There are many kids TV shows that we remember vividly but some of them we seem to have forgotten about entirely, The Telebugs is one of them.
The Telebugs ran for three seasons in the mid ’80s with a total of 86 episodes.
What Was The Telebugs All About?
The Telebugs were three robots who worked as reporters for a TV station.
They were recognisable for the fact they had television screens for faces.
Each one was named after it’s own frankly ridiculous acronym.
There were three main heroes.
C.H.I.P which stood for Coordinated Hexidecimal Information Processor and he could process data and statistics to aid the team.
S.A.M.A.N.T.H.A which stood for Solar Activated Micro Automated Non-inTerference hearing Apperatus who could track villains.
B.U.G which stood for Binary Unmanned Gamma camera, although why he wasn’t called B.U.G.C is beyond us, who could track video imaging.
The Telebugs were also joined by M.I.C which stood for Mobile Independant Camera who was essentially a flying video camera.
As with all of these sorts of shows The Telebugs were created by a scientist called Professor Brainstrain.
Every Hero Needs A Foe
Of course, there had to be some villains and The Telebugs would fight crime using their reporting skills.
The villains in the show were generally out to cause trouble and often used technology to do it.
You had Baron Bullybyte and his sister Magna who brainwashed kids to stay in their evil video aracde.
Baron Bullbyte also owned an evil computer called Angel Brain who helped him in his plans but often told him he would fail.
There was a Black Telebug created by the Professor that had turned bad called Z.U.D.O which stood for Zero-failure Universal Data Optimizer.
And finally you had Arcadia who was a young girl who was good at arcade games and controlled an army of small robots.
A Clear Place And Time.
This was an incredibly British show filled with regional accents and set in a small English town.
The format was typical of shows aimed at younger kids as it contained short 5 minute episodes with a quick resolution to any problem.
The episodes did follow a story though so the next episode would reflect what had previously happened.
Telebugs also had a great ’80s synth theme tune that bordered on Classic Italo Disco it was so epic.
So, What Happened?
This really was a great show and it’s hard to figure out why it’s been forgotten.
Our guess is that it didn’t receive the number of repeat showings that other shows like Count Duckula did.
Or perhaps the toy range didn’t sell as well as other shows.
Whatever the reason The Telebugs disappeared from the collective memory which is a shame as we believe it had the potential to be a real classic.
Unfortunately The Telebugs only ever got a VHS release but you can find full episodes on YouTube if you want to catch up.
Do you remember The Telebugs? Let us know in the comments.
