The Care Bears by The Cracker Wrappers (Keith Haddock, Chris Callahan, Holly Callahan & Benjamin Seeman). Track 5 on "Gonna Have a Good Time: Two Decades of Saturdays," a collection of cover versions of Saturday Morning Cartoon favorites produced by Kelly McCubbin. Video edited by Mark Bowen. Original animation produced by Phil Kimmelman and Associates. The Care Bears are characters created by American Greetings in 1981 for use on greeting cards. The original artwork for the cards was painted by artist Elena Kucharik. In 1983, Kenner turned the Care Bears into plush teddy bears. The Care Bears appeared in their own TV specials called The Care Bears in the Land Without Feelings (1983) and The Care Bears Battle the Freeze Machine (1984). They also had their own television series from 1985 to 1988, in addition to three feature films: The Care Bears Movie (1985), Care Bears Movie II: A New Generation (1986), and The Care Bears Adventure in Wonderland (1987). The Care Bears were initially created in 1981 by Those Characters From Cleveland (TCFC), the licensing division of American Greetings Corp. Jack Chojnacki, the co-president of TCFC, introduced the first Care Bear to six businessmen—three from AGC, and three from the toy company Kenner—in February 1981. On the employees' reaction to the toy, Chojnacki recalled in early 1985: "It had a high 'aaaaaah' factor." Muriel Fahrion, the artist who helped create Strawberry Shortcake's look, was also among the franchise's first concept artists. Working with TCFC Creative VP Ralph Shaffer, Muriel designed the first six bears, creating the best-selling greeting card themes for their belly graphics. Susan Trentel, Muriel's sister and doll designer of Strawberry Shortcake, designed the Care Bears plush. Once out of the concept stage children's book illustrator Elena Kucharik became the primary artist for the Care Bears creating hundreds of full color illustrations for cards, books and a myriad of licensed products. TCFC's creative team of artists and writers worked to create numerous characters in the line, which was a joint development by Those Characters From Cleveland and MAD (Marketing and Design Service of the toy group of General Mills). As they had done with Strawberry Shortcake, once titled "Project I", AGC called the Care Bears development "Project II" as they strove to make the character program secret until advertising was ready. At the start of the franchise, Care Bears was already established as its working title. In 1984, AGC introduced a spin-off line, the Care Bear Cousins; another syndicated special, The Care Bears Battle the Freeze Machine, came out that same year. A miniseries based on the toys was distributed by Lexington Broadcast Services Company. A year later, the Bears and Cousins starred in their first film, The Care Bears Movie, produced by Nelvana Limited and released by The Samuel Goldwyn Company. It became the highest-grossing animated film made outside the Disney market at the time of its release. Later that autumn, DIC Entertainment released an 11-episode television series in syndication. Professor Coldheart and Frostbite did not appear in the movie, but appeared semi-regularly in the series with a new villain named Auntie Freeze. In 1986, Nelvana returned to the franchise with a second movie, Care Bears Movie II: A New Generation. Released by Columbia Pictures, the film featured a new villain, Dark Heart, and introduced more of the Care Bears and Care Bears Cousins: Harmony Bear, True Heart Bear, and Noble Heart Horse. Later that year, a TV series titled The Care Bears Family (also from Nelvana) premiered on the U.S. ABC network and Canada's Global. Lasting two seasons and consisting of over 70 episodes, this introduced the evil wizard No Heart and his sidekick Beastly. In the second season, No Heart's niece Shreeky was introduced. The Care Bears' third film, The Care Bears Adventure in Wonderland, debuted in 1987. A TV special, Care Bears Nutcracker Suite, premiered on the Disney Channel in 1988. Over 40 million Care Bears were sold between 1983 and 1987, and during the decade, American Greetings printed over 70 million of their cards. In whole, the sales of their merchandise reached over $2 billion during the 1980s. This made them one of the most successful toylines of its time, alongside "My Little Pony" and "Transformers".