Hallo Spencer is a German

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 children's television series

Children's television series

Children's television series, are commercial television programs designed for, and marketed to children, normally scheduled for broadcast during the morning and afternoon when children are awake. They can sometimes run in the early evening, for the children that go to school...

, created by Winfried Debertin and produced by Norddeutscher Rundfunk

Norddeutscher Rundfunk

Norddeutscher Rundfunk is a public radio and television broadcaster, based in Hamburg. In addition to the city-state of Hamburg, NDR transmits for the German states of Lower Saxony, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Schleswig-Holstein...

 (NDR) from 1979 until 2001. In these 22 years, 275 episodes were filmed, including a number of 'specials' featuring the characters taking part in traditional fairy tale and nursery rhyme themed stories.

It is a puppet based show, featuring characters created and operated in the same fashion as Jim Henson's Muppets and Sesame Street

Sesame Street

Sesame Street has undergone significant changes in its history. According to writer Michael Davis, by the mid-1970s the show had become "an American institution". The cast and crew expanded during this time, including the hiring of women in the crew and additional minorities in the cast. The...

, which in fact, some of the show's staff were former employees of the German version of Sesame Street.
To this day, the series is popular and well-loved in its home country to the extent that the theme park Heide Park

Heide Park

The Heide Park Resort is a theme park in Soltau, Lower Saxony. With an overall area of over 850,000 m², it is one of the biggest German amusement parks and the biggest in Northern Germany....

 features a themed area devoted to the show.

The series has been repeated on the commercial channels Nickelodeon Germany

Nickelodeon Germany

Nickelodeon , known on-air only as Nickelodeon, is a television channel for kids in Germany, part of the international Nickelodeon franchise. Launched on 2005, Nickelodeon Germany is based in Berlin...

 and on the pay-TV channel Premiere

Premiere (pay television network)

Sky Deutschland AG, branded as Sky, is a German media company which operates the first pay television platform in Germany and Austria, offering several channels of digital content via satellite and cable....

. Episodes are still regularly found on regional broadcast stations.

Plot

Hallo Spencer is set in the fictional German town of Spencerdorf. Geographically, the area is wildly varied: densely forested and lush grassland areas border an arid, extremely localised volcanic area. The US language version was relocated to Spencerville, Ohio

Spencerville, Ohio

Spencerville is a village in Allen County, Ohio, United States with a population of 2,235 as of the 2000 U.S. census. It is included in the Lima, Ohio Metropolitan Statistical Area.-Geography:Spencerville is located at ....

, which is a real town.
Spencer usually greets the viewers and introduces a special theme for the plot of the episode, e.g. basic things like beds or greetings. The story then shifts around the village with the characters contributing something related to the theme.
Later episodes switched from the village to Spencer's apartment, where he would normally tell a story to the viewer.

Spencer (Hallo Spencer)

The main character. In the early episodes, Spencer lived in a television studio, although he later moved into an apartment in the "Hallerstraße". He is the mayor of the village, and has at his disposal a videophone with which he can watch and speak to any of the residents at any time.
Spencer's first name in the US broadcasts, Hallo, simply means hello in German, so the show's original German title Hallo, Spencer is Hello, Spencer in English. There's a sign hanging on the back wall of Spencer's studio displaying the German title and US distributors thought it would be necessary to have an "English" explanation to that - thus Hallo became Spencer's first name in the US.

Puppeteers: Joachim Hall, Jürgen Meuter (hands).

US voice artist: Tom Wyner

Tom Wyner

Thomas Halperin "Tom" Wyner is an English-born voice actor for anime series who usually gets tough guy or villain roles. He is also a producer, director, and writer...

.

Elvis (Elmar)

Elvis is Spencer's assistant. He lives with his female friend Lulu in a railway carriage known as the Dream Express.

Puppeteer: Wilhelm Helmrich, Matthias Hirth.

US voice artist: Robert Axelrod

Robert Axelrod (actor)

Robert Axelrod is a U.S. actor who has been in several movies and lent his voice to countless televisual shows including Digimon, having started vocal acting for the English versions of Japanese cartoons in 1980...

.

Lulu

Lulu lives with Elvis in the Dream Express. In early episodes, she had no nose.

Puppeteer: Maria Ilic.

Nepomuk (Grumpowski Nepomuk)

Nepomuk is an irritable and stubborn creature. His nickname is Nepi (Grumpo in the American version). He dislikes the nickname tallywacker, only allowing his friend Kasi to use it. He lives in a large castle.

Puppeteer: Horst Lateika.

US voice artist: Mike Reynolds.

Kasimir

Kasimir (or Kasi for short) is a red creature with unusually long arms, who lives in a chestnut tree which has an elevator built inside it. He is Nepomuk's best friend and the only villager allowed to call him Nepi (although this is not the case in early episodes).
Kasi is very helpful, and does many different jobs in the village.

Puppeteers: Herbert Langemann, Martin Leßmann.

Poldi

Poldi is a dragon who lives in a volcanic crater. If irritated by other characters, he will often threaten to eat them (though he never does).

Puppeteer: Friedrich Wollweber.

US voice artist: Michael McConnohie

Michael McConnohie

Michael D. McConnohie is a voice actor and is the President of the Nevada-based Voxworks voice-acting corporation. He is known for his recognizable deep booming voice and is generally known for playing more charismatic characters...

.

Lexi

Lexi is the bookworm of the village. He lives in a mushroom and is continually compiling his enormous library, known as the Lexiklopädie (Lexipedia in the American version).

Puppeteers: Lorenz Claussen, Matthias Hirth, Joachim Hall.

US voice artist: Ted Layman.

The Quietschbeus (The Screech Boys)

The Quietschbeus are a trio of musicians who live in the television studio alongside Spencer. In every episode they perform a song related to the topic of the episode. Their German name is derived from the 'Beach Boys'.

• Karl-Heinz (Frankie) is the band-leader, and has a green nose. In the original version, he has a distinct dialect. Puppeteers: Petra Zieser, Eva Behrmann, Karime Vakilzadeh
• Karl-Gustav has a red nose. He often has problems making decisions. Puppeteers: Klaus Naeve, Lorenz Claussen.
• Karl-Otto has a blue nose. In the original, he stutters. Puppeteers: Matthias Hirth, Lothar Kreutzer, Jürgen Meuter.

Mona and Lisa

Twin girls who live on a houseboat and are usually found arguing. Mona and Lisa are not identical twins - they can be identified by their different hair styles. Mona has her hair tied in two pigtails, while Lisa has a single ponytail.

The twins first appeared in Episode 6.

Puppeteers: Petra Zieser, Sabine Steincke, Karime Vakilzadeh (Mona), Eva Behrmann (Lisa).

Galaktika (Galactica)

Galaktika is an alien from Andromeda. The villagers can summon her by singing. However, in some early episodes Galaktika appears without the need of a song.

Puppeteer: Maria Ilic.

Nero

Nero is a demon. He appeared only in several early episodes, being quickly dropped from the show when it found that young viewers were afraid of him.

Puppeteers: Friedrich Wollweber, Matthias Hirth, Joachim Hall.

The Series Abroad

In the early 90s, after many years of success in its homeland, Saban International

Saban

Saban Entertainment , was a worldwide-served independent American television production company formed in 1984 by music and television producers Haim Saban and Shuki Levy as "Saban Productions", a U.S...

 bought the foreign rights to Hallo Spencer. The show was soon being translated and broadcast in many countries, including North America

North America

North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...

, China

China

Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

, Israel

Israel

The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...

, Spain

Spain

Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

, Singapore

Singapore

Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...

, Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

, Scandinavia

Scandinavia

Scandinavia is a cultural, historical and ethno-linguistic region in northern Europe that includes the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, characterized by their common ethno-cultural heritage and language. Modern Norway and Sweden proper are situated on the Scandinavian Peninsula,...

 and the Netherlands

Netherlands

The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

.
However, the rushed translations and changes made to the show were often for the worse. The European style of characters speaking over one another worked very badly in other regions, making scenes unintelligible and worse, laughable. This was not helped by the comparatively low budget of the programme.

The North American version was retitled The Hallo Spencer Show and heavily edited by translating and rewriting scripts, cutting seven minutes from each episode in order to fit the American broadcast schedule during its first-run syndication on local networks around 3:00 PM EST

Eastern Time Zone

The Eastern Time Zone of the United States and Canada is a time zone that falls mostly along the east coast of North America. Its UTC time offset is −5 hrs during standard time and −4 hrs during daylight saving time...

/2:00 PM Central Time Zone

Central Time zone

In North America, the Central Time Zone refers to national time zones which observe standard time by subtracting six hours from UTC , and daylight saving, or summer time by subtracting five hours...

, and to accommodate the inclusion of a rap at the end, summarizing the events of the episode.
The title character, Spencer, was renamed Hallo Spencer (Hallo now being his first name, due to the impossibility of removing the "Hallo Spencer" sign usually seen behind him in his office), and many other characters were altered to make them more palatable. Nepomuk also found himself with a first name: Grumpowski, Elvis became Elmar and the house band, the Quietschbeus became The Screech Boys.

Episode Availability

Episodes of the original version are widely available in Germany on VHS

VHS

The Video Home System is a consumer-level analog recording videocassette standard developed by Victor Company of Japan ....

 and DVD

DVD

A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....

.

The American language version is unsurprisingly rarer. It is unknown how many episodes were originally translated and broadcast, but only six have been released on VHS, in three volumes. Judging by the contents of the tapes, the American episodes seem to have been chosen at random, with no regard at all to the running order of the original series.

The contents of each tape is as follows:

• Volume 1:

A Friend from China (Episode 100) and The Storm (Episode 86)

• Volume 2:

The Visitor (Episode 121) and The Argument (Episode 77)

• Volume 3:

The Less I See, The More I Hear (Episode 84) and A Million for Mona Lisa (Episode 120)

External links

• Official Hallo Spencer website (German)
• http://www.spencerdorf.de
• The 'Hallo Spencer Studio' at Heide Park