Q & A With Rebecca Forstadt

Ladies and gentlemen, I have something special today.  After much effort, I was able to contact Rebecca Forstadt and get some answers to some questions about the Maple Town English dub.

Rebecca Forstadt is an American voice actress best known for her role in anime and cartoons.  Her best known role hands down is Lynn Minmei from Robotech as well as Mihoshi in Tenchi Muyo.  In Maple Town, she voiced Patty Rabbit, the protagonist of the series.  

In my attempts to solve the long standing questions around Maple Town's English dub, I wanted to reach out to Rebecca in the hope that she might have answers.  I did get some answers and am very grateful for her time.  So without further ado...let's get to those questions!  

Maple Town Episode 3 Commentary

My apologies to everyone that it took so long to get this done...so then onto our next episode!

Maple Town Episode 3
English Dub Title:  Box Go Boom (Alternate title - the Silver Spoons)
Japanese Title:  "Kie ta gin nosaji" (消えた銀のさじ)
Spanish Dub Title:  Las Cucharillas Magicas

This episode focuses on Bobby Bear and his family.  Bobby is the deuteragonist of Maple Town and a native of the town as opposed to Patty, newly moved to Maple Town.

We start out at Patty Rabbit's house.  She wants to go out with her father on his mail route but her mother intervenes; she orders Patty to finish eating breakfast.  We then cut to the general store of Maple Town, operated by the Bear family.  Mrs. Bear is berating her son Bobby for trying to run out on his responsibilities.  She reminds him that he has to polish silver spoons arriving today and to take care of his three younger brothers.  It just so happens that Bobby has tied up his brothers inside a large sack and in their struggle to get free, end up wrecking the store.

Patty is told to finish eating before going out with her father

Mrs. Bear yells at Bobby

Bobby's got it in the bag...along with his brothers!

Mr. Bear catches his son trying to sneak away

Mrs. Bear throws her three sons out of the store and goes after Bobby;  Bobby tries to run away but gets caught by his father.  Mr. Bear then sneaks off, leaving his wife and his son behind.  

The Mysteries of Maple Town Part 4

And now we come to the final part of the mysteries surrounding the North American broadcast of Maple Town.


What was the plan for the original proposed 65-episode run of Maple Town for US television?
My sources tell me that when Maple Town was exported to the US television market, there were plans to turn it into a 65-episode package for television syndication.  How was Saban and the Maltese Companies (they handled the North American dub) planning to even fill a 65-episode requirement?  Keep in mind that Maple Town had 52 episodes total, about 13 episode short of that above mentioned 65.


Before we continue, I will need to explain syndication to any non-American readers out there.  (My thanks to the TV Tropes page for this explanation!)  Because of the fact that television in the United States operates, syndication is a uniquely American design though some other countries have similar concepts.  

Anyway, when a television show is sold for broadcast, it is usually to a single network, be it broadcast, cable or satellite; said channel will broadcast that show exclusively and at a designated time.  When syndication is done, a show is sold to multiple independent television stations to do with as they wish.  When I say syndication, my fellow Americans will think of second-run syndication or off-network syndication; this is when a show that has already broadcast on a network and reruns of it air in syndication.  That's one kind of syndication.  There's also first-run syndication which was done with many cartoons of the 1980s such as He-Man, She-Ra, Transformers, Inspector Gadget, etc.  Yes, the original plan for Maple Town was to run it in first-run syndication; it did initially before moving over to Nickelodeon where it ran until 1993.

That's the long and short of it.  The above link to TV Tropes has more details on syndication and how it works.

As I said before, Maple Town broadcasted in "barter" syndication in the USA.  "Barter" syndication is where the episode is given for free to the network and allows the holder of the show to have more control over when it is aired.  This is contrast to "cash" syndication where the independent network is given total control over the show such as what episodes air and what time it airs.  In order to air in syndication, at least 65 episodes are needed mainly for animated series.  That's why most of the cartoons I mentioned above are that long.

But that still brings us back to our main question - how was this planned 65-episode dubbing of Maple Town going to work?

I have formulated a theory as to how they'd have stretched Maple Town into a 65-episode run.  It's possible that some episodes of the sequel Palm Town were going to be dubbed and edited to fill in the 65 episodes.  That may not be so far-fetched.  Carl Macek did this with Robotech.  He originally wanted to make the anime Super Dimension Fortress Macross into Robotech, but he didn't have enough episodes requires for syndication so he took two more series, Super Dimension Armored Cavalry Southern Cross and Genesis Climber Mospeada, and carefully edited them into the required 65 episodes.  Of course, my above theory can't be proven unless someone out there can verify it.

On one final note, my sources tell me that television rights to the English Maple Town dub is presently held by the Kushner-Locke Company, which holds 39 episodes.

That's it for now, readers.  Any information or comments should be added below in the comments or sent to mapletown(at)gmx(dot)com.

Be sure to check out my blog about my comics series Sunnyville Stories and my webcomic Tiffany & Corey.  If you like this blog, be sure to buy me a Ko-Fi.

The Mysteries of Maple Town Part 3

Now we come to another mystery with Maple Town.  So what mystery is it today?

Who were the uncredited voice actors for the English dub of Maple Town?

Some of the information on who voiced who in the English dubbed Maple Town is incomplete.  What we do know is as follows:

Patty Rabbit was Rebecca Forstadt (credited as Reba West)
Bobby Bear was Wendee Lee (some incorrectly credit Susan Roman)
Wilde Wolf was Steve Kramer
Mikey Mole was Barbara Goodson
Mayor Dandy Lion was Ted Layman
Miss Deer was Edie Mirman
Susie Squirrel was Lara Cody
Danny Dog was voiced by the late Kirsten Bishop.
Fanny Fox was voiced by Maureen O'Connell.  Maureen's identity is not confirmed at present; according to IMDB, this was an alias used by Marbry Steward, but this is not known for sure.

The other voices on the show like Patty Rabbit's parents, Rachel Rabbit, etc. aren't known.  This may owe to the fact that anime voice actors tend to be non-union; as the television & film industry's powerful unions have a strict policy against their members doing non-union work, it's not unusual for these actors to do voices under assumed names.

UPDATE (7/25/2018):  According to her Wikipedia entry, Melora Harte is cited as another voice actor for Maple Town, stating she did "various" roles.  Coincidentally, she is married to Steve Kramer, the voice of Wilde Wolf!

If anyone out there has information, I'd appreciate hearing from you.  You can comment below or email me at mapletown(at)gmx(dot)com.

That's it for now.

Be sure to check out my blog about my comics series Sunnyville Stories and my webcomic Tiffany & Corey.  If you like this blog, be sure to buy me a Ko-Fi.

Maple Town Episode 1 Commentary

So how about a write-up of the first episode of Maple Town?  Before we continue, I need to emphasize that just as I will be using the English dub names of the characters, I will be using the English dub titles where I can.  I will also use the Japanese episode titles and the Spanish dub titles as well.

Maple Town Episode 1
English Dub Title: Welcome to Maple Town
Japanese Title:  "Kochira dōbutsu taun" (こちら動物タウン)
Spanish Dub Title:  El Senor Conejo Cartero


This episode is essentially a "welcome" episode designed to introduce the main characters, namely Patty Rabbit and the Rabbit family.  Anyway, let's get on with the show.

As the episode opens up, we get some nice camera shots of a steam powered train moving through a dense forest.

As the train moves through the forest, we cut to a shot of our protagonist Patty Rabbit looking out the window of the rear train car.  

The Mysteries of Maple Town Part 1

Another favorite show of mine was Unsolved Mysteries because I was always fascinated by mysteries and how they got solved.  The 1986 anime series Maple Town is a source of mystery for me because there are unanswered questions about the show's North American broadcast.  I hope in the course of doing this blog, we can solve these mysteries and answer these questions.

In my mind, there's four things that have been puzzling me in regards to Maple Town.  The first mystery that comes to mind.  It's this -

We did not get all 52 episodes broadcast here in the United States.  Why was this the case?

I have reason to believe that all 52 episodes may have been dubbed into English but never broadcast.  This happened when Saban dubbed the anime Grimm's Fairy Tale Classics into English but some episodes did not air on Nickelodeon for being too scary and too violent.  Some years ago on YouTube, someone contacted me and claimed to have watched the remaining English dubbed episodes on Canadian television.  These episodes did NOT have the Mrs. Maple segments that the earlier episodes have.  Unfortunately, this is a secondhand account so until some other Canadians out there can verify this, I'm not sure if this is true.

I have been attempting to contact two of the voice actors from the English dub - Rebecca Forstadt (Patty Rabbit) and Edie Mirman (Miss Deer).  I hoped to ask them some questions about Maple Town and maybe even confirm if they recorded dialogue for all 52 episodes.  Unfortunately, at the time of this writing, I am unable to reach them. 

If anyone out there has information, I'd appreciate hearing from you.  You can comment below or email me at mapletown(at)gmx(dot)com.

That's it for now.

Be sure to check out my blog about my comics series Sunnyville Stories and my webcomic Tiffany & Corey.  If you like this blog, be sure to buy me a Ko-Fi.

Mrs. Maple

The North American dubs of Maple Town had something that the original Japanese version and the other foreign dubs didn't have - a live-action host opening and closing the show.

Each episode of the North American English dubs would open and close with a live actor named Mrs. Maple on a kitchen set.  She was implied to be the only human living in Maple Town and would introduce the episode, bringing up what was going on in Maple Town and what that episode's plot would be.  

After chatting with the viewers for a bit and mentioning elements of the episode's story, she would turn to look out of a window into Maple Town, which had the animation added in (probably with Chroma key).

Mrs. Maple (Janice Adams) looking out her window into Maple Town

At the end of the episode, we (the viewers) would return to Mrs. Maple's kitchen where she'd sum up the story and/or its moral and then say goodbye to the viewers.

Later episodes of the English dub made Mrs. Maple's role less important; she'd give more of a summary of what to expect in the episode rather than the longer introductions she did early on.

Mrs. Maple was portrayed by Janice Adams.  According to her listing on IMDB, Maple Town seems to be her only acting credit - nothing else before or after is listed.  There's no other information about Janice Adams so any acting background, her current whereabouts, etc. are unknown.

This is the only post where I really plan to discuss her character.  She isn't really important, even to the English dubs, so I won't mention Mrs. Maple much from here on.

That's it for now.  Be sure to check out my blog about my comics series Sunnyville Stories and my webcomic Tiffany & Corey.  If you like this blog, be sure to buy me a Ko-Fi.

Maple Town: An Introduction

Maple Town, officially known in Japanese as Maple Town Stories or Maple Town Monogatari (Japanese:  メイプルタウン物語), was a 1986 Japanese animated series produced by Toei Animation, created by Chifude Asakura and directed by Junichi Sato (who also worked on Sailor Moon, Neon Genesis Evangelion and Sgt. Frog).

Maple Town was a 52-episode anime that could be described as slice-of-life with elements of adventure and drama.  The series revolved around a young female protagonist named Patty Rabbit.  At the start of the series, she moves with her family to Maple Town, where her father runs the post office.  During her time, she meets Bobby Bear and a number of other town residents like Danny Dog, Fanny Fox, Susie Squirrel, etc. and has run-ins with a local bandit named Wilde Wolf.

The series was animated by Toei and broacast on TV Asashi on Sundays from January 19, 1986 to January 11, 1987.  

After its initial run, a sequel was made called Palm Town or formally as New Maple Town Stories: Palm Town Chapter or Shin Maple Town Monogatari: Palm Town Hen (新メイプルタウン物語-パームタウン編), with this series running for about 50 episodes.  Palm Town only had Patty Rabbit with some of the original Maple Town characters appearing on occasion.  This show originally broadcast from January 18, 1987 to December 27, 1987.

My sources tell me two movies were made - a Maple Town movie was released on July 12, 1986 and a Palm Town movie was released on March 14, 1987.  I know the Maple Town movie is an original story, but I have not viewed it so I can give no more information at present.  In contrast, the Palm Town movie is a compilation of the first episode of Palm Town with the last few episodes of Maple Town spliced in.  I viewed this movie years ago on YouTube but it has been since taken down due to copyright issues.

Sometime in 1987, Maple Town was exported to a number of other countries including (but not limited to) the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Spain, the Netherlands, Finland, Sweden, Hungary, Italy, France, Poland, Hong Kong and various Arabic speaking nations.  Some countries did also get its sequel Palm Town but other did not.

For the United States and Canada, an English language dub was produced by Saban Enterainment and the Maltese Companies in conjunction with Tonka producing merchandise of Maple Town.  The series originally ran in syndication on independent television stations in 1987 and then moved to cable channel Nickelodeon.  For reasons unknown, all 52 episodes were not shown on US television; Maple Town ran until April 2, 1993 on Nick.  

Merchandise was released in Japan and other countries; Tonka licensed the toys here in the USA.  Maple Town toys were collectible figurines with clothes as well as vehicles, furniture and playsets.  The usual other merchandise was released such as puzzles and coloring books.  Home video releases were released too as mentioned on the home video post. 

That's it for now.  I'll have some more posts up during the week.  

Be sure to check out my blog about my comics series Sunnyville Stories and my webcomic Tiffany & Corey.  If you like this blog, be sure to buy me a Ko-Fi.

Maple Town Home Video Releases

Maple Town did get home video releases on VHS format back in the late 1980s.

According to this Tripod based Maple Town page, six videocassettes were released by Family Home Entertainment from about 1988 to 1990.

The first cassette pictured here, titled "Welcome to Maple Town", was released in 1987 and has about 4 episodes running about 86 minutes total.  These episodes are: Welcome to Maple Town, The Stolen Necklace, The Pot That Wouldn't Hold Water and the Greatest Treasure of All.

The remaining five videos released all have just two episodes each.  They are as follows:

"The Prettiest Dress In Maple Town", 1987, containing The Prettiest Dress In Maple Town and The Children's Forest Patrol

"A Baby Comes to Maple Town", 1987, containing A Baby Comes to Maple Town and When Children Must Be Grownups

"The Case of the Missing Candy, 1987, containing the Case of the Missing Candy and Teacher, Please Don't Go

"Medicine from Maple Mountain", 1987, containing Medicine from Maple Mountain and the Ransom of Maple Forest

"The House Made of Love", 1987, containing the House Made of Love and A Most Unlikely Heroine

In Japan during the 1990s, Toei Video released about ten videocassettes with about three episodes each.  (Above image courtesy of the Lost Media Wiki.)  The UK got a few video releases through Multiple Sound Distributors.  Meanwhile in the Netherlands, CNR Video released a few cassettes with episodes.

As for DVD releases, even in this day and age, they are quite rare.  DVD releases exist in Japan, Spain and Hungary.

This is the DVD release of the Spanish Maple Town dub known as "La Aldea Del Arce".

I have no pictures of the Hungarian DVD release at present.  In its native Japan, Toei has released both Maple Town and Palm Town on DVD over two boxed sets.  My sources tell me that as many DVD sets do, there's bonus material such as production art, storyboards and character model sheets.

At the time of this writing, no other DVD releases have been announced for elsewhere like the United States.

There are two points of order that I need to address here.  The first is that anyone in North America interested in getting any of the above DVD releases should take heed.  Europe and Japan uses a region 2 coding for their videodiscs; these will NOT work on a North American DVD player, which are region 1.

The other one is directed at anyone looking for episodes in any format (DVD, videocassette, digital files and so on).  PLEASE DO NOT CONTACT ME HERE OR BY EMAIL ASKING FOR EPISODES.  For legal reasons, I cannot offer them nor can I direct you to any sources for these episodes.  You are on your own for locating these.

Should the situation change with any sort of digital or optical disc release, this post will be updated.

Be sure to check out my blog about my comics series Sunnyville Stories and my webcomic Tiffany & Corey.  If you like this blog, be sure to buy me a Ko-Fi.

Maple Town Episode List (North America)

Maple Town was exported to many other countries throughout the world in 1987 and translated into a number of languages for foreign viewers.

When it came to the United States of America, all 52 episodes were not broadcast in the United States market.  My research shows that a run of 65 episodes were planned but this was not done.  (On another note, since Maple Town only contained 52 episodes, this implies they may have planned to dub some of the episodes from its sequel series, Palm Town, to add onto this planned 65-episode run.  But this is only speculation on my part.)  The reasons for this and why its sequel Palm Town never made it to this side of the Atlantic Ocean is unknown (but that's another blog post).

Select episodes ran in barter syndication sometime in 1987.  More episodes started airing on children's cable channel Nickelodeon until it was pulled from their lineup around April 2, 1993.

The following are the English titles of episodes that broadcast in the USA and possibly Canada.  I don't have full information on which episodes ran nor do I have their exact airdate; I can only speculate from my research that these aired originally in 1987 and 1988 in both syndication and on Nickelodeon.

1. Welcome to Maple Town!

2.  The Stolen Necklace

3.  Box Go Boom (Alternate title may be "The Silver Spoons")

4. The Greatest Treasure of All

5.  The Pot That Wouldn't Hold Water

6.  Medicine from Maple Mountain

7.  The Children's Forest Patrol

8.  The Ransom of Maple Forest

9.  A Most Unlikely Heroine

10.  The Prettiest Dress In Maple Town

11.  The House Made of Love

12.  Teacher, Please Don't Go!

13.  The Letter That Saved Mayor Dandy Lion (Alternate title may be "Letters of Love")

14.  Father Still Knows Best (Alternate title may be "A Lesson from Father")

15.  A Baby Comes to Maple Town

16.  The Spirit of Twin Peaks

17.  When Children Must Be Grownups

18.  A Love Letter to Miss Deer (Alternate title may be "Love Letter Mix-Up")

19.  The Beaver Family's Swimming Hole (Alternate title may be "The Beaver Family Pool")

20.  The Maple Town Children's Newspaper (Alternate title may be "The Maple Town Newspaper")

21.  The Mystery Man of Maple Town

22.  The Case of the Missing Candy

23.  The Forgotten Dream (Alternate title may be "A Long Forgotten Dream")

24.  Friends of Maple Town

25.  Angels of the Valley

26.  The Witch's Castle (Alternate title maybe "The Old Witch's Castle")

27.  High Tide

28.  The Ghost Piano

29.  Panic in the Hospital

30.  Unfortunate Predictions

31.  A Maple Town Wedding

32.  Rotten Fruit


If anyone has more information about episodes that aired in the USA or Canada, feel free to comment here or contact me at mapletown(at)gmx(dot)com.