpiper"), Additional voices

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:

Isaac Albéniz, Suite española, "Asturias" Johann Sebastian Bach, Brandenburg Concerto No. 2, BWV 1047, Allegro moderato Johann Sebastian Bach, Concerto for harpsichord, strings & continuo No. 5, BWV 1056, Arioso. Largo Johann Sebastian Bach, Orchestral Suite No. 3, BWV 1068, Gavotte Ludwig van Beethoven, Piano Sonata No. 8 (Pathétique), first movement Ludwig van Beethoven, Piano Sonata No. 14 (Moonlight), third movement