One of the Best-Selling Exports of Polish TV: Teddy Floppy Ear

mis_uszatek_6803690.jpg, default, Still from the animated series 'Miś Uszatek', photo: Se-Ma-For

Many children across the globe lent their ear to the popular Polish children’s character Miś Uszatek. Japanese children saw him in ‘Oyasumi Kumachan’, Swedish children watched ‘Nalle Lupakorva’, and Portuguese children got to know him as O Urso Teddy. In the U.K. he made it onto a children’s morning show as Teddy Drop Ear, and in the U.S. he starred in a video game series as Teddy Floppy Ear. He was even immortalized on a silver dollar coin created by the Polish Mint for Niue, an island in New Zealand.

Thumbnail — Japanese student of Polish Studies, Yui Hisa, during a visit to the Se-Ma-For Film Studio, Łódź, photo: Małgorzata Kujawka/AW

Czesław Janczarski, a Polish author, created Teddy Floppy Ear in 1957. The character first appeared in the first issue of Miś (Teddy Bear), a magazine that featured short stories for children. In the magazine, which ran for more than half a century, readers followed how the teddy bear got his distinct look and how he managed to lead a fulfilling life despite his floppy ear, which came to stand for his anxiety. Teddy Floppy Ear modeled how children can deal with uncertainty by reaching out to others who lend a helping hand.

In the magazine, he starts his life on a toy store shelf with many other teddy bears. He watches children claim the other bears as their companions, and he waits. Eventually he develops a floppy ear from the fear of being unwanted. One day, he uses an umbrella to ease his jump from the shelf, and he makes it out to the street, where he meets two children, Zosia and Jacek, who take him to live with them at their house in the woods.

The teddy bear worries that he doesn’t have a name, and a rooster on Zosia and Jacek’s farm invents one based on his appearance: Teddy Floppy Ear. Rather than being an insult, this name is a term of endearment that the teddy bear’s friends use. At the house in the woods, Teddy Floppy Ear slowly builds confidence. He does this through his adventures in the woods, encountering different animals and climates. He even becomes independent, hanging out with Jacek and Zosia’s dolls when Jacek and Zosia start going to school. While the dolls aren’t real like the children or the animals, they help Teddy Floppy Ear learn that there's nothing wrong with spending some time alone. He is filled with life: no longer the scared, lonely teddy bear on the shelf, he is now a plush teddy bear with a roaring personality.

In 'Spotkanie z Anią' (Meeting with Ania), Teddy Floppy Ear learns about investigating appearances. Teddy Floppy Ear goes mushroom picking with his doll friend Ania and becomes anxious, as he desperately searches for mushrooms that he could give her. After he finds mushrooms with red polka dot hats, Anna informs him that they are poisonous. These mushrooms look beautiful, but they are toxic.

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Coin with Teddy Floppy Ear, photo: Cezary Pecold/SE/East News

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Teddy Floppy Ear also learns, in 'Mały Muzykant' (Little Musician), how music can help control his anxiety. He is taking a leisurely walk on a dirt path surrounded by tall green rye when he hears beautiful music. He searches for the musician and comes across a little grasshopper. Teddy Floppy Ear cannot believe that the little violin-playing grasshopper produced that beautiful music. He then brings the grasshopper home to live with him and Jacek and Zosia for the winter, during which the grasshopper’s soft music will soothe Teddy Floppy Ear.

The stories portray how Teddy Floppy Ear deals with his anxiety. But the anxiety never disappears. His floppy ear never straightens, and neither do his spirits. He lives trapped in an endless 'Groundhog Day' of anxiety. But, the stories teach viewers, he learns how to live with it. He learns how to cope with his anxiety by managing it in various ways.

Because of the series’ popularity, Se-Ma-For studio adapted it as a televised puppet show. One hundred and four episodes of Miś Uszatek aired from 1975 to 1987. The show continues the same premise of the original magazine series: Teddy Floppy Ear lives in a house in the woods with dolls and goes on adventures with a group of animal friends, such as Prosiaczek (Piglet), Zajączek (Hare), and Króliczki (Twin Bunnies). The televised series focuses more on Teddy Floppy Ear’s relationship with his friends. This hero is now a leader helping his friends and others he meets in overcoming their own anxieties, instead of learning how to manage his own. In one episode, 'Strach Ma Wielkie Oczy' (Fear Has Big Eyes), a dog even appears in the show as a mailman, creating an alternative reality in which dogs don’t ferociously bark at mailmen – out of anger or fear – but they become the mailmen.

In 'Jeden Taki, Drugi Taki' (One Such, Another Such), Teddy Floppy Ear helps mice dispose of their worries. He tends to his garden with Hare, and they go off to look for a stick to keep the peas in the garden upright. They find a stick, but also two worried mice with bundles containing their belongings trapped on the other side of a river. Hare believes that the mice can just get across by jumping like him, but Teddy Floppy Ear says they can’t jump far like him. They need help crossing the river: Teddy Floppy Ear lays down the stick, and the worried mice join them, relieved, on the other side.

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Dollar – Elizabeth II Miś Uszatek, Series: Cartoon Characters, 2010, photo: Numista

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In 'Sport To Zdrowie' (Sport Is Health), Teddy Floppy Ear's friends learn the proper way to exercise. After watching athletic events on TV, Teddy Floppy Ear, Piglet, Hare, and Twin Bunnies compete in their own. Teddy Floppy Ear acts as their coach, organizing these athletic competitions by assigning different events to his different friends. His friends don’t like the events they’re assigned, though. So instead of lifting weights and doing the hammer throw, Piglet does the high jump. Hare lifts weights instead of doing the long jump and hurdles. The Twin Bunnies take part in shot put instead of cross country running or jump roping. The athletic competition becomes a circus as they all fail at their new events, and all of the friends get injured and leave with strained egos. Teddy Floppy Ear then teaches them – speaking both to his friends and the viewers – that 'sport is health, but you have to practice it in a smart way'.

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Children viewing Teddy Floppy Ear figures, Bedtime Cartoons Museum in Rzeszów, Krzysztof Koch/AW

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Each episode starts with Teddy Floppy Ear breaking the fourth wall by inviting viewers into his room to show them his bedtime routine. He appears in his pajamas, singing the same positive affirmation song.

At bedtime – good evening,

plush teddy bear sings to you.

They call me Teddy Floppy Ear

because I have a floppy ear.

I’m myself a little bear, a fat bear,

I know children not from today.

I’m myself a little bear, a funny bear,

I know children not from today!

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The beloved teddy then shows us an object in his room. The objects remind him of something that he and his friends experienced that day, and they reflect a stressful situation in their life that they overcame.

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Still from the game 'Teddy Floppy Ear – Mountain Adventure', photo: press materials of the producer Forever Entertainment S.A.

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At the end of each episode, Teddy Floppy Ear goes to bed. As he turns down the lights in his room, he also turns down his worries for the day. The credits roll; we hear him sing:

Time for bed

because already the moon is shining.

Children like teddy bears,

teddy bears like children.

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The Teddy Floppy Ear television show aired from 1975-1987, and it represented an era. The show ended just before Communist rule ended in Poland. As Poland struggled to regain its independence, culminating with free elections on 4 June 1989, the small teddy bear taught Polish children to work together and overcome their fears. His voice and songs brought them comfort and security. He warmed their hearts during the Cold War.

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