Fireman Sam: Difference between revisions

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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).

 

* [[The Ace]]: Sam.

** In [[The Movie]] Elvis gets his chance to shine, even {{spoiler|saving Sam's life!}}

* [[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?

* [[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]].

* [[Catch Phrase]]: "Great fires of London!", "Call Fireman Sam!" and others.

* [[Chuck Cunningham Syndrome]]: Bella and Rosa in the CGI season.

* [[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.

* [[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.

** They ''do'' unplug the appliance in question first, however. In [[Real Life]] the crew would have used extinguishers containing foam or powder, so this was probably a concession to the limits of the special effects and/or a subtle PSA about how to deal with an electrical fire when water is all you've got on hand.

* [[Disappeared Dad]]: Norman Price's father is never even mentioned.

* [[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.

* [[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.

* [[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.

* [[Hollywood Fire]]: Almost inevitably. It's more realistic than a lot of portrayals, however, and the firefighters make a point of suiting up appropriately. There's generally a lot of smoke, too.

* [[Invisible Parents]]: Charlie and Bronwyn Jones, until recently.

* [[Jerkass]]: Norman.

* [[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...

* [[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.

* [[Meaningful Name]]: Bella Lasagne and Mandy Flood.

* [[The Movie]]: ''The Great Fire of Pontypandy''.

* [[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.

* [[No Name Given]]: Sam is nearly always referred to by his first name only. {{spoiler|His full name is Sammuel Peyton-Jones}}

* [[Office Golf]]: Station Officer Steele indulges in one episode, causing a minor disaster in the fire station.

* [[Only Shop in Town]]: Dilys Price's shop is this to Pontypandy.

* [[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]]''.

* [[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.

* [[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.

* [["Well Done, Son" Guy]]: Elvis can be this with Station Officer Steele and, to a lesser extent, Sam.

* [[When All You Have Is a Hammer]]: Mike Flood. Need to fix the lighthouse door? Or a broken pipe? Or a misfiring boiler? The solution always begins with a hammer... often at the expense of making the situation worse.

* [[Wrench Wench]]: Penny, more so in the earlier series.

 

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[[Category:Western Animation]]

[[Category:Fireman Sam]]