Belle and Sebastian (1981–1982)
Not fantastic but far, far from dull
3 June 2006
I have been trying to identify this cartoon years after it stopped airing on Nickelodeon in the late 1980's. I won't restate the plot and indeed the show had a pretty strightforward premise, but what a change of pace it was to a seven year old to whom shows like Double Dare and the VERY mundane "Hey Dude" and "Salute Your Shorts" did not cater.

I was never able to see all the episodes from beginning to end but this was a very memorable show inasmuch as the raw mood and tone it set. I never followed the story, but never having seen the conclusion left the characters of the young boy, Sebastian, his big white dog and the Inspector crystalized like ghosts in my mind. In my own interpretation, that is how Belle and Sebastian will always be: like a pair of ghosts roaming the French countryside. A boy who can never find his mother-- perhaps an apparition herself.

To suggest that a show like this was dull or useless is inconceivable to me. I realize what I have described is mostly what I have brought to the TV show from my own imagination but I was only able to do that because the show took its time with a very simple story and allowed me to do with it as I wished.
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