The live-action series, Here Come the Double Deckers originated on British television in 1970 and its popularity persuaded ABC to run the show across the pond. With a style similar to The Monkees and The Partridge Family, the show followed the escapades of seven kids who live aboard an old double-decker bus in a London junkyard.

The group consisted of Scooper, the leader, Billy, Brains, Spring, Tiger, Doughnut, and the lone American, Sticks. Notable British actor, Melvyn Hayes was the only adult on the show, playing Albert, the street sweeper. Each week, the refugee moppets would embark upon some fanciful adventure, such as creating their own homemade hover craft, or contending with invading Martians and a spooky haunted house.

Popular in England, the series never hit its mark in America. After one season, the show was cancelled from the Saturday morning lineup. It did return the following year on Sundays, but even that change didn’t help to endear it to the Yanks.

A few of the kid stars did manage to do pretty well for themselves in later years. Peter Firth (Scooper) has appeared in numerous films over the years - including Hunt for Red October, Tess, and Pearl Harbor – while Brinsey Ford (Spring) would go on to front the successful and prolific British reggae group, Aswad.

For most folks, however, their brief encounter with Here Come the Double Deckers doesn’t conjure up many memories and didn’t quite measure up to that other bus-dwelling group, the Partridges. And unfortunately for those that do remember the red double-decker bus, there are no current plans to release the series on DVD.