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Rupert is an animated television series based on the Mary Tourtel character Rupert Bear, produced by Nelvana, Ellipse Programmé and TVS for the first season, with Scottish Television (now STV Central) taken over control when TVS closed. Aired from 1991 to 1997 with 65 half-hour episodes produced. It was broadcast in syndication on YTV in Canada. In the United States, the show first aired on Nickelodeon before moving to CBS [1]; repeats of the series came to qubo's digital service in January 2007. The show was broadcast in the UK on CITV and has recently been re-airing on the satellite and cable channels Tiny Pop and KidsCo. In Australia, the show was broadcast on the ABC public broadcasting network and on TV 2 in New Zealand as part of the Jason Gunn Show.

The theme song played at both the beginning and end of the show is a rendition of Robert Schumann's The Happy Farmer, Returning from Work. When this series aired as part of the Nick, Jr. block on Nickelodeon in the U.S., a different theme was written for it and used. This song was performed in a peppy, rollicking, ragtime style, with lyrics and vocals in the intro, and an instrumental of this same tune in the outro. This composition, Rupert's Number One, was co-penned by Sheree Jeacocke and Gerry Mosby, and was possibly also sung by the former. Scenes in the intro used in this version were different from the original as well. Here, scenes used for it were taken from various episodes mostly and the ending credits differed (aside from the scene of a silhouette of one of Rupert's friends releasing the box kite as it's lifted up by the wind and Rupert pulls it away while running) from the initial, in that in the Nick, Jr. version, after getting a close up of the kite, the scene switches to various scenes of Rupert with another, different character (or other different characters). In the initial, after the kite has been lifted and there's a close-up shot of it, it's zoomed in so far that all that is seen is the color red, over which the credits are superimposed. Then there's a zoom-out of the kite and the only still scene is of Rupert on his knees and crawling on the grass while Tiger Lily tries to bring down the kite from a tree. The Rupert's Number One theme/opening was used when it aired on CBS and is still used on qubo likewise.

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