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Saturday, January 22, 2011

Telebugs episode list

Using the information from Wikipedia and episode names from episodes myself and Samanthabug on Youtube uploaded I have tried to create a Telebugs episode list as no such thing currently exists online. I can't attest to its accuracy as I am unsure of the correct running order of episodes but I am going by what we have put online.

Wiki states 86 episodes were made in total, each was 5 minutes long.
The TVS website states "85 five minute episodes were made between 1983 and 1987" which makes things confusing.
* Series 1: 26 editions from 6 January 1986 - 10 February 1986
* Series 2: 40 editions from 10 November 1986 - 16 January 1987
* Series 3: 20 editions from 17 November 1987 - 16 December 1987

1 Angel Brain
2 Apple Hi
3 Fair Play
4 Jupiter Moon
5 Danger
6 Zudo Bug
7 Signal Seizure
8 Sub Snack
9 Pirate Power
10 Robocars
11 Magnetic Madness
12 Flood
13 Flight Plan
14 Lethal Lift Off
15 Professor In Danger
16 Oil Strike
17 Hijack Hijacker
18 Bank Byte
19 City Stopper
20 Telebugs Strike Back
21 Return Of Zudo
22 TV Terror
23 Complex Confusion (All episodes up to here were capped by Samanthabug & are available on her Youtube Page)
24 Digger Dumped
25 Enter The Professor
26 Zap Code

27 Space Age Snooker
28 Culture Crazy
29 Arcadia Goes West
30 Panel Panic
31 Lifo Makes Friends
32 Lifo To The Rescue
33 The Gate Of Swords
34 Battle Of The Air
35 Ordeal By Fire
36 The Lake
37 The Shrinking Cage
38 Magic Megaliths
39 Monster Mash
40 Castle Creepers (All episodes up to here were capped by gibbonduder [aka ME!] & are available on my youtube page)

41 Telesonic Rock
42 Digger Decoy
43 Tea Party
44 Disarray
45 Mulch To The Rescue (I believe these episodes were capped by Zudobug as a 2 part story arc but no longer appear to be on Youtube, I will attempt to split them back into individual parts & put them back online)

The following episode titles are known but currently not available online:-
46 Lebab Goes Ape
47 Shadow Of The Past
48 Star Venture
49 Angel Overboard
50 The Binods
51 Eclipse
52 Cosmic Castaway
53 Time Shift
54 Colussus
55 All Hail Bug
56 Bait For The BADZ
57 Brain Lock
58 Holographic Holiday
59 Palace Of Science
60 Pyramid Pyrotechnics (must come before Magic Megaliths?)
61 Flame Out
62 Peanut Icicles
63 Zombie Profs

As you can see this leaves at least another 22 episodes with unknown titles which are also unaccounted for & unavailable.

17 comments:

Unknown said...

Hi
I just got some betamax videos off eBay and found a compilation episode of Telebugs its start of with a recap of the Telebugs then has a title card of the return of Zudo and runs for around 23 minutes with no other title cards. at the end it has the newer logo with a 1986(c).

i don't remember seeing them like this before. but thought i would let you know.

Regards

Oliver

ray p daley said...

Oliver, that might be one of the official Telebug videos as I am pretty sure that is how they compiled several episodes onto 1 tape.

An average episode is 5 mins long, some were 2 parters (so 10 mins).

The odds are you've got 4 or 5 episodes (that probably follow each other so from "Return Of Zudo" onwards then the four episodes that were after it with the last probably being "Enter The Professor".)

Those are pretty rare these days but all those episodes have been capped and are available on Youtube.

Unknown said...

Hi Ray
Sorry for the late reply, i've just come back onto your web page and saw your reply.

I have all 3 official Telebug videos, and the all have there titles complete on each episode. the videos were made up of 8 episodes on each tape so 24 episodes were released.

The one i have on Betamax is from a TV showing this contains episodes 21 to 25 (episode 25 was not released on video).

Regards

Oliver

Unknown said...

Hi. I was looking for info on Telebugs and found your page. I was looking for more episodes than the common 40 everyone seems to have, and apart from the block of 5 starting with "Telesonic Rock" there don't seem to be any more episodes available anywhere. A shame.

Here's a more complete episode guide. I like to credit my sources but in this case I don't know exactly... it's from an old website from 10-15 years ago that no longer exists. Probably a geocities page or something.

Copy and paste follows...

I'll have to post it in 2 parts, blogger says it's 4096 characters maximum per post.

---------------(part 1)----------------------

TELEBUGS

EPISODE GUIDE

Season One - (The date in the credits says 1984)

The number in brackets is the order they were shown when repeated in 1988/89
which makes more sense than the original broadcast order.
The episode "Professor in Danger" fits logically after "Flight Plan" to
form a 6-part story.

1. (1) 6. 1.86 Angel Brain
2. (2) 7. 1.86 Apple Hi
3. (3) 8. 1.86 Fair Play
4. (4) 9. 1.86 Jupiter Moon
5. (5) 10. 1.86 Danger!

6. (6) 13. 1.86 Zudo Bug
7. (7) 14. 1.86 Signal Seizure
8. (8) 15. 1.86 Sub Snack
9. (9) 16. 1.86 Oil Strike
10. (10) 17. 1.86 Digger Dumped

11. (22) 20. 1.86 Hijack Hacker
12. (23) 21. 1.86 Zap Code
13. (24) 22. 1.86 Bank Byte
14. (25) 23. 1.86 City Stopper
15. (26) 17. 6.88 The Telebugs Strike Back (pre-empted & not shown until 1988)

16. (16) 27. 1.86 Power Pirate
17. (17) 28. 1.86 Robocars
18. (18) 29. 1.86 Magnetic Madness
19. (19) 30. 1.86 Flood
20. (20) 31. 1.86 Flight Plan

21. (11) 3. 2.86 Return Of Zudo
22. (12) 4. 2.86 T.V. Terror
23. (13) 5. 2.86 Complex Confusion
24. (14) 6. 2.96 Enter The Professor
25. (15) 7. 2.86 Lethal Lift Off
26. (21) 10. 2.86 Professor In Danger

Season Two - 1986

27. 10.11.86 Star Venture
28. 11.11.86 ?
29. 12.11.86 ?
30. 13.11.86 ?
31. 14.11.86 Angel Overboard

32. 17.11.86 The Binods
33. 18.11.86 Eclipse
34. 19.11.86 ?
35. 20.11.86 ?
36. 21.11.86 ?

37. 24.11.86 Space Age Snooker
38. 25.11.86 Culture Crazy
39. 26.11.86 Arcadia Goes West
40. 27.11.86 Panel Panic
41. 28.11.86 Lifo Makes Friends

42. 1.12.86 Cosmic Castaway
43. 2.12.86 Lebab Goes Ape
44. 3.12.86 ?
45. 4.12.86 ?
46. 5.12.86 ?

47. 8.12.86 Shadow Of The Past
48. 9.12.86 Castle Cyphernal
49. 10.12.86 Pit Of Peril
50. 11.12.86 The Rose Of Infinity
51. 12.12.86 Lifo To The Rescue

52. 15.12.86 The Gate Of Swords
53. 16.12.86 The Battle Of The Air
54. 17.12.86 Ordeal By Fire
55. 18.12.86 The Lake (TV Times listed it as `The Lake and The Key')
56. 19.12.86 The Shrinking Cage

57. 5. 1.87 Time Shift
58. 6. 1.87 ?
59. 7. 1.87 ?
60. 8. 1.87 ?
61. 9. 1.87 All Hail Bug

62. 12. 1.87 Bait For The Badz
63. 13. 1.87 ?
64. 14. 1.87 ?
65. 15. 1.87 ?
66. 16. 1.87 ?

Season Three - 1987

67. 17.11.87 Pyramid Pyrotechnics
68. 18.11.87 ? Magic Megaliths (either ep. 68 or 69)
69. 19.11.87 ?
70. 20.11.87 ?
71. 23.11.87 ?

72. 24.11.87 Holographic Holiday
73. 25.11.87 ? Monster Mash (either ep. 73 or 74)
74. 26.11.87 ? Castle Creepers (either ep. 74 or 75)
75. 27.11.87 ?
76. 30.11.87 ?

77. 1.12.87 Palace of Science
78. 2.12.87 Colossus
79. 3.12.87 ?
80. 4.12.87 ?
81. 7.12.87 ?

82. 8.12.87 Telesonic Rock
83. 9.12.87 Digger Decoy
84. 10.12.87 Tea Party
85. 11.12.87 Disarray
86. 14.12.87 Mulch To The Rescue

Unknown said...

-------------(part 2)----------

SOME ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

The "I have a heart..." song is featured in the end credits of Season 2 only,
season 1 & 3 have the same tune as the opening tune.

In the episode "Flight Plan", we learn what the characters names stand for:-
Bug (the red one) = Binary Unmanned Gamma camera
his little "doggie" Mic = Mobile Independent Camera
Chip (the white one) = Co-ordinated Hexadecimal Information Processor
Samantha (the yellow one) = Solar Activated Micro Automated Non-inTerference
Hearing Apparatus


SOME CORRECTIONS TO THE EPISODE LIST DONE BY ROBERT J. CORRIGAN

He says the episode "The Telebugs Strike Back" was pre-empted & finally
shown in Summer'89. It was actually shown on 17.6.88.

The third season has the same theme as the first season, not I Have A Heart
(at least in the 3 episodes I have, anyway).
It also has the same opening titles as the other 2 series.
They can't have been short of cash, as season 3 has a new animated sequence
in the end credits.


SOME INFORMATION ABOUT THE REPEATS
It was quite difficult to collect the 40 episodes I have, as the series was
treated very badly, with episodes being missed out all over the place.

Some repeat dates:-

It may have started before this, but I didn't notice it in the
schedules until 23.5.88

23. 5.88 #52
24. 5.88 #53
25. 5.88 #54
26. 5.88 #55
27. 5.88 #56

30. 5.88 (can't remember, either #1, #2 or #3, or may have been pre-empted)
31. 5.88 #4
1. 6.88 #5 PRE-EMPTED (can't remember what by, probably a breaking news story)
2. 6.88 #6
3. 6.88 #7

6. 6.88 #9
7. 6.88 #10
8. 6.88 #21
9. 6.88 #22
10. 6.88 #25

13. 6.88 #11
14. 6.88 #12
15. 6.88 #13
16. 6.88 #14
17. 6.88 #15

20. 6.88 #37
21. 6.88 #38
22. 6.88 #39
23. 6.88 #40
24. 6.88 #41 (last episode in this series of repeats)


Shown during Motormouth on Sunday mornings

18. 9.88 Season 3, Magic Megaliths

23.10.88 Season 3, Monster Mash
30.10.88 Season 3, Castle Creepers


I don't have details for repeats around this date. I guess I only made a
note of this one because it was pre-empted on 1.6.88 & so I didn't have it.)
12. 5.89 #5


two episodes a week
repeats may have started before this date.

4. 9.89 #37
6. 9.89 #38

11. 9.89 #47
13. 9.89 #48

18. 9.89 #49
20. 9.89 #50

moves to once a week

25. 9.89 #51
2.10.89 #52
9.10.89 #53
16.10.89 #54
23.10.89 #55
30.10.89 #56 (last episode in this series of repeats)

As far as I know, 30.10.89 was the last time Telebugs was broadcast in
this country.

Unknown said...

Actually reading that back it's obvious that the credit for part 1 goes to Robert J Corrigan and I've a feeling I wrote part 2 myself!

Unknown said...

Hi
I picked up some more old betamax tapes last week.
On one of the tapes i have found an episode from series 2 of Telebugs the episode title is "Deep Space Decoy". I'm not sure of the episode number as this is not on your list. I hope i find some more episodes on the tapes, i have over 150 to go through.

Regards

Oliver

Unknown said...

Hi Ray

That compilation episode i found last year of the Telebugs on a betamax tape, i've had looked through it and found it has episodes 21, 22, 23, 25, & 14.
It's strange that they put episode 14 at the end.

I have uploaded this episode on youtube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ni32L2Biv0

Regards

Oliver

Unknown said...

Hi,

I was the author of the original guide back in 1998 or so. It was all done from memory. I'm glad it still exists in some form as I lost contact with the owner of the original website many years ago. Good work on the updates and revisions!

A full episode list is available from an outfit called Kaleidoscope Publishing as part of their children's guide. As I now live in the US their price plus shipping was far too steep for me. Maybe you'll have better luck. They do have a website called www.lostshows.com with a search engine. Unfortunately something as simple as Telebugs doesn't work to pull up a full episode list. It just works on episode titles. You might be able to guess some more. It also gives you the transmission date.

Some of the dates don't make sense to me, but it's possible different ITV regions showed them at different times. I was in the Ulster TV viewing region. I'm glad someone else can confirm Telebugs Strike Back was indeed pre-empted. Looks like I missed a rerun cycle.

Info I've been able to glean from the site:

Binod Rebound is the final episode for the Binods serial.
Deep Space Decoy is episode #3 for the Star Venture serial.
Lebab Rocks the Moon follows Lebab Goes Ape.
Volcano Adventure is #2 for Pyramid Pyrotechnics, and Magic Megaliths is #3. They visited a different ancient site every episode: Giza, Vesuvius, Stonehenge, Mexico, Uluru. I remember the Vesuvius one as being simply "Volcano" though, so maybe that's another TV Times misprint.
Ordering for Monster Mash and Castle Creepers is confirmed.
Brain Lock is episode 4 of Bait for the BADZ. Peanut Icicles should be #2 or #3 but its date is listed after Mulch to the Rescue. I think it's #2 for plot reasons (Bullibyte attacks the peanut farm on his own with an aerial freeze gun, fails, and then decides to enlist the aid of the other villains from the series).

The link to the children's guide: http://www.kaleidoscopepublishing.co.uk/books-childrens.html

Unknown said...

Hi all,

Hopefully this will post this time. I recently started searching through my attic and have found the three Video Gems tapes of the Telebugs, which I think we all have and two vhs tapes that I recorded from the tv all those years ago.

I've managed to get hold of a vhs player and the tapes are in good quality. Just currently upgrading my pc and will get hold of a vhs to pc lead so I can upload what I have for you all.

Right, this is from memory of what I have, I've copied and pasted and filled in what blanks I can remember the names of:

47. 8.12.86 (missing)
48. 9.12.86 Castle Cyphernal
49. 10.12.86 Pit Of Peril
50. 11.12.86 The Rose Of Infinity
51. 12.12.86 Lifo To The Rescue

52. 15.12.86 The Gate Of Swords
53. 16.12.86 The Battle Of The Air
54. 17.12.86 Ordeal By Fire
55. 18.12.86 The Lake
56. 19.12.86 The Shrinking Cage

57. 5. 1.87 Time Shift
58. 6. 1.87 Roman Doom
59. 7. 1.87 The Two Ceasers
60. 8. 1.87 Telebugs in Rome
61. 9. 1.87 All Hail Bug

62. 12. 1.87 Bait For The Badz
63. 13. 1.87 Digit Digger
64. 14. 1.87 Peanit Iceicle
65. 15. 1.87 Brain Lock
66. 16. 1.87 Flame out

67. 17.11.87 Pyramid Pyrotechnics(missing)
68. 18.11.87 ? Magic Megaliths (either ep. 68 or 69)(missing)
69. 19.11.87 ?(missing)
70. 20.11.87 Temple of the Sun
71. 23.11.87 Inter-terrain Maze (love the expression on Chip's face during this one)

72. 24.11.87 Holographic Holiday
73. 25.11.87 Monster Mash
74. 26.11.87 Castle Creepers
75. 27.11.87 Frankenheim's Monster
76. 30.11.87 Lazer Blazers

77. 1.12.87 Palace of Science
78. 2.12.87 Colossus
79. 3.12.87 Zombie Profs
80. 4.12.87 Robot Rampage
81. 7.12.87 The Sphere

also have complete Telesonic Rock and repeats of others already mentioned.

Unknown said...

OK, I updated my list using some very lucky guesses tossed into the Lost Shows search, and combining Carol’s list. Oliver & Carol, your videos are a rare find indeed. Hopefully you manage to get them uploaded some day. They're almost certainly some of the few copies left in the wild. Although Season 1 is complete on YouTube, most of what's out there for the later seasons are the weakest episodes in those production runs.

Season Two - 1986

27. 10.11.86 Star Venture
28. 11.11.86 Parsec Pirates
29. 12.11.86 Deep Space Decoy
30. 13.11.86 Stardon De-Programme
31. 14.11.86 Angel Overboard

32. 17.11.86 The Binods
33. 18.11.86 Eclipse
34. 19.11.86 ?
35. 20.11.86 Scrambled Samantha
36. 21.11.86 Binod Rebound

37. 24.11.86 Space Age Snooker
38. 25.11.86 Culture Crazy
39. 26.11.86 Arcadia Goes West
40. 27.11.86 Panel Panic
41. 28.11.86 Lifo Makes Friends

42. 1.12.86 Cosmic Castaway
43. 2.12.86 Lebab Goes Ape
44. 3.12.86 Lebab Rocks the Moon
45. 4.12.86 ?
46. 5.12.86 ?

47. 8.12.86 Shadow Of The Past
48. 9.12.86 Castle Cyphernal
49. 10.12.86 Pit Of Peril
50. 11.12.86 The Rose Of Infinity
51. 12.12.86 Lifo To The Rescue

52. 15.12.86 The Gate Of Swords
53. 16.12.86 The Battle Of The Air
54. 17.12.86 Ordeal By Fire
55. 18.12.86 The Lake (TV Times listed it as `The Lake and The Key')
56. 19.12.86 The Shrinking Cage

57. 5. 1.87 Time Shift
58. 6. 1.87 Roman Doom
59. 7. 1.87 The Two Caesars
60. 8. 1.87 Telebugs in Rome
61. 9. 1.87 All Hail Bug

62. 12. 1.87 Bait For The Badz
63. 13. 1.87 Digit Digger
64. 14. 1.87 Peanut Icicles
65. 15. 1.87 Brain Lock
66. 16. 1.87 Flame Out

Season Three - 1987

67. 17.11.87 Pyramid Pyrotechnics
68. 18.11.87 Volcano (Adventure)
69. 19.11.87 Magic Megaliths
70. 20.11.87 Temple of the Sun
71. 23.11.87 Inter-Terrain Maze

72. 24.11.87 Holographic Holiday
73. 25.11.87 Monster Mash
74. 26.11.87 Castle Creepers
75. 27.11.87 Frankenheim’s Monsters
76. 30.11.87 Laser Blazers

77. 1.12.87 Palace of Science
78. 2.12.87 Colossus
79. 3.12.87 Zombie Profs
80. 4.12.87 Robot Rampage
81. 7.12.87 The Sphere

82. 8.12.87 Telesonic Rock
83. 9.12.87 Digger Decoy
84. 10.12.87 Tea Party
85. 11.12.87 Disarray
86. 14.12.87 Mulch To The Rescue

Re: the ending theme, second season was "I Have a Heart" with a starting with a zoom into an afterwards static (CGI?) picture of the Telebugs. Third season had an expanded (2 verses) version of "I have a Heart" with a fully animated sequence of the Telebugs dancing/orbiting the Earth. The Earth changed to a yellow circle with a heart symbol at some point during the song. It went on for over 30 seconds... pretty long for a 5 minute cartoon. Repeats of third season episodes cut this to just the closing crescendo of the opening theme.

I agree they weren't out of money, as the studio went on to bigger and better things. Likely just closing out the order with TVS or trying to fill a certain number of episodes for overseas distribution. Given how the third season ends with Angel Brain joining the Telebugs and the "family photo" at the end of the final final episode, it's pretty obvious now they weren't planning on coming back.

Unknown said...

Thanks for all the info Robert.
I've just been looking through some TV Times series 2 (31) 14/11/86 The title of this episode is listed as Angel Overload.

I have also found 2 titles for episodes that the titles were not known.
(45) 4/12/86 Rescue
(46) 5/12/86 Death Station Zudo.

Going on the updated info from season 1 the compilation episode i found on a Betamax tape contains episodes 21-25.

I've finally got round to uploading the episode i found on a betamax tape on to YouTube today, part of the end credits were missing so have edited part from another episode to compete the credits.
The episode is (29) 12/11/86 Deep Space Decoy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAz5dy4xRs4

Unknown said...

Awesome! I'm sending @GemmaAndKevin from Twitter over here. Gemma ran the original website hosting the episode guide and has had contact with the series creators. I'm sure she'll be interested.

Unknown said...

...and if we ever learn the name of the middle episode of the Binods serial we'll have completed the set!

S E said...

Just stumbled across this - I have an old VHS tape from my childhood with two episodes of Telebugs on it among other things. The episodes are the Rose of Infinity, and another episode called Cave Knaves. The latter isn't on your list and features the Binods, so I'm guessing that's your missing title!

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Matt Lodder said...

Hi everyone! I'm @mattlodder on Twitter. I'm desperately searching for an episode of Telebugs where Samantha briefly turns black -- I have such vivid memories of it from childhood! I check back on this thread every few years and I'm delighted to see the with you've all done to update the episode titles... I'm going presume that the episode I've remembered all these years must be "Scrambled Samantha". Do any of you know if that has ever surfaced online, or indeed if my memory corresponds to a different episode?