Fred and the Nature Gang

comedy

**Fred and the Nature Gang** is Brian Coukis' fanmade Nature Cat series. It debuted (in real life) in 2019. It is a "what if Nature Cat existed in 1979" sort of thing.

According to Brian, Fred and the Nature Gang is the first TV series to feature Nature Cat (known as Fred). The series ran from September 10, 1979 to February 18, 1983 on ABC, but the series revived with the special Nature Cat's Biggest Adventure in 1985, as well as 6 TV specials from 1988 to 1994. From 1991 to 1997, the series was reran on The Disney Channel, and on Boomerang from 2000 to 2014. The series was succeeded by Fred and the Nature Gang: Back In Action from 2008 to 2013.

## History

In 1978, Hammocks Animation were coming up with a new show because of their success in their first children's show, Wally Down Under. So they drew a cat, and named him Fred. A pilot episode was made after the development in late 1978. In 1979, the actual series came out. There were 40 episodes in total, which aired on ABC. In February 1983, the series ended with a Christmas special. In 1985, The Fred and the Nature Gang/Scooby Doo Hour aired for the first time. In 1988, Hammocks Animation decided to revive the series because of the roaring fans, so they created 6 specials with HOT Animation's former company HOT Entertainment. These specials also aired on The Disney Channel. Disney Channel aired the series and the specials from 1991-1997. From 2000 until 2014, reruns aired on Boomerang.

The pilot episode was remade as "The Missing Chew Toy" in 1982, which updated animation and multiple changes.

## Segments

### "Nature Tunes"

A short animated musical segment that comes the after the 2nd part of an episode, where the cast sing nature songs based on the episode, usually lasting about over a minute. These songs would also play over various clips of Fred and the Nature Gang episodes too. The title card just depicts of the text "Nature Tunes" on a dark blue background.

Beginning in Season 3, the segment was updated. The title card know depicts a purple music note that has "Nature Tunes" in yellow, shown on top of it, and it animated with a zoom-in effect, and the background color was also changed to match the one used in the Season 2 intro. The format has also been changed as well. Instead of using clips of various episodes, it now features many anthropomorphic nature animals singing the songs, all of which takes place on a stage. Different animals would be singing them in every episode too. Some of the songs they performed were remade for the 2015 series Nature Cat, such as the theme song, which was performed by Taran Killam, where in Nature Tunes, Weasels were singing a song about otters. Dog Gone even appeared in one of the segments and they looked completely different than their 2015 appearance. The members of the American/Canadian/Australian indie rock band The Dampers provide the singing voices and the lead guitarist and background vocalist Carl Hebert wrote many of the songs.

The segment didn't appear in Nature Cat's Biggest Adventure or any of the specials, and after Season 5, the segment has completed dropped from the series.

A segment appears in the 2015 series featuring Nature Cat's favorite band Dog Gone, which has a very similar concept to that of the original.

### "Fred Says"

Another segment in the series where Fred talks about facts about nature with footage of live-action kids playing in the background. This would play on all the even-numbered episodes from Seasons 1 and 2, but in Season 3 and onward, this and Nature Tunes segment would play in the same episode.

Like Nature Tunes, this segment was dropped after Season 5.