Paddington

"Please Look After This Bear. Thank You."

Paddington is a TV series of 5 minute shorts that ran from 1975 to 1986. The unique visual style (Paddington himself is a stop-motion figure, the backgrounds are black-and-white line drawings and the other characters are 2D paper cutouts) and catchy theme tune led to it becoming a well-loved childhood favourite.

It is based on the Paddington Bear books by Michael Bond, about the antics of a small anthropomorphic brown bear who lives with an ordinary London family. Paddington is usually seen wearing a blue duffel coat (a somewhat old-fashioned warm coat fastened by toggles) and rather shapeless black hat.

The series is narrated, including all the character voices, by Michael Hordern.

The first episode can be seen here, and episodes stream in rotation on Jaroo.

This series contains examples of:
"Taxi Driver: Bears is sixpence extra. Sticky bears is ninepence."
 * Accidental Bid: Paddington Bear once went to an auction. He found it a very friendly place. People kept on waving at him, so naturally he waved back...
 * Ambiguous Syntax: In the episode where Paddington helps Mr. Curry with his plumbing, they hit a problem with a stuck valve. Mr. Curry has the solution: "Take hold of the mallet, and when I nod my head, you hit it."
 * And I'm the Queen of Sheba: In the episode where Paddington visits a waxwork museum, he poses in one of the displays to hide from an irate attendant, resulting in a woman remarking that if that's an accurate depiction of Oliver Cromwell joining the Ironsides, she's the Queen of Sheba.
 * Bizarre and Improbable Golf Game: Paddington enters a golfing competition where each player gets one drive and the winner will be the player whose ball travels farthest before coming to rest. Paddington's ball lands on a passing train, and doesn't come to rest until the train stops several miles away; the judge, who has taken a liking to Paddington, declares that this fits the letter of the rule and awards him first prize.
 * Camera Obscurer: When Paddington tries to take a photograph of the Brown family, he is suddenly attacked at the crucial moment by a bee he'd annoyed earlier while trying to take a photograph of it. To everyone's surprise, the result is a perfectly composed and focussed picture -- of the bee.
 * Cool Old Guy: Mr. Gruber
 * Cranky Neighbor: Mr. Curry
 * Death Glare: Paddington's "hard stare"
 * Doom It Yourself:
 * In an early episode, Mr. Brown starts renovating a storeroom to be a bedroom for Paddington. It actually goes quite well until Paddington tries to help, after which it quickly becomes a disaster.
 * In another episode, Paddington attempts to build a magazine rack from the instructions in a do-it-yourself magazine. The rack itself is actually a success -- his attempts to repair the kitchen table after he accidentally cuts it in half while using it as a work bench, on the other hand...
 * When the plumber refuses to fix Mr. Curry's bathroom pipes because Mr. Curry still hasn't paid him for last time, Paddington has a go; the result is so bad that Mr. Curry's insurance company pays to have the bathroom completely refurbished.
 * Door Step Baby: The Browns found him sitting on the platform of Paddington Station, near the lost property office, with a label round his neck bearing the words "Please Look After This Bear. Thank You."
 * Everything's Worse with Bears: Averted, yet also played straight in a mild way. Paddington is courteous, completely non-violent, and freaking adorable, yet has quite a knack for getting into all sorts of trouble, whether it's accidentally destroying his neighbor's hammock, letting a marmalade sandwich slip inside a film projector, or trashing the kitchen with one of his sloppy baking attempts.
 * Fish Out of Water: One of the main sources of humor and plot. Paddington emigrated from Darkest Peru and thus is very unfamiliar with British life.
 * Game Show Appearance: Paddington appears on a quiz show called Lucky For Some. He wins (by giving outside-the-box answers that, although different from the ones on the card, are technically correct), but the status quo is preserved when he decides to donate the winnings to the retirement home in Peru where his Aunt Lucy lives.
 * Grumpy Old Man: Mr. Curry
 * Last-Name Basis: Mr. Gruber always addresses Paddington as "Mr. Brown".
 * Lions and Tigers and Humans, Oh My!
 * Literal-Minded: Paddington has his moments.
 * When a department store manager announces that a previously-unpopular item has been selling like hot cakes since Paddington was seen using it, Paddington, feeling hungry, considers asking if he can have one of the hot cakes.
 * Loophole Abuse: When Paddington gets into trouble during his first trip on the Underground, Judy rescues him by successfully arguing that the Underground's rules specifying how a person must behave don't apply to Paddington, because he isn't a person, he's a bear.
 * Medium Blending: Paddington is a stop-motion puppet, all the backgrounds are 2D black-and-white line drawings, and all the other characters are coloured paper dolls.
 * Nice Hat
 * Nobody Here but Us Statues: When Paddington visits a waxwork museum, he inadvertantly offends an attendant and hides by pretending to be one of the waxworks.
 * Misplaced Wildlife: Paddington is a bear from Peru, but looks like a a brown bear from the Northern Hemisphere.
 * Offscreen Crash: Paddington's attempt to take a photograph of a bee results in him weaving erratically about, and ultimately in an offscreen crash that causes the entire screen to shake.
 * Trademark Favorite Food: Marmalade.
 * Ye Olde Butcherede Englishe: Paddington attempts to make "Olde Fashioned Butter Toffee" from a recipe in one of Mrs. Brown's magazines. The e in "Olde" is clearly audible in the narration.
 * Weirdness Censor: Everyone in London seems surprisingly cool that the Browns have adopted a bear. That talks.