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The Backyardigans

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So, I know I’m totally going to give you the idea that all my kids do is watch TV, and this is completely one hundred percent not true.

However, the TV they do watch gives me something to write about, so here it is.

Forget Lazytown (as though I could forget it—it’s my single most popular entry ever)—Sophia got bored with Lazytown because it’s been the same five episodes in rotation for the past two months. The show to watch is The Backyardigans. How much do I love this show? I am tempted to watch it when the kids aren’t around. I sing the songs as I do the dishes. There are only nine episodes so far and I have all nine on our TiVo. I force people just visiting our house to watch some of this show.

I love this show.

backyardigans.jpg

Tyrone, Tasha, Pablo, Uniqua, and Austin

The Backyardigans is a show about five friends—Tyrone the moose, Tasha the hippo, Pablo the penguin, Uniqua the ladybug, and Austin the kangaroo (actually, I’m not sure what Austin is, and he’s the Backyardigan we see the least of anyhow)—who get together every day and have some theme to their play: ghosts, Tarzan, knights and quests, Mounties, Vikings. They all take roles in their adventure that pretty well fit with their personalities. At the end, they repair to one kid’s house for snacktime.

In between, there’s singing, dancing, and general silliness. What’s extremely excellent about this show is that there’s stuff in there for grownups that’s not sneaky or salacious: it’s just on a level most kids aren’t going to find funny in the same way. For example, three Backyardigans are chasing the Yeti across the North Pole:

             TASHA
          We need kayaks to cross
          this water.

     They suddenly spy three KAYAKS on the bank of
     the river.

             TYRONE
          Well, that certainly is
          convenient.

That line cracks me up everytime.

The songs in this show are incredibly memorable. While doing the dishes I like to sing the songs the Vikings sing as their Viking ship rounds a very powerful whirlpool, “You’ve Got To Hold On Tight”:

You've got to hold on tight
Hold on tight
You've got to hold on tight
Hold on tight
You've got to hold on tight with all your Viking might.

Darin’s favorite bit is when they sing a limbo while trying to avoid the laser beams during a super-secret spy mission.

This show has reignited my love of musicals, which has been dormant for some time. (My insistence on musical-only writing music has been helped by the fact that I dug out our CD collection and ripped about 150 of them recently. Of course, I can’t find the one I’m looking for, Linie 1. Sigh.) I want to write a children’s musical, I’m so inspired by this show.

Anyhow: The Backyardigans is on Nick Jr. I highly recommend checking it out.

(Tyrone the moose is my favorite, by the way. In case you’re wondering.)

 

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Update 2/16/05: Wow, lots of comments here! This entry is listed pretty high on Google when you search for “The Backyardigans” so I’m going to assume someone from Nick Jr. has found it. (Hi there! More Backyardigans episodes, please!)

A number of people have posted asking about Backyardigans-themed birthday supplies and other merchandise. As far as I’ve been able to find on the Web, there isn’t any! It might not be licensed yet or might not have gotten to stories yet. All I can say is: Hurry it up! You’ve got lots of customers waiting. If anyone does know of legit Backyardigans stuff, let me know and I’ll put it on this page.

I found a number of Backyardigans songs on LimeWire. I don’t know where they’re from, since a few things tell me they’re not recorded right off of the show. If the production company wanted to put out a CD with each and every song from the show on it, they’d have a bestseller. I think there are plenty of parents out there who wouldn’t mind putting that music on for their kids, and I’d rather pay royalties to the songmakers!

Evidently a new bunch of episodes will start airing in a week or two. I can’t wait…and I think the kids are excited too. All I can say is, keep ’em coming! More! More!

Update 8/11/05: The Backyardigans’ eponymously named CD is now out! The Backyardigans has 19 great songs on it, although it doesn’t include my personal favorite, “You’ve got to hold on tight.” I had downloaded some of these songs from Limewire, but I’m much, much happier having the actual CD in my hot little hand now.

Update 1/28/06: Wow. This entry has 747 comments!

There are a couple of Backyardigan DVDs out now, which means you don’t have to keep every episode on your TiVo any more.

The Snow Fort: Contains “The Snow Fort”, “The Yeti”, “Knights Are Brave and Strong”, and “Secret Mission”.

It’s Great To Be A Ghost: Contains “It’s Great To Be A Ghost”, “Monster Detectives”, “Key to the Nile”, and “Pirate Adventure”.

Polka Palace Party: Contains “Polka Palace Party”, “Heart of the Jungle”, “Viking Voyage”, and one I haven’t seen before — having tea in the Gobi desert. (Maybe it hasn’t aired yet?)

 
Update 1/05/09: Yowsa. I am amazed at how lively this entry still is!

In response to many (many, many) comments on here: I came up with the idea that Uniqua is a ladybug from my then-4-year-old (who’s now about to be 9, but still loves the Backyardigans). I’m in complete agreement with everyone who says that Uniqua is just that: unique. I wasn’t paying a whole bunch of attention at the time, and I went with my 4-year-old’s assessment of Uniqua’s identity, ‘kay?

Filed Under: TV

Comments

  1. I am 35 yrs old and I have a 4 and half year old nephew who LOVES the Backyardigans.
    His favorite show would have to the SuperHero Tower of Power.
    Please keep up the good work you do.

  2. i love the backyardigans, it is the only show my 11 month old little girl enjoys, and i don’t mind it either since it is creative and not obnoxious like so many other kids shows these days. but i really wish we could get ahold of some backyardigans birthday decorations!

  3. The Bakyardigans are sooooo COOL!!!!!! My best friend and I love the show and all our friends have like names. I’m Pablo!!!!!

  4. my son is 13 months old and he jumps around everytime the caracters from the backyardigans sings and dance.then he cries everytime the caracters sings thier goodbye.

  5. I am 36 years old, and in my opinion, the Backyardigans is the greatest show made for children in television’s history. It has succeeded in actually entering the mind of a child and exploring their creative world. The songs are well written and catchy, and the humor is genuinely funny. My 4 year old daughter and 2 year old son go nuts when it comes on. Janice Burgess (the creator) is a genius. Please keep it up.

  6. I live in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. My 1.5 year old daughter LOVES the backyardigans. Any ideas where I can get dvd’s or cd’s of them.

    Thanks,
    Lori

  7. Our 2-year old daughter can’t get enough of this show, and we have no problem watching it with her since we (her parents) equally love the show. We have most episodes DVR’d – love the creative songs and dancing. We buy a lot of stuff on eBay and found Backyardigan items there, including party supplies that some of you may be looking for. Hopefully new episodes are on the way.

  8. MY SON IS ONE YEARS OLD AND HE LOVES THE BACKYARDIANS AND I SING THE THEME AND HE SINGS HIS LITTLE HEART OUT IT’S THE CUTEST

  9. The Backyardigans is the best show on TV. (Kids TV that is….and that’s kids of all ages)

    Neil

  10. I’m a grandma (my grandsons call me Memaw) who has all of the episodes on her TiVo too. I just bought the CD and it’s on my MP3 player — for the kids of course…

  11. HI for thoses who want to know austin is a kangaroo cuz i went to this kid site by a tv show that tells you everything about the show and characters it said austin is a kangroo and a new kid on the block tasha hippo uniqua is an alien like type creacture tyrome is a moose and why does it matter if the characters are black or white?
    I love Austin and Pablo
    austins not ugly hes cute

  12. I started watching The Back Yardigans completely by accident. I saw a “video” for “Ridin’ The Range” one day and was wondering where it came from. The next day, my 2 year old and I were waiting for Dora to come on and The Back Yardigans came on instead. I just love this show!! I love how they use their imagination to create all these great worlds and adventures.

    And I did not know that Uniqua was a ladybug. I thought she was an alien. She’s definitely my favorite of the group. Can’t wait for the DVD.

  13. Dear Caroline who posted just before about how austin is not ugly he’s cute,
    just writing to say that I totally agree with you!!!
    Austin’s my favorite and one of my fav songs out of all the episodes is the one he does in the race around the world to twinkle little star…

    Oh I’d be happy about that, yes sir!
    Oh I’d be happy about that
    If something strange made this great change,
    yes I’d be happyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy about that…

    Oh it’s so cute! His best episode is definately race around the world… cos he’s the main charactor in it! He does 2 solos and he saves everybody’s lives twice!
    Gotta love austin.
    Not many people are writing in on this site saying they like austin. It’s all uniqua.
    If you like austin and are sick of people saying his face is screwed up, go to the nick jr messageboard. Every second topic is about how cool austin is!

    Oh, and not to mention someone thought uniqua was a slug,
    and Giraffe + Snail + some pink dye
    and a pig

    and that they thought there was a rhino on the show and they were upset cos they hadn’t seen him in the 21 episodes that have been aired…

  14. Oh my goodness I thought I was alone – I have the episodes on Tivo too and I just keep watching them over and over with my 17 month old. Sometimes I catch my husband hyming the songs or he’ll catch me hyming the songs while we’re cooking or just doing other things….we just love them….But I think I love them more than my husband and my daughter. I love the way thier imagination come to life – and the choreography is super great…I just love them.

    My favorite episode – “Pirate Treasure”
    Favorite character – “Uniqua”

  16. This is so funny because I was just telling my husband all about the Backyardigans this evening. He didn’t know anything about them and we were chatting about the Wiggles (no thank you) and other educational shows on tv and I told him about the Backyardigans! My son is almost 3 and he LOVES them! One morning while I was in the kitchen he started talking to them calling them by name and I didn’t even know he knew their names! The show is absolutely adorable and infectious. I went onto nickjr.com to find some merchandise but there wasn’t too much. I am going to go back to print out some coloring pages. I’m glad I found this little site. It just popped up when I put backyardigans into Google. Neat! Well have a good day!

  17. My wife and I – oh, and our two-year old Oliver! – just discovered Backyardigans. The other day she said “you’ve got to see this show, the songs are just amazing!”, and the rest is history. I am hooked. Ollie is young, but we’ll get any DVDs that come out so he can appreciate it all over when he’s older. All the kids are so talented, the songs ARE amazing, and I think any show that encourages imagination and musicality at the same time is a double winner all around. And I love ALL the characters, each one is special in their own way. Thanks for giving me a chance to say how I feel about this great show!

  18. I thought Uniqua was a pig! I love, love the Backyardigans, as do my kids. We live overseas but spent the summer in the States. Only wish I were going home with Backyardigans DVDs, but there don’t seem to be any!

  19. Why are so many people saying there aren’t any DVDs? You can get a CD of the music, or a DVD, from Amazon. Hello, anyone heard of Amazon? Or Google?

  20. Because, Mike, if you took the time to read the Amazon listings, you’d notice that the CD has been out less than a month, and the DVD isn’t out yet.

  21. i also love the backyardigans i love the songs and so much i have fun with my 2 yr old we dance and try and sing the adorable songs lol.

    My favorite episode – “Pirate Treasure”

  22. GUESS WHAT???? The remaining 7 episodes will make their debut on NOGGIN next week which means you’ll hear such classics like “Feedin’ Time”, “Gotta Love The Clarinet”, and “Zip Zip Zip from Tree to Tree”!!!!

  23. My son is 6 months old and loves the Backyardigans. The episodes are just long enough to keep him busy while I take a shower. I have been looking for merchandise and have found a few things. For anyone who is interested Kohls.com has Backyardigans clothing. But I agree that more merchandise needs to be released.

  25. I found this site looking for Backyardigan stuff.
    I totally agree, this is a winner. They need some enterprising folks to start marketing the songs, videos, toys, etc.
    My grandpuppy’s 1st birthday is coming up in a few weeks and I really wanted to get him a Pedro or something Backyardigan.
    GET TO WORK PEOPLE, WE WANT BACKYARDIGAN STUFF!!!

  26. I caught a few episodes midplay and it took me about a month to finally find out the name of the show. The Yeti episode really amazed me with its ingenious script. I look forward to some On Demand for Comcast. The Backyardigans has better animation than Southpark and is safer for kids.

  27. my son is 1 1/2 and about to have his 2nd birthday… we are trying to throw him a backyardigans party so we are looking for pinatas with anything with backyardigans on it. for those looking to download music to make cds for your children go to http://www.bearshare.com and you can find them there. (i want my river back, yeti stomp, and all the rest except i haven’t found riding the range.) my son has all the music and the shows his grandma turned him on to them and since he likes to fall asleep watching them even gets to the point if you are in his way and tyrone is on he will tell you to move… they are wonderful and i am gretfull to the creator for the shows… he also loves the wiggles…

  28. My 22 month old daughter loves the Backyardigans. I love to see her responding to music and dance. I think Abu Abdullah’s posting on May 10, 2005 was sad. Some much work and thought put into the reasons why he didn’t like it. He doesn’t see that it does teach our children! It teaches them about different music and dance and most importantly it teaches them that you can be anything and go anywhere in your imagination. How wonderful for a child!! We love Austin here in Australia! My hubby and I were mystified about Uniqua. I thought she was a bug; he thought she was an alien. Then I saw her name written down and realized “unique” is exactly what she is!

    The Backyardigans need merchandise!!!! Books, CD’s and Video are slowly coming out. I’ve seen Pajamas on eBaby and on Kohls website.

  30. My son & I both love the backyardigans. The enhanced CD came out July 12. A DVD will be available August 30, I think the title is “It’s great to be a ghost”. The next DVD is not suppose to be released until November this year. MY only complaint about the DVDs, it looks as though it will be only 1 episode per disc and it looks like will cost anywhere from $12 to $17. Your best bet is to start taping them until they come down on the prices!!

  31. well i am a 13 yeaqr old girl and i love watching the backyardigans =) i think it is on of the best shows for kids.

  32. I love this show too. I sing Riding the Range all day! I think they should come out with a cd as well!

  33. I love the backyardigans just as much as my 11 month old son does. He get so excided when they come on because i sing to him. He’s going to have a Backyardigans Party for his first birthday!

  35. omg!! i love the backyardigans!! its lyk my new favorite show, my friend jus told me about, and now i get up every morning to watch it!! i think im gonna buy the CD! and i want a backyardigans charm for my bracelet

  37. I am a 60 year old grandfather who babysits three rotten rugrats, 5, 8 10 years old. Girl, boy, girl. All of us love the backyardigans and my Tivo is set to record every one. The young people who do the voices and the singing are superb. My favorites, so far, are the Ghost show, Riding the Range, and the Viking Voyage. My favorite all time shot is in Viking Voyage where they are singing the lullaby to the mermaid(Tasha) and little Pablo falls asleep at the end of the song and Uniqua taps him on the head to wake him up. My 5 year old grandaughter goes hysterical everytime she sees that. I just bought the CD and it is the kids favorite by far. By the way, Uniqua is not a ladybug, she is not any particular species, that is why the name is “Uniqua”.

  38. I love the backyardigans. Me and my friend are 13 and we love it. You should have it on at 7:00am MT time so we can watch it in the mornings
    before school. And you should have a marathon of Backyardigans once a month.

    BACKYARDIGANS ROCK!

  39. I worship the backyardigans I know every single song from cruisi’n the dunes to the quest for the flying rock. My absolute favorite son is “a message a message a very important message”. I am 14 years old and I still watch it at 10:00am every single day. I am hipnotized by it. My favorite character is uniqua, that girl can sing!!!

  40. To Xandrea: Do you really know every song? Amazing! Actually, I kinda pride myself on knowing alot of the songs too.
    I am fourteen and I have a big folder full of every photo I could find as well as 40 of their lyrics.
    My favorite song is… all the ones from ‘race around the world’, especially go go go go go,
    racing day (austin’s solo) and austin’s other solo to the tune of twinkle little star.
    it’s awesome.
    I also really love the songs from Monster Detectives, especially the first one and tyrone’s solo. The songs are awesome.
    anyway.
    G2G sooo buying the cd soon.
    Oh, and thanks Tamara for telling me about asia.
    I really was serious about that!!!
    have 2 ask my penfriend.
    Tam from Aust 🙂

  42. My daughter,son and I love the bacyardigans! She won’t wear anything else except her backyardigans shirt..bought on nick jr.com..I had to get 3 so I could wash them. They are just releasing the Ghost episode on DVD. The nick jr radio has songs you can play on your radio. Some people are selling things on ebay that they have created. More printables are showing up on nick jr every day. We need some stuffed animals as my daughter really is into the show. She has a stuffed moose she calls tyrone and a stuffed bunny she calls austin. This is a very well made show, we love the music! We did make a cd from the computer to play in car.

  43. I need more on the backyardigans like pictures new episode, sheets, towels etc….. My son is one and he loves them and I can’t find anything to get him with them on it.I need something so that I could hang in his room or something. Renee and Omari

  44. They might consider televising the Back Yardigans at a more viewable time for kids to watch also. my kids love it and I cant find anything out there either. I just want a video or the episodes they have on TV not just a special Back Yardigans movie.
    What a cute show…they need to get moving on this – could be the next biggest thing since that stupid purple dinosauer

  45. I love the backyardigans its the best show i used to like lazy town but after a while it gets boring but the backyardigans has not gotten boring yet

  47. We started watching the Backyardigans when my son was 2 months old. He loved it right away. He is now 10 months and we are completely addicted to this show. We bought him the CD to listen to in the car, and now my husband and I argue about who gets to keep it with them. Yes, we listen to it whether our son is with us or not. His first birthday is coming up and I am desperately searching for Backyaradigans themed party supplies. How can this show be sooooo popular, and not have anything?? I really hope they get with it so my son can have the best party. And just for the record: WE LOVE THIS SHOW!!!!!! We TiVo every episode too.

  49. My 7 month old son has been watching the backyardigans since he was 3 or 4 months old. He loves it! If he hears the song come on he immediately stops what he is doing to watch it. I want to do his 1st birthday in backyardigans but I cant find anything!

  50. Love this show! Sing the songs and I do watch even without my son. Looking desperatly for birthday party supplies by October 2005! UGH!