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 was notable for its uniquely surrealist style, featuring the day-to-day adventures of a good-natured, bowler-hatted blue octopus named Oswald, his sentient hot dog Weenie and their equally whimsical friends in a colourful, childlike universe. According to official sources, the show's pilot was being worked on as far back as the late 1990s. The pilot itself has never surfaced and little is known about its development process, besides concept artwork that dates from about the same time.

Production

Almost all the confirmed information regarding 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 darker 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.^[1] Some backgrounds from the pilot were also found on a Background Design portfolio.^[2]