"The series will outsell The Muppets series of the late 1970s" Vincent C Piano, CEO of Mizlou Programming, 1986
Over the years, there have been numerous U.S. adaptations of British TV shows. Some, such as Sanford and Son, Shameless, and The Office, have been wildly successful, while others have struggled. Transatlantic adaptations of The Inbetweeners, Teachers, and multiple attempts at Fawlty Towers are often seen as flaming car crashes at the bottom of the Grand Canyon. However, few people know there was an audacious attempt to introduce The Wombles to American audiences.
The original BBC series, based on the novels by Elizabeth Beresford, aired from 1973 to 75, and quickly became an instant hit with viewers. In addition to books and the television show, The Wombles inspired jigsaw puzzles, toys, soap, lampshades, and a string of Top 40 hits. A full-length feature film, Wombling Free, was released in 1977, cementing The Wombles as a cultural phenomenon. And, somewhere in America, a group of television executives decided it was time for another British invasion.
The first murmurings of an American take on The Wombles came in 1981, when Variety reported that Satori Productions, in partnership with an Australian production company, planned to produce a 26-episode live-action version. Satori had also secured the US distribution rights for Wombling Free in a bid to whet America's appetite for The Wombles. Curiously, Satori’s primary venture at the time was Private Screenings, a pay-TV service for cable viewers which focused on soft-core pornography.
Satori hoped that their production of The Wombles would be ready by 1982, but it never materialized. Nonetheless, Wombling Free was released in the US that year. According to Screen International, Peter Noble reported that it was well received over the pond and that Wombles merchandise was doing good business. However, evidence of this ‘success’ appears to be non-existent, so we should take Noble’s claims with a pinch of salt. Satori, undeterred, continued pursuing their plans for Womble-shaped success.
In April 1983, Ernest G. Sauer, president of Satori, proclaimed that “the next two years could outgross anything we have done to date,” with The Wombles accounting for much of this potential. Although a co-production on The Wombles had apparently started, Sauer admitted it would not be ready for the MIP television festival in Cannes. It was beginning to look as though Satori’s version of The Wombles was mired in development hell.
Despite the challenges, Satori owned exclusive production and merchandising rights for The Wombles in the Western Hemisphere, making it a potentially lucrative venture. Determined, Satori pressed forward. Wombling Free was due to debut on US pay-TV late in 1984 with the Satori series - consisting of 26x 30-minute episodes - following shortly afterwards.
It was anticipated, in order to appease the American market, that Satori would be ‘Americanizing’ The Wombles, a move considered crucial in their quest to make them “as big as The Muppets, or at least The Smurfs” as New York magazine Box Office put it.
Further news on The Wombles' US adventure dried up in 1984, but at the start of 1985, Satori announced they had completed filming a one-hour special. The pilot, which took three weeks to produce, promised a mix of comedy, adventure, suspense and original music videos aimed at both children and adults. Jeffrey Sass, vice president of acquisition and production, claimed, at the time, that the pilot was “a cross between Batman and The Monkees” - an intriguing prospect if ever there was one.
It was also revealed that FilmFair, producers of the BBC’s version of The Wombles, had sold the film and merchandising rights of their product to Satori, although this appears to have only applied in the US. As a result, Satori began combining FilmFair’s five-minute episodes into hour-long specials which would feature linking narration from Dennis Elsas. These specials - Meet the Wombles and The Wonderful World of the Wombles - would eventually air on pay-TV channels such as Showtime, Home Theater Network and SelecTV in 1986.
Sass shared additional details about Satori’s pilot, revealing that Frank Gorshin portrayed the villainous Dr. Edmond Gomaniac, whose schemes frequently disrupted the lives of The Wombles. Veteran actor Abe Vigoda also appeared, playing Dr. E. Gomaniac’s (you see?) primary henchman. By the start of 1986, though, a series still hadn’t arrived. The original plan for 26 episodes was now scaled back to just 13, which were expected to begin production in spring 1986.
And that was the last that the world heard of Satori’s adaptation of The Wombles. Evidence of the entire venture is exceptionally rare, but a promotional leaflet has emerged online at the TidyBag Wombles fansite. I posted this onto Twitter last year and it certainly caused a few jaws to drop, including that of Mike Batt, who had no idea the project had ever been launched. But there it is, evidence that a US pilot of The Wombles was produced.
Luckily, I was able to speak briefly with Jeffrey Sass about the project. He confirmed he co-wrote the treatment with Phil Gurin - now the executive producer of Shark Tank - and the pilot simply didn’t get picked up. This nixes the rumour that Elizabeth Beresford was horrified by the Americanization of The Wombles and cancelled the adaptation. When I asked if it resembled the FilmFair version, Sass emphasized that it was decidedly American, describing it as a blend of early MTV and Batman. According to Sass, it was very innovative and funny.
I did try to contact a few other people involved in the project, but, as of yet, I haven’t heard back. Sadly, nothing else from the pilot has ever emerged aside from the promotional leaflet mentioned earlier. The actual pilot appears to have been preserved at the Library of Congress, but travelling there to view it would be financially insane for me to take on. Still, the leaflet does offer a few glimpses into what the series might have been like.
Firstly, as Sass confirmed to me, it’s very, very American and very, very 1980s. With one of the Wombles sporting a tracksuit top, shades and a mohican, it's clearly a world away from the genteel, timeless simplicity of the original British version. We can also see that there was a Wombles band in place, with La Toya Jackson appearing on stage with them, supporting Sass’ comment that there was an influence from The Monkees.
The den's background provides additional clues. If you look closely, there’s a poster on the wall which says “How to talk dirty”, likely a joke aimed at adult viewers, although it may have been intended to offer a cleaner, alternative meaning for children. Talking of comedy, the comedian Henny Youngman, known as ‘the king of the one-liners’ appears in the pilot, reinforcing the variety-show format.
There’s also a prominent “LAB” sign on the door in the background, so there must have been some form of technological/scientific innovation taking place in the background - most likely where the Tobermory character (no names for the US Wombles have been released) would have tinkered. No doubt, the contents of the lab would have been used in the fight against Dr E Gomaniac, but without viewing the pilot, this remains speculative.
Satori’s production of The Wombles is a fascinating prospect for anyone who grew up enjoying the British version. For me, The Wombles programme and characters are so quintessentially British that the odd, neon-lit fever dream of the US pilot stops me in my tracks. It’s difficult to imagine these well known characters being Americanised and updated for the MTV generation. But it happened, and the juxtaposition between the two versions is mind-boggling - a sensation that would only intensify if the pilot was readily available.
Sadly, like many pilots, Satori’s re-imagining of The Wombles is likely to remain off limits to virtually everyone. Most people may say this is for the best, that the Wombles belong on Wimbledon Common and not an MTV soundstage. But I'm not most people. If I ever win the lottery, I'll head over to the States and access the viewing copy to reveal more. Yes, it may well be the the televisual equivalent of turning a cup of Earl Grey into a triple-shot robusta espresso with a dash of LSD, but who doesn't need that once in a while?
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