The Adventures of Teddy Ruxpin was a joint venture between AlchemyII and Worlds of Wonder, produced by DiC Entertainment with Atkinson Film Arts of Ottawa, Canada handling the bulk of the construction of the series. (Check out Jeff Wilson's Interview for more) The series debuted on September 14, 1987 in first-run syndication, which ended December 13, a second-run of national syndication ended in May, 1988. From that point on it was up to individual stations if they would keep airing the series, and a lot of times after that point it no longer aired in sequential order. The actual production of the series started after Labor Day, 1986, and ended in May 1987.
When Ken Forsse first invisioned Teddy Ruxpin being a television production, he had thought of it as a live-action show using animatronic characters such as those he designed for use in the Disney Channel TV show "Welcome to Pooh Corner". This production came to life in the form of a ABC Movie of the week (Check out my page on that). Afterwards, AlchemyII felt the animatronic movie wasn't quite what they were looking for in a Teddy Ruxpin television production and instead turned to animation. In addition to being on television, Hi Tops Video (probably in conjunction with Worlds of Wonder who were creating a lot of new Teddy tie-in products at the time) brought the first 15 episodes to video stores in several volumes (a good chunk of a few of the episodes were edited out to make the videos shorter, however, such as "The Day Teddy Met Grubby" which was reduced to a 12 minute segment in a video instead of the 20 minute plus regular version of the episode)



The Adventures of Teddy Ruxpin was constructed to have a continuing plot through 5 episodes, or one week, with 13 total blocks of episodes for 65 total shows. There were plans for a new Teddy Ruxpin animated series (some say a second season- or additional episodes of 'TAoTR') following Atkinson's completion of the 65 episodes, but survival problems at Worlds of Wonder complicated that and the new series never materialized.



Scenes from the Opening Credits of "The Adventures of Teddy Ruxpin

The series had common themes among several general plot changes- friendship, adventure, and solving problems peacefully when possible, and also showing that being a bad guy isn't always what it's cracked up to be (see Tweeg) The initial episodes followed the general storylines of the first several book & tape adventures released by Worlds of Wonder for the Teddy Ruxpin toy. In fact, the first 5 episodes of The Adventures of Teddy Ruxpin were made not only as a pilot for the series, but also to help advertise the talker.

After the initial blocks of episodes, where Teddy and Grubby travel to Grundo from Rillonia, meet Gimmick, Tweeg, LB, Wooly, Prince Arin, Princess Aruzia, the Grunges and the Wizard, search for the treasure, find the six Crystals at the Hard to Find City, and help rescue the Princess, a few episodes concentrated less on good vs. bad guy, were a little less epic, and more focused on day to day adventures in Gimmick's valley, such as "Take a Good Look" and Grubby's Romance both of which are favorite episodes of mine. No matter what the changes in the backstory of the week were, however, the plot had a continuation rarely seen in cartoon series, and every episode connected to the next one, in a good number of the shows there were even "cliffhanger" scenes, where you wouldn't find out the ending of one episode until the beginning of another. Very rare for a cartoon series, This kept it fresh and exciting. The series followed a similar pattern throughout. When Teddy & co would fight gutangs and Monsters & Villains for awhile, they would then return home and have a week's adventures dealing with a rather harmless but greedy and scheming Tweeg (such as in "The Medicine Wagon") and helping Grundo residents solve problems (Such as the episodes dealing with Wooly going to school and "The Faded Fobs") The series never ran a particular plot or idea into the ground, which also helped it stay fresh and not generalize it into any particular category. My favorite episodes include both heart racing action such as the battle with MAVO and The Gutangs, and the day to day storytelling where character relationships were also formed to a greater degree than the more adventure intense shows.

The series began to inch towards the conclusion when mysteries that surfaced in the first blocks of episodes began to be solved and new mysteries unfolded, such as one by one finding out the purpose of the six crystals. Episode #33, Captured, is generally where I see the turning point begin. Over the next twenty-nine episodes, Teddy unravels several mysteries behind The Hard to Find City, his long-lost father, and the history of his own life and Illiops in general. A few more episodes dealing with day to day Grundo happenings were next, and then the Trio begin to wrap up the series with a return to Rillonia, where it all started. The final episode, titled "The Mystery Unravels" was the only one I can think of that didn't have a quite coherent plotline from beginning to end, fueling speculation the episode may have been hastily changed due to cancellation of a second season. Teddy and Grubby end the series singing the song "Adventuring We Go" - to which I loved Grubby's line- "Adventurin!? Oh No!" -

Overall, I found the series to enhance the great affection I already had for the character from my experiences with the talker. An often humorously written series, seeing episodes as an adult I can now see jokes and plot twists written for those a little older, as well as still being able to enjoy the material meant for younger ages. Never a series to have a dull moment, and never disapointing, I was thrilled to see First National Pictures bring it to DVDs and finally back to consumers in 2006.