Back in the ‘80s, some of our favorite cartoon franchise stars actually started out as characters for greeting cards. We’ve already talked about Rainbow Brite’s greeting card roots (check out our article Rainbow Brite: An ‘80s Manufactured Masterpiece), but today we’re here to talk about the OG of ‘80s greeting card character creations: Strawberry Shortcake. Rainbow Brite was specifically created to try to emulate the successful evolution of Strawberry Shortcake, which was more of a natural development from greeting cards, to plush dolls, to TV specials.
Strawberry Shortcake was originally designed by Barbi Sargent when she was working as a freelance artist for American Greetings in the 1970s. The character made her first appearance in 1973 on a Laurel Valentine’s Day greeting card, and was simply called “Girl with a Daisy.” The card featured a picture of a cute little girl who wore an orange bonnet with strawberries printed on it who held a daisy. The card quickly became super popular — the company decided the popularity must be due to the strawberries, and asked Sargent to expand on the strawberry concept in 1977. She then created Strawberry Shortcake’s signature outfit as well as her pink cat Custard.
That’s when things really started to take off. In 1979, toy manufacturer Kenner licensed the character and quickly came out with the first Strawberry Shortcake plush doll. What was unique about this doll, and all of the subsequent dolls of Strawberry’s friends, was that their hair was scented to smell like each character’s fruit or dessert theme, so Strawberry Shortcake’s hair smelled like strawberries, and Raspberry Tart’s hair smelled like raspberries. Did they really smell different? Debatable. But, they did smell! Their outfits would also match their themes, and each character came with a matching pet as well.
Soon enough, the characters branched out even further, with sticker albums, clothing, bedding, and even a video game called Strawberry Shortcake Musical Match-Ups for the Atari 2600. But what you probably remember most aside from all of the merchandise are the TV specials. Between 1980 and 1985, one TV special per year was produced, for a total of six. The first one was called The World of Strawberry Shortcake and was about the upcoming sixth birthday for Strawberry. In it, the Peculiar Purple Pie-Man was trying to thwart Strawberry’s festivities by stealing all of her berries to make his pies! Nooooo! Pie baking! So evil!
Sadly, Strawberry Shortcake’s popularity began to wane as the ‘80s came to a close. Various companies have revived the property over the years, with an animated series in 2003, a 3D animated movie in 2006, a 3D animated series in 2009, a 2D reboot in 2018, and supposedly there is another CGI show in development as of 2018, but there’s not much news on that as of early 2021. Still, for ‘80s kids, nothing quite compares to the original!
But what about you? Were you a Strawberry Shortcake fan? Let us know in the comments! But first, for even more nostalgia, check out this ‘80s commercial for the Strawberry Shortcake doll, also featuring Raspberry Tart and The Peculiar Purple Pie-Man.
- Though the video game for the Atari 2600 was the only video game produced for the original franchise, starting in 2003 some more games were produced, including for the Game Boy Advance, PlayStation 2, Nintendo DS, PC, and Mac. Mobile apps have been released as well — if you do a quick search on your phone, you’ll find quite a few app games!
- Many different toys were created to go with the plush dolls in the ‘80s, including the Berry Happy Home, Berry Bake Shoppe, Big Berry Trolley, and the Garden House.
- Various animated television shows have parodied or satirized Strawberry Shortcake over the years, including Futurama, Drawn Together, Robot Chicken, and South Park.
- In 2017, DHX Media acquired the Strawberry Shortcake brand from Iconix, which had previously purchased the brand from American Greetings in 2015.
- DHX Media changed their name to WildBrain in 2019, and as part of their acquisition of Strawberry Shortcake in 2017, they also bought an 80% stake in Peanuts. The whole deal went down for $345 million. The company now owns the largest library of children’s television programming.
- Though the video game for the Atari 2600 was the only video game produced for the original franchise, starting in 2003 some more games were produced, including for the Game Boy Advance, PlayStation 2, Nintendo DS, PC, and Mac. Mobile apps have been released as well — if you do a quick search on your phone, you’ll find quite a few app games!
- Many different toys were created to go with the plush dolls in the ‘80s, including the Berry Happy Home, Berry Bake Shoppe, Big Berry Trolley, and the Garden House.
- Various animated television shows have parodied or satirized Strawberry Shortcake over the years, including Futurama, Drawn Together, Robot Chicken, and South Park.
- In 2017, DHX Media acquired the Strawberry Shortcake brand from Iconix, which had previously purchased the brand from American Greetings in 2015.
- DHX Media changed their name to WildBrain in 2019, and as part of their acquisition of Strawberry Shortcake in 2017, they also bought an 80% stake in Peanuts. The whole deal went down for $345 million. The company now owns the largest library of children’s television programming.
