SuperTed is a Welsh superhero animated television series about an anthropomorphic teddy bear with superpowers, created by writer and animator Mike Young. Originally created by Young as a series of stories to help his son overcome his fear of the dark, SuperTed became a popular series of books and led to an animated series produced from 1982 to 1986. An American-produced series, The Further Adventures of SuperTed, was produced by Hanna Barbera in 1989. The series also aired on The Disney Channel in the United States where it became the first British animated series to air on that channel. Creation The character was created by Mike Young in 1978 for his son to help him overcome his fear of darkness. Later Young decided to put the stories into book form, originally as a bear from the woods who was also afraid of the dark, until one day Mother Nature gave him a magic word which gives him superpowers and transforms him into SuperTed. His early attempts were unsuccessful, until he made some adjustments with the help of a local printer and was finally able to get his stories published. This led Young to write and publish over 100 SuperTed books, with illustrations done by Philip Watkins, until 1990. Just after his first book was published, his wife suggested he should produce a stuffed toy version of SuperTed, which was done in 1980. Young was determined to keep SuperTed Welsh, as he wanted to help create local jobs and prove that places outside London had talent. In 1982, S4C enquired about making SuperTed into animations, but Young decided to create Siriol Productions to produce the series himself. Siriol management wished to create SuperTed in a way which their own children could be proud of, free from facile plots and hard-line violence. This concept continued to be adopted in all series made by Siriol, which proves that "soft edge and quality animation can be more appealing to children than any amount of violence". By November 1982 it had been sold to over 30 countries. In 1989 Mike Young partly sold off the rights to the series, with a 75% stake in SuperTed being acquired by the newly formed Abbey Home Entertainment with Young retaining the other 25%. The ownership nowadays is through AHE's successor company Abbey Home Media alongside Mike Young. Premise The story follows an ordinary teddy bear who, upon his