Humphrey B. Bear is an Australian children's television series and its fictional character namesake is an icon of Australian children's television. Humphrey B Bear was first broadcast on NWS-9 on Monday, 24 May, 1965. In the early days the character was known as Bear Bear and was named Humphrey B Bear as the result of an on air competition. The show become one of the most successful programs for pre-schoolers in Australia.

The character of Humphrey is a tall, shaggy brown bear with a large plastic nose, straw boater, tartan waist-coat and over-sized yellow bow-tie. His television show always features a female companion who assists and narrates Humphrey's various adventures in the "magic forest" including his brightly coloured tree house. The show is shot on television studio set.

The show 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. Humphrey B. Bear has viewers all over the world thanks to the United States version of his show shown on PBS in America and the Spanish version shown on Galavision .

Each episode of Humphrey is designed to entertain and educate its audience as they join in the fun with the character of Humphrey B Bear. Humphrey enjoys exploring and pretending. He likes playing, singing, dancing and being with his friends. The writers of Humphrey attempt to set up each show as a new adventure for Humphrey that parallels the needs, fears and fun of the average four year old child. The character of Humphrey Bear explores life as they do, trying to reinforce their self esteem and showing them it's alright to make mistakes (after all everyone does). The series attempts to show that it is not always necessary to be the best at everything, but that it's more important to simply take part.

Humphrey still appears every morning on Australian television, and is a standard aspect of Australian culture. Attempts by the Channel 9 television network to cancel the show in 2000 were met with howls of protest, including one from the Prime Minister, and the television network hastily retreated from the suggestion.

External links

• www.humphreybear.com Official website