Teddybears is a British

children's television 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 ...

programme 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 ...

from early 1998 to 2000, based on the books by Susanna Gretz. The show was about the life of five coloured

teddy bears A teddy bear is a stuffed toy in the form of a bear. Developed apparently simultaneously by toymakers Morris Michtom in the U.S. and Richard Steiff under his aunt Margarete Steiff's company in Germany in the early 20th century, the teddy bear ...

and their dog Fred. The show was filmed by

Meridian Broadcasting ITV Meridian (previously Meridian Broadcasting) is the holder of the ITV franchise for the South and South East of England. The station was launched at 12:00 am on 1 January 1993, replacing previous broadcaster Television South, and is owned ...

. Journalists have compared ''Teddybears'' as being similar to and a rival of ''

Teletubbies ''Teletubbies'' is a British children's television series created by Anne Wood and Andrew Davenport for the BBC. The programme focuses on four differently coloured characters known as the Teletubbies, named after the television screens on t ...

'' which was also produced around that time. However the series was targeted at older children.

History

''Teddybears'' is based on Susanna Gretz and Alison Sage's

teddy bear A teddy bear is a stuffed toy in the form of a bear. Developed apparently simultaneously by toymakers Morris Michtom in the U.S. and Richard Steiff under his aunt Margarete Steiff's company in Germany in the early 20th century, the teddy b ...

books, the first of which was published almost 30 years before the TV programme's creation. ''Teddybear''s inaugural season began on 5 January 1998. A 1999 article in the ''

Bristol Post The ''Bristol Post'' is a city/regional five-day-a-week (formerly appearing six days per week) newspaper covering news in the city of Bristol, including stories from the whole of Greater Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire. It was ...

'' said ''Teddybears'' "have become a huge hit with young viewers", having captured 64% of the

target audience A target audience is the intended audience or readership of a publication, advertisement, or other message catered specifically to said intended audience. In marketing and advertising, it is a particular group of consumer within the predetermined ...

. Link Licensing, a

United News & Media UBM plc was a British business-to-business (B2B) events organiser headquartered in London, England, before its acquisition by Informa in 2018. It had a long history as a multinational media company. Its main focus was on B2B events, but its pr ...

spinoff, began making toys, books, and other merchandising several months before the programme's debut.

Rights Rights are legal, social, or ethical principles of freedom or entitlement; that is, rights are the fundamental normative rules about what is allowed of people or owed to people according to some legal system, social convention, or ethical theory ...

and merchandising company ProVen Private Equity has from Link Licensing the rights to make Teddybears products. In 2000, Link Licensing sold the rights to Teddybears to the TV network Trio which bought 26 episodes.

Comparison with ''Teletubbies''

The producers of ''Teddybears'' asserted that ''Teddybears'' is not an immediate rival of ''

''; the '' Daily Record'' considers it a rival. The '' Daily Record'' noted that the two TV series have several parallels. Whereas the Teddybears eat "hot cross buns, honey, pancakes, jelly and ice cream", the Teletubbies eat "tubby toast and tubby custard". The Teddybears sing ''The Teddybear Song'' while the Teletubbies sing '' Teletubbies say "Eh-oh!"''. A difference between the two TV series is that ''Teddybears''s intended audience is older children. The shows' similarities sparked "intense" coverage by the media. Newspapers and TV shows requested interviews with the teddybears, who all appeared on

Richard and Judy Richard and Judy is the name informally given to Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan, a British married couple who are both television presenters and columnists. They presented the daytime television programme '' This Morning'' from 1988 until 2 ...

's '' This Morning''.

Characters

The five teddybears in the series are William, Sarah, Louise, Robert, and Charles. They wear "brightly-coloured furry suits" and live at No. 8 Green Street, Bearbridge. According to actress Louise Conran, who played Sarah, she had to "wear a lycra body suit, padding on top of that and then the costumes which are about half an inch thick". Since the teddybear masks were fastened to their faces with glue, the teddybear actors had to keep the masks on the entire day, even when eating dinner. From the second series the costumes were changed because of this. The actors are adults but play child-sized bears on a set in which everything they interact with is oversized. * Robert, the youngest of the bears, yellow. Often seen with his best friend, a toy frog called Phillip. * Louise, green. The cheekiest of all the bears. * Charles, black. The oldest of the bears, wise but very stubborn. * William, red. Loves to cook. * Sarah, orange. Plays the mother role. Stokenchurch actress Louise Conran played the role. She heard of the role while she was a maid on the

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...

...

History

Comparison with ''Teletubbies''

Characters

Video and DVD

References

External links