The show was a co-production between British and Dutch producers. The animation was split by two studios:
Topcraft in
Japan (episodes 1–7, plus intro and ending) and
DePatie-Freleng (episodes 8–13) from the United States with some minor differences in animation. All Topcraft episodes (with its unique sound effects) were directed by the prolific
Tsuguyuki Kubo, who worked with
Rankin/Bass (among others) on many of their features, movies (
The Hobbit and
The Last Unicorn), and syndicated series (
ThunderCats). English, Dutch, German, Swedish and Spanish language versions exist, among others. In the English-language version the title character was narrated by veteran actor
Peter Ustinov, with Olwen Griffiths and
John Challis. The show debuted in 1980 and consisted of thirteen half-hour episodes. The show was based on original artwork by British illustrator
Nick Price, original scripts and ideas by Jeffrey O'Kelly, and television scripts for each episode by
Richard Carpenter and John Halas. Two episodes (#7 and #12) were written by
Douglas Adams and
John Lloyd, both dealing with ecological issues. Episode 9 was written by . In the UK, the show featured as part of the
Watch It! strand for children on the
ITV network and later got repeated on
Channel 4 as well as being broadcast on
The Children's Channel on cable and satellite television. In Canada, the series aired on
TVO in Ontario and on
Knowledge Network in British Columbia. It also aired on the
ABC in Australia and ran from 1 March 1982 to 20 September 1991,
M-Net and
Bop TV in South Africa,
RTB in Brunei,
RTÉ in the Irish Republic where it began airing in 1989 and was shown a number of times up until 1998,
PTV in Pakistan, syndication (distribution via Chicago-based
Field Communications securing US distribution rights),
Nickelodeon, and
Nick Jr. Channel in the US,
TV2 and
TV3 in Malaysia,
MediaCorp Channel 5 in Singapore and in New Zealand on
TV1 and
TV2. The Dutch
dubbing was directed by Frans Voordrecht, by with voices by
Jules Croiset, Trudy Libosan, Dick Scheffer and Rupert van Woerkom. A German dubbed version was also produced, starring
Walter Jokisch as Doctor Snuggles, produced by the
Bavaria Atelier GmbH, that premiered in June 1981. The Swedish version features
John Harryson and the French version
Roger Carel as Doctor Snuggles. Also, a
comic series was produced, published in Germany and Sweden. ==Plot==