20 episodes of the Nelvana series were dubbed into the Native American Lakota language. It was called Matȟó Waúŋšila Thiwáhe ("The Compassionate Bear Family") and aired in South Dakota (with a totally different soundtrack) on PBS station SDPB (South Dakota Public Broadcasting). It has the honor of being the first animated series to be dubbed into a Native American language.
Specific Tropes
Accidentally-Correct Writing: In the 2002 cartoon episode "Get the Gimmies", Brother says he wants purple ketchup. It was a thing at one point — Heinz once ran a line of ketchup that came in different colors, with purple being one of them (and incidentally, the most known color among the ones offered).
Accidentally Correct Zoology: Bigpaw, described as a throwback to prehistoric cave bears, was shown eating a tree in Meet Bigpaw. Cave bears were primarily herbivores.
Happens a lot in the Hanna-Barbera series, with Frank Welker in particular voicing several of the supporting characters, including Farmer Ben and Raffish Ralph, plus recurring antagonists the Weasels and their leader Weasel McGreed; this is taken to extremes in "Learn About Strangers" where Welker voices everyone outside of the Bear family in the segment. Brian Cummings would voice Papa, Mayor Honeypot, Actual Factual, Bigpaw, Too-Tall and several others as well. Ruth Buzzi voices Mama Bear and almost every other adult female.
Ron McLarty voices both Papa and The Narrator in the original TV specials.
The PC Games Life's Little Lessons with The Berenstain Bears: How to Get Along with Your Fellow Bear and Life's Little Lessons with Berenstain Bears: Little Bears Make Big Helpers have Lani Minella as Mama, Brother and Sister.
The animated TV specials exclusively aired on NBC from 1979 to 1983. For the 1985 TV series, the network switched to CBS. As for the 2002 series, it ran on PBSKids.
The specials were first produced by Perpetual Motion Pictures, before switching to Southern Star and Hanna-Barbera for the 1985 TV series and finally Nelvana and Agogo Entertainment for the 2002 series.
Colbert Bump: The video games experienced this after The Angry Video Game Nerd talked about them, particularly Camping Adventure when the Nerd said it was a decent platformer worth checking out.
Creator Couple: In the Latin Spanish dub of the 1985 series, Papa and Mama Bear were played by real-life couple Jorge Roig and Rocío Garcel.
Cross-Dressing Voices: Brother Bear, a boy, was dubbed by a woman (Rocío Prado) in the Latin Spanish release of the 1985 series. Lani Minella also served as Brother Bear's voice in the two PC games.
Cross-Regional Voice Acting: Voice actors from the Greater Toronto and Greater Vancouver areas were used for the 2002 series.
Died During Production: Stan Berenstain died of cancer in late 2005 and his wife Jan suffered a fatal stroke over six years later.
Dub Name Change: In the Finnish dub of the 2002 animated series, the members of the Bear family have actual names. Brother Bear became Aaro, Sister Bear became Siiri and Papa Bear became Kaarle, for example.
The 80s series got hit with this pretty badly when it was in reruns in DiC's syndication package — the episodes were noticeably sped up and even with that, they were often edited down considerably for time.
Additionally, all logos and references to Southern Star and Hanna-Barbera were deleted and replaced with the "Incredible World of DiC" logo, apparently as an attempt to make it look like DiC made it themselves (Southern Star previously licensed the rights- H-B/WB no longer has any rights).
VHS releases of the 80s series also removed the cold opening episode previews before the theme song, removed the text at the end of the theme (it used to say "The Berenstain Bears Show" with credit to the original book authors), and also replaced the original title cards (the ones with the green background and the portrait of the family) with a shot of the Theme Tune Roll Call. On DVD and the official Berenstain Bears YouTube channel, some episodes are presented this way, while others retain the original intro title screen and episode title card.
Allegedly, the 1985 series was supposed to have "Too Much TV" as an episode, but the network executives said no, likely viewing the book as being against TV watching in general. This didn't stop the 2002 version from adapting it.
Network executives wanted the 1985 series to also have an original story in addition to adapting existing works. This actually frustrated Stan and Jan but wasn't all bad. Many of those original segments ended up being turned into books.
StarToons founder Jon McClenahan was an animator* and later on, an animation director for the 1986 run of episodes for the 1980s series.
Likewise, Renegade Animation's Darrell Van Citters was co-animation director during the 1986 season.
The Berenstains themselves also created a lot of other more adult material, one example being a book titled "Flipsville/Squaresville", which lampoons parents' relationships with their teenage children.
Originally played straight for both TV adaptations, but finally averted for both of them; the 1985 series was originally the far greater offender of the two with only a very small handful ever released on VHS or DVD, but was averted once Mike Berenstain willingly digitized the whole series and put it up on YouTube. The 2002 series was generally much easier to find but still didn't have the full run on DVD until an official boxset came out in 2019, only in the US.
Of the television specials, only Christmas Tree and Meet Bigpaw were released on DVD, while all five saw VHS releases.
In 1986, McDonald's released a set of four figures of Papa, Mama, Brother, and Sister with interchangeable accessories; Papa had a wheelbarrow, Mama had a basket, Brother had a scooter, and Sister had a wagon.
In 1990, a set of four story and activity books were released; Life With Papa, The Eager Beavers, The Attic Treasure, and The Substitute Teacher.
Licensed Game: One for the Atari 2600note which was one of two games that worked with the Sound 1/Kid Vid voice module accessory, the other being The Smurfs Save the Day, one for the Sega Genesis, one for the Sega Pico, and one for the Game Boy Color. And a few for the PC/Mac, including a couple of animated storybooks by Living Books.
The Other Darrin: The titular bears went through several actors through the years:
For the 1985 TV series, Brian Cummings voices Papa Q. Bear instead of the late Ron McLarty, Ruth Buzzi voices Mama Bear instead of the late Pat Lysinger, Christina Lange replaces Gabriela Glatzer as Sister Bear, and David Mendenhall voices Brother Bear instead of Jonathan Lewis.
Since the 2002 TV series was recorded in Toronto instead of Los Angeles, everyone was inevitably recast. Brother Bear, in particular, had two rotating voice actors: he was voiced by Michael Cera for the first two seasons and by Michael D'Ascenzo for the final season.
The Living Book adaptations also did this, from time to time due to the gap between releases, Notably the adaptation of "Get in a Fight" features Neil Ross as Papa and Jodi Carlisle as Mama, while "In the Dark" has Hank Bassior and Prakash Capen in the respective roles.
Outlived Its Creator: The original authors are now deceased, but their son Mike Berenstain continues to write and publish new books as of 2023.
No Export for You: As of 2021, PBS holds the rights to the Nelvana series in Canada, but the DVDs PBS still releases are available from the Canadian Amazon website. It seems like the show is still airing on local PBS stations that can reach Canada through cable.
Real Life Writes the Plot: The 1986 TV episode "The Great Grizzly Comet" is clearly inspired by the hype of Halley's Comet passing by Earth that year.
Recursive Adaptation: Some episodes of the TV series were eventually turned into books themselves - twice. Some were rewritten as Berenstain Bear Scouts chapter books, which of course led to some Adaptation Expansion.
Screwed by the Lawyers: Despite being co-produced by Hanna-Barbera's Australian animation division, the 1985 TV series is not part of the H-B library. It was instead distributed by Southern Star Entertainment (who co-produced the show with H-B Australia). As of 2023, the rights have been co-owned by Berenstain Enterprises (who also owns the rights to the TV specials), Nelvana (producer of the 2002 series, acquiring the rights when Southern Star folded into Endemol Shine Australia in 2013), and WildBrain.
Self-Adaptation: Stan and Jan Berenstain were heavily involved in the television specials as well as the 1985 TV series.
Technology Marches On: Subverted; although the "Computer Trouble" book was written and published in 2010, it shows the Bear family using big boxy desktop PC towers with large CRT monitors, which were more common in The '90s rather than the 21st century.
Throw It In!: According toStan and Jan's son Mike, the series title is this. They weren't intending on calling their characters "The Berenstain Bears". They only got that name because that's what their editor, Ted Geisel (Dr. Seuss) referred to them as, constantly, and the name just stuck.
, the series title is this. They weren't intending on calling their characters "The Berenstain Bears". They only got that name because that's what their editor, Ted Geisel (Dr. Seuss) referred to them as, constantly, and the name just stuck.