The Smurfs had been around since 1958 but really, if you didn't live in Belgium there is a really good chance that you wouldn't have any idea what they were. It was on this day that the world was introduced to a group of characters that still hang on to popularity - including two movies that made a ton of money - to this day.
The year was 1981
Now i would be lying if i said that I was a fan when this first became a popular feature in my Saturday-morning cartoon rotation because I wasn't really. However, we took what we could get and programming was very hit-and-miss in the entire (once very valuable) kids audience that were glued to the TV screens from 8 AM to noon every Saturday.
Every episode of The Smurfs was extremely innocent, as one might expect from childrens' programming in the 80's. Each episode was an adventure of sorts, normally attempting to thwart some sort of evil plot that was concocted by Gargamel and his cat Azrael who wanted to capture the Smurfs and turn them into gold (which we are just supposed to presume is possible.)
Despite the fact that these two were evil, they were presented in an extremely whimsical sense and of course the Smurf's would always win in the end.
fun facts about Smurfs
Smurfs are a Belgian creation made by accident: The artist known as "Peyo" created them when he accidentally mis-pronounced "salt" at a dinner, asking "can you please pass the Schtroumpfs ." His friend responded by saying something along the lines of "Here's the schtroumpf. When you are done schtroumpfing, schtroumpf it back."... thus began the manor in which the Smurfs use the word "smurf" to substitute for almost any verb or noun in a sentence.
The French version of the cartoon was called " Les Schtroumpfs" and existed since 1958. They enjoyed a mostly European popularity, but some of the comics and toys made it over to the other side of the pond in USA.... which brings us to the next point
Smurfs was put into the once lucrative USA and Canada Saturday-morning rotation when an NBC executive saw how much his daughter loved her Smurf doll and since he was kind of in charge of selecting new features for the weekend specials, this is largely the reason why there are films that none of us go to see in theaters that make $300 million.
original Smurfs cartoon intro courtesy of SkullyTheHypnoSkull
Because I was a young boy in the early 80's (and we were still allowed to differentiate based on gender back then) I was never really a fan of this cartoon - i would actually groan a bit when it came on but because it was Saturday cartoons, I had no choice but to endure it and hoped that the next feature would be more to my liking. However, there is no denying the success of this far-reaching franchise especially considering their somewhat recent theatrical success.
It all kind of began in 1981 and if you are my age or around it I challenge you to not have the Smurf's song stuck in your head on repeat just because I mentioned it ..... You're welcome.