Johnson and Friends
Johnson and Friends is an Australian children’s television program broadcast on the ABC from 3 September 1990 to 10 July 1997. It was produced by Film Australia and lasted for four series. In the UK it was shown on TCC, CBBC, and then on UK Living's Tiny Living strand for under-fives. It was later aired in the United States with dubbed American voices as a part of The Fox Cubhouse, an educational children's anthology series on Fox Kids, between 1994 and early 1996. The series was last repeated on ABC1, with this run ending on 19 March 2002. The fourth series was produced in 1995 for Fox and was not aired in Australia until 1997.
Plot
Johnson and his friends are toys that belong to a boy named Michael, unseen except for when he sleeps in his bed. They reside in his bedroom, but do not move or show any signs of life until he has left the room or has fallen asleep. Each episode involves a story about the toys and it will usually have an educational message to convey to the viewer.Topics
The series is aimed at children less than five years old, and plays upon their fascination with the notion that toys come to life while they are gone. However, the stories often have a deeper message, and sometimes they are very poignant.Characters
- Johnson: The leader of the toys. A furry pink elephant who loves being an In The Home Coordinator. Johnson is the wisest and oldest of the group, despite a shortcoming of not being able to count past one, and a tendency towards impatience sometimes.
- McDuff: A blue and yellow concertina who loves having fun. Although she is a little silly, McDuff is a kind and loyal friend, especially towards the misunderstood Diesel.
- Diesel: A red toy truck with a yellow and black hat that spends most of his time going "bruuum, bruuum" around the floor. He speaks with a very pronounced Australian accent. Although brusque on the outside, he means well and is obviously fond of his friends on the inside.
- Alfred: A green hot water bottle, which is technically not a toy. He is a real fusspot and lives in the dark, dank area of the bedroom that is under the bed. He is neurotic and anxious and complains constantly. His face wears an aggrieved expression on the outside, but it is Alfred that supplies a lot of the humour on the inside. He also owns an old "banana skin blanket" which he is very protective of. Although grumpy and sometimes selfish on the outside, Alfred is generally good natured on the inside and helps Johnson out on his endeavours.
- Squeaky: A black and red robot. She guards the bedroom while Michael is asleep and loves singing to herself. She is childlike and believes that the vacuum cleaner is her mother. She does not appear in every episode.
- Victoria: A slow-moving orange and purple dinosaur that actually belongs to Michael's elder sister, Melissa; Victoria will often appear at the door of Michael's bedroom with some bad news she has just heard.
- Alphonse: Alfred's long lost friend from the hot water bottle factory, he mentions that he and Alfred are both very musically talented and were once known as "The Hot Water Rockers".
- Albert: Another hot water bottle acquaintance of Alfred's, Albert is known for his temper.
- Alfred's Friends: Aside from Alphonse and Albert, Alfred is shown to have many hot water bottle friends, whom he has invited to the bedroom at least once.
- Michael: The boy who owns the toys, he is only seen while asleep, but is frequently mentioned throughout the series.
- Melissa: Michael's sister who is the owner of Victoria. She is never seen on screen, only mentioned.
- Michael's Mum and Dad: Michael's parents are occasionally mentioned throughout the series, however, they never appear physically.
- Michael's Aunt and Uncle: Michael's Aunt and Uncle are mentioned very briefly in one of the episodes.
- Baby: Michael's infant cousin made a non-physical appearance in one of the episodes.
Cast
Episodes
Home media
Johnson and Friends received four video releases throughout 1991, comprising 24 episodes out of the first 26 made. ABC Video would rerelease the first 4 videos with redesigned video cover artwork to fit with their new line of Johnson videos. They would go on to release a total of 13 videos through 1994 to 2002. Reel Corporation's children's division, Reel Kids would only release the first 48 episodes of Johnson and Friends in 2005 and would continue to rerelease these 48 episodes throughout various compilation DVDs.VHS releases
Album list
- An Afternoon with Johnson and Friends
- Making Music
American version
WQED and FOX teamed up and implemented Johnson and Friends as a segment in Tuesday and Thursday episodes of the 'Cubhouse'. In addition, The Fox Cubhouse itself was shot at WQED. However, the FOX network executives believed that the Australian accents in Johnson and Friends would confuse American viewers, so the series was dubbed over by local Pittsburgh actors.
It was decided that Peter Browne would be retained as Alfred's voice actor, but due to master recording issues, all of his dialogue had to be rerecorded. Several additional songs and music tracks were written by Chris Neal and his son Braedy, who had previously composed all of the music for the original version of Johnson and Friends, as FOX felt that some of the earlier episodes were "too quiet" and didn't fit the atmosphere they wanted for the series. Instrumental versions of preexisting Johnson songs were also used. As the series was broadcast as a segment rather than a standalone program, the credits were featured at the end of the Cubhouse itself and each Johnson episode ended with the final chorus of 'Toys, Toys, Wonderful Toys' from the Johnson album, re-recorded by the US cast. Minor cuts were also occasionally made along with adjustments to John Patterson's scripts, to remove Australian terminology and slang. Series director Ian Munro maintained a level of creative control over the American version of the program and was involved with voice direction.
The Fox Cubhouse became a short-lived success, and FOX commissioned an additional season of 26 episodes of Johnson and Friends for the Cubhouse's second season. These episodes were also shown in Australia, dubbed by the original voice cast and marketed as the fourth series of the program. David Flick, who had provided the American voice of Diesel was replaced by Doug Scroope, Diesel's original voice, and several episodes of the first season of Cubhouse were also revised with Doug Scroope as Diesel. While previous Cubhouse episodes featured two episodes of Johnson, each, the second season was quite different, and one episode was sometimes replaced with an episode of Budgie the Little Helicopter or Magic Adventures of Mumfie, due to the fact that these programs also had a running time of ten minutes. Some episodes, however, still featured two Johnson episodes. Shortly after the broadcast of these episodes, The Fox Cubhouse was taken off the air, and the American localisation has not been seen since. It is believed that the master tapes of the US version were wiped, however, several master copies are known to exist.
The Fox Cubhouse was also shown in the US overseas territory Guam on KTGM.