Madeline (TV series)

In 1960, the Madeline stories were adapted to a one-hour color episode for the NBC series The Shirley Temple Show. Madeline was played by Gina Gillespie, child actor Michel Petit played Pepito, and Imogene Coca portrayed Miss Clavel. The episode, as Madeline's first appearance on television, has been released to DVD.

• Madeline (Tracey Lee Smythe in season 1 and Andrea Libman in seasons 2–3):[2] is the central protagonist of the show. She is a kind, caring, and brave little redheaded orphan girl who is also the bravest of her group despite being short. She lives in a boarding school/orphanage with eleven other girls and their instructor, Miss Clavel.

• Miss Clavel (Louise Vallance in seasons 1–3)[2][lower-alpha 1] is a nun that oversees the orphanage/boarding school in which the girls live and is also their teacher. She has some Catholic tendencies, as she and her students say grace before every meal. She is seen to be a caring and wise maternal figure to the girls.

• Eleven Little Girls are eleven classmates that accompany Madeline in her adventures and live in the same orphanage and boarding school as her. Their names are Anne, Chloe, Danielle, Ellie, Janine, Lulu, Monique, Nicole, Nona, Sylvie and Yvette. In the first few seasons and specials, only Chloe, Danielle, and Nicole had significant roles; by the third season, all the girls have become more vocal and display their own individual personality.
  • Chloe (Vanessa King in seasons 1–2 and Veronika Sztopa in season 3)[2]
  • Danielle (Kelly Sheridan in season 1; Tracey-Lee Smyth: season 2 and Chantal Strand in season 3)
  • Nicole (Kristin Fairlie in season 1; Veronika Sztopa in season 2 and Britt Irvin in season 3)[2]

• Pepito (A.J. Bond in season 1; David Morse in season 2 and Michael Heyward/Kyle Labine in season 3)[3] is the son of the Spanish ambassador who lives next to the orphanage school. Despite being mean and aggressive to Madeline and the girls at first, they soon become friends and he develops a secret crush on Madeline.

• Genevieve (Louise Vallance)[3][lower-alpha 1]: Once a stray dog, now the school's pet. Madeline has more affection toward her, because she rescued her from drowning in the River Seine.

• Lord Cucuface (French Tickner):[2] is the administrator of a chain of orphanages and boarding schools. He maintains a close friendship with Miss Clavel.

• The Narrator (Christopher Plummer in the specials, seasons 1–2 and Christopher Gaze in season 3[2][3])

On April 9, 1988, HBO aired an animated television special titled Madeline. The teleplay was an adaption of the first book written by Judy Rothman, who would become a writer, story editor, and lyricist for nearly all subsequent Madeline animated projects. The special was produced by DIC Enterprises and Cinar (now part of WildBrain).[4][5] The special featured Christopher Plummer as the narrator,[6] and featured original music and songs by veteran Sesame Street songwriter and composer Joe Raposo[7][8] with lyrics by Rothman. The cast for all six specials is as follows: [3]

• Marsha Moreau as Madeline
• Judith Orban as Miss Clavel
• Julian Bailey as Pepito
• Anik Matern as Chloe
• Liz MacRae as Danielle
• Sonja Ball as Nicole

The special was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Animated Program (One Hour or Less).[9] In 1990, the special was released onto VHS by Hi-Tops Video. The success of the special led to CINAR and France Animation producing an additional five specials – all adapted by Rothman from the other five original books – for The Family Channel.[4] The cast of the original special and Plummer all returned for the subsequent specials[6] These specials featured music by Jeffrey Zahn, who replaced Raposo after his death in 1989. The theme song from the original special, "I'm Madeline", was reprised in each of the subsequent specials. The specials were released on video by Golden Book Video.

With the success of the specials, the Family Channel commissioned a television series by DIC, which had been involved in the HBO special but not the subsequent Family Channel specials. Twenty episodes were produced for the first season, and aired from 1993 to 1994.[4] Christopher Plummer reprised his role as narrator again, and "I'm Madeline" served as the series' theme song.[6] However, most of the voice actors from the specials were replaced. In addition, Jeffrey Zahn was replaced by Andy Street; compared to the previous specials, however, the series only featured one song per episode in addition to the aforementioned theme songs.

In 1995, an additional 13 episodes were produced by DIC for ABC under the title The New Adventures of Madeline.[4] A new theme song, called "Hats Off to Madeline", was used as the new opening theme, with the music by Andy Street and lyrics by Judy Rothman,[10]; some early airings of those episodes featured "I'm Madeline", but sung by the new voice cast. Most of the voices of the children characters were replaced, with Andrea Libman assuming the title role; only Plummer, Louise Vallance, and French Tickner returned.

Shortly after its airing on ABC, both the network and DIC were acquired by The Walt Disney Company. The 33 produced episodes began to air in reruns on the Playhouse Disney block of Disney Channel. In March 1999, the company commissioned a direct-to-video film Madeline: Lost in Paris, which was released in August.[11] Much of the cast from the 1995 iteration returned, with Lauren Bacall and Jason Alexander also starring for the film. The success of the film led to DIC producing 26 new episodes for Playhouse Disney.[12] However, Plummer did not return to narrate, being replaced by Christopher Gaze. The show won a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Children's Animated Program.

Madeline has continued to be shown in syndication. In the 2006-07 season, the series was shown on CBS' KOL Secret Slumber Party Saturday morning block.[4] Qubo also aired reruns of the series from October 6, 2018 to February 22, 2021.[13] The series was also included in the On-Demand section of Sprout from 2015 to 2017, when the channel was rebranded to Universal Kids. As of September 2019, all broadcast and home video rights of Madeline are owned by WildBrain.

The 1993 series was originally released by Golden Book Video on all single VHS volumes, and Sony Wonder on both VHS and DVD. The DVD versions contained 2 episodes each, sometimes with the original specials.

The 2000 series was released by Lions Gate Home Entertainment and Trimark Home Video in 2001 and 2002 on all VHS and DVD sets. In these DVD sets, the theme song was changed to a different song titled "Our Madeline" to match the Sing-a-Long versions.

In 2008, 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment released 2 DVDs titled "Next Stop, America" and "Meet Me in Paris", each containing 3 episodes.

In 2010, Shout! Factory released 5 single-disc collections of the series.

In September 2013, Mill Creek Entertainment released 3 single disc collections featuring content from the animated series as well as the original TV specials. The New Adventures of Madeline- Adventures in Paris contains 6 episodes from the 2000 series,[19] while Madeline's Merry Musical Melodies features various musical interludes from the animated series.[20] Bonjour Madeline contains all 6 original TV specials.[21] Later in May 2014, Mill Creek re-released the three single disc collections together in one three-pack set,[22] followed by Madeline: The Complete Collection on DVD in Region 1 for the first time in August 2015.[23] This six-disc collection features all six original specials produced by DIC Entertainment and CINAR between 1988 and 1991, as well as all 59 episodes from the Madeline TV series (1993, 1995, 2000–2001).

• Madeline (animated series) at IMDb
• Intro sequence to the TV show on YouTube