Humphrey B. Bear
Overview
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n children's television series
Children's television series
Children's television series, are commercial television programs designed for, and marketed to children, normally scheduled for broadcast during the morning and afternoon when children are awake. They can sometimes run in the early evening, for the children that go to school...
and its fictional character namesake is an icon of Australian children's television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
. Humphrey B Bear was first broadcast on Adelaide's
Adelaide
Adelaide is the capital city of South Australia and the fifth-largest city in Australia. Adelaide has an estimated population of more than 1.2 million...
NWS-9
NWS-9
NWS is an Australian television station owned by the WIN Corporation which is based in Adelaide, Australia. The station's name, NWS is an acronym of The NeWs South Australia.-Origins:...
on Monday, 24 May 1965. The show became one of the most successful programs for pre-schoolers in Australia. The part of Humphrey was played by Edwin Duryea, an actor, singer and dancer whose human identity was never revealed.
The character of Humphrey is a tall, shaggy brown bear with a large, glossy nose, straw boater, tartan waist-coat and over-sized yellow bow-tie.