Firehouse Tales

Firehouse Tales
Genre	Adventure Comedy Musical Preschool
Created by	Sidney J. Bailey
Directed by	Kathi Castillo Terry Klassen(voice director)
Voices of	Jesse Moss Michael Adamthwaite Richard Cox
Narrated by	French Tickner
Theme music composer	Tim Kelly
Opening theme	"Firehouse Tales Theme"
Ending theme	"Firehouse Tales Theme" (instrumental)
Composer	Tim Kelly
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No.of seasons	1
No.of episodes	26 (78 segments)
Production
Executive producers	Sidney J. Bailey Sander Schwartz For Cartoon Network: Alice Cahn and Peter Kilcommons
Producer	Ken Kessel
Editor	Myra Owyang
Running time	11 minutes (whole) 6 minutes (segments)
Production company	Warner Bros. Animation
Original release
Network	Cartoon Network
Release	August 22, 2005(2005-08-22)– January 6, 2006(2006-01-06)

Firehouse Talesis an Americananimatedchildren's television seriescreated by Sidney J. Bailey, produced byWarner Bros. Animationas the only original series forCartoon Network's now-defunctTickle-Upreschool programming block. The series follows three anthropomorphic fire engines who attend firefighting school.

Characters

• Red (voiced byJesse Moss) is a red fire engine and the main character in the show who never gives up. He loves nature and the outdoors but most of all, he loves making new friends. Sometimes, he is the leader of the firetruck team. The episode "New Truck on the Block" reveals his first day in Green Meadows. His catchphrase is "The sirens say help's on the way!"
• Petrol (voiced byMichael Adamthwaite) is an orange fire engine fromScotlandwho is sometimes afraid but manages to find the courage inside himself. According to his song "I'm Petrol the Fire Truck", he came before Crabby and Red did.
• Crabby (voiced byRichard Cox) is a grumpy yellow fire engine who sometimes complains about his job and who likes the "great indoors" better than the outdoors but sometimes enjoys the outdoors.
• The Chief (voiced by Ron Halder) is the dark blue fire engine who is the leader of the three junior firetrucks (Red, Petrol, and Crabby). He tells them exactly what to do at any given time. He sometimes puts Red in charge of the team and sometimes leads the team whenever an emergency occurs.
• Mayor Precious Primly (voiced by Ellen Kennedy) is the mayor who runs Green Meadows and works for The Chief.
• Stinky Bins (voiced byDavid "Squatch" Ward) is the greengarbage truckof Green Meadows. He is used to his own stench but sometimes takes a bath, resulting in pollution that has to be cleaned up by the firetrucks. He also likes telling jokes, as seen in "Stinky Bubbles".
• Snooty-Tootie (voiced by Colin Murdock) is a blacklimowho carries the Mayor around Green Meadows. He once taught the junior firetrucks manners.
• Spinner (voiced by David A. Kaye) is an orangehelicopterwho often doesn't take his job seriously.
• Scoop is a whiteseaplanewho carries water which she can use to douse fires.
• Bubba (voiced by Blu Mankuma) is a yellowbulldozerwho works outside the firehouse.
• Milkie (voiced byCathy Weseluck) is a whiteice cream truckwho likes to give ice cream to the children.
• Wiser (voiced byFrench Tickner) is a dark redmobile cranewho can lift people from fires. He first appeared in "Older But Wiser". He also narrates all the stories.
• Tug (voiced byMichael Dobson) is a red and yellow fireboat who is ready to rescue.
• Bulky (voiced byTerry Klassen) is a blueblimpwho had been decorated for Halloween. He appeared in the episodes "Spinner Spins a Tale" and "Hoppin' Hoses".
• Zoe is a redtow truckwho likes helping other cars.
• Lorrie is a light blueLand Roverwho lives in the beach and is Petrol's old friend. She first appeared in "The Lorrie Story".
• Newsie is a blue news truck who likes filming. He first appeared in "Trucks on TV".
• Squirt is the firehouse Dalmatian.

Production and background

Firehouse Taleswas originally produced by Firehouse Productions, LLC as a 22-minute pilot, created and developed by animation producer Sidney J. Bailey and animation director Clark James. It was sold toWarner Bros. Televisionin 2004, which following their process, the program was redeveloped as a CG program composited over 2D backgrounds – 26 half hours were subsequently produced byWarner Bros. Animationand aired onCartoon Network'sTickle-Uworldwide.

The original pilot episodes, which never aired publicly, was created as practical miniature sets with computer generated facial expressions added in post production. The original characters cast were: "Pete", "Lakie", "Tip", "Commander", and "Chief McSpeed", while Wiser and Squirt have different designs.

Ancillary products were produced byBandai(toys) andScholastic(books).

Broadcast

Firehouse Talespremiered onCartoon Network's preschool television programming block Tickle-U in the United States on August 22, 2005. It also aired onCartoonitoin the UK from 2006. It has also aired onStar Channel's Starland (formerly Star Toons) block in Greece,RTL Klubin Hungary,RTP2in Portugal, and more channels in other foreign countries.

External links

• Firehouse TalesatIMDb