Me and My Friends (partially found live-action pilot of "The Backyardigans" Nick Jr. CGI-animated series; 1998)
Me and My Friends is a lost Nickelodeon pilot taped at Nickelodeon Studios in Orlando, Florida in September 1998. It was declined by Nickelodeon, though an animated pilot featuring the characters of "Me and My Friends" created in 2002 was picked up as the CGI animated series, The Backyardigans.
Characters
The only characters from The Backyardigans who appear in Me and My Friends are Uniqua, Pablo, Tyrone, and Tasha (in addition to scrapped characters called "the Meerkats"). Austin, the purple kangaroo, is absent. Some say that this may be the reason why he was referred to as "the new kangaroo on the block" by Nelvana and Nickelodeon.
Diffrences
The characters' appearances aren't vastly different from that of the CGI series, besides a few minor differences:
- Uniqua has visible nostrils.
- Pablo's propeller is yellow, as opposed to red.
- Tyrone and Tasha's nostrils are black instead of dark yellow and dark orange. These were utilized as vision areas.
- Tyrone's shirt has yellow/blue stripes rather than red/blue stripes.
Availability
The only known footage of Me and My Friends online is in a 5-minute compilation video created by former crew members of Nickelodeon Studios for its 10-year anniversary in 2000. There is around 3 seconds of video without the original audio. There is very little information about this pilot available, and whether or not Nickelodeon still has this remains unconfirmed.
Gallery
External links
- MEGA mirror of "Best of NSF, Florida". Retrieved 13 Apr '15
- The Backyardigans Wiki article about "Me and My Friends". Retrieved 13 Apr '15
- An article about the pilot from puppeteer Rick Lyon. Retrieved 08 Jun '15
- A video detailing the search for the pilot. Retrieved 16 Aug '17