''Here's Humphrey'' was an Australian

children's television series Children's television series (or children's television shows) are television programs designed for children, normally scheduled for broadcast during the morning and afternoon when children are awake. They can sometimes run during the early evenin ...

produced by Banksia Productions for the

Nine Network The Nine Network (stylised 9Network, commonly known as Channel Nine or simply Nine) is an Australian commercial free-to-air television network. It is owned by parent company Nine Entertainment and is one of five main free-to-air television netw ...

, which first aired on 24 May 1965 and last went to air in 2009. It features an

anthropomorphic Anthropomorphism is the attribution of human traits, emotions, or intentions to non-human entities. It is considered to be an innate tendency of human psychology. Personification is the related attribution of human form and characteristics t ...

brown bear character (a person in a costume} known as

Humphrey B. Bear ''Humphrey B. Bear'' is a fictional character first created in an Australian children's television series called ''Here's Humphrey'', which first went to air in 1965. Its fictional character namesake is an icon of Australian children's televis ...

, and was produced in

Adelaide Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...

. In September 2013, community station,

West TV West TV (WTV, call-sign CTW32) was a free-to-air community television station that began broadcasting in standard-definition digital format on logical channel 44 in Perth, Western Australia at 10 am on 10 April 2010.https://www.facebook.com/ ...

, began airing repeats of ''Here's Humphrey'' in Perth. The character still exists, owned by Ozpix Entertainment as of 2020. ''Here's Humphrey'' became one of the most successful programs for preschoolers in Australia, was sold internationally, and is one of the longest-running children's television programs in the world. The program received multiple Logie Television Awards.

Format

The series features

brown bear The brown bear (''Ursus arctos'') is a large bear species found across Eurasia and North America. In North America, the populations of brown bears are called grizzly bears, while the subspecies that inhabits the Kodiak Islands of Alaska is kno ...

character known as

, who is mute. Set in a magical forest, Humphrey is paired with a human presenter, who narrates their adventures. The series takes place in Humphrey's tree house, where he partakes in magical adventures. One of the central ideas presented in the show is the importance of taking part and not always being successful at everything.

Cast

Presenters

Patsy Biscoe Patsy Biscoe (born 21 March 1946) is an Australian children's television personality, singer and guitarist. She regularly appeared on children's national television shows, ''Here's Humphrey'' and ''Fat Cat and Friends''. She has released many ...

(1970) * Ian Fairweather (1967) * Martin Portus * Heidi Greig (1988-1992) * David Sadler (1988-1992) * Terry Webb (1988-1992) * Ann Carter (1988-1992) * Joni Combe (daughter of singer-songwriter

Peter Combe Peter Charles Combe OAM (; born 20 October 1948) is an Australian children's entertainer and musician. At the ARIA Music Awards he has won three ARIA Awards for Best Children's Album, for ''Toffee Apple'' (1988), '' Newspaper Mama'' (1989) an ...

) (1995-2000)

Humphrey B. Bear

Several performers portrayed the role of Humphrey. * Edwin Duryea (1965) * Ross Hutchinson * John Maclean

Production

''Here's Humphrey'' was originally aired exclusively in

NWS-9 NWS is an Australian television station based in Adelaide, Australia. It is owned-and-operated by the Nine Network. The station callsign, ''NWS'', is an initialism of The NeWs South Australia. History Origins NWS-9 was the first television ...

, premiering on 24 May 1965, before airing nationally two years later. Filmed in Adelaide and produced by Banskia Productions, the character of Humphrey was initially known as "Bear Bear" until he was renamed as a result of a competition. The program was created as a result of Humphrey's previous popularity on the afternoon program ''The Channel Niners''.''Here's Humphrey'' was granted a P classification, deeming it specifically designed to meet the needs and interests of pre-schoolers and allowing it to be broadcast on the Nine Network with a 30-minute runtime commercial-free. Classification deals allowed the Nine Network to repeat each episode three times. The Nine Network almost cancelled the series in 2000, which led to protests and comments from the Prime Minister. The network responded to popular public demand and allowed its continuation. The series was commissioned for 180 new episodes in May 2000. New episodes aired until 2003. In February 2007, Nine commissioned a new series of ''Here's Humphrey'', filming episodes for the first time since 2003. This followed negotiations with the network, after speculation they would not renew the series approaching the end of its contract. The episodes started airing in December 2007 and concluded in 2009 when Banksia Entertainment was wound up. In September 2019, it was revealed OZPIX were planning to revive ''Here's Humphrey'' with a pitch to broadcasters at

MIPCOM MIPCOM (Marché International des Programmes de Communication, English: International Market of Communications Programmes) is an annual trade show held in the French town of Cannes, traditionally in the month of October and running for 4 days. It ...

in France. The production company expressed interest in integrating live action characters with virtual technology. The production team for the project was led by Julie Greene, former executive producer of '' Hi-5'', and included Catherine Martin and Helen Martin, early childhood specialists who also worked on the program. Ozpix Entertainment owns the character, whose "home" is at

Village Roadshow Village Roadshow Limited is an Australian company which operates cinemas and theme parks, and produces and distributes films. Before being acquired by private equity company BGH Capital, the company was listed on the Australian Securities Ex ...

Studios on the

Gold Coast, Queensland The Gold Coast is a coastal city in the state of Queensland, Australia, approximately south-southeast of the centre of the state capital Brisbane. With a population over 600,000, the Gold Coast is the sixth-largest city in Australia, the nati ...

Episodes

More than 3,000 episodes of ''Here's Humphrey'' have been produced. It has also been stated that only 1,776 episodes were filmed.

Reception

In 2019, ''TV Week'' listed ''Here's Humphrey'' at #96 in its list of the 101 greatest Australian television shows of all time, which appeared in its monthly '' TV Week Close Up'' publication.Burfitt, John; Cullen, Tamara; Hadley, Amy; Hockey, Maddison; Mitchell, Thomas; Recchi, Karina; Vnuk, Helen; Wang, Cynthia; Zubeidi, Zara (July 2019), 101 Greatest Aussie TV Shows of All Time, '' TV Week Close Up'',

Bauer Media Group Heinrich Bauer Publishing (german: Heinrich Bauer Verlag KG), trading as Bauer Media Group, is a German multimedia conglomerate headquartered in Hamburg. It operates worldwide and owns more than 600 magazines, over 400 digital products and 50 ra ...

. Accessed 6 August 2019 The magazine said young viewers loved watching Humphrey leave his tree house for adventures in the magic forest. It has been stated that ''Here's Humphrey'' is one of the most successful programs for preschoolers of all time. It is one of the longest running children's programs in the world.

Awards and nominations

The program received multiple Logie Television Awards, and the character won a special "Citizen of the Year" Award at the 1994 Australia Day celebrations.

References

External links

''Here's Humphrey'' official site
1970s Australian television series 1980s Australian television series 1990s Australian television series 1965 Australian television series debuts 2003 Australian television series endings 2007 Australian television series debuts 2008 Australian television series endings Australian children's television series Australian preschool education television series Australian television shows featuring puppetry Black-and-white Australian television shows 1960s preschool education television series 1970s preschool education television series 1980s preschool education television series 1990s preschool education television series 2000s preschool education television series English-language television shows Nine Network original programming Television series about bears Television shows set in Adelaide