Teddy Ruxpin has been part of the pop culture universe for 21 wonderful years now, (In fact yours truly outdates Teddy by only 15 months!) I have compiled a list of little known facts and trivia relating to Teddy & co and those involved with his production. In most cases, this is knowledge I came apon in research or from first-person contact with someone, so a courtesy email if you decide to use any of these facts elsewhere would be appreciated, as would a link.


* Before Teddy Ruxpin became a reality, creator Ken Forsse worked for Walt Disney, including creating parts of many classic Disneyland Rides such as Pirates of the Carribbean. He also worked for Sid & Marty Krofft, who produced many classic shows in the 1970's including but not limited to "Land of the Lost", "The Brady Bunch Variety Hour", "The Donnie & Marie Show", and "HR Pufnstuff". In the early 1980's, shortly before Teddy hit toy shelves, Ken and his AlchemyII group created the animatronic costumes used in the popular Disney children's television show Welcome To Pooh Corner in which Phil Baron (Teddy's Voice) and Will Ryan (Grubby's Voice) voiced Piglet (Baron) and Tigger (Ryan) respectivly.

* Phil Baron & Will Ryan had an extensive working relationship together (and presumably a friendship) before they became Teddy & Grubby. They both hail from Ohio, and began their careers together there as Willio & Phillio, ding radio spots. They also performed and wrote songs for Disney under the same title of Willio & Phillio. I talked with a person who knew them in their Ohio radio days and said both were very down to earth, fun to be around, and that Phil Baron had one of the biggest "afro" hairdos he had ever seen! They also reunited in Ohio in 2004 to do a radio show again as Willio & Phillio. I have always thought, even before I knew this piece of trivia, that Teddy and Grubby had a very strong chemistry, even from just hearing their voices together. (Thanks to Ken Forsse, Andrue of the Teddy Ruxpin In-Fur-Mation site, the IMDB, and my source from Ohio for this one)

* Phil Baron, following the heyday of his career as Teddy, became an executive with Rhino Records and later left showbusiness to follow his passion of music as a Cantor. He attends Valley Beth Shalom in the Los Angeles area.

* Phil Baron & Will Ryan (as Teddy and Grubby) are the only two voice actors who reprised their roles from the Teddy Ruxpin talking toy book & tape series in The Adventures of Teddy Ruxpin Mostly Canadian voice actors assumed the roles during the TV series, as it was produced in Ottawa, Canada, and the previous voice actors were Los Angeles based. Most notably missing was Tony Pope, who voiced Gimmick and L.B. in the audio tape series. He was replaced by two men, John Stocker as Gimmick and Robert Bockstael as L.B. The change in Gimmick's voice is less noticable than the change to L.B's.

* John Stocker, who became Gimmick and also voiced numerous other minor characters in the television series, was a close personal friend of the late legendary comic John Candy. They had worked together on the canadian TV series "Coming Up Rosie"

* Les Lye, who voiced Quellor in the series, is a former co-star and close friend of singer Alanis Morisette

* In an episode of the television series The Adventures of Teddy Ruxpin (Episode Unknown) artists were at a standstill do to production being halted in another department, and to pass the time penciled in many "graphic" titles to books in King Nogburt's library. When the other department picked up the pace, the scenes had to be quickly finished, and the titles were never erased. The production was finished (coloring, etc.) in a Asian country which probably thought the titles were there for a reason and could not understand them anyhow. According to the source, they can still be seen in the episode, although according to my source they were on only a few frames of animation, meaning you would probably need to pause your video/dvd or take a screen-capture to see them. UPDATE: Supposedly DiC had been notified of this in the early 90's and edited out the titles for any future releases of the series)

* (I recently discovered this watching old tapes of the series) In a later episode of the series, during the credits, Teddy can be heard in voiceover promising a "Brand new Teddy Ruxpin series next year!" and telling viewers thanks for watching and stay tuned to further episodes for more information. This pretty much confirms speculation that there was an additional series or season planned. The episodes I have on tape are from first run syndication, so I imagine the voice has been edited out of future airings of the series. This is also the only episode I heard any information regarding new series plans.

* The Adventures of Teddy Ruxpin was last seen in United States Market in re-runs,(at least one that reports these things anyway) in what would have been the 1991-92 television season, although TAOTR continues to air in other countries even in current day 2006.

*Teddy Ruxpin the toy made several appearances and was referenced several times in popular culture, movies, television series, etc. Including making an appearance at a daycare in "Home Improvement" in 1993 (Tim Allen even holds Teddy for a moment) A refrence came in a 1987 episode of "Mama's Family" in which Mama, played by Vicki Lawrence, is horrified as her neighbor Iola Boilen has her dead cat stuffed and programmed to meow. Mama refers to the cat as "Kitty Ruxpin". Apparently, Worlds of Wonder employed a PR service to get Teddy and references to him into movies and television series. Worlds of Wonder itself is mentioned briefly in the movie "Big" starring Tom Hanks. Teddy also appeared many times in television programs when he was first released, including an in depth exclusive on Teddy on "20/20" hosted by Hugh Downs and Barbara Walters. Hugh Downs, who in my opinion seemed absolutely captivated by Teddy in the segment, even brought Teddy into a schoolroom full of children and talked with them about the illiop.

*President George H.W. Bush and wife Barbara were photographed in an issue of Time Magazine playing with Teddy and their grandchildren at the White House.

If you have any trivia to add, it would certainly be welcomed. Contact Me