| Runtime: | 25 minutes approx. |
| Starring: | Ian Tracey Sam Snyders Blu Mankuma Brigitte Horney |
| Company: | Madison Pacific Film Wagner-Hallig Film |
| Country: | British Columbia, Canada |
| Network: | CTV (Canada), BBC (UK), The Family Channel (US) |
| Num Episodes: | 26 |
Huckleberry Finn and His Friends is a 1979 television series documenting the exploits of Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer, based on the novels The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884) by American writer Mark Twain. The series consists of 26 episodes and was a Canadian/West German international co-production.
Even though Mark Twain originally wrote the books The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn as separate units, this series conjures up both literary works as a single story. Therefore, it places greater importance on Huckleberry's character without putting aside Tom Sawyer's.
The series was directed by Jack B. Hively and Ken Jubenvill.
Huckleberry Finn and His Friends was filmed on location at the Burnaby Village Museum (then known as the Heritage Village) in Burnaby, British Columbia.[1] Episode 9 - Buried treasure - was filmed in part at the Alaksen National Wildlife Area.[1]
Various sternwheeler riverboats appear in the series. The Julia Belle Swain appears in the opening and closing credits, and are the only scenes that were shot on the Mississippi River.
The wooden steam-powered sternwheeler in episode 6 - How nice to be missed - and 7 - Such a lovely funeral - is the "Samson V".[2] The "Samson V" is now a museum but at the time (1979) was a working snagpuller on the Fraser River. The small sternwheeler in episode 10 - Huck is a hero - was one of an identical pair of boats built in 1964 that ferried tourists around Vancouver's harbour from the 1960s to the 1980s.[3] From the late 1980s until 1999, the "Scenic Bell" and the "Scenic Queen" ferried passengers to Newcastle Island Marine Provincial Park.[4]
The series was broadcast in the United Kingdom, Germany, Ireland, Belgium, the Netherlands, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Australia, Canada, South Africa Israel, and various as Latin America countries.
In the United Kingdom, it was first screened on BBC1 in 1982. It was repeated in 1984.
In 2007, the complete series was released as a 4 DVD box set by Fabulous Films in the UK. It contains many extras including a 12-page colour booklet and a 30-minute 'making of' documentary featuring interviews with many stars of the series including Sammy Snyders, Ian Tracey, and Blu Mankuma.