Music tracks use Atmospheric Industrial Darksynth - White Bat Audio It's In The Fog - Darren Curtis Talk show bgm (cute) - NTLARRY MUSIC Breakfast in Paris - Alex-Productions Fireman Sam 1987 Intro Theme MIDI! Cover - Sam Locke
I am with you Fireman, Sam and Postman Pat or two of my favourite show as grown-up as a little child along with Bob the Builder and Thomas the Tank Engine.
The pictures in the books are most definitely made for them since this is what stop motion animators did and the marketing team probably wanted to use photos of the models instead of paying an illustrator to draw the characters which would possibly confuse the young children watching at the time because they would wonder why sam looks different in the show compared to what they saw in the annuals. Also it would have been much cheaper as well.
Considering that the books have illustrations drawn by different artists depending on who's publishing them, I don't really think that's a reason for having the stop-motion promo images.
As a fan of the original 4 seasons, I do think there might be a possible pilot expanding a lot of these other bits of media of the source they originated and possibly adding them as segments in one of my projects which includes some fan-content just makes it more of variety for all ages.
Growing up in Wales,Fireman Sam is literally like our version of Fucking SpongeBob every single Kid no matter how old knows him,you’d struggle to find a person who lives here who doesn’t know who he is
This was how the rumour of the lost pilot began. Back in 2020, there was a RU-vidr who was uploading the lost Welsh dubs of Fireman Sam (Sam Tân). On the upload of the Welsh dub of The Kite on the channel, the description listed two dates for when the episode could of been broadcasted in Welsh, 26 December 1985 (from that website you showed in the video) and 15 September 1987 (which the latter is probably not correct either). I commented on the video asking if Sam Tân first aired in 1985 or 1987, and he was just as confused as I was. Eventually, he replied to me saying that he found out that Fireman Sam was copyrighted in 1985, but didn't air until 1987, but the date of 26 December 1985 was still a mystery. In 2021, the Lost Media Archive Wiki gained a page for a Fireman Sam pilot, which turned out to be a made up page. However, the page was eventually changed to be about the possibility of a pilot episode aired on 26 December 1985. In 2022, more older Fireman Sam fans started sharing images from older annuals and books online, and the rumour of those images started being from the pilot started. While I did still believe the pilot still existed, I didn't think these images were from the pilot at first, but others did, and I went along with it. A lot of the original S4C airdates of Fireman Sam, are very obscure online, while the original BBC airdates can be viewed in the BBC Genome website, I don't believe S4C has a site like that, so even then, some of the original airdates of Fireman Sam in Welsh are obscure as well. For years it's been speculated that Series 5 came out in Welsh first in 2003 before coming out in English in 2005, and while there is proof that it did air in Welsh before English (as there was a Welsh DVD of Series 5 released in 2004), the date of 2003 being the year came out is still relatively unknown, but older fans have mentioned they remember seeing Series 5 in Welsh on TV back in 2003 or 2004.
for S5, the copyright date in the credits says 2003 in roman numerals, which I would assume to be the right date. For this possible pilot, I'm really not sure. There's not much evidence pointing to it existing, but I don't think it's impossible that a pilot was made around 1985. I guess we won't really know for sure unless someone just asks one of the creators.
@@wishbonefan Yes I agree. Thanks for pointing out that the credits of Series 5 has 2003 in roman numerals, I never noticed that. However, I did find a video of Series 5 animator Tim Allen (not to be confused with the actor) and he shows a video of an animation he did in the episode Beast of Pontypandy. On the video, there is a piece of pager that has the date "5/1/4", which would mean the scene was animated on 5 January 2004. Apparently, Series 5 is split into two series in the Welsh dub (Series 4 and Series 5), so maybe the first few episodes of Series 5 were broadcasted in late 2003 on S4C, but I'm not sure right now.
@@wishbonefanThat could be the case. Either way, Series 5 began production in 2002, I have heard, and production must of been finished in early 2004. I also noticed that there is an image of Series 5 Sam on the cover the DVD Action Stations, which was released in 2004, and the Series 5 Sam design looks slightly different.
I'm glad that cgi Fireman Sam has finally ended now me and nearly everyone else won't have to suffer from it any more. Mattel really does care about the series at all the all they cared about was milking the show you years.
Now that I look about it, The Kite does look rather quirky and unlike the other episodes which you will find in the series. It does indeed look as though it could have been the pilot. You lot should see the pilots made of Pingu in Switzerland.
I also think "The Kite" is the pilot, not just because it's the earliest known episode in production, but also because of what's in the episode itself. The characters get their establishing moments, the story is very simplistic, and the animation is a bit more unpolished than in the rest of the series. The photos in the annual are merely promotional, they don't point me to a pilot at all. Now if you want another topic to consider covering regarding Fireman Sam lost media (and PLEASE do more research on the show itself, like that's Dilys, not Doris), I'd suggest covering the original Welsh dub, "Sam Tân". The preservation for it has been complete dogshit, only a few episodes were officially released on VHS, and a few episodes are nowhere to be found online, not even on the Internet Archive. That topic means more to me than any pilot, as that's the ORIGINAL dub made before the English one, showing everyone that this show is WELSH. 🏴
@@cridly Yeah, Helloween is the final series 3 ep to be found, the second half of series 4 is also lost! I want to see What Goes Up in Welsh, since that was the first episode I ever saw of the show!
I'd be happy to hear more about the original Fireman Sam, as it's far more superior to the CGI series. But interesting there's been some promotional images. 🙂 By the way, Norman's mum is called Dilys, not Doris.
Oh no, they don’t appear to be ray tracing the shadows in the modern one… I really feel some of the charm was lost in turning this, Postman Pat, Thomas, etc CGI. Never realised how odd their hands look though..! I guess to get them poseable they’re just felt and some wire. I’m with you that these just feel like regular promo stills, the composition doesn’t line up the same way as you would shoot for a TV show. The fact that the quality of the shadows and contrast is different than in the actual show adds to that, as often promo stills are shot on completely different kinds of film. Of course it could be a scanning and reproduction artefact for the book, but we were really good at that process by the late-80s so I doubt it. It is a bit weird that the first story wasn’t adapted for TV, but I can imagine all sorts of reasons why. Perhaps it just didn’t have enough meat on its bones to last an entire episode, even though it worked in storybook form.
I personally believe that the book made Sam out to be a buffoon and possibly not the best role model in the eyes of the creators. So they didn't bother to adapt it or at least use the concept in an episode. It's a crying shame though, this more clumsy characterization of him makes him more relatable and dare I say, a hilarious himbo. Though considering that the series is supposed to be educational, I completely understand why they didn't embrace his himbo side. There's some cases of this characterization in the show, especially when it comes to his more outlandish inventions, but it's not much. He's more chill in the show itself.
@@cridly I definitely liked his moments of clumsiness or airheadedness in the show, though I can understand why they might not have wanted that to be the introduction to his character. BTW your username is great, and I didn’t expect to see Sam called a himbo but I love it
It's the same other then the fact the English and the Welsh version had a different episode order for the first 5 seasons the pilot would be in Welsh though
@@samuel-wankenobi I am sure when I re watched my old welsh tapes of it there were difference in certain places compared to the English dubbed one... However a re watch is needed to be certain. With regards to the Pilot what I meant was could there of been a Welsh pilot for S4C which never got aired by S4C but rather some of it was used by English dub in the imagery materials? I mean I am sure that happened in other Welsh programmes dubed to English like Superted etc
I notice that Norman’s skateboard is red instead of yellow in the unaired pilot. And I think the only way is to get the unaired pilot is to get an interview with one of the original creators.
you could chalk these images up as being just promotional images for magazines or sometype of media to advertise the show, or maybe just some images they took to test the cameras and to make sure everything looked right before editing into stop motion, or maybe these images were taken to make sure the proportions of the models were correct in terms of scale before production that's a couple possibilities I thought of just now
Considered for stories? Definitely. Deleted scenes from cut episodes? Not entirely. A lot of 80's stop motion or stop motion adjacent shows, like Thomas & Friends, had photos taken throughout their productions specifically for promotional stills or, in this case, for books. It's noticeable especially in the bridge between seasons 2 and 3 of T&F, with pictures from the books showing Thomas's season 2 smile now having teeth like in its season 3 state. Sometimes the promos are indeed cut episodes, but mostly, they're taken for promotional/book material, and the deleted scenes are just existing scenes from an episode but at a different angle. While it's probably rare for entire model scenes to be setup just for a book-exclusive story, it's not entirely out of question, and slight differences in Sam's appearance could just be reflecting that. You wouldn't have to keep his puppet entirely up to the standard you would for an episode. It's noticable with Sam's eyes, and even more with the fire engine having no one inside.
One thing that might be interesting to do would be to try to match the supposed scenes from the lost pilot with events from the book upon which it is meant to be based. The pictures you show do mostly seem to be generic, but there might still be something in it; if, say, the book describes, or depicts, the kids enjoying ice-creams, then that would favour the theory, if, on the other hand, Norman doesn't appear in the book , that would seem to refute it. In either case, that bit of research might garner some good evidence.
Hey,I have to tell you something. A person on RU-vid uploaded the first three episodes of raggy dolls season six(including the English version of invisible dolls) and he has confirmed he has more episodes from season 6 onwards. He doesn’t have season five episodes though. The channel’s name is ADC tv collection.
I find it funny with when this show got it's US release, at least with the stop motion seasons, they kept it the same. Like with the Family Home Entertainment and Hit Entertainment releases. Which to me feels a bit confusing on what dubbed over or what's kept the same in British animated shows imported to the states. I can understand some of it was to change terminology due to it being confusing to those not familiar with the dialect. The other part of me wondered, how I come I never knew about this show existing, even when it had a US release?
There’s a good chance a pilot exists, but since there’s so little evidence it could be little more than a crazy theory. But then again shows like Thomas & Friends have a known pilot; what’s to say Fireman Sam doesn’t have one?
Yeah but I never even seen that episode. Maybe it’s because they should like post it now just for fun though and also they do have those series in season one but they also made like other ones too so that’s also why I’d like film theory to do a theory about this to, and he would help take some of your ideas that’s why you inspire him to just to see what would happen, and I have never seen him do something like this or at least this show I have seen him do a lot well not ruining my childhood that’s for sure especially with that winney the Pooh one now that was just cool I wonder if he would do something like that again or at least do this one because that would be cool doing like this one just for fun as well I know that’s what a lot of people do mostly just for fun especially ones like this and that’s also why I really want him to do this one or at least in the newer seasons as well.
4:00 this might be lighting but if you look on the Sam on the left, he has this brown-ish hair color while they Sam on the right has a red hair color. (I'm pretty sure you're British but I hope you can understand the American spelling of colour!)
It wasn't just lighting, that was literally Sam's hair color for the first two seasons (which were aired as a single season in Wales). The third and fourth seasons (it was also this way in Wales) fixed his hair to look more red, as he was pretty much intended to be a ginger. The picture on the right is from Season 4, where his hair looked the reddest (I'm an American fan of this old British show, Bella's my pfp rn).
Not an episode, but a relatively yet justifiably obscure recording of a play released ONLY on VHS and nowhere else, "Fireman Sam in Action". It's dogshit, but gloriously campy and unhinged dogshit.
From what was written about production, the animation was very time consuming (one source I remember reading they could only animate around only 1 minute of footage per day), hence why season 1 would only have 8 episodes as apposed to the standard 13 that most TV series have. I feel it would have been incredibly wasteful for them to make a whole episode and for it not to be used. That intro was insane though!
I have a feeling I may have been the one to start this topic as I did talk about this rather alot. For clarification, I personally thought a slight pilot could have been made as I thought the puppets of Sam, Elvis & Steele looked abit different than their series 1/2 counterparts. I do think these could have just been simple promotion images, but I thought the difference in puppets (considering this was taken during the second annual) and even Norman's skateboard being a different colour (his skateboard was yellow in the show) could have mabye been part of a long lost pilot or mabye even a test scene or something.
Most promo stills for TV are done pre-production, so they’re definitely not mutually exclusive! Perhaps there were eg some costuming changes even if the main mouldings were the same.
@kaitlynn_L good point. I think the differences I saw were mostly the eyes and mouths and how they were purpotioned. But I suppose it could have been test designs for series 2 (series 1 and 2 were one season in the Welsh dub). Plus, Norman's skateboard in the promo shot is red, while in the show, it's yellow and Jupiter didn't have seat belts
They're just promo shots, not stills, every show and movie does them. That's why even 50 year old movies can get new DVD/Blu Ray releases with unseen new cover art because they take tons of promo shots at the time of production, almost all of which never get released.
Just like there was a cancelled "Thomas the Tank Engine" episode called "The Missing Coach" that the shot of Douglas shunting the coaches appears in the "Thomas the Tank Engine" annual from 1989 released in 1988 just two years after season 2 was released.
6:44 That’s a very good point whenever I go on Wikipedia. I always notice at the bottom that’s extras and references. I’m guessing that that is the sources where all the information for so many things on Wikipedia I came from and you are right If you’re a person who does content like me 6:48 also, I know that website toonshound when I was doing some research into the making of little red tractor, I discovered that page which could be useful for information Yes alright, they can give you a better picture and scope on the story behind your favourite show
