''The Telebugs'' is a British animated children's television series featuring three robots.

Overview

The robots' names are C.H.I.P. (Coordinated Hexadecimal Information Processor), S.A.M.A.N.T.H.A. (Solar Activated Micro Automated Non-inTerference Hearing Apparatus) and B.U.G. (Binary Unmanned Gamma camera) – who were accompanied by a flying video pack called M.I.C. (Mobile Independent Camera). They were invented by

Professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who pr ...

Brainstrain (who is also known as Pwofessor Bwainstwain, owing to his unfortunate

speech impediment Speech disorders or speech impairments are a type of communication disorder in which normal speech is disrupted. This can mean stuttering, lisps, etc. Someone who is unable to speak due to a speech disorder is considered mute. Speech skills are ...

) to stop enemies such as

Baron Baron is a rank of nobility or title of honour, often hereditary, in various European countries, either current or historical. The female equivalent is baroness. Typically, the title denotes an aristocrat who ranks higher than a lord or knig ...

Bullybyte, Magna, Angel Brain, Z.U.D.O (Zero-failure Universal Data Optimizer) Bug and Arcadia, whilst working as

reporter A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...

s for a TV executive named Mr McStarch. A total of 3 seasons and 86 episodes were produced by Telemagination for Telebug Enterprises and broadcast on

Children's ITV CITV (short for Children's ITV, also known as the CITV Channel) is a British free-to-air children's television channel owned by ITV plc. It broadcasts content from the CITV archive and acquisitions, every day from 6 am to 9 pm which ...

in the United Kingdom from 1986 to 1987. It was the very first television series made and produced by Telemagination (the company later went onto make several other animated series for children such as ''

The Animals of Farthing Wood The Animals of Farthing Wood is a series of books about a group of woodland animals. It originated with the 1979 book, ''The Animals of Farthing Wood'', by Colin Dann, and was followed by six sequels and a prequel by Dann. An animated ''Anim ...

'', ''

Noah's Island ''Noah's Island'' is a British animated television series for children made by the creators of ''The Animals of Farthing Wood'' and commissioned by the European Broadcasting Union. It was directed by Emile Bourget, Philippe LeClerc, Alan Simpson, ...

'' and ''

The Cramp Twins ''The Cramp Twins'' is an animated television series created by cartoonist Brian Wood based on his 1995 graphic novel of the same name. The show was produced by Sunbow Entertainment (in season 1), Telemagination (in season 2), and TV-Loonland AG, ...

''). It also aired on TV2 in New Zealand from 24 July 1987 to 7 March 1990, on ABC TV in

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

from 6 July 1988 to 13 December 1991, on

ABS-CBN ABS-CBN (an initialism of its two predecessors' names, Alto Broadcasting System and Chronicle Broadcasting Network) is a Television in the Philippines, Philippine Commercial broadcasting, commercial broadcast broadcast network, network tha ...

in the Philippines, on RTB in Brunei, on TV1 in Malaysia, on

Italia 1 Italia 1 (Italian pronunciation ) is an Italian free-to-air television channel on the Mediaset network, owned by MFE - MediaForEurope. It is oriented at both young and adult people. Italia 1 was launched on 3 January 1982 and, originally, was o ...

in Italy, on

Saudi 2 Saudi TV Channel 2 (KSA 2), or as of 2014 known as Saudi 2 was the English news and entertainment TV channel of Saudi Arabia. Established in 1983, the channel produces programmes focusing on cultural, political, and economic issues aimed at ex ...

in Saudi Arabia and on

M-Net M-Net (an abbreviation of Electronic Media Network) is a South African pay television channel established by Naspers in 1986. The channel broadcasts both local and international programming, including general entertainment, children's series, ...

in South Africa. The series was also noted for its closing theme song. An extended version of the opening theme had been used at the end of season 1. However, in season 2 the short song "I Have a Heart", written by American singer, pianist and songwriter

Mort Shuman Mortimer Shuman (12 November 1938 – 2 November 1991) was an American singer, pianist and songwriter, best known as co-writer of many 1960s rock and roll hits, including "Viva Las Vegas". He also wrote and sang many songs in French, such as ...

(who has lived in both the UK and France), sung by Suzy Westerby (as Samantha), and played out over a closing credit sequence featuring a still of Chip, Samantha and Bug, with Mic's face briefly appearing at the closeout, was used as the closing theme. This version was the best-known theme. An extended version of "I Have A Heart", sung by American disco singer

George McCrae George Warren McCrae Jr. (born October 19, 1944) is an American soul music, soul and disco singing, singer who is most famous for his 1974 hit "Rock Your Baby". Biography and career McCrae was the second of nine children, born in West Palm Bea ...

and played out over a sequence showing Chip, Samantha and Bug orbiting the earth and performing pirouettes, was used for the end of the original transmissions of the third, and final, season. However, as this version was almost three minutes long, it was considered too lengthy for such a short cartoon, and was replaced with the same extended version of the opening theme used at the end of season 1 for all future repeats of season 3. The series also aired on

GBC TV GBC may refer to: * Global Business Coalition Broadcasting * Gibraltar Broadcasting Corporation * Ghana Broadcasting Corporation * Granite Broadcasting, in the United States * Greek Business Channel, in Greece * Guyana Broadcasting Corporation ...

Gibraltar ) , anthem = " God Save the King" , song = " Gibraltar Anthem" , image_map = Gibraltar location in Europe.svg , map_alt = Location of Gibraltar in Europe , map_caption = United Kingdom shown in pale green , mapsize = , image_map2 = Gib ...

, where it regularly served as a filler during children's programming in the 6:30 – 7:30pm slot during the mid to late 1980s. The series was also broadcast on cable and satellite television on

The Children's Channel The Children's Channel, also known as TCC, was a British-based pan-European children's television channel in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, which was owned by Flextech in London, England, UK. It began broadcasting on the original Eutelsat ...

. In the 1990s the show was sold to

HIT Entertainment HIT Entertainment Limited (commonly written as HiT) was a British-American entertainment company founded in 1982 as Henson International Television, the international distribution arm of The Jim Henson Company, by Jim Henson, Peter Orton, and Soph ...

but this time, the name was changed to ''The Gigglebytes''. The series with the name change was also broadcast in Singapore on Prime 12 as part of their lineup of children's programming ''Kidz Blitz''.

Voice cast

*All the

male Male (symbol: ♂) is the sex of an organism that produces the gamete (sex cell) known as sperm, which fuses with the larger female gamete, or ovum, in the process of fertilization. A male organism cannot reproduce sexually without access to ...

characters were voiced by

Ron Moody Ron Moody (born Ronald Moodnick; 8 January 1924 – 11 June 2015) was an English actor, composer, singer and writer. He was best known for his portrayal of Fagin in ''Oliver!'' (1968) and its 1983 Broadway revival. Moody earned a Golden Globe ...

(except for Bug) and the

female Female (Venus symbol, symbol: ♀) is the sex of an organism that produces the large non-motile ovum, ova (egg cells), the type of gamete (sex cell) that fuses with the Sperm, male gamete during sexual reproduction. A female has larger gamet ...

characters (also including Bug) were voiced by London-based actress Suzy Westerby.

Transmission guide

Series 1

Series 2

Series 3

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Telebugs, The 1980s British animated television series 1980s British children's television series 1980s British science fiction television series 1986 British television series debuts 1987 British television series endings British children's animated space adventure television series British children's animated science fiction television series English-language television shows ITV children's television shows Australian Broadcasting Corporation original programming TVNZ 2 original programming Fictional anthropomorphic characters Television shows produced by Television South (TVS) Television series by Mattel Creations