History
The Raccoons franchise was originally conceived by Kevin Gillis in the 1970s, while appearing in shows like Celebrity Cooks, and Yes You Can. The initial idea for the show was created by Gillis and columnist Gary Dunford (they drew their inspiration for Ralph Raccoon from a dilemma that happened at a cottage in Ottawa). Dunford backed out, but Gillis took his idea to Ottawa lawyer Sheldon S. Wiseman, who saw a potential in Gillis' idea and put together a large group - animators, musicians, and writers, to create the first special to star the characters known as The Christmas Raccoons. Production on the special began in 1979 and completed in 1980, and the special was shown on the December of that same year on CBC Television. It was also shown in countries around the world, including the United States and the United Kingdom. The special was a huge hit and resulted in two sequel specials The Raccoons on Ice and The Raccoons and the Lost Star and a direct-to-video special, The Raccoons: Let's Dance!. In 1981, United States TV networks CBS and NBC approached Sheldon Wiseman about producing a 13 episode Raccoons TV series. In 1984, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and The Disney Channel began funding on the TV series, which cost about $4.5 million to make.
Read more about this topic: The Raccoons
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