Super Why! (lost second pitch pilot of PBS Kids CGI-animated series; 2004-2006)

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Super why title.jpeg

The final logo for the series.

Status: Lost

Super Why! is a children's animated television show that ran from 2007 to 2016 on PBS Kids. The series is about 6-year-old Whyatt Beanstalk who calls his book club when trouble arises in the fictional Storybrook Village, where they transform into the Super Readers and jump into books to solve problems.[1]

Pitch Pilot

Initially, Super Why was pitched to Nick Jr. in 1999 as a stop-motion series, and was ultimately rejected. After this, another pilot was made, and it was pitched again by Curious Pictures instead to PBS Kids, where it was then accepted.

A name considered for the series during this timestamp was Super Readers to the Rescue.[2] The name was short-lived and was ultimately scrapped, but was later reused several times for the final show before being abandoned in 2010.[3]

Not much is known about the pilot, and it is very undocumented outside of certain articles and brief mentions from before the series aired. According to John Allemand's resume, the pilot was produced sometime in 2006 by Curious Pictures.[4]

Another LinkedIn profile states that the person worked on Super Why from 2004-2005, suggesting that the pilot may have been produced around then.

Another identified production member of the pilot was Aram Song, who also worked for Curious Pictures and additionally had screenshots of the pilot available on her website. However, the website has since been taken down years ago, and no content from the pilot on her website was archived.[5]

According to the file names for the images on Song's website, the pilot was likely based on the first episode The Three Little Pigs, similar to how the earlier pilot was. There was also a scene with a clubhouse where the Super Readers presumably met.[6]

It is speculated that the pitch pilot was animated in 2D rather than 3D, evidenced by an early model for Whyatt, however, this has not been confirmed as of now.

Other information about the pilot, including its name, length, cast, and plot is also unknown.

Availability

As of 2024, no content from the pilot itself has resurfaced, and its production is still heavily undocumented.

Recently, an image of an early model for Whyatt as mentioned previously was found on a PBS Kids SlidePlayer slideshow dated October 22nd, 2007, and some evidence was found suggesting the existence of the pitch pilot.[7]

Prior to that, during the search of the earlier 1999 pilot, 2 images were found on another SlidePlayer slideshow. No other information outside of what has resurfaced is available as of now.

Gallery

See Also

Super Why!

Bumpers

PBS

PBS Kids

References