"The Smurfs" were the pride of Peyo. At their pinnacle they commanded the highest respect in the cartoon community. They replaced "The Care Bears" as the No. 1 show for children under 10. They had the fame, the money and the envy of all two-dimensional drawings.
But with the success came unprecedented trouble. Controversy, drugs and tragedy would dog the mushroom house dwellers until their unfortunate demise at the hands of network executives, who were fed up with defending their tiny terrors.
It began simply enough, on Oct. 23, 1958. The Smurfs made their first appearance in a story of Johan & Peewit in "Le Journal de Spirou." Their creator Peyo had worked previously at a number of drawing jobs, but the introduction of the Smurfs into Spirou would change his life forever.
At first, the Smurfs were just secondary characters. But they soon became stars in their own right. After a few mini-albums, their tales began to appear as full albums. Then the film "The Smurfs and the Magic Flute" appeared in 1984, which set them in the pantheon of cartoon legend.
"They came out of nowhere and dominated the scene," said friend Bugs Bunny. "I hadn't seen that kind of over-night success since Rocky and Bullwinkle, and maybe Scooby-Doo."
The smurfs television show ran September 1981 through Decemeber 1989. They were a group of just over 100 humanoids who lived in the mushroom homes of Smurf Village. Led by 543-year-old Papa Smurf, their lives were nearly perfect except for the wicked Gargamel, a wizard who spent his days trying to capture the wee creatures to turn them into gold. Gargamel's cat Azrael was an added peril, always looking for a smurfalicious snack.
"Off screen, we were all pals," Gargamel said. "We went to Studio 54 in New York, then jumped on a lear jet to Popeye's mansion in the Keys. I even stood up at Greedy's wedding."
Ironically, the parties and jet-set lifestyle is what landed some of the smurfs in hot water, the same kind Gargamel tried to boil them in on the show. Hefty Smurf, the strongest character who bragged he could lift a cat, drew attention from his enormous strength for such a tiny individual.
"It was the '80s, the cold war was heating up - we had to beat the Russians," he said. "So yeah, just in case, my agent and I thought it would be a good idea for me to be the protector just in case of an invasion. So I took the steroids."
His admitted use to the banned drug, bambuterol as well as testosterone enhancers, led him to a clinic in Sweden for detoxification for six months.
"It was hell without Hefty," writer Gene Meyers said. "He was a fan-favorite and we had to write around him. It wasn't easy. We just said he went on a spiritual journey to find himself. That pleased a lot of the religious critics."
The show instantly was under fire from fundamenalist religious groups that claimed the show encouraged children to practice witchcraft and an unwholesome commune lifestyle.
"Thank God the Rev. Jerry Falwell stepped in to clean up children's television. When he outed the smurfs - wretched little creatures - from that perverted show because, Falwell pronounced that the character (Vanity Smurf) is clearly a fountain of gayness," said Marlena Ross, president of Parents for Being Straight.
With his mirror in hand, and a flower in his bonnet, Vanity Smurf simply revered himself. Called "egotistical" by his co-workers, Vanity loved talking fashion, track lighting and Bette Midler and Barbara Streisand. The most self-involved Smurf was also the only gay cartoon character of his time.
The National Confederacy of Gay and Lesbian Rights Activists, honored the trailblazer in 1990 for being "open about his homosexuality."
"He was a real pioneer in atime when it wasn't popular to be a gay cartoon character," said Ruth Foray, president of NCGLRA. "You wouldn't see another openly gay cartoon character until Elmyra from Tiny Toons."
Some adults considered the show quite sexist in its use of the one original female character, Smurfette, created by Gargamel, and used as a sexual toy to fool the other Smurfs.
"I wasn't really the slut I was portraying," she said. "At the time I had a husband and a new daughter to think about. It was just a role I smurfed."
But the un-smurfy criticism was mounting. The show began to slip in 1986. Harmony Smurf said the contriversies took their toll on the cast. "In the beginning it was like, let's just do something smurfy," he said. "But the Smurfette thing and with Vanity's openess, it just turned into a great big cluster-smurf."
In any case, the show won two Emmys as Outstanding Children's Entertainment Series and, in 1987, actually did a message episode. In an anti-drug show, Poet Smurf became addicted after rubbing a witch's magic orb, requiring the help of Papa and the gang to overcome his problem. It turned out his problem wasn't just an act. "The stress of the show and my inability to be creative with out the smurf smack, led to my addiction with pain-killers."
Not even the show's patriarch was above controversy. With the cold war coming to peak in the early 1980s, the centuries-old Papa was claimed by many to be communist simply for wearing red.
"First of all, I am blue and white," he said. "With the red, I'm simply filling out the colors of the American flag. Sure I understand my association with Karl (Marx) and Fredrick (Engels) seems fishy, but we were just poker buddies. Not all of their ideas were bad, though."
Several other smurfs lost a fortune when they got tied up in junk bonds. "Dreamy, Grouchy, Lazy and a few others of us hired Michael Milken to control our finances," Scaredy said. "Christ, we lost our smurfs on that one."
Gambling, alcohol and prostitution brought down other smurfs. Then Hefty was sued for incompetent craftsmanship when a makeshift mushroom theater came crashing down on a group of play actors in the off-Broadway production of "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest." It was the ultimate metaphor.
Despite the addition of Shakespeareian-trained Grandpa, who was brought in to give the show class, and the children smurfs, which were supposed to appease critics who wondered how they reproduced, the show lost favor with its fans.
"Fantasy TV was dead," Brainy said. "People wanted realism in cartoons. So they watched Thundercats, Transformers and Gem. Like those were real. It smurfin' hurt when we got cancelled."
In 1989, in an attempt to save the nearly decade-old show, the producers had the smurfs leaving Smurf Village to visit various times and locations. The show was cancelled after that season, surviving only in the syndicated package titled "The Smurfs' Adventures."
The actors tried to find work in Hollywood and on Broadway, but no one would have them.
"There just wasn't much demand for three-apple high actors. Not when they had Macaulay Culkin and Danny DeVito," Jokey said. "I smurfed and smurfed but could only get bookings in comedy dives. It wasn't very smurfy at all."
No, not smurfy at all.
