The Backyardigans

The Backyardigans is a computer-animated musical children's TV series created by Janice Burgess. The series was written and recorded at Nickelodeon Animation Studio. It centers on five animal neighbors who imagine themselves on fantastic adventures in their backyard. Each episode is set to a different musical genre and features four songs, composed by Evan Lurie with lyrics by McPaul Smith. The Backyardigans' adventures span many different genres and settings. The show's writers took inspiration from action-adventure movies, and many episodes are parodies of movies.

Creator Janice Burgess had worked as Nick Jr.'s production executive since the mid-1990s. The Backyardigans originated as a live-action pilot episode titled "Me and My Friends," filmed at Nickelodeon Studios Florida in 1998. The characters were played by full-body puppets on an indoor stage. The pilot was rejected by Nickelodeon, and Burgess decided to rework the concept into an animated series. In 2002, a second pilot was animated at Nickelodeon Digital in New York. The second pilot was successful, and the series entered production.

The show ran for four seasons totaling 80 episodes. The first three seasons aired on Nickelodeon on weekday mornings. Nickelodeon only aired eight of the fourth season's 20 episodes; the remaining episodes aired exclusively on the separate Nick Jr. channel. In 2009, the show was planned to continue beyond the fourth season. However, in 2010, the series' creator Janice Burgess decided to move onto a different series: Nickelodeon's revival of Winx Club. Burgess worked as a creative director and writer for Winx Club before eventually retiring from Nickelodeon in 2014.

Broadcast
In the, The Backyardigans previously aired on Nickelodeon, Nick Jr. (previously Noggin), and Nick on CBS with a TV-Y rating. The also formerly aired on Univisión's Planeta U block until late.

Worldwide, the airs on Nickelodeon, but because the  international broadcasts are handled by Corus Entertainment, channels unrelated to Viacom or the family of Nickelodeon channels were licensed to pick up the ; for example, the  and  dubs are aired on Discovery Kids (a Corus-owned network), the  dub is aired in  on Télé-Québec, in  on TVP's line of networks, in  on RTP1, RTP2, and Canal Panda, in  on Ultra and Mini, in  on Boomerang and Cartoonito, in  on TV2 Junior, in  on the Hop! Channel, in  on EBS, and in, on Television New Zealand.

Corus, under its company Nelvana, also allowed online content for the, such as on Netflix, and a newly produced dub in.

Cast

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International versions

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