Trivia / The Raccoons

• Adored by the Network: Upon its launch in March 2023, the Canadian feed of Boomerang began adoring the remastered version of the show, initially airing it nine times a day. It also helps that it fulfills the Canadian content quota.
• Acting for Two: Len Carlson voiced Bert and two of the pigs, as well as numerous ancillary and minor characters. In "The Phantom of Sneer Mansion!" and "Black Belt Bentley!", Bert's voice is mistaken for another voice performed by Carlson. Other cast members also voiced multiple characters.
• Blooper:
  • In "Cold Feet!", Bert can seen in the audience during Ingrid Bellamour's speech against the Rotco Corporation despite the scene before it establishing that he and Cedric were in the middle of skydiving. It seems the animators noticed the mistake and tried to correct it because when he's visible a few shots later, his sweater is recolored blue.
  • In the Precap to "Moving In!", George's leg vanishes in a shot during Lisa's outburst at the dinner table. This mistake is corrected in the episode proper.
• Children Voicing Children:
  • Stuart Stone, who was around ten years old when Season 5 was released, voiced Danny and later replaced Noam Zylberman as Bentley.
  • Speaking of Zylberman, he was only twelve when he first voiced Tommy, who was originally voiced by Hadley Kay.
  • Tammy Bourne and Vanessa Lindores (the latter being thirteen) voiced Julie.
• Completely Different Title: In Italy, the series became known as I mille colori dell’allegria (The Thousand Colors of Joy).
• Creator's Favorite Episode:
  • Series creator Kevin Gillis considers "The One That Got Away!" as his favorite episode.
  • Series composer Jon Stroll considers "Trouble Shooter!" as his favorite episode.
• Cross-Dressing Voices: Bob Dermer as Lady Baden-Baden and Sharon Lewis as Broo.
• The Danza: Lisa Raccoon was voiced by musical contributor Lisa Lougheed.
• Edited for Syndication:
  • There were a few DVDs released in Canada in 2003. These DVDs removed the precap at the start of every episode and replaced them with a brief voiceover from Bert over a static background, who would give a bit of exposition about the episode. Bert would also provide some brief commentary at the start of the credits, although he always finished up before the vocals for "Run with Us" began. Len Carlson reprised his role as Bert for these voiceovers.^note The DVD credits to "Read No Evil!" did not incorporate this; it retained the banter that was exchanged between Cyril and Pig One from the original version. Sadly, Bert's remarks at the DVD credits to "Picture Perfect!" replaced Cyril's banter from the original version.
    • At least one episode of the HD remaster released on streaming retains Bert's end credits commentary.
  • When "The Raccoons and the Lost Star" was aired, stations could either run it in one hour-long slot, or in two parts across a given amount of time. The latter cuts out several scenes/lines for time, and even an entire musical sequence.
• Fake Brit: Tara Charendoff as Donna in "Join the Club!".
• International Coproduction: Technically. The show was the first animated series to be created and produced entirely in Canada without any outside involvement in production, although the Disney Channel did fund the show and air it in the United States.
• Keep Circulating the Tapes: The show has never been fully released on DVD (at least in English); only a few scattered "best of" compilations, most of which are only in Europe.
  • And while it was no substitute for a physical release, the first season was available in the Canadian and US iTunes stores.
  • Series 1 and 2 have been available in the UK, the United States and the series' native Canada for quite some time now. Prior to this, only the first six episodes of season 2 and the first two episodes of season 1 were available on VHS, along with the four specials, which remain unaccounted for on DVD.
  • Six DVDs were released in Canada, with DVD menus narrated by Bert (his voice reprised by Len Carlson), and had three episodes each. These included every episode of season 2 (except "Stop the Clock!" for unknown reasons), and the first nine episodes of season 3. The four specials were also released by Embassy Home Entertainment on VHS, Betamax, CED, and Laserdisc, as were the entire first season, (most volumes each having two episodes, while one had three).
  • The whole series, including specials, has been released on DVD in Germany... with only a German audio track.
    • In mid-2020, this was all remedied when Kevin Gillis himself announced via a Facebook interview that to celebrate the franchise's 40th anniversary, the entire series, specials included, would be remastered in HD!^note Kevin talks about this at 17:50 in the video. Said remasters became available to watch in late 2022 on Canadian streaming service Crave, and furthermore, the original series (in its non-remastered form) became available to watch for free in its entirety on Run With Us Productions’ official YouTube channel. The series also streams now on the Roku Channel. Needless to say, after years of using less-than-legal methods to watch the entire series in English, the fans went NUTS.
    • Ironically, you might want to Keep Circulating the Tapes when it comes to the latter two specials, as the remastered versions of Lost Star and Let's Dance have deleted any trace of John Schneider's involvement in both. Kevin Gillis retroactively reprises his role as Ranger Dan in Lost Star, and any song Schneider performed in both specials have been replaced by either totally different songs or the 1984 LP versions as sung by other performers.
  • Similarly, the soundtrack album Evergreen Nights was released in 1987, but remained out-of-print until a limited re-release in 2019, 32 years later. Notably, due to the Canadian record industry being slower to switch to compact disc in The '80s and the vinyl revival of The New '10s, Evergreen Nights has never been released on CD, only on vinyl and an out-of-print cassette.
• Life Imitates Art: In "The Chips Are Down!", Cyril runs a contest wherein customers have to complete a puzzle from pieces that are found inside bags of his line of potato chips. However, Cyril makes the contest unwinnable by not distributing the only copy of a particular piece. In real life, Jerome Jacobson rigged McDonald's Monopoly for several years by withholding all of the rare pieces from distribution.^note Jacobson passed the rare pieces to associates of his so that they could "win" all of the prizes and give him a share of the proceeds.
• Milestone Celebration: It was announced during the franchise's 40th anniversary in 2020 that said celebration will be commemorated by the aforementioned series remasters (which eventually released in late 2022), along with a soundtrack release featuring previously-unreleased songs such as "Missing It", "Come On Home", "Restless in the Night", "Sooner or Later", and Steve Lunt's original version of "Run With Us" (which has yet to release as of 2023).
• The Other Darrin: A few characters were recast during the course of the series and specials.
  • Rich Little narrated the specials, while Geoffrey Winter took over for the series.
  • Rich's brother Fred Little voiced Cedric and Pig Three in the specials; Marvin Goldhar and Len Carlson respectively took over in the series.
  • Melissa was voiced by Rita Coolidge in the first two specials, Dottie West in the third special, Linda Feige in the first season, and Susan Roman for the rest of the series.
  • Pig One was voiced by Nick Nichols from the third special to episode 50. Due to Nichols' illness, Keith Hampshire took over the role for the final ten episodes of the series.
  • Nichols also voiced TV producer Mr. Barnes in "Picture Perfect!". Len Carlson replaced him in the character's later appearances.
  • Mr. Mammoth's sidekick was voiced by Rick Jones but in episode 51 he was voiced by Dan Hennessey.
  • Ranger Dan was voiced by Rupert Holmes in the first special, Leo Sayer in the second, John Schneider in the third, series creator Kevin Gillis in the fourth, and Murray Cruchley in the series.
  • Julie was voiced by Tammy Bourne in the specials and Vanessa Lindores in the series.
  • Tommy was voiced by Hadley Kay in the specials and Noam Zylberman in the series.
  • Zylberman also voiced Bentley for the majority of the series, however, beginning with "Black Belt Bentley!", Stuart Stone took over, due to Zylberman's voice reaching puberty.
• Recycled Soundtrack: Several songs used for the series originated from Yes You Can, a live action series produced by Kevin Gillis in the early 1980s. Its theme song is You Can Do It, which was rerecorded for "The Raccoons On Ice".^note Information on the show is extremely scarce; it is seemingly lost media.
• Referenced by...: A webcomic on Tumblr.
  • In the Bum Review of Guardians of the Galaxy, Chester as Rocket Raccoon is asked if he could sing "Run With Us".
  • Phelous' review of Dingo Pictures' "Perseus" features Wabuu singing "Run With Us" after the movie's narrator mentions darkness falling.
  • In her review of International Guerillas, Diamanda Hagan dubs over one of the film's many random musical numbers with "Run With Us".
  • Images of Cyril Sneer are often used to represent a Corrupt Corporate Executive in Jimquisition whenever Steph rants about shady business practices in the gaming industry.
• Technology Marches On:
  • The show's intro depicts Cyril playing a video game with very primitive graphics and a controller that only has one button and a joystick, similar to an Atari 2600.
  • The Evergreen Standard. The whole reason Ralph decides to create a newspaper in the first place is because it's seen as a good way to spread information about Cyril's latest scheme on a large scale. Obviously, with the advent of the internet, Ralph would be much more likely to post his findings on some form of social media such as a blog, instead of printing an entire newspaper.
  • Any instance where a character gets stranded somewhere, such as Bert in "The Sweet Smell of Success!", or Bert and Cedric in "Search and Rescue!" could have been easily resolved if the characters had access to cell phones.
  • In "Surprise Attack", Cyril sends Cedric to the dungeon, and mentions that he won't be able to watch color TV down there. While it wasn't too unusual for some households in the 1980s to still have an old black and white TV set laying around, nowadays it would be be extremely unlikely.
  • Bentley's laptop computer has a bulky suitcase design while more modern laptops have thinner clamshell designs.
  • "Black Belt Bentley!" has a weird example. The Pigs install AI software that can make business decisions and replicate Cyril's voice onto a computer. The computer they install it on uses a monochrome monitor with very primitive graphics.
  • In "The Wrong Stuff!", Cyril makes a big deal about how his new satellite will be able to broadcast three hundred forty channels. Nowadays, cable packages can contain well over one thousand channels ^note albeit, many cost extra or are just alternate time zones for standard channels, and many people have been cutting the cord in favour of streaming services.
• What Could Have Been:
  • A sixth and possibly even a seventh season was in the works, but were shelved due to the box office failure of the Gillis-produced The Nutcracker Prince.
  • According to Gerard de Souza, they had an idea for a romantic vulpine rival for Ralph at a golf tournament. It may have been reworked into an episode for season 4, "The Sky's the Limit!"
  • A feature film, entitled "As Long As Forever: A Raccoons Movie", almost happened in the early/mid-2000s, and a script was even completed, however it fell through due to a lack of financing.
  • Development material for a reboot of the series circulated around the internet during the mid-late 2010s, including a leaked pitch pilot that had character designs that were closer to the original series◊ compared to what Big Jump Entertainment, the studio that would have made the reboot, eventually revealed.◊ With the removal of the reboot's production page on Big Jump's website and Kevin Gillis deciding to remaster the original series instead, the reboot has apparently been scrapped.
• Write Who You Know: Old Tom, the catfish from "The One That Got Away!", was named after Kevin Gillis' father and youngest brother.