''Bleep and Booster'' is a children's

cartoon A cartoon is a type of visual art that is typically drawn, frequently Animation, animated, in an realism (arts), unrealistic or semi-realistic style. The specific meaning has evolved, but the modern usage usually refers to either: an image or s ...

series by

William Timym William Timym, (1902–1990) was an artist whose best known work is probably the '' Bleep and Booster'' cartoons for the BBC's ''Blue Peter''. Timym (pronounced Tim) was Austrian, grew up in Vienna and studied at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienn ...

(pronounced Tim) originally shown on the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

's ''

Blue Peter ''Blue Peter'' is a British children's television entertainment programme created by John Hunter Blair. It is the longest-running children's TV show in the world, having been broadcast since October 1958. It was broadcast primarily from BBC ...

''. A total of 44 five-minute episodes comprising 10 separate stories were produced for television between 3 February 1964 and 6 November 1969; the stories then continued in the yearly Blue Peter Books, ending with the Fourteenth Book in 1977. Bleep is an alien from the planet Miron/Myron with a spaceship, whilst Booster is a young human who travels with Bleep performing galactic missions for Bleep's moustached father. The planet Miron/Myron is portrayed as being built almost entirely out of chrome, with its capital at Miron/Myron City. The inhabitants are portrayed as robot-like creatures with flexible arms and legs like rubber hoses. Their feet are cupped and they have antennae and a third eye in the centre of their foreheads. Two episodes of the series, ''The Giant Brain'' and ''Solaron'' were released in 1993 on

VHS VHS (Video Home System) is a discontinued standard for consumer-level analog video recording on tape cassettes, introduced in 1976 by JVC. It was the dominant home video format throughout the tape media period of the 1980s and 1990s. Ma ...

in the UK by PolyGram Video. No other episodes have been released since then. The cartoons were filmed with

animatics A storyboard is a graphic organizer that consists of simple illustrations or images displayed in sequence for the purpose of pre-visualizing a motion picture, animation, motion graphic or interactive media sequence. The storyboarding process ...

: still pictures that were slowly panned, with narration by

Peter Hawkins Peter John Hawkins (3 April 1924 – 8 July 2006) was a British actor. From the 1950s to 1980s, he was one of the most sought-after voice artists for television. Early life Peter John Hawkins was born on 3 April 1924 in Hargwyne Street in Bri ...

. The theme music was realised by Brian Hodgson at the

BBC Radiophonic Workshop The BBC Radiophonic Workshop was one of the sound effects units of the BBC, created in 1958 to produce Incidental music, incidental sounds and new music for radio and, later, television. The unit is known for its experimental and pioneering ...

, sampling the opening of "Vibration" (1962; aka "The Visitor from Inner Space") by Tom Dissevelt.

TV stories

* Story 1 (1964-02-03 – 1964-03-16) – 4 episodes * Story 2 (1964-09-14 – 1964-10-01) – 4 episodes * Story 3 – Bleep and Booster on Sirius (1964-12-31 – 1965-01-11), 4 episodes * Story 4 – Bleep and Booster on Pegasus (1965-03-29 – 1965-04-08), 4 episodes * Story 5 – Bleep and Booster on Numa (1965-10-04 – 1965-10-14), 4 episodes * Story 6 – Bleep and Booster on Miron One (1966-04-18 – 1966-04-28), 4 episodes * Story 7 – Bleep and Booster on E.W.C.O.S 9 (1966-11-21 – 1966-12-01), 4 episodes * Story 8 – (1967-10-19 – 1967-11-02), 5 episodes * Story 9 – Solaron (1968-10-14 – 1968-10-31), 6 episodes * Story 10 – The Giant Brain (1969-10-23 – 1969-11-06), 5 episodes

References

External links

''Bleep and Booster''
on BBC's "My Science Fiction Life" pages

on Toonhound *{{IMDb title, 0823858 BBC children's television shows 1960s British children's television series 1970s British children's television series Blue Peter 1963 British television series debuts 1977 British television series endings Animated television series about extraterrestrial life British children's animated space adventure television series British English-language television shows 1960s British animated television series 1970s British animated television series BBC animated television series