The
Hundred Acre Wood. Those four words conjure up a myriad
of images and emotions for many people. They represent
everything from honey trees and blustery days to
bouncings and a game of Poohsticks. Most importantly,
though, the Hundred Acre Wood stands for imagination and
the once endless summer days of childhood. With a world
filled with such memorable and relatable residents, it
comes as no surprise that Disney has treated Winnie the
Pooh and the rest of his friends similarly to Mickey and
the gang, constantly reinventing them for newer
generations. While Pooh is best known for his film
career, his television one has just as interesting a
history.
Some
may be surprised to know that the first Winnie the Pooh
series wasnt animated but, in fact, live-action. The
Disney Channel series Welcome to Pooh Corner made its
debut in 1983, the same time as the network itself.
Similar to what is now becoming a staple of Disney park
shows, the program portrayed all of its characters via
actors in costumes with animatronic heads. To keep the
show reminiscent of the storybook look of the original
animated shorts, the sets were actually still watercolor
backgrounds added through post-production. Only the most
minimal and necessary of physical props were
implemented.

This was perhaps the first time Disney
began to see Pooh as a learning tool for preschoolers.
Most of the shows 120 episodes (124 if you include the
educational specials) had a particular lesson for the
week such as sharing or facing your fears. It admittedly
gave the program a different vibe from the whimsy and
wit from the original shorts and the A.A. Milne books
that inspired them.
Still,
there remained connections between both the animated
shorts and Welcome to Pooh Corner. For one, the
Sherman Brothers penned several songs for the series,
most notably a reworking of their original Winnie the
Pooh theme with new lyrics. Of the voice actors, only
Hal Smith returned for the voice of Owl (and Pooh for
the first time). Unlike other Hundred Acre Wood
incarnations, this one was the first and only time we
got to see the ever omnipresent narrator (played here by
Laurie Main). Main had previously narrated Disneylands
read-along records for the three Winnie the Pooh stories
in the 1970s as well as the 1983 short Winnie the Pooh
and a Day for Eeyore. Main would later reprise his role
briefly for a Kelloggs commercial (which our very own
Reuben Gutierrez has covered elsewhere on this site) as
well as the direct-to-video Winnie the Pooh: Seasons of
Giving in 1999. His voice may just be as synonymous with
this world as Sebastian Cabots is.

While the series would remain in
syndication well into 1997, production ended in 1986. It
was then that Disney decided to bring Pooh back to his
natural medium of hand-drawn animation. Thus came The
New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh to ABC in 1988.
Arguably just as resonant to children of the late
80s/early 90s as the original shorts, the series
abandoned Pooh Corners regularly-scheduled morality
lessons for some good old fashioned adventure. New
environments and characters were introduced, most
notably the bluebird Kessie whom Rabbit becomes a
surrogate parent towards. Genuine antagonists were even
brought in on occasion such as Heff the Heffalump, who
(like the other Heffalumps and Woozles in this series)
was in fact real and not imaginary as the creatures were
in Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day. This was also
the only series in which Christopher Robin played a
decent-sized role as we got to see his daily life
outside of the Hundred Acre Wood on occasion.

However, New Adventures became
instrumental to the Pooh franchise for one major reason:
it was here that the new generation of voice actors for
the gang would be born. While Paul Winchell and Hal
Smith would reprise their roles as Tigger and Owl,
respectively, until their retirements, go-to Disney
voice actor Jim Cummings would become Winnie the Pooh
for the next 23 years (and would later take over for
Winchell from season three onward). The same goes for
the majority of the cast members up until the Walt
Disney Animation Studios Winnie the Pooh reboot in 2011.

The series did mark the departure of the
narrator as well as the storybook motif, and while the
antics were decidedly a bit more daring, the spirit of
the universe and its residents remained intact
throughout the 64 episodes (and several holiday specials
by the same team, most famously Winnie the Pooh and
Christmas, Too which still airs annually on ABCFamily).
Despite production ending in 1991, New Adventures
would continue to air in syndication on ABC, the Disney
Channel, and Toon Disney for years to come.
With the new millennium came another
interpretation of Milnes world via The Book of Pooh
in 2001. The most striking thing about the show was that
it presented another live-action vision, but this time
with puppets rather than costumed actors. Based on
bunraku, a Japanese style of puppetry, the series
visual aesthetic was certainly unique. The storybook
motif returned via CG backgrounds designed to look like
pages from a pop-up book, and with this came a new
narrator by way of voice veteran Jeff Bennett.

Tontally, the series sat somewhere
inbetween Pooh Corner and New Adventures. The weekly
lessons aimed at preschoolers from the former
reappeared, but so did the voice actors from the latter.
Unlike New Adventures, the show remained in the
Hundred Acre Wood and rarely, if ever, veered outside
Milnes cast of characters save for Kessie. Christopher
Robin himself wasnt featured, likely because a puppet
version of him wouldnt make as much sense. A
live-action version of him is seen and heard briefly,
though, in the opening theme before the book opens and
segue ways into the pop up puppetry. While the Playhouse
Disney program ran for 2 years, it didnt seem to click
with audiences the way Disney might have hoped.

That didnt dissuade Disney from
attempting another reincarnation of their beloved
franchise for their Playhouse Disney network. Encouraged
the success of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse (which
reinvented Mickey and the gang for a new generation),
the television division decided to give Pooh and friends
similar treatment. In 2007, the Hundred Acre Wood and
its residents were rendered in computer-generated
imagery for the first time outside of video games. The
show, titled My Friends Tigger and Pooh, presented
perhaps the most wild deviation from Milnes world seen
yet.
In this version, Pooh and Tigger were
self-proclaimed Super Sleuths, a sort of superhero
detective mix, who solved cases and rescued their
friends on a weekly basis. The duo were given new
costumes to reflect this, but perhaps the most shocking
change was the replacement of Christopher Robin with an
American girl named Darby (voiced by rising child
actress Chloe Moretz). She aided our
titular friends with their missions, though it was never
clear whether this was all really happening or whether
these were a part of her imagination as they were with
Christopher (who would incidentally make a couple of
cameo appearances).

Possibly because he was the one the
characters constantly went to for help, the character of
Owl was completely dropped, and a few minor characters
like Turtle (voiced by none other than Mark Hamill) were
added. The program was the first Pooh series to bring in
the character of Lumpy, who was introduced to audiences
in the 2005 feature Poohs Heffalump Movie. It also
marked the debut of Travis Oates as Piglet following
John Fiedlers death in 2005. The 64-episode series,
along with two direct-to-video films, wrapped up in
2010, catching more of an audience than The Book of
Pooh did, but still not up to Disneys expectations.

For the moment, Disney has decided to
bring Pooh back to his roots both cinematically and
tonally. With the release of Winnie the Pooh in
theaters, Pooh not only is back on the silver screen
where he first emerged in 1966, but his source of
inspiration has gone back to his creator, A.A. Milne.
Each Pooh television series has had varying degrees of
success, but all have managed to keep this world alive
decade after decade. Each sparks our imagination in
different manner while teaching us both about our world
and ourselves. Whether its on the page, the big screen,
or the small screen, the legacy of the Hundred Acre Wood
promises to remain with us for years to come, and no
amount of stuff and fluff can make us forget it.