TV SERIES · 1981– · USA
The Smurfs
26 archived facts 2 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
All facts (26)
- #001
All Smurfs are naturally bald. Only Smurfette and Sassette, who were created by magic and are female, have hair.
- #002
Unlike the animated series, in which Smurfberries are the main staple of the Smurfs' diet, in the comics it is sarsaparilla (Smilax regelii), a plant native to the Americas used as an ingredient in soft drinks such as root beer. Peyo's partner Yvan Delporte introduced it to the comics because he found the name magical (in French, "salsepareille"), and the word seemed so foreign to Peyo that he initially believed Delporte had made it up.
- #003
The Smurfs was one of the first animated projects dubbed into Icelandic. As an indication of how primitive the work was, the entire cast of characters was voiced by a single person (Laddi).
- #004
Gargamel's cat Azrael takes its name from the angel of death in Hebrew and Islamic tradition.
- #005
When a Smurf drowns, it turns yellow.
- #006
The Smurfs came to television after then-NBC president Fred Silverman saw how much his daughter liked the Smurf doll she had been given.
- #007
The Smurfs first appeared in 1958 in a comic drawn by Pierre "Peyo" Culliford for the Belgian magazine Spirou.
- #008
Among all the Smurfs in the animated series and the comics, Smurfette is the only one whose name is a general term. The term "Smurfette" refers to any female Smurf, not only to Gargamel's creation; in one episode ("Sassette"), for example, Gargamel refers to Sassette as "Smurfette" several times.
- #009
All Smurfs are naturally male and do not reproduce, which explains why they arrive in the world via storks.
- #010
During the show's ninth season, the writers wrote several episodes featuring different counterparts of Gargamel so that Paul Winchell, who played Gargamel, could portray different kinds of Gargamel in different worlds. The idea had been used earlier in the eighth-season short "Don Smurfo's Uninvited Guests." Paul Winchell, however, was unavailable in the ninth season because he was voicing the character Tigger at Disney. Because of the time shortage, Michael Bell (who played Handy Smurf, Lazy Smurf, Grouchy Smurf and other guest characters on the show) had to take over and play Gargamel's different counterparts in the ninth season. As a result, the ninth-season episodes received low ratings when they first aired on television, and the show was cancelled.
- #011
In many European countries, including France, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands, the episodes featuring Johan and Peewit are regarded as a separate TV series and are therefore distributed under a different title: "Johan et Pirlouit" (1985). In the Netherlands, the two series were even shown by different broadcasters.
- #012
Peewit's goat Biquette is named after the French term for "nanny goat." The name comes from a childhood pet of Peyo's widow, Nine Culliford.
- #013
Peyo decided that the Smurfs would speak their own language (usually using "smurf") in order to distinguish them from human characters.
- #014
The blonde version of Smurfette is based on Peyo's five-year-old daughter, Véronique Culliford. She presides over I.M.P.S., the company she founded to license the Smurf properties.
- #015
Unlike the animated series, in which Smurfette is a regular character, in the original comics she appears only rarely from her first appearance in "The Smurfette" in 1966 until the 1980s.
- #016
In the original comics the use of "smurf" was so frequent that in most cases it appeared in every sentence a Smurf spoke. In the animated series, however, "smurf" was used less in order to keep the dialogue from being almost incomprehensible to young television viewers.
- #017
Greedy in the animated series combines the personalities of two Smurfs from the original comics: Chef (also referred to as "Cook" in official sources), the village cook, and Greedy, the village glutton and food thief.
- #018
The origin of the Smurfs came from an animated cartoon Peyo had worked on in the late 1940s at a studio where he was previously employed, before production was shut down.
- #019
The person who suggested that the Smurfs be colored blue was Peyo's widow and personal color expert, Janine "Nine" Culliford.
- #020
Scruple, Gargamel's apprentice and the series' secondary antagonist, was created specifically for the show. He did not appear in the original Peyo comics or in any of the early 2000s Sony feature films. Scruple later partly inspired Holly Nemov, the apprentice of a sharp, red-haired sorcerer in the Canadian occult political novel Necromancy Cottage, which has no connection to The Smurfs. As a character, Scruple may generally have been based on a minor character from the series; all of them are said to be connected to Gargamel in some way, appearing at different points in Peyo's comics, but none of them physically resembles Scruple. Adding the character to the series may also have been an effort to bring more development to Gargamel's side of the story, while the Smurfs gained the new character Sassette, a strong-willed tomboy who joins them and serves as the other female Smurf alongside Smurfette.
- #021
The animated series introduced elements that would eventually appear in the comics and in the live-action/CGI film "The Smurfs" (2011), such as the heart-shaped tattoo for Hefty, the overalls for Handy and a red jacket with a black tie for Painter. Before the animated series debuted, these Smurfs could not be told apart unless they were addressed by name (except for Painter, who was unnamed in the pre-1981 comics) or carried something commonly associated with them (for example, lifting dumbbells for Hefty).
- #022
There are two different German dubs. The first was created for the show's initial broadcast on ZDF and consisted of the first two seasons (both seasons had a different intro; the first season's intro was spoken, the second season's was sung). Today this dub is almost unknown. The second dub was created when Tele 5 began broadcasting the series. Instead of using the original ZDF dub, they started from scratch. The intro for Seasons 1-6 was spoken in German (the outro was sung in English). The intro for Seasons 7-9 was effective.
- #023
It was initially going to be produced by Ruby-Spears Productions, but the production rights were transferred to Hanna-Barbera Productions.
- #024
In French, Smurfette is not always called "La Schtroumpfette." As with all the other Smurfs (for example, "Le Grand Schtroumpf" or "Le Schtroumpf costaud," etc.), when they talk about the character she is called "La Schtroumpfette." However, when they speak to her directly, she is called "Schtroumpfette" (for example, "Bonjour Schtroumpfette").
- #025
Clockwork Smurf appeared only once in the original comics. There he has the ability to dispense sarsaparilla juice because he was actually a replacement for the mascot of a sarsaparilla manufacturer that Herge could not use when he published the story in book form.
- #026
In several episodes of The Smurfs, you can hear the NFL football anthem.
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