Alvin and the Chipmunks, was originally named the "Chipmunks. From the beginning, the story line of the Cartoon Series has been a struggling songwriter, named Dave Seville, finds success when he comes across a trio of singing chipmunks: mischievous leader Alvin, brainy Simon, and chubby, impressionable Theodore. In 1983, a second animated television series for the group, produced by Ruby Spears Productions, was released. Titled simply Alvin and the Chipmunks, the outline of the show closely paralleled the original Alvin Show series which ran in the early 1960's, and lasted eight production seasons, until 1990. In the first season, the show introduced The Chipettes, three female versions of the Chipmunks; Brittany, Jeanette, and Eleanor, who each paralleled the original Chipmunks in personality except for Brittany being vainer than Alvin, with Jeanette smart like Simon, and Eleanor fond of food like Theodore, with their own human guardian, the nearsighted Miss Beatrice Miller (who arrived for the 1986 season). The success of the Alvin and the Chipmunks show led to the release of a soundtrack album in 1984, Songs From Our TV Show.

Alvin and the Chipmunks even walked a variation of NBC's "Let's All Be There" campaign for its Saturday morning lineup in 1984. After 1988, the show was renamed just The Chipmunks to indicate that there were now two groups of them. Also introduced was the boys' "Uncle" Harry, who may or may not have actually been a relative. The show reflected contemporaneous trends, the Chipmunks sang recent hits, and wore contemporary clothing. One "documentary" episode spoofed John Lennon's 1966 infamous comment that The Beatles had become "more popular than Jesus", by recalling how the Chipmunks had fallen in popularity after Alvin boasted they were "bigger than Mickey Mouse". In 1985, the Chipmunks, along with the Chipettes, were featured in the live stage show, Alvin and the Chipmunks and the Amazing Computer. In 1987, during the fifth season of the show on television, the Chipmunks had their first animated feature film, "The Chipmunk Adventure" directed by Janice Karman and Ross Bagdasarian, Jr., and released to theaters by The Samuel Goldwyn Company The film featured the Chipmunks and the Chipettes in a contest traveling around the world.

Alvin and the Chipmunks, in the 1988 - 1989 season, switched production companies to DIC Entertainment by which time the Chipmunks had truly become more human than chipmunk. In 1990, the show switched titles again to The Chipmunks Go To The Movies. Each episode in this season was a spoof of a Hollywood film, such as Back to the Future, King Kong and others. In addition, several television specials featuring the characters were also released. At the conclusion of the eighth season, the show was canceled again. In 1990, a documentary was produced about the show entitled "Alvin and the Chipmunks/Five Decades with the Chipmunks". In that year, the Chipmunks also teamed up for the only time with other famous cartoon stars (such as Bugs Bunny, Garfield, etc.) for the drug abuse prevention special Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue.

In 1996, the rights to the Alvin and the Chipmunks characters were purchased by Universal Studios This resulted in the Chipmunks' 1999 reappearance in the form of the direct-to-video film "Alvin and the Chipmunks Meet Frankenstein" The film was successful enough to spark interest in a sequel, and in 2000, "Alvin and the Chipmunks Meet the Wolfman" appeared. Both films featured the original cast of the second series reprising their roles and the tone of the films is very similar to the series. These film titles reflect earlier horror spoofs by Abbott and Costello. A fourth Chipmunks film is scheduled to be released in theaters on December 11, 2015.