Bob the Builder (partially lost American dub of CBeebies stop-motion animated series; 1999-2012)
The show's logo.
Status: Partially Lost
Bob the Builder is a British children's television series created by Keith Chapman. It ran from April 12th, 1999 to October 25th, 2011 and a reboot aired from September 1st, 2015 to December 30th, 2018. When the show was brought to American audiences, it aired with a new redubbing for the American audience on Nickelodeon's Nick Jr. block from 2001-2004 and on PBS Kids and Sprout from 2005-2016. The American redub featured an entirely new voice cast and change some British terms to more terms more fitting for an American audience. In addition, one of the main machines named Muck, who is male in the original British version is female in the American dub. Sixteen episodes of the American dub which were not released on DVD or VHS have gone missing over the years, plus five episodes which were retitled in the American redub and have only their US title card missing. 13 of these lost episode dubs have been found in full, while the other 8 are either incomplete or yet to be found. Two episodes of the American redub also had two separate US versions, the first version released in 2005 and a re-recorded version released in 2007. Several shorts played in-between episodes on TV airings also had American dubs that have gone lost over the years for similar reasons.
Missing Episodes
| Episode Title | Status |
|---|---|
| Naughty Spud | Found |
| Spud the Super Wrench | Found |
| Tea Set Travis | Found |
| Bob's Bird Blind | Found (Missing title card) |
| Roll on Roley | Found |
| Mr. Beasley's Vegetable Patch | Found (Missing title card) |
| Wendy's Party Plan | Partially Found |
| Scrambler in the Doghouse (Original 2005 dub) | Partially Found |
| Scrambler and the Colorful Cave (Original 2005 dub) | Found |
| Travis and the Tropical Fruits | Lost |
| Spud's Cork Tree | Lost |
| Sumsy and the Beast | Lost |
| Benny's Jungle Trouble | Found |
| Bernard Bentley's Big Parade | Found (Missing title card) |
| Muck's Mootastic Dairy | Found |
| Roley the Green Cat | Found |
| Zoomer's Snowy Adventure | Found |
| Tumbler and the Ice Rink | Lost |
| Spud the DJ | Lost |
| An Inspector Calls | Found (Low-quality) |
Lost Shorts
Mini Adventures Series
| Episode Title | Status |
|---|---|
| Spud Gets Packing | Lost |
Bob at the Beach Series
| Episode Title | Status |
|---|---|
| Wendy in the Middle | Found |
| Beachcomber Bob | Found |
| Volleyball Dizzy | Lost |
Miscellaneous 2004 Shorts
| Episode Title | Status |
|---|---|
| Bob and the Sliding Doors (Part 1) | Found |
| Bob and the Sliding Doors (Part 2) | Found |
Bob's Mini Projects 2004 Series
Note: All episodes in this series have three US versions, featuring different voice actors. Only one Marc Silk dub has been found for this series so far.
| Episode Title | Status |
|---|---|
| Rowdy Roley | Found (Version 1) Lost (version 2) |
| Lofty and the Otters | Found (version 1 and 2) Lost (version 3) |
| Dizzy's Tree | Found (version 1 and 2) Lost (version 3) |
| Wendy Weaves a Basket | Found (version 1) Lost (version 2) |
| Hdeges and Holes | Found (version 1 and 2) Lost (version 1 and 3) |
| Muck's Water Butt | Found (version 2) Lost (version 1 and 3) |
| Spud the Tree | Found (version 2) Lost (version 1 and 3) |
| Recyling Pilchard | Found (version 2) Lost (version 1 and 3) |
| Bob and the Hedgehogs | Found (version 1 and 2) Lost (version 3) |
| Bob's Hammock | Found (version 1 and 2) Lost (version 3) |
| Stepping Stones | Found (version 1 and 2) Lost (version 3) |
| Bob and the Dry Stone Wall | Lost (all versions) |
| Sun Time | Lost (all versions) |
Bob's Mini Projects 2005 Series
Note: all episodes in this series have only two US versions.
| Episode Title | Status |
|---|---|
| Bob's Poem | Lost (all versions) |
| Spud's Lunchbreak | Found (version 1) Lost (version 2) |
| Roley the Worm Charmer | Found (version 1) Lost (version 2) |
| Dizzy's Ducklings | Found (version 1) Lost (version 2) |
| Watch the Birdie | Found (version 1) Lost (version 2) |
Bob's Mini Projects 2007 Series
Note:All episodes in this series again only have one US dub.
| Episode Title | Status |
|---|---|
| Beach Music | Lost |
| Shut the Gate | Lost |
| It's Oh So Early | Lost |
Alternate Title Cards
Some episodes use a different font on their title card depending on the release, specifically the episodes that had been re-titled in the American dub such as Spud the Super-Wrench. While some DVD releases use the original unedited title card, the prints of the show aired on Nick Jr seem to use a new title card for these re-titled episodes, but featuring a significantly different font. When the program moved to PBS Kids, these re-titled episodes aired with the usual font used in the show's title cards. However, some episodes like Bob Saves the Porcupines have their PBS title card lost as of 2023.
Existence
In 2014, a YouTuber called Thomasultimate123 uploaded Season 1 of Bob the Builder in its US dub, including "Naughty Spud." Sometime afterwards, he deleted most of his Bob the Builder uploads, possibly due to backlash from his inaccuracy in terms of how he released and edited the episodes. Either way, he deleted all of his uploads barring "Travis and Scoop's Race Day," making "Naughty Spud" completely lost (at the time), as the original series rarely aired on US TV after 2016, and any PBS airings of Seasons 1 and 2 are quite sparse.
A clip from "Naughty Spud" was uploaded onto YouTube under the user EntertainmentFan2004 in 2019 but was gone since the owner of the channel closed it due to fear of the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). Three months before this, a clip from "Spud the Super Wrench" was uploaded onto YouTube under the user Bob the Builder Archives. Eventually, the clip of "Naughty Spud" was reuploaded on May 25th, 2020 under the user CleverHilarious 20.
It was unclear for many years if "Travis and the Tropical Fruits" received an American redub, as the episode was never aired on PBS Kids, likely due to the episode's depiction of horse manure. In addition, the voice actor for Bob in the American dub does not seem to remember the episode.[1] However, a schedule was recently discovered for Treehouse TV confirming that the episode did air on the channel. [2] The episode is only known to be aired 8 times in Canada.
Findings
In 2018, a Nick Jr. airing containing "Tea Set Travis" was uploaded to Archive.org by Kristopher Walker. Two years later, he recently uncovered personal VHS recordings of "Naughty Spud" and "Spud the Super Wrench," later uploading them on Microsoft OneDrive. A clip from "Wendy's Party Plan" has also been found on YouTube.
In April 2019, various episodes of Bob the Builder reran on Universal Kids with their US dub, however, the UK intro was strangely used instead on these airings, and the show stopped airing on Universal Kids a few months later and the US dub hasn't been aired since. A few of the episodes with lost US dubs were aired on Universal Kids, some of which were recorded by fans and uploaded to the internet. Bob the Builder later started airing on Qubo and Paramount+ in the US, but both of these channels use the original UK dub, due to Universal still holding the distribution rights to the US dub.
See Also
Bob the Builder
CBeebies
- Alphablocks (partially found web-exclusive scenes of CBeebies animated series episodes; 2010-2013)
- Big & Small (partially lost CBeebies comedy puppet series; 2008-2011)
- CBeebies Springwatch (partially found preschool spin-off of British documentary series; 2006-2008)
- Doodle Do (partially lost CBeebies series; 2006-2010)
- Razzledazzle (found CBeebies CGI animated series; 2005)
- Rubbadubbers (lost unaired pilots of CBeebies stop-motion animated series; existence unconfirmed; late 1990s-early 2000s)
- Space Pirates (found CBeebies live-action animated series; 2007-2008)
- The Wordles (partially found pitch pilot of "Abadas" CBeebies animated series; 2010)
- Zingalong (partially found CBeebies series; 2002-2004)
External Links
- LMW forum thread on the lost US dubs of "Naughty Spud" & "Spud the Super Wrench".
- Another LMW forum thread that mentions the lost US dubbed episodes.
- Onedrive upload of "Spud the Super Wrench".
- Onedrive upload of "Naughty Spud".