Hallo Spencer is a German children's television series, created by Winfried Debertin and produced by Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR) from 1979 until 2001. In these 22 years, 275 episodes were filmed, including a number of 'specials' featuring the characters taking part in traditional fairy tale and nursery rhyme themed stories. It is a puppet based show, featuring characters created and operated in the same fashion as Jim Henson's Muppets and Sesame Street, and, in fact, some of the show's staff were former employees of Sesamstraße, the German version of Sesame Street. To this day, the series is popular and well loved in its home country to the extent that the theme park Heide Park featured a themed area devoted to the show until it was removed in 2017. The series has been repeated on the commercial channels Nickelodeon Germany and on the pay-TV channel Premiere. Episodes were regularly found on regional broadcast stations until March 2011. The series has three spinoffs: The Adventures of Max and Molly, Poldi and the Dragons and Spencer Kids. Plot Hallo Spencer is set in the fictional German town of Spencerdorf. Geographically, the area is wildly varied: densely forested and lush grassland areas border an arid, extremely localised volcanic area. The US language version was relocated to Spencerville, Ohio, which is a real town. Spencer usually greets the viewers and introduces a special theme for the plot of the episode, e.g. basic things like beds or greetings. The story then shifts around the village with the characters contributing something related to the theme. Later episodes switched from the village to Spencer's apartment, where he would normally tell a story to the viewer. Main characters US character names from the Saban Productions series are listed alongside their original German counterparts. Spencer (Hallo/Hello Spencer) The protagonist. In the early episodes, Spencer lived in a television studio, although he later moved into an apartment in the Hallerstraße. He is the mayor of the village, and has at his disposal a videophone with which he can watch and speak to any of the residents at any time. Spencer's first name in the US broadcasts, Hallo, simply means "hello" in German, so the show's original German title Hallo, Spencer is Hello, Spencer in English. There is a sign hanging on the back wall of Spencer's studio displaying the German title and US distributors thought it would be necessary to have an