Biene Maja celebrates 50 years of television history

The animated series ‘Biene Maja’ (Maya the Bee) marks 50 years since its television debut on ZDF on September 9, 1976. The series became a major success, attracting an average of three to four million children per episode.

The production was an international collaboration involving German history, American designs by cartoonist Marty Murphy in Los Angeles, and animation by Nippon Animation in Japan. Notable production details include the use of a small electric motor to create the sound of buzzing bees, rather than actual bee sounds.

In the German version, the character Willi was voiced by Eberhard Storeck, who also wrote the dialogue, after producers were unable to find a child actor with a specific voice quality. The character Maja was voiced by eleven-year-old Scarlet Cavadenti. While a computer-animated version was produced between 2013 and 2017, the original remains a cultural staple.