The Helpers of Willoughby (1986 TV series)

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The Helpers of Willoughby
GenreAnimated series
Created byRichard Daniels
Based onThe Helpers of Willoughby
by
  • Peter Christoff
  • David Christoff
Written by
  • Peter Christoff (original; 1986 - 1995, 2003)
  • David Christoff (original; 1988, 2013)
  • Richard Daniels (1986 - 1999)
  • Sergei Babichev (1986 - 2004)
  • Various (2004 - present)
  • Richard Prince (2004 - 2019; head writer)
  • Susan Albright (2019 - present; head writer)
Directed by
  • Sergei Babichev (1986 - 1999)
  • Daniel Wodcraft (2003 - 2005)
  • Eliza Hornby (2005 - 2011)
  • Junpei Soga (2011 - 2014)
  • Sakura Horie (2014 - present)
Narrated by
  • Peter Christoff (1986 - 1995)
  • Alexander Brandon (1998 - 2017)
  • Oliver Samson (2017 - 2026)
  • Mary-Lou Bedford (2026 - present)
Theme music composerLiz Lemon
Composer(s)
  • Liz Lemon (1986 - 1998, 2016 - present)
  • Edward Fitzpatrick (1999 - 2004)
  • James Otani (2004 - 2013)
  • Edward O'Brien (2013 - 2016)
Country of originGandoor
Original language(s)English
No. of programmes26
No. of episodes361
Production
Running time
  • 11 - 13 minutes
Release
Original network
Original release16 October 1986 (1986-10-16) – present (present)
Chronology
Related showsThe Helpers of Willoughby (1959 TV series)

The Helpers of Willoughby is a Gandoorese children's television series. It was first broadcast on GBN in 1986 and moved to Chiddies in 2010, it was one of the last children's series to air on GBN. It is based on the book series of the same name by Peter Christoff and his son, David Christoff.

These books follow the adventures of a group of anthropomorphized vehicles and their human partners in the fictional town of Willoughby. The books were based on stories Peter created to entertain his son, David, in the late 1940s, with the inspiration for the stories themselves coming from David's collection of toy vehicles and human figurines.

History

Precursors

Previous attempts at adapting Christoff's stories to television occurred before the premiere of The Helpers of Willoughby in October 1986, but most attempts were unsuccessful. In early 1959, a ten episode series adapting the stories from the first two books was commissioned by the GBC, who had acquired the television rights to the series from Christoff's publisher.

The series was to be broadcast live, utilizing a mixture of radio-controlled vehicles and puppets with limited usage of pre-filmed inserts for things impossible to do live and to cover any scene changes.

The series, which premiered on Saturday 15 August 1959, soon became a source of mockery due to its many technical incompetencies. Most notably during the first episode, a crew member was heard saying 'Fuck, goddammit.', after the controller responsible for the character of Peter, a police car, overshot a turn and crashed his vehicle into some model trees, knocking them over.

Despite attempts by the GBC to save the program, its continued technical problems led to its cancellation after airing only four episodes. Due to being broadcast live, none of the four aired episodes exist in their entirety, however the pre-filmed inserts for all four episodes, plus the inserts that would have been used for episode five, have survived and are currently archived in the Gandoorese Television and Film Archives.

The GBC would later have several stories from The Helpers of Willoughby read as part of the long-running television series The Reading Hour between 1966 and 1967, accompanied by illustrations from the original books for effect.

In 1972, Ten, the then-newest television channel in Gandoor, acquired the rights to adapt the series to television from Christoff's publisher. Ten planned on adapting the series as a traditionally-animated half hour series, with each episode consisting of two stories adapted from the original books. An unaired pilot episode was produced in 1973, but the series ultimately never made it to air and the planned adaption was cancelled in 1975, with Ten citing 'unforeseen costs' as the primary reason for its failure.

Early Years of The Helpers of Willoughby (1981 - 1995)

In 1981, television producer Richard Daniels purchased a few of The Helpers of Willoughby books to read to his then-four year old son Henry when putting him to bed. While reading them, he was highly entertained by the stories written by Christoff and later said, 'I felt that these were an example of children's books that didn't treat children like they were dumb or anything like that. These were well-written and engrossing stories that, not only did my son enjoy listening to, but I enjoyed reading as well.'

Getting into contact at first with Christoff's agent, and later Christoff himself, Daniels worked to convince him that a successful television adaption of his stories would be possible. Christoff was convinced and Daniels purchased the television rights to the series for 35,000 GDY (equivalent to 68,136.98 GDY in 2024) from the publishers.

With the rights to the series acquired and funding for the series production having been raised, Daniels began to assemble the production crew for the series in 1983, including writer and director Sergei Babichev, writer Richard Daniels, and composer Liz Lemon.

The series started production in late 1985 by Daniels' production company, Richard Daniels Productions, and the GBC's children's television subsidiary GBC Kids. (The GBC having previously produced the ill-fated 1959 television adaption of The Helpers of Willoughby) The series utilized stop-motion animation and was originally produced at the GBC Children's Television Production Facilities at the GBC Centre in Gandoor City. While the series would feature individual voice actors for all the characters, it was felt by Daniels that a narrator would also be necessary in order for the series 'to feel like the books'. After much convincing, it was announced that Peter Christoff himself would serve as the series narrator (Christoff had previously read several of The Helpers of Willoughby books as part of a short-lived run of the stories on cassette tape from 1978 to 1980).

The series debuted during the GBN Kids programming block on GBN on Thursday, 16 October 1986. The programme 1 adapted stories from the first four books in the series. Despite programme 1 achieving the highest ratings for the GBN Kids block in over two years and the series receiving positive reviews by critics, it would not be until November 1987 that the GBC would announce that a second programme had begun production.

Programme 2, which aired in 1988, utilized stories from books five through eight, along with a special unnumbered book titled Peter the Police Car and His Friends written by David Christoff. This book was written due to a contractual obligation that all stories had to be published in print prior to being adapted to the TV series.

In between the production of the second and third programmes, the production team was focused on a planned film adaption of the series, tentatively titled The Helpers of Willoughby: On the Big Screen!, which was planned to be released by 1990. Due to production issues, however, the Richard Daniels Productions announced that the film was formally cancelled in August of 1989. Despite the cancellation, however, various pieces of tie-in merchandise had already been produced, including a book adaption of an early screenplay, written by Peter Christoff, that was published in June 1989.

Despite the cancellation of the film version of the series, the tie-in book adaption of the planned film was later adapted to the TV series during programme 3, broadcast in 1991. The television adaption of the book was broadcast over five episodes and comprised the first multipart story in the series' history. When released to home video in 1992, the five episodes were edited together into a single 60 minute presentation, which was marketed as a 'full-length movie!'. This edited version would be used for all home video releases until the 2006 DVD release of programme 3 of The Helpers of Willoughby, which saw the original five episode version being released onto home video for the first time.

Following the conclusion of programme 3, Richard Daniels Productions announced that its television rights to The Helpers of Willoughby had been renewed through 1995 and that Peter Christoff had signed on to continue as narrator for the television series for three more programmes.

The series' fourth programme aired in 1993, this was followed by its fifth in 1994, and its sixth in 1995. During the production of programme 5, the contractual obligations that all stories had to appear in print prior to being adapted to television was loosened and only a minimum of half of the total episodes of a programme had to be adapted from previously published works.

In August 1995, the GBC publicized its list of television series that had been renewed for the then-upcoming 1996 television season, with The Helpers of Willoughby being absent from the list of children's programming that had been renewed for the upcoming season. This lead to many reports that The Helpers of Willoughby had ended, with some reporting that the series had been cancelled by the GBC and others citing the statement a few years prior that the television rights that Richard Daniels Productions held were expiring at the end of the year.

The GBC and Richard Daniels Productions denied the claims that The Helpers of Willoughby had been cancelled, with both issuing statements contrary to reports of the series' cancellation in early September 1995. The GBC's statement said that 'While there are no plans for a new programme of The Helpers of Willoughby to air on the GBN Kids programming block during the 1996 television season, reports that the series has been cancelled are incorrect. The Helpers of Willoughby has not been cancelled, by either the GBC or by Richard Daniels Productions, the production company behind the series, and the series should instead be regarded as being on hiatus'. Richard Daniels Productions issued a statement that said 'Richard Daniels Productions has renewed its television rights to The Helpers of Willoughby through the year 2005 and the next programme of the series is presently being worked on by our company'.

End of the Original Era (1998 - 1999)

Nearly two years following the conclusion of programme 6 in 1995, the GBC officially announced programme 7 of The Helpers of Willoughby in October 1997. The seventh programme was stated to be airing during the 1998 television season.

Programme 7 premiered on 22 October 1998 and ran for 10 episodes, concluding with a Christmas episode on 24 December 1998. It was the shorted programme of the series (a record that remains to this day) and was the first programme where all episodes were original stories and was the first programme to feature Alexander Brandon as narrator, replacing Peter Christoff. Brandon would become the series' longest-serving narrator, remaining in the role through programme 17 in 2017.

Programme 7 was the last programme of The Helpers of Willoughby to be scored by Liz Lemon, who had served as series composer since programme 1 in 1986, until she returned as composer starting in programme 17.

In 1999, programme 8 of The Helpers of Willoughby aired on GBN Kids. The programme was the last to feature series creator Richard Daniels as writer, the last to be directed by Sergei Babichev (who had served as series director since programme 1), and the first to feature music composed by new series composer Edward Fitzpatrick, although many musical themes used through programme 8 were updated versions of themes that had been composed by previous composer Liz Lemon, with Lemon being credited as 'original composer' in 7 of the programmes 12 episodes (Liz Lemon also remained credited as 'original theme music composer' throughout the programme and all future programmes of the series).

First Extended Hiatus (2000 - 2002)

No programme of The Helpers of Willoughby was planned for the 2000 television season, with Richard Daniels Productions citing 'restructuring of the company' as the reason for the series going on hiatus once more. The series remained absent from television screens, barring reruns, during the 2001 and 2002 television seasons as well.

On 7 April 2002, Peter Christoff, the original author of The Helpers of Willoughby books, died of pancreatic cancer at the age of 82, he had been diagnosed five months prior.

Programmes 9 and 10 (2003 - 2004)

Programme 9 of The Helpers of Willoughby was announced in August 2002 as one of the flagship series for the upcoming Chiddies block on GBN, which was replacing the long-standing GBN Kids block and sharing its name with the television channel of the same name that the GBC was launching the following year. It was stated that the programme would 'celebrate the 50th anniversary of the original book series'.

The programme premiered alongside the Chiddies programming block on 1 September 2003, marking the move of new episodes of the series from Thursdays to Mondays, and aired for 15 episodes until 8 December 2003.

Programme 9 was the first programme of the series to be produced in 16:9 widescreen, although it was cropped and broadcast in fullscreen during its original broadcast.

The first episode of the programme, 'The Helpers of Willoughby: A Golden Jubilee' was adapted from the book of the same name that was written by Peter Christoff and published posthumously on 9 March 2003. Per a press release that was published prior to the premiere of the programme and publication of the book, Christoff had conceived of the idea of writing a 50th anniversary book for The Helpers of Willoughby in early 2001 and began working on the book in mid-2001 and continued working on it even after he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in December of that year. He finished writing the book on 17 March 2002, only three weeks prior to his death, although his concept sketches for the book's illustrations remained incomplete at the time of his passing. This was the first episode of the series to be adapted from a previously published The Helpers of Willoughby book since programme 6 in 1995.