The Wiggles (lost unaired ABC pilot featuring children's group; 1995)

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The Wiggles pilot (TITLE CARD).png

A low quality still of the pilot's title card

Status: Lost

The Wiggles is a popular children's group that formed in 1991 in Sydney, Australia. They are known for their hits Hot Potato, Get Ready To Wiggle, Fruit Salad and many others. Between 1991 and 1998, they mostly released albums and videos and toured heavily and would gain popularity in Australia. In July 1998, their first television series would air on the Seven Network and would be very popular in Australia and the group would gain international popularity with the debut of the second television series and the remakes and re-recordings of their most popular releases Wiggle Time and Yummy Yummy. Before the well-known series that premiered in 1998, a pilot was filmed in late 1995 for the ABC (who released a lot of their albums and videos in Australia).

History

The pilot is reportedly very different from the series we know today. Only two songs Hot Potato and Rock-A-Bye Your Bear are known to have been performed in the pilot, with the rest of the five minute long pilot consisting of silent comedy skits, one of which included the group riding a four-seated bicycle around Sydney. The group wore short sleeved shirts, shorts, baseball caps and colored sneakers instead of their iconic skivvies, black pants, black shoes and belts dawning the group's logo. These changes came from ABC as they thought the group couldn't communicate with children. The group didn't like how the pilot turned out and more creative differences with ABC lead the pilot to be rejected.[1] The group would dawn the look they had for the pilot for their next video Wake Up Jeff!, but the video ended up being re-recorded with the group's signature colored shirts, black pants and black shoes (the look they had in their previous video, Big Red Car). The group would go on to fund their own television series and the show would be picked up by the Seven Network in 1998.[2]

Availability

Information on this pilot would be revealed in a October 2002 article by The Sydney Morning Herald about their third television series that would be moving from the Seven Network to ABC. Founding member of the group Greg Page mentioned the pilot in his since deleted "Remembers.. or Tries To" Q&A series and also mentioned that he may have a copy of the pilot.[3] He also mentioned that he may not be allowed to release it since it's owned by ABC. In 2022, the group's manager Paul Field said that he told ABC to burn every copy of the pilot following the conclusion of the pilot's production, meaning that the copy Greg has is the only copy of the pilot still in existence. No footage from the pilot has surfaced and only four photos from the pilot have been released.

Gallery

Videos

The first part of Greg Page's Remembers... Or Tries To Q&A series (mentions the pilot at 9:31)

kai's place's video on lost media surrounding The Wiggles (mentions the pilot at 4:52)

Interview with The Wiggles' former manager Paul Field from the Hands Of Music podcast (mentions the pilot at 33:37)

Images

  • Hot Potato from the pilot

    Hot Potato from the pilot

  • Rock-A-Bye Your Bear from the pilot

    Rock-A-Bye Your Bear from the pilot

  • Wiggles with Firefighters

    Wiggles with Firefighters

  • The Wiggles posing for a photo with the Pilot played on television.

    The Wiggles posing for a photo with the Pilot played on television.

External Links

See Also

TV

Concerts

Videos

Music

Miscellaneous

References

  1. ↑ https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/tv-and-radio/wake-up-aunty-20021001-gdfol8.html
  2. ↑ https://money.cnn.com/2010/01/18/smallbusiness/wiggles_how_we_got_started/
  3. ↑ Archived tweet that mentions Greg having a copy of the pilot.
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