The Berenstain Bears (2003 TV series)

The Berenstain Bears is an Gemini Award-nominated animated television series based on the children's book series of the same name by Stan and Jan Berenstain. The series follows the lives of a family of anthropomorphic bears who learn a moral or safety-related lesson during the course of each episode.

Although most of the earlier episodes in the series were based on the book series, later episodes were not based on any of the books. The series debuted on January 6, 2003 and ended on September 28, 2004.

Synopsis
The series is set in a world populated solely by anthropomorphic bears and primarily centers around the Berenstain Bears, a family residing in the rural community of Bear Country consisting of Mama Bear, Papa Bear, Brother Bear, and Sister Bear. Albeit numerous episodes are based on the books and promote the same morals as encouraged in the picture books from which their plots originated, the program's faithfulness to the original series is slightly mixed on account of a number of later episodes follow original storylines. Nonetheless, they mostly portray the same environment depicted in the original Berenstain Bears storybooks quite accurately and concentrate on the messages and lessons learned by the family through their different experiences, such as gratitude and responsibility, as well as the daily lives of the bears.

Production
The show was produced by the Canadian animation company Nelvana for the PBS Kids Channel, and the Treehouse TV channel. Eighty 15 minute episodes were produced.

The show can currently be seen on YTV (2006-2007, 2009–present) in Canada, Sprout in the United States. The series was also seen on Treehouse TV (Canada) (2002-2009) (and often fluctuated between the two channels), Knowledge (British Columbia), Tiny Pop and KidsCo (UK), and OBS (South Korea).

Main cast

 * Michael Cera as Brother Bear
 * Tajja Isen as Sister Bear
 * Benedict Campbell as Papa Q. Bear
 * Camilla Scott as Mama Bear

Family

 * Leslie Carlson as Grizzly Gramps
 * Corinne Conley as Grizzly Gran
 * Mike McCulkin as Cousin Freddy

Friends

 * Amanda Soha as Lizzy Bruin
 * Nikki Marshall as Queenie
 * Mark Rendall as Ferdy Factual
 * Gage Knox as Too-Tall
 * Patrick Salvagna as Skuzz
 * James Eckhouse as Smirk

Citizens

 * Chris Wiggins as Squire Grizzly
 * Ellen-Ray Hennessy as Miss Grizzle

Country music singer-songwriter Lee Ann Womack sings the series' theme song, which was written by Stan Meissner.