Norman Price (seasons 6-present)

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"Okay, there's a difference between being mischievous and being... a dick. A whiny, stupid, careless, little dick. And with all of the tricks and stuff that 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 British 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 of the show, but ever since Season 6, his character got a notable flanderization.

Why He Needs to Pay the Price Now (no pun intended)

 * 1) He has gotten flanderized beyond recognition to the point where any redemption for his character is almost pretty much hopeless at this point. During these seasons, he has gone from a mischievous boy who initially played harmless tricks on his friends and family 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, and Steven Kynman does a really poor job voicing him, as he 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 Season 5. It is so bad that he's not just poorly-acted, but his voice is extremely obnoxious to the point where it's 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) Much like most of the other characters who were redesigned in Season 6, his character redesign is pretty bad and very ugly-looking.
 * 4) Nearly every episode he appears in involves him doing something stupid or ridiculous which always leads to him getting into trouble. To make matters worse, while he does apologise and promises to never do it again at the end of the episode, he forgets everything he’s learned in his next appearance.
 * 5) Alongside unintentionally doing silly things, he even does some horrible things to others for the pettiest reasons and even commits dangerous and illegal stunts just to prove that he is better than everyone else, such as:
 * 6) *Using a set of matches to make a paper dragon look like a "fire-breathing dragon", not knowing that he set it on fire, and caused it to roll down a hill and set Bessie's shed on fire in "Castles and Kings".
 * 7) *Tying James up to a chair for a stunt video in a room covered with flammable liquids, which is considerably dangerous in "Spy Games".
 * 8) *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".
 * 9) *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".
 * 10) *Driving off in Jupiter just because he thinks he's a know-it-all expert about being a firefighter from playing a video game in "Jupiter on the Loose".
 * 11) *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".
 * 12) *Stealing the batteries from the Floods' smoke alarm to use for his boom box in a magic show in "Magic Norman".
 * 13) *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".
 * 14) *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 cause a fire in "Blast From the Past".
 * 15) *Convincing James to watch a rescue demonstration from the fire station's pitched roof in "Open Day".
 * 16) *Attempting to get James' plane down from a tree with a unstable piles of logs, resulting in them both stuck in a tree in "Model Plane".
 * 17) *Stealing his mum'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".
 * 18) *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".
 * 19) *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".
 * 20) *Trying to play with his football inside his mother's shop, all because it was "too windy" outside in "Cry Wolf".
 * 21) **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.
 * 22) *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".
 * 23) *Detaching the trailer from Mike's van all because he wanted the best billboard for a talent show, causing it to roll backwards down a hill, set a billboard on fire, head for the quay and set a fuel truck on fire in "Great Billboard of Fire".
 * 24) *Releasing a sky lantern when he wasn't supposed to and causing a forest fire in "Sky Lanterns".
 * 25) *Getting himself, Dilys, Mandy, Helen, Mike and Moose locked out at the lighthouse balcony, just to get out of washing Mike's van in "Lighthouse Lock Out".
 * 26) *Stealing sausages from his mum's kitchen when he wasn't supposed to so that he could cook them on their trip, and ignored Trevor's warning on not making a campfire and does it anyways, but failed to put it out leading to a fire, which in terms, leads to a massive forest fire that nearly destroys Pontypandy and almost forces the entirety of the town to leave and let their town burn in the unbeatable flame in "The Great Fire Of Pontypandy"! In fact, without the luck of the rainstorm, that would have actually happened! And somehow, all he got as punishment was not to get his badge. He started a forest fire that nearly destroyed a town, and that's all he gets?! In real life, if a child did this (along with his other actions), they'd probably be in juvie for a few days or weeks!
 * 27) Because of all of the terrible stuff he does, he ends up causing the emergencies in most of the episodes he is in.
 * 28) *While in the earlier seasons, he would occasionally do things that would lead to an emergency, in these seasons he does this on a regular basis. But even then, some of his accidents in the earlier seasons were unintentional, like falling down a well because he was trying to get away from a swarm of bees in "Norman's Pitfall" or having the window getting accidently stuck on him in "Trevor's Training".
 * 29) He often gets way too much screen time in these seasons, to the point where it’s like almost every episode has to involve him, whether he has a major or minor role. It's like the writers have a new motto: when in doubt, shove Norman Price into the scene.
 * 30) Even when he isn't causing any emergencies, he still acts like a jerk to others around him.
 * 31) *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 is basically him implying that Lion is burning in the flames of the garage, which is a beyond cruel and traumatic thing to say to a person.
 * 32) Whenever he causes an emergency, he never learns his lesson or gets properly disciplined like in the first five seasons. He just gets a warning from the fire brigade that he immediately forgets in his next appearance and nothing else, making him completely one-dimensional in these seasons.
 * 33) *He also never gets arrested by the new police officer in Season 12, PC Malcolm Williams, as he also just lets him off with a warning like how Sam and his team usually do.
 * 34) *As a matter of fact, he hasn’t gotten any redemption or character development as his personality has remained the exact same since Season 6, even in Season 13, the current season.
 * 35) Due to the fact that he barely gets reprimanded by the firefighters and police officers of Pontypandy for his actions, it therefore makes him a Karma Houdini. Not helping is that he’s a pretty bad role-model for children, teaching them that you can do bad things to others and get away with it.
 * 36) Because of all the reasons stated above, most of Norman's reputation was permanently destroyed to the point where many now consider him the worst character in the franchise. To put it bluntly, he gives his original stop-motion counterpart a bad name.

Redeeming Qualities

 * 1) Despite his flanderization, there are still some episodes where he is actually likable and even heroic, like "Fireman Sam: Alien Alert", where he exposes Buck Douglas' scheme and in "Norman's Ark", where he tries to save Woolly and her lamb during a flood, which was a very selfless thing for him to do and is arguably the episode where is the most likable.
 * 2) *In some episodes, he's still innocent, obedient or doesn't cause emergencies. For example, he didn't cause the gas canister explosion and forest fire which Sarah and Mandy caused after disobeying Ellie in "Cadet Catastrophe".
 * 3) Deep down, Norman still does care about others around him.
 * 4) 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, seasons 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.
 * 5) *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.
 * 6) Though it’s much rarer now, he can still get his comeuppance for his actions, such as:
 * 7) *In "Floating Kart", where he tries to apologise for what he did, but then Sam comes to the conclusion that the apology is not good enough, so he forces him to do chores by making him help Mike Flood with fixing his truck.
 * 8) *In "Froggy Fantasy", where he gets punished for purposely locking James in the swimming pool changing room by getting kicked out of the club and being forced to do fire lessons with Penny.
 * 9) *In "The Big Chill" where he is forced to clean the sidewalk after setting fire to his mum's scarf.
 * 10) *In "Sky Lanterns", where he gets punished for releasing a sky lantern despite being told not to and causing a forest fire by not releasing a sky lantern with the other characters and gets more karma by Elvis accidentally putting sticky foam on him.
 * 11) *In "Lighthouse Lock Out", where he gets everyone locked out at the lighthouse balcony, he's not only forced to clean Mike's Van, but two of the fire station vehicles, Jupiter and Venus; inside and out.
 * 12) *In the movie "The Great Fire of Pontypandy", he was punished for burning down the house just because he wanted to cook sausages in the woods.
 * 13) At least he apologises and shows regret for the things he has done, even if the damage that he did in the episode had already been done.
 * 14) He was a much better character in the first five seasons, which makes his flanderization even sadder.

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