Butterfly Valley (1969 series)

Butterfly Valley is an American children's animated series created by Ronald Smickon and Bobby Westmoreland. It was the first series produced by HeyKids Studios, which also made other series like Jumbo's Circus, Fisherman Fred and supposedly, Candle Cove.
The show was first produced in 1968 and broadcasted on NBC from March 8, 1969 to January 16, 1973.
Canadian company Nelvana currently holds rights to the series and the related Butterfly Valley franchise.
==Synopsis==
Butterfly Valley featured twin sisters named Rose and Petunia who find themselves in a land called Butterfly Valley, where they must help the Butterfly fairies defend themselves from the evil King Boogieman, who wishes to kidnap and marry Princess Butterfly.
However, at the end of the second season, a new villain named Frank was introduced and King Boogieman redeemed.
==History and production==
HeyKids Studios was founded on January 17, 1968 by aspiring cartoonists Ronald Smickon and Bobby Westmoreland. They wanted to make an animated series, but they had to make a pilot film first, so they hired writer Sean Hancock and director Rudolph Pasky to help with their first film.
When Hancock thought of having something magical and majestic to the story, he was suggested by his nine year old daughter Kathy, who will later voice Rose in the series, to use fairies and butterflies, her points of interest, which led to the creation of the Butterfly Fairies, while Pasky thought of using trolls as villains as suggested by his son Ben, who liked to imitate trolls. The writers state that the rest came naturally to them.
After finishing the pilot film, Smickon and Westmoreland send it to the NBC network executives, who like the film so much, they wanted them to make it into a full television series in their Saturday morning timeslot.
The first eight episodes had poor designs and rough animation, but starting with Princess Butterfly To The Rescue, the ninth episode of the first season, the show improved significantly, including smoother animation, cleaner designs and better character developments.
Pasky stated during his interview in the TV special On the Path of Butterfly Valley that each episode took five months to be produced.
==Episodes==
To see the list of episodes from the original series, see Episodes#1969 series.
==Reception==
When Butterfly Valley premiered on March 8, 1969, the first episode Arrival received 1.7 million viewers already.
Several years even after its cancellation, many critics praised the show for its light-hearted nature, colorful scenery, carefully-written story and interesting characters.
===Decline===
However, the high ratings of Butterfly Valley was later rivalled by Candle Cove, a pirate-themed live action series also produced by HeyKids that targeted towards boys aged 6-12, but also appealed to girls, thanks to the main character Janice, and even adults, for its surreal content.
The writers tried to compete with the writers of Candle Cove; however, they believed said show was popular due to its dark nature. As a result, the fourth season felt sinister compared to other seasons. This plan backfired, as Butterfly Valley rapidly declined in viewership as a result of surreal episodes and the lack of charm from the first three seasons.
Eventually, the entire studio began to lose funds, so Candle Cove was eventually cancelled, but it was too late, the now-low ratings of Butterfly Valley soon send the series to its eventual cancellation. As a result, the fifth season was cancelled after only two episodes.
==Legacy==
The whole series was included, along with the 1998 reboot, in the Blu-ray box set Butterfly Valley: The 50th Anniversary Collection, released by Mill Creek Entertainment on February 7, 2019 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Butterfly Valley franchise.
==See also==
*Butterfly Valley (1998 series) - The first reboot of the series.
*Butterfly Valley: Friends on Adventures - The second reboot premiered on Netflix in 2022.
Category:TV series