''Moschops'' is a British

stop motion Stop motion is an animated filmmaking technique in which objects are physically manipulated in small increments between individually photographed frames so that they will appear to exhibit independent motion or change when the series of frames i ...

-animated

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

FilmFair FilmFair was a British production company and animation studio that produced children's television series, animated cartoons, educational films, and television advertisements. The company made numerous stop motion films using puppets, clay anima ...

, and broadcast on

ITV ITV or iTV may refer to: ITV *Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of: ** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...

in 1983. The characters in ''Moschops'' are designed by Sue Marke. All of the cast are prehistoric animals, except for Flower, who is the world's first flower. The characters' names imply their

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...

. The

title character The title character in a narrative work is one who is named or referred to in the title of the work. In a performed work such as a play or film, the performer who plays the title character is said to have the title role of the piece. The title of ...

, Moschops, is a young

therapsid Therapsida is a major group of eupelycosaurian synapsids that includes mammals, their ancestors and relatives. Many of the traits today seen as unique to mammals had their origin within early therapsids, including limbs that were oriented more ...

of the genus ''

Moschops ''Moschops'' (Greek for "calf face") is an extinct genus of therapsids that lived in the Guadalupian epoch, around 265–260 million years ago. They were heavily built plant eaters, and they may have lived partly in water, as hippopotamuses do. ...

''; Ally is a

theropod Theropoda (; ), whose members are known as theropods, is a dinosaur clade that is characterized by hollow bones and three toes and claws on each limb. Theropods are generally classed as a group of saurischian dinosaurs. They were ancestrally c ...

of the genus ''

Allosaurus ''Allosaurus'' () is a genus of large carnosaurian theropod dinosaur that lived 155 to 145 million years ago during the Late Jurassic epoch (Kimmeridgian to late Tithonian). The name "''Allosaurus''" means "different lizard" alluding to ...

''; Grandfather Diplodocus is a

sauropod Sauropoda (), whose members are known as sauropods (; from '' sauro-'' + '' -pod'', 'lizard-footed'), is a clade of saurischian ('lizard-hipped') dinosaurs. Sauropods had very long necks, long tails, small heads (relative to the rest of their bo ...

of the genus ''

Diplodocus ''Diplodocus'' (, , or ) was a genus of diplodocid sauropod dinosaurs, whose fossils were first discovered in 1877 by S. W. Williston. The generic name, coined by Othniel Charles Marsh in 1878, is a neo-Latin term derived from Greek διπ� ...

''; Mrs. Kerry is a

ceratopsid Ceratopsidae (sometimes spelled Ceratopidae) is a family of ceratopsian dinosaurs including ''Triceratops'', ''Centrosaurus'', and ''Styracosaurus''. All known species were quadrupedal herbivores from the Upper Cretaceous. All but one species are k ...

of the genus ''

Triceratops ''Triceratops'' ( ; ) is a genus of herbivore, herbivorous Chasmosaurinae, chasmosaurine Ceratopsidae, ceratopsid dinosaur that first appeared during the late Maastrichtian stage of the Late Cretaceous Period (geology), period, about 68 m ...

''; Uncle Rex is a ''

Tyrannosaurus rex ''Tyrannosaurus'' is a genus of large theropod dinosaur. The species ''Tyrannosaurus rex'' (''rex'' meaning "king" in Latin), often called ''T. rex'' or colloquially ''T-Rex'', is one of the best represented theropods. ''Tyrannosaurus'' live ...

''; and Mr. Ichthyosaurus is an

ichthyosaur Ichthyosaurs (Ancient Greek for "fish lizard" – and ) are large extinct marine reptiles. Ichthyosaurs belong to the order known as Ichthyosauria or Ichthyopterygia ('fish flippers' – a designation introduced by Sir Richard Owen in 1842, altho ...

of the genus ''

Ichthyosaurus ''Ichthyosaurus'' (derived from Greek ' () meaning 'fish' and ' () meaning 'lizard') is a genus of ichthyosaurs from the Early Jurassic ( Hettangian - Pliensbachian), with possible Late Triassic record, from Europe (Belgium, England, Germany, S ...

''. In the series, Moschops and Ally are friends. They live in a cave with Grandfather Diplodocus and Uncle Rex. From 1984 to 1985,

Omroepvereniging VARA The Omroepvereniging VARA (), the VARA Broadcasting Association, was a Dutch public broadcasting association primarily operating in the fields of television, radio, publishing and interactive media. It was a member of Netherlands Public Broadcas ...

, the Dutch

public broadcasting Public broadcasting involves radio, television and other electronic media outlets whose primary mission is public service. Public broadcasters receive funding from diverse sources including license fees, individual contributions, public financing ...

network, broadcast a

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

- dubbed version titled ''Knobbel''.

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned enterprise, state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a four ...

retransmitted ''Moschops'' in 1988. The series was also broadcast in Canada on the

Knowledge Network Knowledge Network, also branded as British Columbia's Knowledge Network, is a Canadian publicly funded educational cable television network serving the province of British Columbia. It is owned by the Knowledge Network Corporation, a Crown corpo ...

TVOntario TVO Media Education Group (often abbreviated as TVO and stylized on-air as tvo) is a publicly funded English-language educational television network and media organization serving the Canadian province of Ontario. It is operated by the Ontario ...

and New Zealand on Channel 2.

Episode list

Video releases

''Moschops'' in print

For a short time after the series aired, ''

Pippin Pippin or Pepin may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Pippin'' (comics), a children's comic produced from 1966 to 1986 * ''Pippin'' (musical), a Broadway musical by Stephen Schwartz loosely based on the life of Pepin the Hunchback * Pippin T ...

'' featured a ''Moschops''

comic strip A comic strip is a sequence of drawings, often cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions. Traditionally, throughout the 20th and into the 21st ...

. Purnell Publishers of Bristol published eight small

picture book A picture book combines visual and verbal narratives in a book format, most often aimed at young children. With the narrative told primarily through text, they are distinct from comics, which do so primarily through sequential images. The images ...

s based on the television programme: ''Moschops and the Fierceness Lesson'' (1983), ''Moschops and the Mystery'' (1983), ''Moschops and the Surprise'' (1983), ''Moschops Digs a Hole'' (1983), ''Moschops and the Sneezes'' (1983), ''Moschops Plays Football'' (1983), ''Moschops' Kite'' (1984), and ''Moschops' Birthday'' (1984). Other ''Moschops'' books include ''Moschops Annual'' (1983), ''Moschops Playtime Book'' (1983), and ''Moschops Dot-to-Dot'' (1984).

Notes

References

* *. Retrieved 5 January 2013. *. Retrieved 5 January 2013.

External links

*
''Moschops''
at Jedi's Paradise. Retrieved 5 January 2013. {{FilmFair 1983 British television series debuts 1983 British television series endings 1980s British children's television series British children's animated television shows ITV children's television shows English-language television shows British stop-motion animated television series Television series by FilmFair Television series by DHX Media 1980s British animated television series