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1999 TV series or programBob the Builder | |
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Created by | Keith Chapman |
Directed by | Liz Whitaker (Ep 1) Sarah Ball Brian Little |
Voices of | Greg Proops (Bob) Kate Harbour (Wendy, Dizzy, Mrs. Potts) Rob Rackstraw (Scoop, Muck, Roley, Spud, Travis) |
Country of origin | United Kingdom |
Original language | English |
Production | |
Executive producers | Kate Fawkes Theresa Plummer-Andrews |
Producer | Jackie Cockle |
Production location | United Kingdom |
Original release | |
Network | BBC |
Release | August 02 1999 |
Bob the Builder is a children's television character created by Keith Chapman. Bob appears as a construction contractor in a stop motion animated programme with his colleague Wendy, various neighbours and friends, and their gang of anthropomorphised work-vehicles and equipment (all made of clay). The show is broadcast in many countries, but originates from the United Kingdom where Bob is voiced by actor Neil Morrissey.
In each episode, Bob and his gang help with renovations, construction, and repairs and with other projects as needed. The show emphasizes conflict resolution, co-operation, socialization and various learning skills. Bob's catchphrase is "Can we fix it?", to which the other characters respond with "Yes we can!" This phrase is also the title of the show's theme song, which was a Comic Relief hit in England.
Characters
All the characters are adult humans, machines or animals, except for Spud the scarecrow who serves as the stand-in for a naïve child. It is Spud who must learn to be patient, not to eat all of the food, etc. Spud has a habit of trying to do work and with his limited intelligence getting it wrong and spoiling materials. The machines also often exhibit the behaviors of children, being impatient, not fully understanding the consequences of their actions, and generally acting like children. In these circumstances, Bob acts like their parent, patiently teaching them lessons and helping them fix the messes they've gotten themselves into.
Some have complained about technical errors and lack of proper safety practices in the program, especially the absence of protective eye-wear. However, in later episodes, Bob is seen wearing safety glasses.
Humans
- Bob the Builder - is a construction worker and head of his own construction yard. He is the namesake of the show and also its main character. Some of the problems in the show arise from Bob's habit of forgetting to turn his mobile phone on. He is the owner of Pilchard the Cat.
- Farmer Pickles - is a nearby farmer who sometimes helps out with Bob's projects.
- Spud - is a scarecrow (male voice; catchphrase: "OK, Farmer Pickles" & "Spud's on the job!").
- Wendy - is Bob's business partner who runs the office and keeps the business in order, and often organizes tools and equipment. An underlying romantic tension between Bob and Wendy is hinted at in several episodes.
Minor characters | ||
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Machines
- Benny - is a darkish pink excavator (female voice; catchphrase: "Unreal, banana peel!")
- Dodger - is a lightish blue milk machine, owned by Meg and carries milk. His horn makes honking sounds. (male voice; catchphrase: "Dodger Delivers").
- Dizzy - is an orange concrete mixer and one of the youngest in the yard. She is eager, curious, and easily excitable (female voice; catchphrase: "Brilliant!").
- Jackaroo- is a blue pickup truck.
- Lofty - is a blue crane who isn't very confident; he is hesitant and timid, but with the encouragement of the team comes through in the end (male voice; catchphrase: "Uh... yeah, I think so!", usually said in response to the question "Can we fix it?").
- Muck - is a red bulldozer with additional dumping bed who thinks before he acts and often gets in trouble for it, but finds his way back (male voice; female voice in US dub; catchphrase: "Muck to the rescue!").
- Packer - is a red pickup truck, owned by Farmer Pickles. (male voice; catchphrase: "Pack me up and watch me go-go").
- Roley - is a green steamroller, rounds out the "Can-Do Crew" (male voice; catchphrase: "Rock and roll!").
- RV - is a light blue crane machine belonging to Bob's Dad. (male voice; catchphrase: "Amazing RV, thats me!").
- Scoop - is a yellow backhoe loader and the unofficial leader of all the machines (male voice; catchphrase: "No prob, Bob!").
- Scoot - is a black & yellow snowmobile, owned by Tom (male voice)
- Scrambler - is darkish blue quadbike (ATV) (male voice; catchphrases: "Awesome!" and "Scram to the Valley")
- Skip - is a yellow skip-carrier (male voice)
- Sumsy - is a maroon & yellow striped forklift Tractor, owned by Farmer Pickles (female voice; catchphrase: "I can pack 'em, I can stack 'em!")
- Travis - is Farmer Pickles' cyan tractor. He helps out the crew when they need it and keeps an eye on Spud the scarecrow.
- Trix - is a purple forklift; belongs to J.J. (female voice; catchphrase: "Easy peasy!")
- Tumbler - is a green, yellow, and nice concrete mixer. (male voice; catchphrase: "I'm a Rumblin' and a Tumblin')
- Zoomer - is a purple, Bobsville snowmobile (male voice; seen in 'Snowed Under')
Animals
- Bird - is a bird, Roley's best friend
- Hamish - Molly's parrot
- Humpty - is a a prize pig, owned by Farmer Pickles.
- Pilchard - Bob's pet cat and considered a part of the team. However, she's often sleeping when she's needed.
- Scruffty - a dog, owned by Farmer Pickles.
- Squawk - Another bird, friend of Bird
- Tommy - Mrs. Potts' turtle
Project Build-It
For a more comprehensive list, see List of Bob the Builder episodes.In the second season, a sort of spin-off series was created titled "Project: Build-It". Bob hears of a contest to build a new community in a remote area called Sunflower Valley, outside of Bobsville. He moves from Bobsville (supposedly temporarily) with Wendy and the team and builds a new yard there. Bob convinces his father, Robert, to come out of retirement and take over the Bobsville building business. It is not known whether Bob will return to Bobsville or not.
For the Project Build-It series, different actors were found to do the voices for many of the human characters, including casting Greg Proops as the new voice of Bob, and Neil Morrissey, who played the original Bob, to be the voices of Spud the Scarecrow and Mr. Bentley. Also, the show added recycling and being environmentally friendly to its lessons, emphasising the phrase "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle".
International versions
Bob the Builder is shown in more than thirty countries, and versions are available in English, French, Spanish, Slovenian, German, Italian, Dutch, Hebrew, and Croatian, among other languages. It is shown on CBeebies on BBC television in the UK. Voice actors who have contributed to the original British version include Neil Morrissey, Rob Rackstraw, Kate Harbour, Rupert Degas, Colin McFarlane, Maria Darling, Emma Tate, Richard Briers and June Whitfield.
Australia
Bob the Builder is shown with the ABC Kids programming in Australia.
Catalonia
"Bob el Manetes" is aired in Catalan on TV3, the national public television. Bob always asks "Ens en sortirem?" and his friends answer "Si, i tant".
Czech Republic
"Bořek stavitel" is aired on Česká televize, the national public television.
Finland
"Puuha-Pete" is aired in Finland on Nelonen on Wednesday at 7.50 AM.
France
Beginning October 22 2005, "Bob le Bricoleur" has been airing on France 5 in France. This is the second season (called "Project: Build It" in English): "Mission Nature".
Germany
Beginning February 2, 2001, "Bob der Baumeister" has been airing on Super RTL in Germany. Since then, 157 episodes have been aired.
Hungary
In 2007, beginning 20 November till the end of the year, “Bob, a mester” was aired every weekday (from 16:15) on channel m1 of Hungarian Television. The names of the characters are either translated in a more or less literal way (Farmer Pickles, Pilchard, Lofty, Roley), left untranslated (Bob, Wendy), or replaced to a phonetically similar word (Muck became Muki, this similar-sounding word is semantically unrelated); in some cases, entirely new names were given, unrelated to the original ones both semantically and phonetically (Dizzy has become Trixi, Scoop has become Márkus, and Spud has become Piff, neither of these new names has any meaning in Hungarian). Bird is given a new name as well, a word meaning “short” in a countryside dialect (infiltrated into youth slang as well); but the choice may be motivated also by its onomatopoetic sounding. Not only the broadcast episodes have been translated, but also the Annual 2006.
Japan
When being exported to Japan, it was reported that characters of Bob the Builder would be doctored to have five fingers instead of the original four. This was because of a practice among the Yakuza, the famed Japanese mafia, where members would "cut off their little fingers as a sign they can be trusted and have strength of character, and will stay through.".
Latin America
In the Spanish talking part of Latin America, the show is called "Bob, el Constructor" (literal translation of the title) and is aired by several public TV channels as well as by Discovery Kids. It was dubbed in México and some of the voice actors are: 'Arturo Mercado' (Bob), 'María Fernanda Morales' (Wendy) and 'Jesús "Chucho" Barrero' (Spud).
Quebec, Canada
In the province of Quebec, the series is entitled "Bob le Bricoleur" and airs on Télé-Québec.
Slovenia
In Slovenia the show is named "Mojster Miha" and is being aired on RTV slovenija channel TV Slovenija 1.
The Netherlands
Soon after the BBC started airing, Fox Kids and later Jetix aired the episodes of "Bob de Bouwer" in the Netherlands. Main voices are done by Bram Bart (Bob, Spud, Mr. Dickson, Mr. Ellis, Bennie), Caroline Mout (Wendy, Dizzie, Scrambler) and Fred Meyer (Scoop, Lofty, Mr. Beasley, Mr. Bentley, Mr. Fothergill, Pogo ), Laus Steenbeeke (Farmer Pickles, Jake, Mr. Adams, Mr. Sabatini, Mr. Stevens, Robert the Builder, Scip, Tom the Builder, Tony, Travis, Zoomer), Marjolein Algera (Aunt Doris, Charlene, Del, Dot the Builder, Jana von Strudel, Jenny, Marjorie Mayor, Molly, Mrs. Broadbent, Mrs. Percival, Mrs. Potts, Ms Barbara Bentley, Scoot, Trix) and Stan Limburg (Muck, Roley, JJ, Lenny Lazenby). Stan Limburg also is the Dutch voice-director.
North America
Treehouse TV and TVOntario air Bob the Builder in Canada, and it was shown on Nickelodeon in the United States until the 2005-06 season when it was moved to the PBS Kids network. The show also aired in the US on CBS between 2001 and 2002.
The North American version of the show uses the original British footage, but dubs the voices in local accents and slang -- for example, the word "soccer" is used instead of "football" to avoid confusion with American football or Canadian football (though sometimes this is done haphazardly; in one episode, a "soccer field" is referred to but later it talks about "football tricks"). The original North American voice of Bob (and Farmer Pickles/Mr. Beasley/Mr. Sabatini) was William Dufris, however, he was replaced with comedian Greg Proops.
Norway
In Norway the show is named "Byggmester Bob" and is being aired on TV2.
Wales
The Welsh language version is called "Bob Y Bildar" and began airing on S4C in October 2006, as part of the Planed Plant Bach lunchtime segment between 12.30 and 1.30pm. The show has been dubbed into the Welsh language by record label Sain, which had previously provided Welsh dialogue for children's series Thomas the Tank Engine.
Sweden
In Sweden the show is named "Byggare Bob" and is being aired on SVTs child times.
Bob the Builder enters the music industry
The decision was made to do a deal which with Koch Records, leading to the release of an album based on the TV series, entitled Bob the Builder; The Album. The album featured members from the original cast, including Neil Morrissey and Kate Harbour.
At least two songs were released in the UK from this album, securing two number one hits. Can We Fix It? was a Christmas number one in the UK in 1999, followed by the number one cover of Mambo No. 5'
Other Media
Bob the Builder was recently parodied in the Robot Chicken episode "More Blood, More Chocolate" with Bob voiced by Jamie Kaler and Spud, Roley, and Scoop voiced by Seth Green.
Bob the Builder has also been parodied by Comedy Inc. as Bodgy Builder.
References
- Character section information from: "Meet all of the Bob the Builder Characters" (flash). Bob the Builder website (U.S. version). Retrieved 2006-08-11.
- "Bob the Builder - Cast and Crew". IMDB. Retrieved 2008-01-22.
- "Bob the Builder - Cast and Crew". TV.com. Retrieved 2008-01-22.
- http://www.fluidpowersafety.com/sfty_toy1.html
- "Bob the Builder - ABC Kids TV guide". Retrieved 2006-09-03.
- "Bob le Bricoleur" (in French). francetélévisons distribution. Retrieved 2006-08-11.
- "Bob, a mester" (in Hungarian). m1 of Hungarian Television. The flashes on the page are advertisements, not video excerpts.
- Bob a Mester nagykönyve 2007: 12
- ^ Bob a Mester nagykönyve 2007: 10
- ^ Bob a Mester nagykönyve 2007: 9
- ^ Bob a Mester nagykönyve 2007: 8
- Bob a Mester nagykönyve 2007: 13
- Bob a Mester nagykönyve 2007: 15
- Ladó, Anett. "A nagyvárosi és a kisközségi gyerekek szleng használata" (Word document) (in Hungarian). pp. 12, 15.
- Bob a Mester nagykönyve (in Hungarian). translated by Markwarth, Zsófia. Budapest: Egmont-Hungary Kft. 2007. ISBN 978 963 628 813 6.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: others (link) Made after the original: Bob the Builder Annual 2006. United Kingdom: Egmont Books Ltd. 2005. ISBN 1405220430. - "Bob the Builder fixed for Japan". BBC News. 2000-04-20. Retrieved 2006-08-11.
- "Can we fix it? Ie, ni'n gallu, says Bob on S4C". icWales. 2006-07-22. Retrieved 2006-08-11.
External links
- Official Website
- Bob the Builder area on NickJr.com
- Bob the Builder web page at TreeHouseTV.com
- Bob the Builder at IMDB
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