| Alvin and the Chipmunks | |
|---|---|
| Format | Animated series |
| Created by | Ross Bagdasarian, Sr. (characters) |
| Voices of | Ross Bagdasarian, Jr. Janice Karman Dody Goodman Thomas H. Watkins Frank Welker |
| Composer(s) | Thomas Chase Stephen Rucker |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Language(s) | English |
| No. of episodes | 102 (168 distinct segments; usually 2 per episode) + 7 specials, 2 of which were syndicated as regular episodes + 6 movies. (List of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Running time | Approx 30 minutes (11 minutes per segment) |
| Production company(s) | Bagdasarian Productions Ruby-Spears Enterprises (1983-87) Murakami-Wolf-Swenson (1988, 11 episodes) DiC Enterprises (1988-90) Lorimar (Distributor, 1983-1986) Lorimar-Telepictures (Distributor, 1986-1989) Warner Bros. Television Distribution (Distributor, 1989-present) |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | NBC[1][2] |
| Original airing |
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Alvin and the Chipmunks is an American animated television series featuring The Chipmunks, produced by Bagdasarian Productions in association with Ruby-Spears Enterprises from 1983–87, and DIC Entertainment from 1988-90.
It aired from 1983 to 1990 on NBC and is the follow-up to the original 1961–62 series, The Alvin Show. The show introduced The Chipettes, three female Chipmunks with their own human caretaker, Miss Beatrice Miller (who joined the cast in 1986). In 1988, the show switched production companies to DiC Enterprises (with 11 additional episodes produced by Murakami-Wolf-Swenson) and was renamed just The Chipmunks.
In 1987, during the show's fifth season, the Chipmunks' first animated feature film, The Chipmunk Adventure, was released to theaters by The Samuel Goldwyn Company. The film was directed by Janice Karman and featured the Chipmunks and Chipettes in a contest traveling around the world. In its eighth and final season, the show again switched titles to The Chipmunks Go to the Movies. Each episode was a spoof of a Hollywood film like Back to the Future or King Kong. Several television specials featuring the characters were also released.[3] In 1990, the special Rockin' Through the Decades was produced. That year, the Chipmunks also teamed up with other well-known cartoon characters (such as Bugs Bunny and Garfield) for the drug abuse-prevention special Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue.
From 1993 to 2001 Cartoon Network aired the 65-episode syndication package of the series. From 1995 to 1997, Nickelodeon aired the show. It is still airing in Canada on Teletoon Retro.
Contents |
The series made its debut on September 17, 1983 on NBC, originally under the name Alvin and The Chipmunks, and was animated by Ruby-Spears Productions. Beginning with the 1988-89 season, the series was renamed to simply The Chipmunks, and production switched to DiC Enterprises for the remainder of the series' run (with the exception of five episodes produced for the syndication package by Murakami-Wolf-Swenson, which aired on NBC in fall 1988 for reasons currently unknown - this was not due to the 1988 Writers Guild of America Strike, which did not affect any animated series). For its final season in 1990, the series was renamed again, this time, The Chipmunks Go to the Movies, as all episodes in this season were spoofs of popular Hollywood movies.
The series went into syndication in the fall of 1988 under the original Alvin and The Chipmunks title, distributed by Lorimar-Telepictures (and later Warner Bros. Television after Warner Communications' purchase of Lorimar, Warner Bros. would later buy Ruby-Spears in 1996). The package contained all 52 episodes produced by Ruby-Spears (#901-952), as well as the Valentine's and Reunion specials. To round the package out to the common-practice syndication package length of 65 episodes (5 days a week for 13 weeks, allowing for exactly four cycles a year), an additional 11 episodes were produced specifically for the package by Murakami-Wolf-Swenson. In the syndication order, these episodes followed the 54 Ruby-Spears shows; in the fall 1988 cycle (September 12-December 9), they aired from November 25-December 9. (5 of these episodes would air first on NBC in September-October, for reasons unknown.)
Also, in an attempt to make way for more commercials, most of, if not all of the syndicated reruns of the show were not only edited, but also time compressed, thus resulting in the episodes running faster than the way they originally ran. All episodes of the show that have been released on VHS and DVD thus far, have the original proper speed reinstated. The title cards that opened each episode were intact on local syndication, and on Nickelodeon, but were completely absent on Cartoon Network. Cartoon Network kept Alvin's introductions from the first season that featured clips from today's episode(s), which were shown on NBC but not included in syndication or on Nickelodeon. The introductions originally aired before the opening credits on NBC, but were shown after on Cartoon Network. The initial syndication run in 1988 added commercial bumpers that were voiced by both Alvin and Dave Seville, as well as voiceovers for the titlecards on the Ruby Spears episodes (also voiced by Alvin and Dave). These bumpers and voiceovers were also used when the show aired on Nickelodeon from 1995-1997. A variation of the 1987 Bagdasarian Productions logo, but with the words "Produced by" instead of "Produced in association with", replaced the earlier logos that were used from 1983-1987.
Junior Channel in Germany showed all the episodes from all 8 seasons (including both Valentine's and Reunion specials), in their original speed, and with all the scenes and original closing logos intact.
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