Smurfs (1981 TV series)/Season 8

The Smurfs cartoon show title used in the Season 8 intro sequence

Season 8, which aired from 1988 to 1989, introduced two final main characters to the show -- the grandmotherly Nanny Smurf, and her pink marsupial-type pet known as Smoogle. Other new characters include the human character of Denisa, who befriends Sassette, would also show up in some episodes of this season, as well as Grandpa Smurf's archenemy known as Nemesis.

The show itself would be cut back to its original Season 1 60-minute running time, where it would remain for the rest of the show's run.

However, as Season 9 would limit the number of Smurf characters appearing in an episode to around 17 due to its premise centering around a cliche "lost in time" plot, and the show would not be picked up for another season after that, this season would be the final one for most of the other Smurf characters to appear in. It was also the final season for Gargamel and Azrael as well as the most of the present-time period characters, both allies and villains, to appear in.

Intro Sequence

The intro begins with Hefty and Sassette flying through an orange sky on Feathers, and as they fly over the forest, Gargamel is ready to launch himself in a rocket to capture the two Smurfs. Scruple pulls the lever which launches the rocket, and Gargamel tries to scoop the two Smurfs up in his net but misses, and his rocket malfunctions, causing him to plummet out of the sky. The two Smurfs on Feathers now circle around Grandpa Smurf, Nanny, and Smoogle, who are sailing together on Grandpa's magic hot-air balloon. Down below in the village, some Smurfs are taking turns looking up in the sky using a telescope, and we see from behind Hefty and Sassette zooming through the Smurf Forest as they come in for a landing. The two elderly Smurfs join them at the same time, and Sassette hands Hefty a book which Wild swings down on a vine to grab and does a somersault in the air before landing and handing the book to Clumsy, who takes it while Wild scratches himself with his leg. Clumsy enters a house, leaps over Brainy, and lands into Smurfette's arms, who carries him over to a rocking chair that Papa Smurf is sitting in, and as the Smurfs gather around, Papa Smurf opens the book and turns to a page where we see a group of Smurfs rushing toward the SMURFS title logo and disappear behind it, with Clumsy appearing on top of a mushroom as the intro ends.

Episode Listings

The episodes that appeared in this season (in the order of their original air dates) include:

No. in series	No. in season	Title card	Title	Air date	Code
352	1		Lost Smurf	September 10, 1988	801
Grandpa Smurf travels to a disappearing castle to save Nanny Smurf.
353	2		Archives Of Evil	September 10, 1988	813
Nemesis breaks into the Archives of Evil to steal its power while Brainy and Clockwork are missing from Clockwork's birthday party due to testing Papa's spell book.
354	3		Bigmouth's Roommate	September 17, 1988	810a
Scruple moves in with Bigmouth after Gargamel kicks him out of the house.
355	4		Bungling Babysitters	September 17, 1988	809b
Smoogle must save Baby from Hogatha due to irresponsibility of his arguing babysitters Handy, Brainy, and Greedy.
356	5		Clockwork's Powerplay	September 17, 1988	802a
Clockwork Smurf experiences a power overload after being struck by lightning.
357	6		Clumsy In Command	September 17, 1988	812a
Clumsy and Brainy make their hiking teams and compete to the top of a mountain.
358	7		Don Smurfo's Uninvited Guests	September 24, 1988	811b
Brainy, Nanny, and Snappy get stuck in Don Smurfo's storybook, and they will disappear after the last page.
359	8		Denisa's Greedy Doll	September 24, 1988	811a
Gargamel uses Greedy's apron to enchant Denisa's doll into a voodoo doll that controls Greedy.
360	9		Denisa's Slumber Party	September 24, 1988	812b
Denisa invites Sassette to a slumber party in Balthazar's castle and Gargamel is watching over the castle for the night.
361	10		Grandpa's Nemesis	October 1, 1988	808
The Smurfs must hide their Long Life Stone when Grandpa's long time enemy reappears.
362	11		Grandpa's Walking Stick	October 1, 1988	816
While trying to teach Wild how to quell his new fear of heights, Brainy accidentally breaks Grandpa's walking stick and sends the Smurflings to the enchanted forest to find a replacement.
363	12		A House For Nanny	October 1, 1988	815
The Smurfs start designing a new house for Nanny while she and her former roommate Smurfette go to find a house-warming plant for Nanny's house.
364	13		It's A Smurfy Life	October 8, 1988	803b
After Brainy unknowingly causes Handy's machines to malfunction, Handy runs away when everyone thinks it's his fault.
365	14		Land Of Lost And Found	October 8, 1988	806
To get back Papa Smurf's telescope, Hefty, Handy, and Brainy make an exchange with the Lord of Lost and Found, but he takes Hefty's strength, Handy's handiness, and Brainy's memory.
366	15		Long Live Brainy	October 8, 1988	804a
A Trokel makes Brainy a king to get back his job.
367	16		A Maze Of Mirrors	October 15, 1988	805b
A numerous number of Vanity's clones appear after he takes a trip to the Mansion of Mirrors.
368	17		Memory Melons	October 15, 1988	807
Selwyn tries to tell Tallulah how he feels about her using a memory melon, making things even worse.
369	18		Nanny's Way	October 15, 1988	810b
Nanny tries to help the Smurfs doing their jobs her own way, but no Smurf is satisfied with that, so she runs away.
370	19		Pappy's Puppy	October 22, 1988	804b
Gargamel trains Puppy to be a Smurf catcher when the dog loses its memory after a fall.
371	20		Shutterbug Smurfs	October 22, 1988	803a
Handy invents a camera to create pictures faster, which makes Painter jealous.
372	21		Smoogle Sings The Blues	October 22, 1988	802b
Smoogle must sing the happiness song to make everyone who heard Chlorhydris' raven of unhappiness happy again.
373	22		A Smurf For Denisa	October 22, 1988	814
Balthazar's niece Denisa befriends Sassette and they go to Gargamel's castle.
374	23		Smurf The Presses	October 29, 1988	809a
Reporter leads Gargamel to the village thinking that he has changed his ways.
375	24		Stealing Grandpa's Thunder	October 29, 1988	805a
Grandpa fears Nanny will take his place as storyteller with her better memory. Meanwhile, Wild tries to save the animals from the Stalker, but Stalker captures him and Grandpa.

Video Releases

• Apple iTunes has made the entire set of Season 8 episodes available for download.
• On July 2013, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment released the entire season on DVD set for Germany, featuring all the eighth season episodes and eighteen additional episodes of Adventures Of Sir Johan And Peewit from the second and third seasons.
• On August 2013, Beyond Home Entertainment released the entire season on a DVD set for Australia and New Zealand.

Trivia

• This was the only season to utilize digital ink and paint entirely for coloring. Several Season 6 and 7 episodes used digital ink and paint for the animation, but returned to the cel animation shortly after. The show permanently reverts to its original art style in Season 9.
• Peewit's head appears as one of the characters in the book Papa Smurf opens in the intro, along with the heads of Gargamel, Scruple, Homnibus, Lord Balthazar, and Mother Nature, who appear in the Season 8 episodes while Peewit does not.
• This is the second season intro in which Clumsy sits on the mushroom on top of the title, with the first being Season 4.
• Due to continuing the trend of new main characters, a couple of the Smurfs' roles continue to decrease;
  • Clumsy's appearances become much lesser in this season, with him only appearing in nine of the twenty-four episodes. Though Hefty remains prominent, he is mysteriously not included in the lineup of Smurfs in this season's credits.
  • This season features Jokey, Vanity, Baby, Harmony, Lazy, and Farmer the least; Jokey only appears in three episodes, Vanity, Baby, and Harmony appear in five (and two of which Vanity does not speak), while Lazy and Farmer (who does not speak in his appearance) only appear in one each.
• This is the first season to not introduce one-shot Smurfs exclusive to the series. The crew at Hanna-Barbera were running out of ideas for new Smurfs at this point, which would carry on with the next season.
• This is the shortest season in the 1981 series.
• "Smurf The Presses" features the last present-day appearances of Gargamel, Azrael, and Scruple.
• On Tubi, the Spanish dub uses the Season 8 intro (though after Papa Smurf opens the book, the page shows a Smurf coming out of a and walking towards the logo instead of showing multiple Smurfs running into the logo)