Fred and the Nature Gang is the first TV series to feature Nature Cat (known as Fred). The series ran from September 10, 1979 to February 18, 1983 on ABC, but the series revived with the special Nature Cat's Biggest Adventure in 1985, as well as 6 TV specials from 1988 to 1994. From 1985 to 1997, the series was reran on The Disney Channel, and on Boomerang from 2000 to 2014.
History
In 1978, Hammocks Animation were coming up with a new show because of their success in their first children's show, Wally Down Under. So they drew a cat, and named him Milo. They were originally going to name the series "Milo and the Nature Gang" but they changed the cat's name to Fred so they renamed it "Fred and the Nature Gang". The other characters stayed the same from the original sketches. A pilot episode was made after the development in late 1978, along with 60 animated shorts, which also aired after the Nature Tunes segment in the Season 1 and Season 2 episodes of the series. In 1979, the actual series came out. There were 40 episodes in total, which aired on ABC. In February 1983, the series ended with a Christmas special. In 1985, The Disney Channel started airing reruns. The Disney Channel edited the credits to say the whole series was produced in 1985 for unknown reasons. In 1988, Hammocks Animation decided to revive the series because of the roaring fans, so they created 6 specials with HOT Animation's former company HOT Entertainment. These specials also aired on The Disney Channel. Disney Channel aired the series and the specials from 1985-1997 (In 1998 they removed the series and replaced it with Nelvana's Nature Cat Tales series which began production in 1993). However, the original DID air on Toon Disney in early 1998 before Nature Cat Tales. From 2000 until 2014, reruns aired on Boomerang.
Segments
"Nature Tunes"
A short animated musical segment that comes the after the 2nd part of an episode, where the cast sing nature songs based on the episode, usually lasting about over a minute. These songs would also play over various clips of Fred and the Nature Gang episodes too. The title card just depicts of the text "Nature Tunes" on a dark blue background.
Beginning in Season 3, the segment was updated. The title card know depicts a purple music note that has "Nature Tunes" in yellow, shown on top of it, and it animated with a zoom-in effect, and the background color was also changed to match the one used in the Season 2 intro. The format has also been changed as well. Instead of using clips of various episodes, it now features many anthropomorphic nature animals singing the songs, all of which takes place on a stage. Different animals would be singing them in every episode too. Some of the songs they performed were remade for the 2015 series Nature Cat, such as the theme song, which was performed by Taran Killam, where in Nature Tunes, Weasels were singing a song about otters. Dog Gone even appeared in one of the segments and they looked completely different than their 2015 appearance.
The segment didn't appear in Nature Cat's Biggest Adventure or any of the specials, and after Season 5, the segment has completed dropped from the series.
A segment appears in the 2015 series featuring Nature Cat's favorite band Dog Gone, which has a very similar concept to that of the original.
"Fred Says"
Another segment in the series where Fred talks about facts about nature with footage of live-action kids playing in the background. This would play on all the even-numbered episodes from Seasons 1 and 2, but in Season 3 and onward, this and Nature Tunes segment would play in the same episode.
Like Nature Tunes, this segment was dropped after Season 5.