Here's Humphrey
Here's Humphrey was an Australian television series for children first aired on Monday May 24, 1965. It featured a character known as Humphrey B. Bear. In the early days Humphrey was known as Bear Bear and was named Humphrey B. Bear as the result of an on-air competition. Here's Humphrey has become one of the most successful programs for pre-schoolers in Australia.
It has won Logies for Best Children's Series and the character of Humphrey has received a number of National Awards and Commendations, including a special "Citizen of the Year" Award at the 1994 Australia Day celebrations. Here's Humphrey has fans all over the world thanks to the United States version of the show shown on PBS in America and the Spanish version shown on Galavision.
It was recorded mainly in NWS-9 Adelaide.
The Nine Network axed Here's Humphrey in late 2004 and replaced it the following year with Mornings with Kerri-Anne. Repeats of Here's Humphrey run every summer from December to February.
Criticism of Here's Humphrey
Typical complaints about the Humphrey character include the character failing to wear pants and the fact that he is mute.
The latter has drawn the most serious criticism, mainly relating to concerns children may be negatively affected by a role model that does not communicate properly.
Over the years (presumably to fend off criticism that the show does not teach children a great deal) more educational content has been injected, but some still counter that this is still at best superficial.
The combination of muteness and lack of educational content has caused at least one character to disappear off Australian network television (namely Fat Cat, from Fat Cat and Friends), which clearly has been a guiding factor in the recent development of the show.