Nature Cat (lost pitch pilot of PBS Kids educational animated series; early 2010s)

Prototype logos for the series which the third one was allegedly used for the pilot.

Status: Lost

Nature Cat is an educational animated series that been airing on PBS Kids since 2015. The series takes place in Chicago, Illinois with a house cat name Fred who, when his owner leaves for work, changes into Nature Cat and explores the great outdoors from his backyard with his friends while helping kids develop a better understanding of nature.

Pilot

In 2009 Spiffy Pictures originally pitch the show to PBS with various hand drawn sketches, when the network approved, they then created a pilot to help get the show greenlit. The pilot was allegedly made sometime in the early 2010s and shown to a test audience of preschoolers.

No footage from the pilot had resurfaced, the only concrete evidences of it's existence comes from a WTTW article mentioning the pilot that feature Nature Cat and two other characters Hal and Ronald along with two images taken from said pilot. While some production art taken from an issue of Animation Magazine had surfaced, no other information on this pilot is available as of 2021.

Gallery

Images

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  Image from the pilot (1/2).

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  Image from the pilot (2/2).

Production Art/Sketches

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  One of the sketches that was made to pitch the show.

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See Also

Bumpers

• Bookworm Bunch (partially found interstitials from PBS Kids channel block; 2000-2001)
• PBS Kids (partially lost schedule bumpers and interstitial material of children's channel block; 1999-present)
• Someday School (partially found PBS Kids channel block; 1998-2000)

PBS

• Christmastime with Mister Rogers (lost holiday TV special; 1977)
• Lamb Chop's Play-Along (partially lost PBS children's puppet series; 1992)
• Mister Rogers' Neighborhood "Mister Rogers Talks About Conflict" (found episode arc of PBS children's educational series; 1983)
• The Puzzle Place (partially found PBS puppet series; 1994-1998)
• Reading Rainbow (found Johnny Kemp opening sequence for PBS children's television series; 1999)
• Storytime (found PBS children's reading series; 1992-1998)
• Where In The World Is Carmen Sandiego? "Auld Lang Gone" (non-existent episode of PBS children's game show; 1992)
• Zoom (partially found pilot of revival of 1972 PBS children's series; 1997)
• Zoom (partially found revival of 1972 PBS children's series; 1999-2005)

PBS Kids

• The Charlie Horse Music Pizza (partially lost PBS Kids "Lamb Chop's Play-Along" spin-off series; 1998-1999)
• Curious George (lost test pilot of PBS Kids animated series based on books; existence unconfirmed; 2004/2005)
• Cyberchase: The Poddleville Case (found pilot of PBS Kids animated educational series; 1999)
• Dragon Tales "One Small Step for Cassie" and "Circle of Friends" (lost pilots of PBS Kids animated series; 1999)
• The Good Night Show with Melanie/Leo (partially found PBS Kids Sprout series; 2005-2006)
• The Good Night Show with Nina & Star (partially found PBS Kids Sprout series; 2006-2017)
• Jet Propulsion (partially found unaired pilot of "Ready Jet Go!" PBS Kids CGI-animated series; 2013)
• Kratts' Creatures (found PBS children's educational series; 1996)
• Molly of Denali (partially found unaired pilot of PBS Kids animated series; 2018)
• Preschool Musical... On a Stick (partially lost PBS Kids Sprout "High School Musical" parody; 2008)
• Space Race (partially found PBS Kids web series; 2011)
• What's The Big Idea? (lost original pilot of "Sid The Science Kid" PBS Kids CGI animated series; 2007)
• WordWorld (lost 2D/live-action test pilot of PBS Kids CGI animated educational series; existence unconfirmed; 2005)

External Links

• Nature Cat Wiki page on the pilot.