Shaun The Sheep (lost pilot of British stop-motion TV series; early to mid 2000s)

Status: Unknown

In 1995, character Shaun The Sheep made his debut in the 1995 Wallace & Gromit special "A Close Shave", the special proved to be a sucess, winning a Academy_Award_for_Best_Animated_Short_Film., the same year.

A popularity was found with one of the special's characters, Shaun, with merchandise of the character surpassing that of Wallace and Gromit during A Close Shave's release, this newfound popularity gave the team at Aardman animations the idea to create a spin-off show on the character.

Pilot

At some point in early 2000's after the production of "Chicken Run" and before the production of "Wallace & Gromit In The Curse Of The Were-Rabbit", a pilot was made to pitch the series to broadcasters, this pilot was on a lower budget than the final series and had smaller and less detailed sets, Shaun and the flock's models also shared more of a resemblance to that of their appearance in A Close Shave likely recycling there puppets from the special, the only character that would appear in the final series which also appeared in the pilot was that of Shirley, with his design being more Wallace and Gromit based, featuring purple eyelids, longer ears and a thinner head. Several key characters seen in the final series such as Bitsizer the sheep dog or the farmer, would not make an appearance in this pilot.

Availability

The pilot never publicly aired on television or got a physical media release, only appearing in test screenings to broadcast companies, in 2004, the pilot would be shown to the BBC, who would greenlight the series for production and airing on their sister channel, CBBC. That same year various articles would be published by the BBC