Grizzly Tales for Gruesome Kids

Grizzly Tales for Gruesome Kids is a series of books by Jamie Rix and a TV series produced for ITV. The original TV series was based on the award winning collections of cautionary tales by Jamie Rix. Grizzly Tales for Gruesome Kids, Ghostly Tales for Ghastly Kids, Fearsome Tales for Fiendish Kids and More Grizzly Tales for Gruesome Kids. The series was narrated by Nigel Planer and animated by Sara and Simon Bor.

In all, six series and a New Year's special ran from 2000 to 2006 on ITV1 and Grizzly Tales was consistently one of the highest rated children's animation shows on the channel. It was one of a handful of CITV programmes to regularly find its way into the CBBC-dominated Broadcast top 10 Children's chart, most recently for Christmas week 2006 when "A Grizzly New Year's Tale" hit No 2 on its third terrestrial outing. After cancelation was confirmed on CITV in 2008, the show is moving to a new home on Nickelodeon UK.

The BAFTA-nominated show picked up many awards including Animated Series and Children's Choice at the British Animation Awards, and Children's Animated series at Cartoons on the Bay.

The show is available on DVD through ITV in the UK, Porchlight in the USA and Time Life in Australia. Orion Audiobooks have also released full CD recordings of the books, read by Rupert Degas.

The series is produced by Grizzly TV [1]

Focus

The series is a collection of morality tales which also has insinuations of a horror story; gruesome punishments happen throughout. The stories mainly focus on naughty or horrible (for example vain, untidy or lying children) children learning a grim lesson. Examples include "The Bugaboo Bear" (in which a little blond girl, buys a "Bugaboo Bear", and treats it as a person, only after a surprisingly short amount of time she gets bored with it, and starts treating it in a horrid manner), and "William the Conkerer" (in which a young lad, who destroys trees, attempts to steal every conker in the village).

Television series

First debuting in 2000, the show was broadcast on CITV, commissioned by Carlton Television, now part of ITV plc. It was a co-production between Elephant Productions and Honeycomb Animation, Jamie Rix co directing the series with Simon & Sara Bor. On most of the early series, a stopmotion sequence involving a creepy cinema owner named [Uncle Grizzly] http://www.grizzlytv.co.uk (On occasion, the CITV presenters referred to him as the 'Storyteller man') and his pet spider, Spindleshanks would be present. The two would discuss the morals of the tales shown, often ending with Spindleshanks getting badly injured, e.g. squashed or splatted.

These sequences were later removed, possibly to shorten the cartoon's length. Nowadays, they only show Uncle Grizzly welcoming you to the show. Spindleshanks was removed too.

Many of the episodes between Seasons 1-4 were adaptations from the books also written by Rix, although they usually edited out or altered many parts of the stories to fit the time slot. In 2006, the series went from hand-drawn animation to digital, starting with "A Grizzly New Year's Tale: The Crystal Eye". The latest seasons of stories were later published in book form, in a new format and known as the Grizzly Tales Series. Each of these books focused on various themes (such as "Nasty Little Beasts", "Gruesome Grown Ups" and "Freaks of Nature") and contained six stories each.

Each tale are normally set in a different location. However, many of the character designs and backgrounds were reused and altered to make different characters and settings.

Nigel Planer was the narrator for this series. He also narrated Fearsome Tales for Fiendish Kids on audiobook. Bill Wallis narrated More Grizzly Tales for Gruesome Kids and Grizzly Tales for Gruesome Kids and Ghostly Tales for Ghastly Kids were both read by Andrew Sachs.

Wikipedia:Grizzly Tales for Gruesome Kids Episode Guide (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs)

Episode list

SERIES 1 1996

• The New Nanny
• The Spaghetti Man
• Death By Chocolate
• Grandmothers Footsteps
• The Wooden Hill
• A Tangled Web
• The Princess's Clothes
• Burgerskip
• The Barber of Civil
• The Chipper Chums Go Scrumping
• The History Lesson
• Sweets
• Dr. Moribundus

SERIES 2 1999

• Jack In The Box
• Glued to the Telly
• The Cat Burglar
• The Childhood Snatcher
• The Giant Who Grew Too Big for his Boots
• Mr Peelers Butterflies
• An Elephant Never Forgets
• Prince Noman
• Tag
• The Litter Bug
• Fat Boy with a Trumpet
• The Broken Down Cottage
• Well'ard Willard

SERIES 3 2002

• The Upset Stomach
• Knocked Down Ginger
• The Locked Door
• Simon Sulk
• The Urban Fox
• When the Bed Bugs Bite
• Spoiltsport
• The Pie Man
• Head In the Clouds
• Dirty Bertie
• Crocodile Tears
• Little Fingers
• The Decomposition of Delia Dethabridge

SERIES 4 2003

• Revenge of the Bogeyman
• It's Only a Game Sport!
• The Gas Man Cometh
• The People Potter
• Bunny Boy
• Bessy O’Messey
• Goblin Mountain
• Superstitious Nonsense
• Bogman
• The Stick Men
• Athlete's Foot
• The Grass Monkey
• Mount Everest
• Glamorous
• The Top Hat

• The Crystal Eye (Christmas Special 2007)

SERIES 5 2006

• The Bugaboo Bear
• The Butcher Boy
• The Fruit Bat
• Monty's Python
• The Grub A Blub Blub
• Wolf Child
• The Weather Witch
• Kiss and Make Up
• William the Conkerer
• Silence is Golden
• Her Majesty's Moley
• Puppet on a String
• The Soul Stealer

SERIES 6 2007

• Jamie's School Dinners
• Recyclops
• The Clothes Pigs
• Why Boys Make Better Buglers
• The Watermelon Babies
• eBoy
• Nobby's Nightmare
• The Dumb Klutzes
• The Lobster's Scream
• The Old Tailor Of Pelting Moor
• Big Head
• The Piranha Sisters
• Tom Time

ITV announced in July 2007 that Grizzly Tales for Gruesome Kids has not been recommissioned for a new series.

Books

Nearly every story Jamie Rix has written for Grizzly Tales are adaptations from his books. Here is a list of them:

Grizzly Tales for Gruesome Kids

• The New Nanny
• The Spaghetti Man
• The Princess's Clothes
• The Black Knight
• Glued to the Telly
• The Barber of Civil
• The Man with a Chip on his Shoulder
• The Giant who grew Too Big for his Boots
• The Wooden Hill
• The Litter Bug
• Goblin Mountain
• Sweets
• The Top Hat
• The Childhood Snatcher

Ghostly Tales for Ghastly Kids

• Grandmother's Footsteps
• Burgerskip
• Tag
• The Locked Door
• A Tangled Web
• The Well
• An Elephant Never Forgets
• The Big Sleep
• Bogman
• The Broken-Down Cottage
• Guilt Ghost
• The History Lesson
• The Ghost of Christmas Turkeys Past
• Rogues Gallery

Fearsome Tales for Fiendish Kids

• The Cat Burglar
• Mr Peeler's Butterflies
• Fat Boy with a Trumpet
• The Chipper Chums Go Scrumping
• Prince Noman
• Death By Chocolate
• Well'ard Willard
• Athlete's Foot
• The Matchstick Girl
• Simon Sulk
• The Dumb Clucks
• Doctor Moribundus
• The Stick Men
• Little Fingers
• Bessy O'Messy
• Jack in a Box

More Grizzly Tales for Gruesome Kids

• Knock Down Ginger
• The Upset Stomach
• The Gas Man Cometh
• The Urban Fox
• Spoilsport
• Dirty Bertie
• The People Potter
• It's Only a Game, Sport!
• Fast Food
• Sock Shock
• Revenge of the Bogeyman
• Crocodile Tears
• The Pie Man
• Bunny Boy
• Spit
• Superstitious Nonsense
• Head in the Clouds
• When the Bed Bugs Bite
• The Decomposition of Delia Deathabridge

Nasty Little Beasts

• The Grub A Blub Blub
• Monty's Python
• The Lobster's Scream
• Wolf Child
• The Fruit Bat
• The Clothes Pigs

The 'Me!" Monsters

• The Apostrophic Expositor
• Kiss and Make Up
• The Kingdom of Wax
• The Blood Doctor
• The Ugly Prince
• Big Head

Freaks of Nature

• Frank Einstein's Monster
• Recyclops
• The Weather Witch
• William the Conkerer
• Hear No Weevil, See No Weevil
• Tom Time

Terror Time Toys

• The Butcher Boy
• The Bugaboo Bear
• Why Boys Make Better Burglars
• Puppet on a String
• The Death Rattle
• eBoy

Blubbers and Sicksters

• The Piranha Sisters
• The Crystal Eye
• Cat's Eyes
• The Hair Fairies
• The Watermelon Babies
• The Nuclear Wart

The Naughty Gnomes of NO!

• Tinkerbell
• The Long Face
• The Dragon Moth
• Sick to Death
• Message in a Bottle
• Lazybones

Super Zeroes

• Fatal Attraction
• Little Angel
• The Flat-Pack Kid
• The Worm
• The Little Flower Girl
• The Rise and Fall of the Evil Guff