Teletubbies

Teletubbies is a British children's television series for preschool viewers that aired on CBeebies. It was a show made from 31 March 1997 to 16 February 2001. The pilot was made in 1997 It was developed by Ragdoll Productions and created by director Anne Wood CBE and Andrew Davenport who wrote all 365 episodes of the original series and all 120 episodes of the revival series, this time with Darrall Macqueen developing the show. The show had two narrators; Tim Whitnall (for the international versions) and Rolf Saxon (for the PBS Kids version). Teletubbies was also shown on television in the United States on the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS). Public television used the show on their television network until 29 August 2008, when it was removed from the television schedule and returned on PBS Kids Pluto TV on May 1, 2019.

Teletubbies
Teletubby dolls
Also known as	The Teletubbies
Created by	Anne Wood Andrew Davenport
Developed by	Ragdoll Productions (Original Series) Darrall Macqueen (Revived Series)
Starring	Original series: Dave Thompson Simon Shelton John Simmit Nikky Smedley Pui Fan Lee Mark Dean Jessica Smith Robin Stevens Toyah Wilcox Revived series: Jeremiah Krage Nick Kellington Rebecca Hyland Rachelle Beinart Olly Taylor Berry Smith Victoria Jane Luisa Guerreiro
Voices of	Original series: Toyah Willcox Penelope Keith John Simmit Gary Stevenson Alex Hogg Alex Pascall Rudolph Walker Eric Sykes Mark Heenehan Sandra Dickinson (US) John Schwab (US) Toni Barry (US) Dena Davis (US) Revived series: Jane Horrocks Jim Broadbent Fearne Cotton Antonia Thomas Teresa Gallagher Rob Rackstraw David Walliams Rochelle Humes Ralph Reay
Narrated by	Tim Whitnall (songs only in the US) Toyah Wilcox (titles and credits only) Rolf Saxon (US) Daniel Rigby Antonia Thomas (titles and credits only)
Opening theme	"Teletubbies say 'Eh-oh!'"
Composers	Andrew McCorrie-Shand (Original series) Robert Hartley BBC Philharmonic Richie Webb Matt Katz (Revival series)
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Original language	English
No. of seasons	9
No. of episodes	485 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producers	Anne Wood David G. Hiller Vic Finch (Original Series) Maddy Darrall Billy Macqueen (Revival Series)
Production locations	Wimpstone, England (1997–2001) Twickenham Studios, West London, England (2015–2018)
Running time	25 minutes (original series) 15 minutes (revival series)
Production companies	Original series Ragdoll Productions BBC Revival series DHX Media Darrall Macqueen InGenious
Original release
Network	Original series BBC One (1997-2000) PBS (1998-2008) BBC Two (1999-2002) New Series CBeebies (2015-2018) Netflix (2022)
Release	Original series: 31 March 1997 (1997-03-31) – 16 February 2001 (2001-02-16) Revived series: 9 November 2015 (2015-11-09) – 12 October 2018 (2018-10-12)

The show made new episodes until 16 February 2001. Years later, a new series aired in 2015.

The story

The show takes place in a grassy, floral planet referred to as Teletubbyland populated by rabbits and bees with calls of birds heard in the background. The Teletubbytrons, or the Teletubbies for short, are a family of four colourful monkey-like toy telerobots acting like multicoloured creatures. They have TV screens in their stomachs and antennas on their heads. They live in Teletubbyland with many automated objects (with lemur-like characteristics) such as the Noo-Noo, a blue (after blue, pink and golden) vacuum cleaner, and the Voice Trumpets, a set of speakers shaped like shower heads.

The Teletubbies reside in a hill house known as the Tubbytronic Superdome. Located in the ground, it has three entrances, which are a hole at the top and four large half-semicircular doors at the dome's front and back feet.

In every episode, the Teletubbies do similar activities, like playing with the Voice Trumpets or the mishaps caused by the Noo-Noo. That also includes the footage of live children displayed on the screens in the Teletubbies' stomachs and a magical event that happens once per episode. The activities are different from each episode but still very similar.

Characters

The Teletubbies

Tinky Winky

Tinky Winky "Tinkus Winkus" Teletubby (played by Dave Thompson, Mark Heenehan, and Simon Shelton in the original series and by Jeremiah Krage in the revived series) is the first Teletubby. He is the largest Teletubby, he is purple, and has a triangular antenna on his head. He is notable for the red magic bag he always carries. He is also found dancing in a ballet-style skirt from time to time, which is also often worn by Laa-Laa.

Dipsy

Dipsy Teletubby (played by John Simmit in the original series and Nick Kellington in the revived series) is the second Teletubby. He is lime green and is called "Dipsy" because his straight antenna looks like a dipstick. He has a black and white furry top hat that he likes a lot. Dipsy is the most stubborn of the Teletubbies, and will sometimes refuse to go along with the other Teletubbies' opinions. His face and ears are notably dark.

Laa-Laa

Laa-Laa Teletubby (played by Nikky Smedley in the original series and Rebecca Hyland in the revived series) is the third Teletubby. She is yellow, has a swirly antenna and is concerned with the welfare of all. She is the best singer of all the Teletubbies and is a drama queen, party girl and motherly type. Her favourite thing is a bouncy, orange ball, which is almost as big as she is. She likes to sing and dance. Laa-Laa is one of the two girls in the Teletubbies show.

Po

Po Teletubby (played by Pui Fan Lee in the original series and Rachelle Beinart in the revived series) is the red Teletubby. She is the fourth of the Teletubbies and has an antenna that is round. Po is the smallest of the Teletubbies and gets into trouble the most. She also says the word "Eh-oh" (hello), a word used by herself and the other three Teletubbies.

Po's favourite object is her blue and pink scooter, which she calls "cootuh" (but also "'cooter" or "scootuh"). Po often wants attention and can sometimes be mischievous and naughty when she disobeys the commands of the Voice Trumpets.

Po can speak two languages. Those languages are English (or the broadcasting country's language) and, for counting and singing, Cantonese. For example, she says "Yatt, yit, sam.", which means "One, two, three." She is a problem solver and the best spider-fighter. Po is also a Tomboy type.

In the Teletubbies' house, she sleeps at the side of all the other Teletubbies and sometimes eats Tubby Toast while the others are sleeping. She is voiced by Pui Fan Lee, who can speak Cantonese as well.

Although many are unsure of Po's gender or think she is male, probably because of her scarlet/red colour and tomboyish behaviour, she is explicitly female in several episodes, such as "Dad's Portrait" (Episode 216, first broadcast 1998) and "Numbers: 2" (Episode 30).

Character Names

The antenna shapes of each Teletubby provide clues as to the character's names:

• Triangle: Tinky Winky
• Dipstick: Dipsy
• Loop: Laa-Laa
• O-shape: Po

Skin Colour

• ~~Tinky Winky~~: {{{1}}}
• ~~Dipsy~~: {{{1}}}
• ~~Laa-Laa~~: {{{1}}}
• ~~Po~~: {{{1}}}

Other Characters

Noo-Noo

Little Telenoo-Noo (played by Mark Dean), also known as simply the Little Noo-Noo or Little Telenoo, is the Teletubbies' sentient blue pet elephant-like toy telerobotic vacuum cleaner creature who then turns orange, gold and pink. He cleans up after the Teletubbies ("Noo-Noo tidy up!"). It has been shown that the Noo-Noo has an extraordinarily large storage capacity. He also can to vomit out any content, often things that he should not have consumed in the first place such as the Teletubbies' blankets, foods or favourite things. Then, he is called Naughty Noo-Noo.

The Noo-Noo does not share the Teletubbies' enthusiasm for big hugs, resulting in Benny Hill-style chase scenes around the dome when the Tubbies try to express their thankfulness, during which the Noo-Noo does an impression of a Formula 1 car engine in full flight. The Teletubbies always win and give the Noo-Noo a ''big hug''.

Supporting Characters

Although non-sentient, the other machines of the Tubbytronic Superdome also play a major role in many episodes.

• The Voice Trumpets are a group of five speakers resembling shower heads. They are also guardians of the Teletubbies. They live outside in the fields. They sometimes come out of the ground to talk to the Teletubbies. They can play games with the Teletubbies, usually games such as hide and seek.
• The Giggly Baby Sun (played and voiced by Jess Smith in the original series and by Berry (surname unknown) in the revived series) is a young sun that appears at the beginning and the end of each episode. Her job is to wake up the Teletubbies.
• The Tubby Toaster is very unreliable, and often either leaves a Tubby without their toast or buries them under heaps of toast.
• The dome's central console has a battery of knobs and levers with which a Teletubby often chooses to amuse themselves ("Adjustments!"), although the outcome is normally limited to a variety of loud and surprising noises being generated.
• The Tubby Phone is next to the Tubby Sponge Cases, which contain the Tubby Sponges ("Wash, wash, wash. Wash, wash, wash. Tubby, Tubby, Tubby, Tubby. Wash wash wash").
• Outside, the Magic Windmill not only generate energy to power the Superdome, but it also gives the signal to the Teletubbies that it is time to watch the Earth's children on either one of their TV screens, as well as announcing Magical Events, the Lion and the Bear or Tubby Bye-Bye (only in the original series).

The show also features the Little Lambs, the Dog, the Butterfly, the Pink Spider, the Magic Crown, the Socks, the Vest, the Pants, the Blue Mittens and the Pink Boots and occasionally, the Trees, the Clouds, the Rabbits and the Bees. The Birds are planned to be in the TV series but only heard off-screen.

Physical Cast

The only physical cast members are John Schwab and Sandra Dickson, who play the Voice Trumpets, Penelope Keith, who plays the Brown, Fuzzy Bear with Brown, Fuzzy Hair, Eric Sykes, who plays the Big, Scary Lion with Big, Scary Teeth and Jess Smith who plays the Baby Sun, who is believed to have been around seven months old at the time of filming. Her giggle was included in the single Teletubbies Say Eh-Oh! Although not credited, this makes her technically the youngest person ever whose vocals appeared on a number-one song.

Series overview

See the main article: List of Teletubbies episodes

Original series

Series	Episodes	First episode	Final episode
1	118	31 March 1997	31 December 1997
2	126	1 January 1998	31 December 1998
3	56	1 January 1999	17 December 1999
4	30	31 July 2000	22 December 2000
5	35	1 January 2001	16 February 2001

Revival series

Series	Episodes	First episode	Final episode
1	15	9 November 2015	27 November 2015
2	45	18 January 2016	4 November 2016
3	40	14 March 2017	20 October 2017
4	20	4 June 2018	12 October 2018

The Teletubbies' instruments

Each of the Teletubbies plays a single instrument.

• Tinky Winky: guitar and tuba
• Dipsy: drum and marimba
• Laa-Laa: harp and saxophone
• Po: piano

Controversy

Tinky Winky

Tinky Winky started a still talked-about controversy in 1999 due to his carrying a bag that looks like a woman's handbag.

He was first called gay by the academic and cultural critic Andy Medhurst in a letter of July 1997 to The Face, and gained the interest of Jerry Falwell in 1997 when Fallwell said that the character was a "gay role model." Falwell wrote about it in his National Liberty Journal. He said that in the Washington Post "In/Out" column someone had written that lesbian comedian Ellen DeGeneres was "out" or uncloseted, as the main gay model, while the Tinky Winky was "in" or closeted. Falwell said it was because of the Teletubby's purple colour, the "purse" (British for Handbag) and the triangle antenna which all represented homosexuality. Also, Tinky Winky dances in a tutu, which supporters of the theory may take as evidence.

This caused many Christians to boycott Teletubbies because it made them think that Teletubbies support homosexuality. A February 1999 article in the National Liberty Journal, published by evangelical pastor Jerry Falwell, warned parents that Tinky Winky could be a hidden homosexual symbol, because "he is purple, the gay pride colour, and his antenna is shaped like a triangle, the gay pride symbol". A spokesman for The itsy bitsy Entertainment Company, which licenses the characters in the United States, said that it was just a magic bag." The fact that he carries a magic bag doesn't make him a homosexual. It's a children's show, folks. To think we would be putting sexual innuendo in a children's show is kind of outlandish", he added.

In an unrelated incident reported in 2000, a girl's Tinky Winky toy reportedly said "I got a gun". Kenn Viselman, then chairman of The itsy bitsy Entertainment Company, said the toy was saying "Again, again!", a catchphrase from the show.

Po

A girl's talking Po doll was thought to be saying "faggot, faggot" as well as "fatty, fatty". Supporters of the interpretation of Tinky Winky as a gay pride symbol might take this as evidence as well. The toy was recalled and it was revealed to have said "fi-dit, fi-dit", which was inspired by Cantonese for "faster, faster".

The Lion and The Bear

In the episode, "See-Saw" from (season 1) The Lion and The Bear came to Teletubbyland. The Lion is voiced by Eric Sykes and The Bear is voiced by Penelope Keith. In the original, many kids thought The Lion and The Bear were very scary and parents reported to the BBC that The Lion and The Bear were too scary. In the next season, they will do The Lion and The Bear again but this time with more careful Music and happier voices.

Sponsors

In the United States of America, the show is sponsored for broadcast on television; this is a list of the companies who have sponsored the show.

• Nickelodeon Home Entertainment (1998-2008)

Related pages

• Teletubbies Everywhere
• The Tiddlytubbies
• In the Night Garden...
• Boohbah
• List of Teletubbies episodes
• List of Teletubbies Sunday and Weekened Specials

Other websites

• Official UK website Archived 2008-08-28 at the Wayback Machine
• Official USA website
• Official BBC/ CBeebies website Archived 2006-10-04 at the Wayback Machine
• Teletubbies at AllMovie
• Teletubbies on IMDb