Norman Price (seasons 6-present)

"Okay, there's a difference between being mischievous and being... a dick. A whiny, stupid, careless, little dick. And with all the tricks and stuff he caused in the original series? I can understand most of the stuff that he did back then, because it was the beginning of the series and Norman most definitely wouldn't have known about how the fire service needs to stay alert and on duty or that keeping Trevor and Elvis running for so long might hurt them. But by the sixth season, he should already know not to mess around with fire equipment or to waste the fire brigade's time for something that they are not involved with. And all of his original tricks were all harmless things, like a clockwork mouse, or making stink bombs, or painting fake spots on peoples' faces, not locking someone in the changing rooms ON PURPOSE!"

- James A. Williams

"Norman Price" is a character from the children's TV show Fireman Sam. In the first five seasons of the show, he was a 7-year-old boy who often caused mischief and also liked to play harmless tricks and pranks on his friends and even the people in the Fire Brigade.

He was good in the first five seasons in the show, but ever since series 6, his character got a notable flanderization.

Why He Now Needs to Pay the Price

 * 1) His character has been severely flanderized beyond recognition as he has gone from a mischievous boy who played harmless tricks on his friends while still caring about them and their safety into a whiny, loud and bratty jerk who forcefully tries to get what he wants without thinking of others.
 * 2) His new voice in the UK dub is terrible, due to the fact that Steve Kynman tries way too hard to do mimic a 7 year old boy but he fails miserably as he sounds more like Carl Wheezer attempting to do a Welsh accent rather than what Norman sounded like in series 5. It is so bad that it's to the point where his voice is extremely obnoxious and downright unbearable to listen to, especially during the scene in the episode "Cry Wolf" where he owns up to Dilys that he was the one who set off the fire alarm.
 * 3) Nearly every appearance of his character always has to have him do something stupid or ridiculous which always leads him to getting into trouble, and even though he does apologise and promise to never do it again, he forgets that promise the next episode he is in.
 * 4) Alongside doing silly things without realising, he even does some horrible things to others for the pettiest reasons, such as:
 * 5) *Tying James up to a chair for a stunt video in a room covered with flammable liquids, which is considerably dangerous in "Spy Games".
 * 6) *Purposely locking James in a swimming pool changing room by literally gluing the door shut, just so he could be the star of a synchronized swimming show in "Froggy Fantasy."
 * 7) *Stealing Joe Sparkes' rescue submarine and crashing it at bottom of lake, just to try to film some monster that probably isn't even real in "Monster Mania."
 * 8) *Disobeying his mother's warning and constantly ringing the doorbell to different houses in Pontypandy multiple times to get every single piece of candy to the point where the other children couldn't get any and had to get some in Dilys' shop in "Norman's Halloween Heist."
 * 9) *Stealing the batteries from the Floods' smoke alarm to use for his boom box in a magic show in "Magic Norman".
 * 10) *Going sailing with Dilys without Penny's permission, causing him to lose one of the oars and therefore stranding himself and his mother out at sea in "Blow Me Down."
 * 11) *Forcefully taking control of the spotlight for a musical, causing him to fight with James over it and to knock it over, break it and to cause a fire in "Blast From the Past."
 * 12) *Convincing James to watch a rescue demonstration from the fire station's pitched roof in "Open Day."
 * 13) *Attempting to get James' plane down from a tree with a unstable piles of logs, resulting in them both stuck in tree in "Model Plane."
 * 14) *Stealing his mom's scarf to use for a snowman, and then ruining it by getting coal on it, freezing it when trying to wash it, and then setting it on fire in the oven in "The Big Chill."
 * 15) *Manipulating Mandy to set off a flare they found, which Mandy refuses to do. Luckily she gives it to Penny, stuck on the cliffs, instead in "Fireworks for Mandy."
 * 16) *Trapping Mandy in her room because he thought she was a "Pondy," when in reality she was just sick and then setting fire to the laundry basket with a flare in "Night of the Norman."
 * 17) *Trying to play with his football inside his mother's shop, all because it was "too windy" outside in "Cry Wolf."
 * 18) **In addition, when his mother took it away, he deliberately set off the fire alarm just so he could get it back, refusing to own up to it.
 * 19) *Along with his cousin, using fire beaters as oars to go rowing alone and ends up losing them in the river when a grassland fire occurs in "Shape Up and Shine."
 * 20) Because of all of the terrible stuff he does, he is the cause of the emergencies in most of the episodes he is in.
 * 21) *While in the earlier seasons, he would occasionally make mistakes or doing something silly that would lead to an emergency, in these seasons he does this in nearly every episode.
 * 22) He often gets way too much screen time in these seasons and it feels almost every episode of these seasons always have to add Norman Price, it's like the writers have a new motto: when in doubt, shove Norman Price into the scene.
 * 23) Even when he isn't causing any emergencies, he can still act like a jerk to others around him.
 * 24) *One example of him being cruel in the episode Going Out with a Bang. In that episode, Sarah and James are both scared because they don't know if their cat Lion is okay, Norman then says that maybe the cat is hiding in Mike's shed (which was on flames when he said this) which is a beyond cruel and traumatic thing to say to Sarah and James.
 * 25) Whenever he is the cause for the emergency, he never learns his lesson or gets properly disciplined like in previous seasons. He just gets a warning from the fire brigade that he immediately forgets in the next episode and nothing else, making him completely one-dimensional in these seasons.
 * 26) *As a matter of fact, his personality has remained the exact same in every season of the show since series 6, even in series 13, he still acts like the way he is.
 * 27) Due to the fact that he receives barely any punishments from the firefighters of Pontypandy for his actions, he can be considered a karma houdini. Not helping is that his character is a pretty bad role-model for children and he could encourage kids to do bad things to others.

Redeeming Qualities

 * 1) Despite his flanderization, there are some episodes where he is actually likable and even heroic, like in the special Fireman Sam: Alien Alert, where he exposes Buck Douglas' scheme.
 * 2) *He is shown to actually want to save the people around him when they are in trouble too, which is shown in Norman's Ark, where he tries to save Woolly and her lamb during a flood.
 * 3) *Some episodes, he's innocent, obedient or doesn't cause disasters, for example, he didn't cause the gas canister explosion and forest fire which Sarah and Mandy caused after disobeying Ellie.
 * 4) Deep down, Norman does care about others around him.
 * 5) Despite his UK voice actor not doing a good job at voicing him, at least his US voice actors, Carter Treneer (US, series 6-10, specials 1-3), and Mark Ricci (US, series 11-current, specials 4-current)) do decent-to-good jobs voicing him and they sound better at trying to mimic the voice of a 7 year old boy.
 * 6) *As a matter of fact, his first US voice actor actually had a fitting voice for him, as he was a child-teenager back when he voiced him.
 * 7) Though rarely, he can get his comeuppance for his actions at times, such as in "Froggy Fantasy," where he gets punished for purposely locking James in the swimming pool changing room and gets forced to do fire lessons with Penny, or like in "The Big Chill" where he is forced to clean the sidewalk after setting fire to his mom's scarf.
 * 8) At least he apologises and shows regret for the things he has done.

Videos
TOPaZ4k2OA8