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The Smurfs are a fictional race of small blue creatures that live in a forest somewhere in Europe. They were created by the Belgian cartoonist Peyo, but are best-known to English-speaking audiences through the animated television series by Hanna-Barbera Productions.
Peyo was the creator of a comic strip serial in Le Journal de Spirou called "Johan & Pirlouit" (translated to English as Johan and Peewit). Set in the middle ages in Europe, Johan is a brave young page to the king, and Peewit (pronounced Pee-Wee) is his faithful, if boastful and cheating, midget sidekick. Johan rides off to defend the meek on his trusty horse, while Peewit gallops sporadically behind on his goatA goat is any of several species of medium-sized grazing animal. All goats (and sheep) belong to the subfamily Caprinae of the family Bovidae. In common use, however, goat is usually understood to mean the Domestic Goat Capra aegagrus hircus a subspecies, named Biquette. The pair are driven by duty to their king, and the courage to defend the underpowered.
On October 23October 23 is the 296th day of the year (297th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 69 days remaining. Events 4004 BC The universe was created, according to the Ussher-Lightfoot Calendar. 42 BC Roman Republican civil wars: Second Battle of Phili, 1958Events January January 1 Treaty of Rome founding the EU is implemented January 4 Sputnik 1 falls to Earth from its orbit (launched on October 4 1957) January 8 14 year old Bobby Fischer wins the United States Chess Championship January 18 Armed Lumbee Nat, Peyo introduced a new set of characters to the "Johan & Pirlouit" story. This alone was nothing so exciting, as the brave duo were constantly running into strange new people and places. This time, they were charged with recovering a Magic Flute, which required some sorcery by the wizard Homnibus. And in this manner, they summoned a Schtroumpf.
"Schtroumpf" appears to be an invented word — it sounds like the GermanGerman (called Deutsch in German in which germanisch refers to prechristian times), is a member of the western group of Germanic languages and one of the world's major languages. It is the language with the most native speakers in the European Union. word "strumpf" ("sock"), but this might be a coincidence — and would later be translated to nearly 30 languages. One of those languages would be the English version, "Smurf". In any case, the tiny blue people were a sudden hit, commercially speaking. They quickly moved into their own comic series, which became a tremendous success.
In 19651965 was a common year starting on Friday (the link is to a full 1965 calendar). Events January-February January 4 United States President Lyndon Johnson proclaims his " Great Society" during his State of the Union address. January 14 Prime Ministers of N, a black and white 90 minute animated filmFor other uses see film (disambiguation Film — also called movies the cinema the silver screen moving pictures motion pictures photoplays picture shows and flicks — is a field that encompasses motion pictures as an art form or as part of the entertainment was made about the Smurfs, Les Aventures des Schtroumpfs. It received little attention, and not much is known about it.
However, in 1976, La Flûte à six schtroumpfs (an adaptation of the original "Johan and Peewit" story) was released. Michel Legrand provided the musical score to the film.
In the late- 1970s, Smurf merchandise made its way to America and was a huge success. NBC Television executive Fred Silverman's daughter had a Smurf doll of her own, and Silverman thought that a series based on the Smurfs might make a good addition to his Saturday morning lineup.
The Smurfs secured their place in pop culture immortality in 1981, when the Saturday morning cartoon, produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions finally debuted on NBC. The show became a major success for NBC, winning numerous Emmy awards, and spawning spin-off television specials on an almost yearly basis.
In 1983, an English version of La Flûte à six schtroumpfs was produced, and titled The Smurfs and the Magic Flute.