In light of Saint David’s Day yesterday, a question washed over me. Should Sam Tân's (Fireman Sam) trademark and rights be returned to S4C?

For context (I’m sure many of you grew up on Sam Tân): S4C created Sam Tân in the 80s, initially as part of a children’s programming block. The original series ran until 1994. In 2001, S4C sold 50% of their shares in the brand to HiT Entertainment, which helped produce the 5th stop motion season between 2003-2005. Then in 2007, S4C sold the remaining shares to HiT Entertainment, although they retained an executive producer role in the 6th season. Fast forward to 2017, and HiT Entertainment was bought out by the American megacorporation Mattel.

As a result of these changes, many fans, feel that the Welsh identity of Sam Tân has been diluted in the more recent series, with a lot of the show being more ‘americanized’.

The questions are;

Do you think S4C should pursue these rights once again?

And if they managed to aquire the rights,
would this return to its Welsh roots be a good move, or would it risk undoing changes that have been made over the years?

For nostalgic purposes, I found this yesterday: https://youtu.be/cLAHy6PgMG0

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts, diolch.

by ThatPhoenix8

5 comments

  1. I wish that hadn’t happened but S4C made their decision to sell it off, unless there are some conditions that have been broken and they could get back a share that way it is what it is I don’t think they’d be able to afford to get it back.

  2. Gyrru’r injan goch, Sam, Sam Tan,
    Canu, canu’r gloch, Sam, Sam Tan
    Sam o Bontypandy, arwr ein pentref bach ni~

    Honestly the biggest thing I can say is how weird the English theme song was to me hearing it years after I grew up on the oriignal

  3. The computer generated version of Sam Tan is weird and creepy.

  4. Sadly, S4C would not be able to do anything with those rights (even if it was possible to get them
    Back.)

    With viewing figures as they are we will be lucky to see them survive the next few years.

  5. honestly, the recent couple of episodes have been really… dull, even the kids tell me that – does anyone know where I can find the original Welsh dubbed original 1987-1994 series episodes?

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