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After the start in Australia, the show had a good run internationally. Between 1989 and 2000, it was broadcast in atleast six markets in western Europe and in Canada.

Below is an overview of what I know for certain (unless stated otherwise) when the show was on in the various markets. If you know more, please do contact me so I can fill in the blanks.


Australia

29 February - 17 March 1988, ABC

ABC logo
The Afternoon Show logo still
The series was first broadcast in Australia (and world wide) on the ABC. There it was part of the afternoon programming aimed at children, aptly titled The Afternoon Show.

For three weeks, it was broadcast from Monday through to Thursday. The Bartons' timeslot was occupied by Earthwatch on Fridays. C/o The Bartons was replaced with the BBC miniseries The Children of Green Knowe starting on 21 March 1988.

C/o The Bartons was only broadcast once in Australia and never repeated. This is a stark contrast to the show's success outside Australia, as you'll see below.

In this light, it's an understandable yet very sad fact that the show is so little known on its home turf.

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Goofy segment of The Afternoon Show, hosted by James Valentine, from 1988. No Bartons to be seen, but just to give you a general idea of the programme:



United Kingdom

3 April - 26 June 1989, BBC1
26 June - 4 September 1991, BBC1
Children
In the UK, the series was broadcast by the BBC on BBC1 as part of its daily CBBC (Children's BBC) block of programming, episodes airing once a week on Mondays. The show was renamed The Bartons (dropping "C/o"), although the opening credits still show the original title.

The BBC repeated the series once; two years after its first run, between 26 June and 4 September 1991.

In both runs, the episode Suspected was absent, meaning only eleven out of the twelve episodes aired in the UK. Allegedly, this is because of the use of the word "poofter" in that episode, which is a so called "watershed word" in the UK (words that may not be used in programmes airing before 9 PM).

Image
CBBC continuity between an episode of Defenders of the Earth and The Bartons, from 1989.



The Netherlands

28 January - 12 Februari 1991, RTL4
28 June - 7 September 1991, RTL4
RTL4 logo

Telekids logo
In the Netherlands, the series was initially broadcast by RTL4 as part of its weekday edition of the children's programming block Telekids. One episode aired every weekday just after 4 PM for two and a half weeks. Like in the UK, the title was shortened to The Bartons with the opening credits still showing the original title.

All episodes were shown, including Suspected, and with the original English soundtrack intact (subtitled in Dutch).

The Bartons was a success for RTL4; up to that point, the weekday edition of Telekids was filled with cartoons and studio segments. Adding live action drama was apparently just what slightly older kids needed to wind down after school, and The Bartons delivered.

Telekids received quite a lot of letters by fans who missed the show after it concluded its original run, asking for a repeat. In an on air response, host Irene Moors stated a repeat was planned for the summer, and made it clear that was the very last time RTL4 could show the programme as the tapes had to be returned to Australia at the end of the year.

RTL4 kept its word: the series was repeated that same year between 28 June and 7 September 1991 as part of RTL4's Saturday early evening line up (replacing the American sitcom Full House for its summer break); essentially promoting it to prime time. It was on right after the evening news, kicking off prime time and a timeslot that catered to both kids and adults. So exposure was high.

To repeat a programme in the same year as the original broadcast, was at the time unusual in The Netherlands (and, although common nowadays for in house productions, still is uncommon for purchased content).

Although RTL4 never showed The Bartons again after that, the show and the flood of letters were mentioned briefly during the marathon broadcast on RTL4's 25th anniversary on 2 October 2014, in the context of the changes Telekids went through over its ten year run. Sadly no clips were shown.

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Opening sequence of the Friday edition of Telekids in 1991. Sadly this is from November 1991, so well after Bartons aired, but there doesn't seem to be anyone that has a clip of a Telekids episode with Bartons in it. Warning: contains images with rapidly flashing lights.

Nederlandse/Vlaamse bezoekers: ik heb jullie hulp nodig! Ik ben al jaren op zoek naar het Telekids-fragment waarin Irene Moors de brieven over The Bartons noemt en herhaling van de serie toezegt. Het fragment moet ergens in februari of maart 1991 uitgezonden zijn. Als je het fragment hebt, en het mij op VHS of digitaal toe wil sturen, zou ik je zeer dankbaar zijn! Neem alsjeblieft contact met mij op als je me kunt helpen.



Germany

22 August - 7 November 1990, Bayerisches Fernsehen (regional)
11 March - 31 March 1993, Das Erste (ARD) (national)
Bayerisches Fernsehen logo
ARD Das Erste logo
3sat logo
KIKA logo
SuperRTL logo
Die 6 Bartons logo
Germany really went nuts over The Bartons, or Die 6 Bartons as it was known there. The full series was repeated every two to three years between 1990 and 2000, on various networks, both public and commercial. In total, the series ran eight times (not counting the next day repeats within the same time period on KiKA), six times of which on a national channel.

Bayerisches Fernsehen was the first station to air the series, in 1990, but that's a local station aimed at Bavaria ("Bayern"). The first national broadcast was done by Das Erste in 1993.

As far as I know, Super RTL was the last station to broadcast C/o The Bartons in Europe (perhaps even the world), concluding that run in November 2000, almost thirteen years after the series first debuted in Australia. Let that sink in for a minute.

Since all the German stations involved are broadcast all over Europe, other countries in the German language area also watch them, as well as people in countries where German is often a second language (Belgium, Denmark, Italy, the Netherlands and Poland), giving the series an even bigger exposure than just the roughly 80 million people in Germany at the time.

Germany dubs all foreign content into German. This not only means that the characters now speak German, but the title was changed as well (to Die 6 Bartons as mentioned earlier, which sounds threatening in English, but literally means "The 6 Bartons"). The episodes all got German titles, which sometimes differ greatly from the English episode titles. An English soundtrack was not available during broadcast.

The German language dub was done by VOX Synchron Filmvertonung GmbH in Munich, Germany. Marika von Radvanyi, co-owner of that company with her husband, directed the voice actors and wrote the German script. Elly Barton was voiced by Stephanie Kellner.

Below is an overview of all the broadcasts in Germany that I know of. Note: if this table looks strange on your smartphone, try tilting your phone into landscape position.

German broadcast history

Period
Station
22 August 1990 - 7 November 1990
Every Wednesday
Bayerisches Fernsehen (BFS)
11 March 1993 - 31 March 1993
Every Monday through to Thursday
Das Erste (ARD)
10 July 1995 - 25 September 1995
Every Monday
3Sat
16 September 1997 - ?? 1997
Every Tuesday as part of the children's matinee Schlawiner Platz
Bayerisches Fernsehen (BFS)
5 March 1998 - 26 March 1998
Every weekday/every episode repeated the next weekday, forming a block with the new episode for that day
KinderKanal (KiKa)
24 November 1998 - 9 December 1998
Every weekday
Super RTL
19 April 2000 - 9 May 2000
Every Tuesday to through Friday
Super RTL
6 November 2000 - 21 November 2000
Every Tuesday to through Friday
Super RTL
The German broadcast schedule was sourced from this site as well as TV listing in old newspapers (for the national broadcasts).
If anyone has a copy of any episode dubbed in German, please let me know. I'd love to put up some clips dubbed in German.
The same goes for other (dubbed) language versions if you have them, of course!
Hallo liebe Deutsche Bartonsfans! Bitte, möchtest du mir anschreiben wenn Sie ein oder einigen "Die 6 Bartons" folgen in die Deutsche sprache auf VHS cassette hat? Ich brauche echt nicht alle Folgen in der Reihe, nur eine oder einigen. Digitale dateien sind naturlich noch besser! Ich spreche Deutsch und kann auch auf Deutsch lesen und schreiben, gar kein problem. Gruße von einem Ihrer Höllandischen nachbarn! :)

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Opening sequence Of Schlawiner Platz; one of the programmes that broadcast Die 6 Bartons in Germany (on the local station for the state of Bavaria in this case):



Switzerland

21 June 1993 - 06 July 1993, TSR (French dub)
10 July 1995 - 25 September 1995, 3SAT (German dub)
TSR Logo


3sat logo
Switzerland is a strange television market. There are three main languages spoken in the country and each language basically has its own little television market, with public and commercial stations.

German speaking Swiss would watch Die 6 Bartons on the same day-and-date with the Germans and Austrians, on 3SAT. So every monday from 10 July 1995 to 25 September 1995.

In practice, most German speaking Swiss also watch the free-to-air German television stations, so they could've been watching The Bartons since 1990 and all the way up to 2000.

French speaking Swiss could watch Les Bartons* "officially" a few years earlier, on Télévision Suisse Romande (TSR) in 1993. I'm not sure if this is the same dub that aired in France and Canada, but it seems likely.

The French dubbed episodes were aired every weekday at 17:25 on TSR 1 for two-and-a-half weeks, just before Beverly Hills 90210 (which, incidentally, is just called Beverly Hills there). I bet that was a nice contrast.

All episodes were aired, but I'm not sure if the series was ever repeated. I also couldn't find if the Italian speaking Swiss got their own dub of the show.

Do you know more? Please let me know!

*The French title of the programme is sometimes translated as Les Barton and sometimes as Les Bartons, depending on the source.


Canada

9 September 1989 - 2 December 1989, Radio-Canada Télévision
CBC Logo

So far, the only verified broadcast of the series in North America, is that in the French speaking part of Canada.


Radio-Canada Télévision (RCT) aired the series Saturday mornings at 10:30 as part of its Matinee programming block, starting on 9 September 1989. Due to time zone differences, the series aired at 7:30am on Canada's west coast.

It appears only 10 episodes were shown. Since no episode titles or summaries are printed, I can only guess which episodes were left out.

The series title was translated into Les Barton*. Although I've not been able to source a clip, I've been told RCT used dubs produced for France, so I assume this is the same dub that aired in France.


Dans la petite ville de Banskiawood, en Australie, la jeune Elly Barton ne passe jamais inapercue.
Programme description for Les Barton in a few Canadian newspaper TV listings


The series was repeated starting on 1 May 1992 (Tuesdays and Thursdays at 4pm on CBC) and again starting in August 1993 (Wednesdays at 4:30pm, again on CBC). Since I don't have complete schedules for those years, I'm not sure if all episodes were shown.

Do you know more? Please let me know!

*The French title of the programme is sometimes translated as Les Barton and sometimes as Les Bartons, depending on the source.


Spain

Summer 1990, Antena 3
Antena 3 logo
Antena 3, Spain's first commercial television station, aired the series in the summer of 1990. The title was translated into Los Barton. Audio was dubbed in Spanish.

Episodes were aired every Sunday as part of the children's programming block La guardería ("The Nursery"). That block ran from 9:30 to 11:30; I'm not sure at what time Los Barton was on exactly.

Other than three of the episodes airing in July 1990, I have no idea of the time frame of the broadcast in Spain, as no episode titles or summaries are given in my sources.

According to this site, the series was repeated starting 10 November 1992 on Antena 3.

Do you know more? Please let me know!

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Antena 3 "La Guardería" continuity, sadly without any Bartons footage:



Austria

10 July 1995 - 25 September 1995, 3SAT
3sat logo
As Austria is one of the countries served by 3SAT, the Austrians got to see Die 6 Bartons between 10 July and 25 September 1995.


I'm not sure if the series was broadcast on another station in Austria.


In practice, most Austrians also watch the free-to-air German television stations, so they could've been watching The Bartons since 1990 and all the way up to 2000.


Samoa

Broadcast details unknown
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I know for sure that Bartons was broadcast on Samoan television. I just can't find anything about it in any archive online. The only real evidence is that Rosemary Smith (Anita) has received royalties from the broadcast in Samoa in the 90's.

Until 2003, Samoa was served by a television station called Televise Samoa. In that year it was replaced with the short lived Samoan Broadcasting Corporation (SBC) by act of parliament. So I'm pretty sure it was Televise Samoa that broadcast Bartons and not the SBC.

I haven't been able to find historic listings for Televise Samoa online. Samoan newspapers don't seem to have online archives either.

According to one online source, Televise Samoa broadcast content from the ABC, NZTV and the BBC in English, in addition to locally produced programming in both Samoan and English.

I have no idea when Bartons was broadcast there, or if all episodes were shown. I assume it was broadcast unaltered in English.

Do you know more? Please let me know!


Other countries

I know the series was sold to France and Israel and I have reason to believe that it was sold to Belgium (possibly just in the French speaking Wallonia region), but I was unable to source a broadcasting schedule for those markets. I do know that the French broadcasts reached quite far, as the French channels were broadcast over Europe and northern Africa through satellite. I've gotten e-mails from Bartons fans as far away from France as Algeria.

It's completely possible there were other markets where the series was broadcast that I don't know of. New Zealand seems (to me) an obvious market for Australian shows, but nothing so far. Do you have broadcasting schedules for your country (that I'd be able to verify)? Please let me know through the contact form.

 

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