Alvin and the Chipmunks was an American animated television series to feature the singing characters The Chipmunks, produced by Bagdasarian Productions in association with Ruby-Spears Productions from 1983-87, and DIC Entertainment from 1988-90. It aired from 1983 to 1990 on NBC and was based on 1961–62's The Alvin Show. The show introduced The Chipettes, three female versions of the Chipmunks with their own human counterpart, Miss Beatrice Miller (who joined the cast in 1986). In 1988, the show switched production companies to DiC Entertainment and was renamed just The Chipmunks.

In 1987, during the show's fifth season, the Chipmunks' first animated feature film, The Chipmunk Adventure, was released to theaters by The Samuel Goldwyn Company. The film was directed by Janice Karman and featured the Chipmunks and Chipettes in a contest traveling around the world.

In its eighth and final season, the show again switched titles to The Chipmunks Go to the Movies. Each episode was a spoof of a Hollywood film like Back to the Future or King Kong. Several television specials featuring the characters were also released.

In 1990, the documentary Alvin and the Chipmunks: Five Decades with the Chipmunks was produced. That year, the Chipmunks also teamed up with other contemporary cartoon characters (such as Bugs Bunny and Garfield) for the drug abuse-prevention special Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue.

Between the late-1990s to early-2000s, Nickelodeon and later Cartoon Network aired 65 of the 104 episodes in syndication. While the show is currently no longer in syndication in the U.S., it is being broadcasted in Canada on Teletoon Retro.

Characters

• The Chipmunks: The main characters of the series
• Alvin Seville: The leader of the Chipmunks, Alvin is the talented troublemaker of the group.
• Simon Seville: The tallest brother and an IQ just short of Einstein, Simon is the intelligent realist and the most responsible of the group.
• Theodore Seville: The youngest and chubbiest, Theodore is the cute innocent butterball of the group.

• David "Dave" Seville: The Chipmunks' adoptive father, song writer and manager, Dave's patience is tested nearly everyday by Alvin, usually to the point where he yells "ALVIN!!!".
• Miss Beatrice Miller: The kindly, absent-minded adoptive mother of the Chipettes. She occasionally babysits the Chipmunks and has a crush on Dave, even though she's old enough to be his mother. In her youth, she was part of an all-girl singing group called "The Thrillers".
• Lilly: The Chipmunks' Rossini puppy who came along following the death of their original pet, Cookie Chomper III, a kitten.
• Vinny: The Chipmunks' birth mother. The Chipmunks find their long-lost mother after days of searching. Alvin gets upset because he doesn't understand why she abandoned them. Their mother explains that the year she abandoned them there was a horrible winter and all of the animals in the forest were forced to leave their homes. She realized that they wouldn't survive the journey if she brought them with her, so she decided to leave them with a nice man who was always kind to the forest animals (Dave). She told them that when spring came and she could finally return to get them, she saw how happy they were with Dave, and thought they would be better off with him. Eventually, Alvin forgives his mother, and they all part ways on a good note: promising to keep in touch. She returns in a later episode where she and Dave clash on how to bring the boys up. Eventually they make up. The song "Vinny's Lullaby" is performed by June Foray and Machiko Soga in the Japanese version.

Voice actors

• Ross Bagdasarian, Jr. - Alvin, Simon, David "Dave" Seville, other various voices
• Janice Karman - Theodore, Brittany, Jeanette, Eleanor, other various voices
• Dody Goodman - Miss Beatrice Miller
• Thomas H. Watkins - Uncle "Adventure" Willy, Lilly the dog, numerous incidentals
• Alan Young - Grandpa Seville
• Rainy Hayes - Chipette Song vocal artist
• Sherwood Ball - Chipmunk Song vocal artist
• Nancy Cartwright - Additional voices
• Tress MacNeille - Additional voices
• Frank Welker - Additional voices
• Vanessa Bagdasarian - Additional voices
• Michael Bagdasarian - Additional voices
• Derek Barton
• Natalie Brown
• Catherine Cavadini
• Rodger Bumpass
• Peter Cullen
• Julie Dees
• Walker Edmiston
• June Foray
• Gary Gallati
• Linda Gary
• Joan Gerber
• Johnny Haymer
• Kerrigan Mahan
• Gail Matthius
• Clive Revill
• Amy Tunick

Episodes

Original Network Run

The series made it debut on September 17, 1983 on NBC, originally under the name Alvin and The Chipmunks, and was animated by Ruby-Spears Productions. In 1988, the series had switched animation companies, first with Murakami-Wolf-Swenson, then later DIC Entertainment for the remainder of the series' run; by this time, the series had been renamed The Chipmunks, due to the fact that The Chipettes had been regular fixtures on the series for some time now, and that it wasn't all about Alvin. During its final season in 1990, the series was renamed again, this time, The Chipmunks Go to the Movies, as all episodes in this season were spoofs of popular Hollywood movies. The series was canceled afterwards.

Syndication Package

When the series was syndicated in the 1990s, the series went back to the original Alvin and The Chipmunks title, and originally contained the first 54 episodes (#901-954, including the Valentines and reunion specials, which were syndicated as regular episodes) - these were all the episodes that had originally aired under the Alvin and The Chipmunks title from the first five seasons; however, due to FCC regulations that a weekly animated series requires a minimum of 65 episodes to be syndicated, an additional 11 episodes (#1001-1011) were purchased for the package - these were the first eleven episodes from the sixth season that were originally aired under The Chipmunks title, but were giving the Alvin and The Chipmunks.

References

External links