Mr. Microchip is a live-action children's television series that focused on the world of computer technology and the (then) relatively new home computer trend of the early 1980s. Several 8-bit home computers of the era were seen in the show, including the Apple II, Commodore, Atari and Tandy series. It was originally broadcast in Canada on the CBC, [1] [2] between 1983 and 1985, and later shown in the U.K., Australia and South Africa.
The show was produced by Canadian animation company, Nelvana, whom at the time had also produced some of its first television series: Inspector Gadget , 20 Minute Workout and The Edison Twins . A total of thirteen episodes were produced. The original scripts were later re-used to produce the same thirteen episodes in French, using different actors, as a show titled M. Micropuce. All twenty-six episodes were produced during the summer of 1982 through the fall of 1984.
The series was created by Skip Lumley and Michael Hirsh, Nelvana and Ventura Pictures, produced by Michael Hirsh and directed by Peter Jennings. Most of the computer hardware, software and electronics in the show were donated by various companies, looking to promote their products at the time.
To date, the show has not been released on home video or DVD.
Aimed at school students aged nine to fifteen, and designed to teach children basic knowledge about computers. It featured Skip Lumley, an adult computer consultant, and his two neighbours, twelve-year-old Stevie Grosfield and his ten-year-old sister Dayna Simon. Visiting Skip's workshop, Stevie and Dayna learned about computers through hands-on demonstrations and clear, analogy-filled explanations. [3] The trio were accompanied by an artificial intelligence fantasy computer named Lumley and a robot called Hero.
Episode 1 - "Information please"
Episode 2 - "Bits of programming"
Episode 3 - "Memory is made of this"
Episode 4 - "The computer has a code"
Episode 5 - "Problems, problems, problems"
Episode 6 - "You can count on computers"
Episode 7 - "Flights of fancy"
Episode 8 - "A pixel is worth a thousand words"
Episode 9 - "Music on key"
Episode 10 - "Does that compute?"
Episode 11 - "Games computers play"
Episode 12 - "Ask the teacher"
Episode 13 - "Computers don't do windows"
Nelvana Enterprises, Inc. is a Canadian animation studio and entertainment company owned by Corus Entertainment. Founded in July 1971 by Michael Hirsh, Patrick Loubert and Clive A. Smith, it was named after Nelvana of the Northern Lights, the first Canadian national superhero, who was created by Adrian Dingle. The company's production logo is a polar bear looking at Polaris, the North Star.
Max & Ruby is a Canadian children's animated television series based on the book series by Rosemary Wells and produced by Nelvana Limited.
Franklin is an animated preschool educational children's television series, based on the Franklin the Turtle books by Brenda Clark and Paulette Bourgeois, and produced by Nelvana. It was followed up by a CGI adaptation, Franklin and Friends.
The Care Bears Movie is a 1985 animated musical fantasy film directed by Arna Selznick from a screenplay by Peter Sauder. This was the second feature film from the Canadian animation studio Nelvana, in addition to being one of the first films based directly on a toy line. It introduced the Care Bears characters and their companions the Care Bear Cousins. The voice cast includes Mickey Rooney, Georgia Engel, Jackie Burroughs and Cree Summer. In the film, an orphanage owner tells a story about the Care Bears, who live in a cloud-filled land called Care-a-Lot. Traveling across Earth, the Bears help two lonely children named Kim and Jason, who lost their parents in a car accident and also save a young magician's apprentice named Nicholas from an evil spirit's influence. Deep within a place called the Forest of Feelings, Kim, Jason and their friends soon meet another group of creatures known as the Care Bear Cousins.
The history of Canadian animation involves a considerable element of the realities of a country neighbouring the United States and both competitiveness and co-operation across the border.
Patrick Loubert is one of the founders of the Canadian animation studio, Nelvana Limited, along with Clive A. Smith and Michael Hirsh. He has produced, and executive-produced, much of the company's most memorable fare.
Michael Hirsh is a Belgian-born Canadian producer. He has been a significant figure in the Canadian television industry, or more specifically children's programming, since the 1980s, with his most well-known role being the co-founder of animation studio Nelvana.
The Get Along Gang is a group of characters created in 1983 by Tony Byrd, Tom Jacobs, Ralph Shaffer, Linda Edwards, Muriel Fahrion, and Mark Spangler for American Greetings' toy design and licensing division, "Those Characters from Cleveland", for a series of greeting cards. The Get Along Gang is a group of 6 pre-adolescent anthropomorphic animal characters in the fictional town of Green Meadow, who form a club that meets in an abandoned caboose and who have various adventures whose upbeat stories were intended to show the importance of teamwork and friendship. The success of the greeting card line led to a Saturday morning television series, which aired on CBS for 13 episodes in the 1984–1985 season, with reruns showing from January to June 1986.
6teen, originally titled The Mall, is a Canadian 2D-animated teen comedy drama television series created by Jennifer Pertsch and Tom McGillis which originally aired for four seasons and 93 episodes on Teletoon from November 7, 2004 until February 11, 2010.
Peter Sauder is a Canadian film and TV writer, television producer and animator best known for his contributions to Nelvana franchises such as Care Bears, Babar, Strawberry Shortcake and Droids. Peter, who is originally from Toronto, wrote the first ever story for another hit Nelvana series, Franklin. He is sometimes credited as Pete Sauder.
The Edison Twins is a Canadian children's television program which ran for six seasons on CBC Television from March 3, 1984 to December 17, 1986. The Disney Channel also picked up the rights in the mid-1980s. Six seasons were produced by Nelvana.
Stickin' Around is a Canadian animated children's television series produced by Nelvana and created by Robin Steele and Brianne Leary. The series originally aired from August 14, 1996 until April 13, 1998. Stickin' Around, originating as a series of one-minute interstitials on CBS in 1994, centered on two best friends named Stacy and Bradley; their hand-drawn adventures with their friends and family; and their fantasies, both encountering many problems they must face as they continue to grow up – with school, bullies, friends, and parents – and always coming up with imaginative ideas to eliminate these obstacles, such as becoming a superhero and putting themselves in a different environment where they have no trouble in defeating their enemies.
Sunny Besen Thrasher is a Canadian former child actor who starred as Paul Edison in Nelvana's live-action series The Edison Twins, and supplied voices in the first two Care Bears movies. He's the son of Prairie Oyster keyboardist and Canadian songwriter Joan Besen.
Pippi Longstocking is an animated television series produced by AB Svensk Filmindustri, TaurusFilm, TFC Trickompany Filmproduktion, and Nelvana based on the book series drawn and written by Swedish author Astrid Lindgren. It is a joint Canadian-German-Swedish production. This was the first time that the popular character had been animated. A spin-off of the 1997 animated film of the same name, the series disregards the film and starts with a new storyline. Melissa Altro, Richard Binsley, Noah Reid, Olivia Garratt, Wayne Robson, Rick Jones, Philip Williams, Chris Wiggins and Karen Bernstein are the only voice cast reprising their roles from the 1997 film. It was led by German director Michael Schaack. The story editor and chief writer for the series was Ken Sobol whose son, John, also wrote several episodes.
Small Star Cinema is a series of live-action/animated shorts broadcast on CBC Television from April 12, 1974, to May 24, 1975, as part of their Bagatelle, Camera Twelve and Children's Cinema series. It was produced by Michael Hirsh and Patrick Loubert, and starred Clive A. Smith. Each short began with a small animated character purposefully walking into a spotlight. The series was then followed by the 1975 Christmas special Christmas Two Step also made for the CBC that has a similar premise.
Take Me Up to the Ball Game is a 1980 American-Canadian animated television special that premiered on CBC in Canada and in syndication in the United States on September 18, 1980. It is the last television special in Nelvana's 1977 to 1980 series of specials. It was also the last Nelvana television special to be distributed by Viacom Enterprises in the United States. The title is a play on the 1908 song title "Take Me Out to the Ball Game".
Babar is an animated television series produced in Canada by Nelvana Limited and The Clifford Ross Company. It premiered in 1989 on CBC in Canada, and on HBO in the United States. The series is based on Jean de Brunhoff's original Babar books, and was Nelvana's first international co-production. The show has been dubbed in 30 languages in over 150 countries.
Miss Spider's Sunny Patch Friends, sometimes shortened to Sunny Patch, is a computer-animated children's television series produced by Nelvana in association with AbsoluteDigital Pictures and Callaway Arts & Entertainment as a follow-up to Miss Spider's Sunny Patch Kids. It was based on David Kirk's Sunny Patch brand and the accompanying Miss Spider book series. In Canada, the show aired on Treehouse TV. In the United States, it aired on Nick Jr. 44 episodes were produced.
Donkey Kong Country is a Canadian-French-Chinese computer-animated musical television series based on the video game Donkey Kong Country from Nintendo and Rare. Co-produced by Nelvana, Medialab Studio L.A. and Hong Guang Animation, in association with WIC Entertainment, with the participation of Teletoon—for Season 1, it was produced in co-production with France 2, Canal+, in association with Valar 4.