The episodes were recorded on location and on film (rather than the more usual video tape), making it the most expensive children's television series ever produced at that point.

[1] Each story was adapted from one of the original novels and featured the same main characters; George, Julian, Dick, Anne and Timmy the dog.

[3] Due to the success of the series, Southern Television were keen to make another season of episodes, but the Enid Blyton estate forbade them to create original stories.

The second series premiered in Australia, again on ABC, on Tuesday 4 March 1980 at 5:00 pm, as part of an afternoon line-up of children's programming, with new episodes following weekly.

The series spawned many merchandise items such as jigsaws and annuals, while Look-in magazine ran a picture-strip story each week for nearly two years.

[4] The theme music (contrary to popular belief, not sung by the cast but by the Corona Stage Academy choir) was released as a single in 1978, but failed to chart.

Despite Southern Television's wishes to continue the series, no further episodes were made due to the Blyton estate's veto on the writing of new stories, although a new set of novels were published in France in 1981.

[13] For many years, the series was not released on DVD due to confusion over the ownership of rights to the television episodes, as well as complexities with the Enid Blyton estate.

[15] France followed in November 2011 with two 3-DVD sets (but only with the French dubbed version and no bonus material), whilst the complete series was finally released on DVD in the UK in June 2012 by Koch Media.