Oswald (partially found pitch pilot of Nick Jr. animated series; late 1990s)
A cover of an early book for the series, likely taken from the pilot.
Status: Lost
Oswald is a Nick Jr. 2D animated series produced by HiT Entertainment that was released in 2001 by creator Dan Yaccarino. The show featured a Blue Octopus (Oswald), his friends, and the wacky adventures they issue. Before the show was released, when Dan was working on other projects with Nickelodeon, a pilot was being worked on for the show back in the late 1990s. Little is known about the pilot, besides pictures that could have been made at the time of production of the pilot.
Production
Not much is known about the production of the pilot, besides a blog post from 2000 about Nickelodeon and HIT Entertainment working together to make the show. As well as the production of the pilot possibly lasting from 1998 to 2001.
Differences in Character designs
- In a photo, the dog Weenie's belly color is white, yet in the final show, it's tan.
- Oswald is dark Blue.
Findings
The pilot's existence was first discovered when Dave Thomas mentioned that Super Why was originally turned down in favor of the Oswald pitch pilot. A while later, an early book for the series was discovered which shows how Oswald met all his friends, and features different character designs. It is likely that the book was based on the original pilot. Some backgrounds from the pilot were also found on a portfolio.