The Toothbrush Family
The Toothbrush Family is a 1977 Australian children's animated television series featuring a group of anthropomorphic toiletry products.
Originally conceived by Marcia Hatfield of Australia as her son refused to brush his teeth,[1] the Toothbrush Family expanded to include two international television shows, DVDs, CDs, videos, audio cassettes, publications, EP and LP record series.
They are commonly remembered from the first series, where they came to life at night when the moon shone into the bathroom.
The main characters in the family were mother Tess, father Tom, the kids - Tina and Toby - and Gramps. Also featured were other bathroom objects: Flash Fluoride, the toothpaste, Hot Rod Harry the electric toothbrush (portrayed as having wheels and a love of speed,) Cecily Comb, Bertie Brush, Nev Nailbrush and Susie Sponge.
The episodes were written by Marcia Hatfield, screenplays by Al Guest and Jean Mathieson, and they were produced by Rainbow Animation.
The series has also been shown on ABC Kids in Australia, Cartoon Network in United Kingdom and Ireland, TV Tokyo in Japan, YTV in Canada, Italia 1 in Italy, Spacetoon in Indonesia, and Al-Majd Kids Channel in Saudi Arabia.
The show later returned for a second series in 1998 (which was later doubled with another animated Ketchup: Cats Who Cook) and focused on two new characters Molly and Max, along with three other characters, Susie Sponge, Flash Fluoride the toothpaste, and Countess de Comb. The theme song was sung by Kurt Elling.
It was written by John Patterson, produced by Ron Saunders, and directed by Craig Handley[2] and produced by Southern Star Entertainment, Film Australia and Shanghai Animation Film Studio in association with Raymark Television.
A fan page exists on Facebook[3]