The Barnyard (found original test pitch of Nickelodeon CGI animated series; 1999)

An early logo dated around the test pitch.

Status: Partially Lost

Back at the Barnyard was a TV series that aired on Nickelodeon from 2007 to 2010 and on Nicktoons in 2011. The show was a spin-off of the 2006 film titled Barnyard.

Around the year 2000, a test pitch for the series was created. The short (titled The Barnyard) was produced by DNA Productions for Steven Oedekerk's O Entertainment. It was advertised with the tagline "What do animals do when humans aren't watching?". The pitch was never released, but footage can be found in an old teaser trailer from 2005. Screenshots from the short can also be found on an archived backup of DNA's website. It was rumored to be a pilot for the show, but it was revealed in a tweet thread by Todd Grimes, a director of the show, that it wasn't a pilot but a test pitch.^[1] On December 20th in 2022, YouTuber Buildship found more footage from the pilot taken from the Behind-The-Scenes DVD for the voice actors of Barnyard.

On January 20th, 2024, YouTube user LiveDJRock uploaded a finished version of the test pitch obtained from a VHS in an eBay listing. Though most of the pilot has been found, the upload itself has several clips missing from it that were cut sometime late during production. Stills of these clips can be seen in the trailer and the O-Entertainment website.