Trivia / Franklin

• Channel Hop:
  • Kind of. During the period when Nelvana programmed CBS' Saturday morning lineup, this show was swapped to CBS' line-up, while Nick Jr. briefly reran Rupert, another Nelvana series, instead. Franklin was the only show held over for the succeeding Nick Jr. on CBS block starting in 2000; it aired on the block until 2002. In 2021, reruns of the original series moved to Qubo for a short time until the over-the-air Qubo channel was Screwed by the Network.
  • Over in Canada, the series originally aired on CBC Kids and Family Channel, but for its final season, the show moved over to Treehouse TV, where reruns would continue for many years afterwards.
• Children Voicing Children: All of the child characters are voiced by real kids, with quite a few of them growing up to become prominent actors in Canadian film and television.
• Cowboy BeBop at His Computer
  • Many listings for Franklin merchandise online will state that it is from 1986. However, 1986 is a copyright date seen on most Franklin merchandise because this is when the original book was published. Very little, if any Franklin merchandise was released in 1986. Also, if it carries the Nelvana logo, then it's definitely not from any year before 1996 and if it carries the appearance of Franklin as a knight, then it's likely circa 2000 or later.
  • It also not entirely unusual for some listings for merchandise to list the show as having aired on PBS, even though it never did.
• Cross-Dressing Voices:
  • Snail is voiced by Kristen Bone, the voice of Zowie on Rolie Polie Olie and Maggie on Maggie and the Ferocious Beast. This has led to a bit of Viewer Gender Confusion, though it's usually made pretty obvious that Snail is male.
  • In Back to School with Franklin, his only appearance, Beaver's little brother Kit is voiced by Amanda Soha.
  • In the Finnish dub, Franklin and Bear were voiced by female voice actors, while Skunk was voiced mostly by a male voice actor, despite the character being female. Skunk was exceptionally voiced by a female voice actor in a couple of episodes, though.
• Cross-Regional Voice Acting: Most of the show's voice actors are based in Toronto, where Nelvana is headquartered, but Richard Newman, the voice of Franklin's dad, recorded his lines from Vancouver.
• Dub Name Change: In the Finnish dub, due to the fact, that most of the characters besides Franklin have A Dog Named "Dog" names, the names are just translated with their counterparts in the Finnish language. However, there are some differences between the translation of the original books, the original cartoon and the movie Back to School with Franklin:
  • In the original books and Back to School movie, Bear is called Karhu but in the cartoon he's called Nalle. The latter is a playful term for a bear in Finnish, but it can also be a word for a teddy bear.
  • In the original books, Rabbit is named Jänis ("Hare"), but in the cartoon he's named Kani ("Rabbit")
  • In the cartoon, Skunk is named Skunkki (despite the more correct word being haisunäätä), but in the Back to School movie, he was named funnily and very incorrectly as Näätä ("Marten").
  • In the very first Finnish translations of the books, Franklin was named Konrad. The Finnish word for turtle is kilpikonna, so this makes it an Alliterative Name. In the later editions, they changed it back into Franklin.
• Inspiration for the Work: According to Paulette Bourgeois, the inspiration for the first Franklin book, Franklin the Dark came from the M*A*S*H episode C*A*V*E, where Hawkeye Pierce admits that he is claustrophobic and says, "If I were a turtle I would be afraid of my own shell".
• Keep Circulating the Tapes: While all of the episodes were once available to watch on YouTube via Treehouse Direct a few years back, which was available legally and not via random Youtube users, almost all of the episodes are unavailable to watch from Treehouse in the United States, stating that the videos are blocked in that country even though they were originally available for anyone to watch. As mentioned before, the show appeared on Qubo after a several year rerun hiatus (in America) in 2021, but was extremely brief due to Qubo kicking the bucket. The streaming service Kidoodle has seasons 3-6, albeit missing the final episode "Franklin Sees the Big Picture / Franklin Figure Skates." It also carries all episodes of Franklin and Friends in both English and French. The public library-based service Hoopla carries the first five seasons of Franklin, while Kanopy, another library-based service, carries the first two seasons of both Franklin and Franklin and Friends.
• Market-Based Title: Both the series and the titular turtle are Benjamin in French Canada, though still Franklin in France. Franklin and Friends becomes Benjamin et ses Amis.
• The Merch: While it was never as heavily marketed as some other shows, there definitely is a fair bit of merchandise out there. Several of the characters, particularly Franklin himself, were made into plush toys, including a line with Franklin wearing the jerseys of various Canadian hockey teams. Some of them, such as the Eden Harriet plush, are quite rare. A set of stamps as well as postcards featuring images from the books were released in Canada. Other merchandise has included at least two board games, some school supplies and both liquid and bar soap packaged with the Franklin character. Perhaps the most unusual is an eau de toilette / cologne spray with Franklin packaging. though there is also Franklin underwear released under the Hanes Her Way brand, despite featuring Franklin himself.
• Milestone Celebration: Franklin celebrated his 25th anniversary with Paulette Bourgeois releasing a special edition of Franklin in the Dark, the very first book that started it all.
• No Export for You:
  • Malaysia has never gotten to see the sixth season at all. Which is pretty strange considering that TV2, the primary station that airs Franklin in Malaysia, brought in the fifth season a few months before Nick Jr. did in the US.
  • In Finland, both the fifth and the sixth season were never aired.
  • A number of Canada-only Franklin and Friends books were released in September 2012, though Franklin and Friends titles are finally slated for release in the U.S. in August 2013.
  • Treehouse TV eventually made most, but not all episodes of both the original show and Franklin and Friends watchable in multiple countries on YouTube, including Malaysia. Much has also now been released on DVD and episodes can also be bought on Amazon, though some of this may be blocked by country.
• Only So Many Canadian Actors: Lots of the voice actors appear in other Canadian cartoons and media, especially other Nelvana series featuring child voice actors.
• The Other Darrin:
  • They managed to keep the same voice, Noah Reid, for Franklin for five seasons and two films, but then the original voice actor's voice got so deep that it just wasn't working anymore. So they got Cole Caplan, (best known as the title character of Rolie Polie Olie) who had previously voiced a One-Shot Character named Squirrel, to do the voice. Then, for the final film, they got Cameron Ansell, one of the many voices of Arthur. They also ended up replacing the voices of several other characters in later seasons.
  • Almost all of the original character voices have been replaced by others in Franklin and Friends. Given that it's been nearly fifteen years since the originally series debuted, all of the kids have received new voice actors, but many of the adults have also gotten new VAs as well; Mr. Owl, for instance, is now voiced by John Stocker instead of James Rankin. That said, the casting director has done a pretty good job of picking soundalikes for the originals on the whole and a few of the adults retain their originals. These include, notably, both Mr. and Mrs. Turtle.
  • For her guest appearance in season 2, Otter has a different voice actor than in season 1.
  • The Finnish dub has this trope happening with Mr. Turtle, Mr. Owl and Bear who had their Finnish voice actors changed after only nine first episodes. Rabbit's voice actor changed in Season 3. Skunk was voiced by a female voice actor in a couple of episodes, while otherwise having a male voice actor doing the role.
• Playing Against Type: Richard Newman is mainly known for being utterly despicable or really hammy villains, grumpy beings, or, as stated above, Rhinox (who then became the Brainwashed and Crazy Tankor). In this series, he's voicing a kind-hearted, loving, and easygoing father.
• Recursive Adaptation: Many of the TV stories were later released as books. The TV Storybook releases generally followed the storylines of what was shown on television with only minor changes. The Kids Can Read releases, however, were written with beginning readers in mind and were generally strong Adaptation Distillations that only vaguely resembled the original plots.
• Recycled Script: In "Franklin the Teacher" from Franklin, Franklin becomes concerned that his little sister Harriet isn't ready for school after he learns that Bear's little sister Beatrice already knows stuff like her numbers. He decides to become a teacher to Harriet, but none of his lessons seem to stick because Harriet just thinks they're having playtime. At the end of the story, Harriet helps to repair a chair, something she picked up on while playing with toy tools, and Franklin's parents explain that little kids learn a lot just by playing. In Franklin and Friends, Harriet and Beatrices' dynamic has been adjusted so that they're both around the same age. In "Franklin's School," it's revealed that they're both starting school soon. Franklin has the idea to set up a pretend school to teach them both, this time with the help of his friends. However, once again, the two seem more interested in stuff like recess. When he laments that they're not learning anything and he can't get them to pay attention, Bear points out that they're little kids, and Snail points out that all they want to do is play. Franklin wonders how he can possibly teach them stuff like counting. His friends help him to think back to their lessons from Mr. Owl and realize that Mr. Owl made learning fun for them and they can help Harriet and Beatrice to learn by playing.
• Role Reprise: While most of the characters acquired new voice actors for Franklin and Friends, Richard Newman, Elizabeth Brown, and William Colgate reprise Mr. Turtle, Mrs. Turtle, and Mr. Mole.
• Screwed by the Network:
  • Nick Jr. pretty much stopped airing new episodes after season 4. About half of season 5 was aired on the block in July 2004...right before the program was removed from it altogether.
  • In Malaysia. Sixth season never made it in.
  • Nick Jr.'s broadcast of Franklin and Friends in the United States was, erratic to say the least. The network would hold off from airing the show between months or a year.
  • Qubo's reruns were short lived due to the fact that it was picked up shortly before it was shut down.
• She's a Man in Japan: In Polish dub of the original series Beaver and Skunk are male, while Mr. Owl is female.
• Short Run in Peru: The fifth season made it to Malaysia two months before it started airing in the US. However, the sixth season... yeah, screwed by the network.
• Star-Making Role: This was one of Marieve Herington's early roles before she moved to the United States to do permanent voice work.
• Technology Marches On: It only sort of does. The characters live in a semi-modern society with electricity and such, but certain modern conveniences don't seem to be found. There are no televisions depicted in the books or the television series, though there is a brief mention of watching TV in a song from one of the stage shows. A computer is seen in one of the TV stories, but it's an incredibly primitive model. The library also uses a computer-catalog system, but they're also antiquated models with bulky monitors and text-only displays. It's an odd mix of Schizo Tech and Anachronism Stew. Further muddying the waters is that in the Franklin and Friends special Polar Explorer, characters are shown using GPS technology and even a 3D scanner.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Franklin in the Dark was originally a more detailed story titled The Turtle They Called Chicken in which Franklin had another dilemma to overcome: He was teased by the other animals for being a cowardly turtle who couldn’t even go into his shell. After some discussion with her publisher, Paulette Bourgeois decided to narrow the story down to Franklin’s fears.
  • During development, Nelvana initally partnered with an undisclosed Spanish company to co-produce the show, but the partnership fell through due to creative concerns. Consequently, after months of looking for a replacement European co-producer, the Canadian studio agreed to partner with Belgium-based Neurones.
• Word of God: This is all viewers have to explain why Badger always walks on crutches. According to the official character description, she has cerebral palsy, but this has never been mentioned in either the books or the television series.

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