Telechobis

Los Telechobis
Oh man, if you're going to create a Teletubbies rip-off, at least don't do it so blatantly.
Genre: Preschool Country: Mexico Release Date: 1998 - 1999 Network(s): TV Azteca Distributed by: TV Azteca Starring: Omar Pacheco Rocío Lara Iris Flores Saidda Lara Alonso Cordova Seasons: 2 Episodes: 24

Los Telechobis is a Mexican preschool children's TV series produced and broadcast by TV Azteca from 1998 to 1999, having a total of 24 episodes.

Plot

Ton, Toso, Nita and Tis are 4 elves who discover and learn next to a tree that teaches them many wonderful things while giving advice to the children.

¿Por qué enojó a la BBC? (Why It Angered The BBC)

1. To get the elephant out of the room, this show is a very blatant rip-off of the famous British show Teletubbies. It only takes a few seconds of watching to see that both shows share almost the same premise and character design, but the Telechobis are far inferior to the Teletubbies in almost every aspect.
   1. In fact, the reason why this show exists is because TV Azteca could not obtain the distribution rights for Teletubbies in Mexico because The Itsy Bitsy Entertainment Company (the company in charge of distributing Teletubbies in the Americas) imposed the condition of that Teletubbies be broadcast without commercial breaks, something that TV Azteca opposed, so Itsy Bitsy gave the distribution rights to Televisa (TV Azteca's rival company), so TV Azteca in revenge created its own version from Teletubbies.
2. This program was made with a very low budget, so the settings look very fake, small and empty, and the Telechobis "botargas" have a very bland and poor design.
3. The designs of the Telechobis are quite disturbing, as they have very large eyes and their faces have quite strange and disturbing facial expressions, which makes them uncomfortable to look at and they don't have tummy screens at all.
   1. Special mention to the Tree, perhaps the most disturbing character in the entire show, since he has a sinister smile and giant eyes that seem to penetrate your soul, not to mention that he moves his mouth in a rather strange way and in general his appearance is too terrifying, to the point that it seems more like a character from a horror movie than from a children's series and surely traumatized many Mexican children. Judge for yourselves.
4. It lacks the charm of the original Teletubbies and feels more like just another generic preschool show.
5. Ton, Toso, Nita and Tis are pretty bad names for the main characters.
6. The voice acting, although not atrocious, is also not very good, as there are times when the characters speak in a very corny way.

Cualidades redentoras (Redeeming Qualities)

1. At least this show teaches good morals.
2. The songs are pretty decent.
3. Unlike the Teletubbies, the Telechobis talk.

Controversy

Telechobis lasted very little time on the air, due to the fact that TV Azteca was sued by the BBC and Itsy Bitsy for infringing copyright and Telechobis had to be cancelled. Outside of Mexico, a VHS of Telechobis was released in Brazil with Portuguese dub.

Because Telechobis was released in 1998 and Televisa premiered Teletubbies in Mexico in 1999, many Mexicans at the time mistakenly thought that Teletubbies was a rip-off of Telechobis, when in fact it's vice-versa.

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