Remember The Raccoons?

Five years ago, on the 30th anniversary of Canada’s biggest cartoon hit, the creator of The Raccoons spoke to the CBC about a possible reboot. “If I take Raccoons into a brand new relaunch, do I do the obvious and age it up? Is it Raccoons 10 years later? Or is it Baby Raccoons like Looney Tunes did, Muppet Babies did?” creator Kevin Gillis  said.

So far, it hasn’t happened.

The Raccoons was a cartoon set in The Evergreen Forest following the lives of raccoons Bert and his friends, married couple Ralph and Melissa. Bert’s best pal was Cedric, a nerdy pink aardvark whose father was the money-grubbing, tree-cutting Cyril Sneer who had a trio of henchmen pigs always causing trouble in the forest.

It took me way too long to realize that brilliant the County of Simcoe waste collection ads were a spoof on The Raccoons. It was the narration at the beginning the ads that, one day, finally made it click! The calm and smooth narration on the cartoon was done by Geoffrey Winter. I can’t find anything about him except for his The Raccoons credits.

I really liked The Raccoons. How about you?  The show ran from 1985 to 1992 on CBC and must have had reruns because I was too little/ didn’t live in the country during its original run to remember it. (I was born in 1984 and lived in Jamaica from 1990 – 1992.) The Raccoons was also very popular in France and the UK.

This year is the 35th anniversary and The Raccoons is still not available on CBC Gem nor Encore+ on YouTube (a channel which has old shows that were made at least partially with public funds like Ready or Not and Mr. Dressup). The first season is available on the Run with Us Productions YouTube channel.