Fireman Sam: Difference between revisions

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Fireman Sam (Sam Tan in its original language) was an 1985 stop motion animation series, about the fire service in the fictional Welsh town of Pontypandy. The original series was first broadcast in the Welsh language, then in English as of 1987. Originally narrated by John Alderton. Said series ended by 1994. HiT Entertainment acquired the rights and produced a new series made with Clay-mation[[Claymation]], lasting from 2003 to 2005. An ever newer CGI series debuted in 2008 and is currently broadcast on TV.
 
Pontypandy Fire Service consists of the title character, his friend and colleague Fireman Elvis Cridlington, their boss Station Officer Steele and the newest recruit, Firefighter Penny Morris. Outside of the fire service, the townspeople include Sam's niece and nephew, Sarah and James (and recently their parents Charlie and Bronwyn), shopkeeper Dilys Price and her prankster son Norman, cafe owner Bella Lasagne, bus driver and part time firefighter Trevor Evans, mountain rescue worker Tom Thomas, and the Flood family (nurse Helen, handyman Mike and their daughter Mandy).
 
{{tropelist}}
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== This show has the following tropes. ==
 
* [[The Ace]]: Sam.
** In [[The Movie]] Elvis gets his chance to shine, even {{spoiler|saving Sam's life!}}
* [[A Day in the Limelight]]: When Elvis breaks his leg, Station Officer Steele has to take over his duties {{spoiler|and makes such a hash of it, ''Elvis'' has to save ''him'', earning Steele's respect.}}
* [[AIA.I. Is a Crapshoot]]: Trevor's satnav system sends his bus over a cliff in one episode.
* [[Alliterative Name]]: James Jones, Tom Thomas (see also [[Repetitive Name]])
* [[An Aesop]]: Managed not to be [[Anvilicious]] about it most of the time, and usually involved [[Anvils That Needed to Be Dropped]] anyway.
* [[Aesop Amnesia]]: Just how many times does Norman need rescuing by the fire service?
* [[Anti-Hero]] / [[Byronic Hero]] /VillainProtagonist: Norman (Type V).
* [[Art Evolution]]: In stages with the different series. Sam and the other firefighters have remained similar in appearance along the way, the twins and Mandy rather less so. Dilys has changed in appearence too, becoming much younger-looking.
* [[Blonde, Brunette, Redhead]]: Sam, Elvis and Penny. Notable for actually being the opposite of their hair colour tropes ([[Dumb Blonde]], [[Brainy Brunette]], [[Fiery Redhead]].) Sam (Redhead) is very even tempered, Penny (Blonde) is very brainy and competent and Elvis (Brunette) is, well... [[Idiot Hero|not]].
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* [[Catch Phrase]]: "Great fires of London!", "Call Fireman Sam!" and others.
* [[Chuck Cunningham Syndrome]]: Bella and Rosa in the CGI season.
* [[Cloudcuckoolander]]: Elvis.
* [[Cold Open]]: In [[The Movie]] ''The Great Fire of Pontypandy''.
* [[Companion Cube]]: Elvis is very protective of Dummy (later Dolly), the fire station training dummy.
* [[Cool Plane|Cool Helicopter]]: Tom Thomas' helicopter certainly qualifies. Also something of a [[Swiss Army Weapon|Swiss Army Helicopter]] as it's always carrying the right equipment, despite being a bit on the small side to be carrying everything all the time.
* [[Cute but Cacophonic]]: Sarah Jones' voice can reach an incredibly shrill pitch, especially when her brother James is getting into trouble and she's trying to stop him.
* [[Da Chief]]: Station Officer Steele.
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* [[Dumb and Drummer]]: Touched on with Mike Flood, who drums for a hobby. It's not that he's stupid - he's a competent handyman and builds a space rocket in his spare time! - it's just that he tends to drum on breakable things. With his ''hammers...''
* [[Easy Amnesia]]: Dilys had one in the aptly-named episode "Dilys' Forgetful Day". She had one after falling from a ladder (caused by Norman), and recovered after hitting her head on the bus. Also, Norman gave his mother [[Fake Memories]] just for the hell of it.
* [[Eek! aA Mouse!]]: Bella does ''not'' like mice.
* [[First Name Ultimatum]]: "NOR-MAN!"
* [[Friend to All Living Things]]: Brownwyn, although it comes back to bite her somewhat when she wishes at a well that Lion would stop hunting birds. Norman qualifies as well, especially where Wooly and Lambykins are concerned.
* [[Geographic Flexibility]]: In the CGI season, Pontypandy has somehow acquired a coastline.
* [[Genius Ditz]]: Elvis, who's a very competent firefighter and who's shown to take the lead on the (very, very rare) occasions Sam's not around.
* [[Granola Girl]]: Bronwyn has hints of this, including giving Dilys a dream catcher for her birthday and believing in a lucky stone.
* [[Heterosexual Life Partners]]: Elvis and Mike Flood play music together and are paired up for a three-legged race, to their evident delight. It's clear that they get on really well - possibly because they're the only ones daft enough to put up with each other.
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* [[Job Title]]
* [[Karma Houdini]]: Norman Price rarely gets punished for the many, many problems he causes. Even starting the {{spoiler|''Great Fire of Pontypandy''}}, putting the lives of every main character in danger along the way, only results in a telling off from his mum. Presumably he serves his punishments after the credits roll...
** There was actually ONE episode, Floating Cart, where Sam made Norman go around fixing everything that he'd broken.
* [[The Kiddie Ride]]: Jupiter was made into one with a figure of Sam attached to it.
* [[The Klutz]]: Mike Flood, the village handyman, whose main job sees to be mending things that he's previously broken.
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* [[Meaningful Name]]: Bella Lasagne and Mandy Flood.
* [[The Movie]]: ''The Great Fire of Pontypandy''.
** More recently, there was ''Heroes of the Storm'', called ''Ultimate Heroes'' in the U.S., and ''Alien Alert''.
* [[The Musical]]: Several. There's ''Fireman Sam: Ready For Action!'', based on the original series, ''Fireman Sam on Stage'', based on the 2003 series, and ''Fireman Sam: Pontypandy Rocks!'', based on the CGI series. ''Ready For Action'' had the characters played by live actors, while the other two used the characters' voice-actors in creepy-looking suits.
* [[My Beloved Smother]]: Dilys. May explain why [[Disappeared Dad|Mr. Price is mysteriously absent.]]
* [[Nephewism]]: Sarah and James are Sam's niece and nephew, and until recently their parents were never seen.
* [[No Antagonist]]: Unless you count fire... or Norman.
* [[No Celebrities Were Harmed]]: Elvis.
* [[Anti-Nominal Hero]] / [[ByronicVillain HeroProtagonist]] /VillainProtagonist: Norman (Type V).
* [[No Name Given]]: Sam is nearly always referred to by his first name only. {{spoiler|His full name is Sammuel Peyton-Jones}}
* [[Not Even Bothering with the Accent]]
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* [[Shout-Out]]: The crew (or maybe lookalikes of them) along with additional firemen did appear in It's Very Noisy for Mr. Quiet, a television exclusive [[Mr. Men]] story. Steele made [[The Cameo]] in the GBA version of [[Lego Island 2]].
** The show's own [[Emergency Squad Scramble]] sequence is an almost shot-for-shot homage to the one from ''[[Londons Burning]]''.
* [[TedSmall BaxterName, Big Ego]]: Norman.
* [[Stiff Upper Lip]]: Averted constantly with Dilys, who's practically a stampede waiting to happen all on her own. However, in [[The Movie]] {{spoiler|she averts this spectacularly as she [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|leads Trevor and all the kids, including her son and nephew, to safety in the midst of the biggest fire in the town's history.]]}}
* [[Stock Footage]]: Largely averted, although a few pieces exist. Station Officer Steele ''always'' runs to the printer and reads out the emergency in the same way, for example. And while the animators went to the trouble of using different sequences for the crew preparing to leave the station (each character's helmet has a specific place on the rack, for example, and it's always the correct ones collected), it's always the ''same'' few seconds of footage used.
* [[Talking to Himself]]: John Alderton voiced ''all'' the characters in the original series, [[Cross-Dressing Voices|even the females]].
* [[Tear Jerker]]: The episode "Steele Under Par", when Station Officer Steele is forced to retire from his job.
* [[Ted Baxter]]: Norman.
* [[The Ditz]]: Elvis, who finds mopping the floor difficult. But see also [[Genius Ditz]] above, as he's rarely lacking in an emergency.
* [[Those Two Guys]]: Sarah & James.
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[[Category:Western Animation]]
[[Category:Fireman Sam]]
[[Category:TV Series]]