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The Smurfs secured their place in American pop culture in 1981, when the Saturday morning cartoon The Smurfs, produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions in association with SEPP International S.A., aired on NBC. The series became a major success for the network and one of the most successful and longest running Saturday Morning Cartoons in television history, spawning spin-off television specials on an almost yearly basis. The characters included Papa Smurf, Smurfette, Brainy Smurf, the evil Gargamel, his cat Azrael, and Johan and his friend Peewit. The Smurfs was nominated multiple times for Daytime Emmy awards, and won Outstanding Children's Entertainment Series in 1982–1983.[5] The show enjoyed continued success until 1989, when after nearly a decade of success, NBC changed the format of the show and removed the Smurfs from the forest and the Smurf village, and then cancelled it due to decreasing ratings. In addition. NBC executives prepared a Today weekend program for Saturdays as well as programmings for teenagers such as Saved By The Bell, which came later on and led to the elimination of Saturday morning animated children's shows. The show continued through December 2, 1989 on the NBC network. The show continued to air on reruns the USA network until 1993, followed by the Cartoon Network until 2003. Smurfs is still broadcast on Cartoon Network's sister station Boomerang throughout the United States.

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