Talk:The Backyardigans

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"Legacy" title...[edit]

The "Legacy" section only talks about the recent trend on TikTok making videos out of two songs, which is not indicative of the show's entire legacy. It seems to give "Undue Weight" to that one meme trend, and at the very least, it shouldn't be titled "Legacy". Can I take those two sentences out, or at least rename the section, since it's so unbalanced right now? -- DBK (talk) 21:29, 5 July 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Character ordering[edit]

There seems to be a disagreement about the cast ordering with multiple edits back and forth.

According to Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Television#Cast_and_characters_information, the character order should be based on the "the original broadcast credits". The broadcast credits at the end of the show are just in alphabetical order and include more voice actors than the main cast so I don't think that settles the question. However, I think the theme song and procession of characters at the start of the show pretty clearly supports the following order:

1. "Hi, I'm Pablo"

2. "My name's Tyrone"

3. "I'm Uniqua"

4. "I'm Tasha"

5. "And my name is Austin"

I propose that the article settle on that order. -- Daniel Quinlan (talk) 00:31, 6 November 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Looks good to me. Geraldo Perez (talk) 00:34, 6 November 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you. I went ahead and made that change and I also added a comment in the text. Daniel Quinlan (talk) 00:48, 6 November 2022 (UTC)[reply]

The first order (Uniqua, Pablo, Tyrone, Tasha, Austin) was based on the original order used by NickJr.com (archive link - view source if Flash doesn't load) and Nick's character guide, which also reflect the characters' appearances (Uniqua appears in every episode, Pablo is absent for one episode, etc.). Since this was the order set by the production company, could we restore that order and just add a comment that it's based on those factors? (Plus, the pilot had Uniqua introduce herself first and then point to the others, if that means anything.) Squittens (talk) 13:46, 6 November 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Following the manual of style, the show is what should be used. The manual of style is very clear:

Please keep in mind that though "main" cast members are determined by the series producers (not by popularity, screen time, or episode count) and generally have a set order in the credits, recurring and guest stars will not necessarily be credited in the same order in each episode in which they appear, so their place in the list should be based on the order of credits in the first episode that they appear. The cast listing should not contain an episode count, e.g. (6 episodes) or (episodes 1–6), to indicate the number of episodes in which the actor or character appeared.

I added the boldface type. In addition, if you go to the Paramount (the company that owns Nickelodeon) page for the show, they are listed in the same order as the show: Pablo, Tyrone, Uniqua, Tasha and Austin.

Finally, if you look at historical versions of this wiki, they used the same order:

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Backyardigans&oldid=56205923#Characters_&_voice_cast

The order should never have been changed based on episode count. Daniel Quinlan (talk) 21:55, 7 November 2022 (UTC)[reply]

That rule is talking about credits though, which don't give an order as they're alphabetical. The rule says to use the order "determined by the series producers," which in this case is Nick Jr. The (revised) intro is just one source that falls under that description. The other sources direct from the series' producers (Nick Jr's old website, the character guide) use the Uniqua-first order, and so did the original pilot, if we're going by who introduces themselves first. Squittens (talk) 00:37, 8 November 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Season 1 episode 1 has the same Pablo, Tyrone, Uniqua, Tasha and Austin ordering. It's not a revised opening, it's the opening. It's the one consistent place where the characters are listed in each episode and it's the same in every episode. Daniel Quinlan (talk) 01:56, 8 November 2022 (UTC)[reply]

I was talking about the original 2002 pilot where Uniqua introduces herself first and then points to the others, not the first season (2004), but both are just characters introducing themselves and not "credits" determined by the series producers. The production company used the Uniqua-first order on its website and character guide, so those are valid sources too. Squittens (talk) 02:09, 8 November 2022 (UTC)[reply]

The 2002 pilot isn't relevant. Even if it was, the pilot only included three of the five main characters, only a few images and extremely short clips (a few seconds long at most) seem to be available, and sources of information about the pilot are all pretty low quality. I don't see how it's possible to get an ordering of the five main characters for a 2004 show from a 2002 pilot that isn't available.

The character guide seems like a valid secondary or tertiary source, but I don't think it's sufficient to override the show's introduction from every single episode. The last page's summary has them ordered (left to right) as Tyrone, Pablo, Uniqua, Tasha, and Austin (which is actually closer to the show ordering) so it's not even internally consistent. Daniel Quinlan (talk) 02:52, 8 November 2022 (UTC)[reply]

I'd say ignore the pilot, not really part of the series proper. The opening sequence showing a consistent order is in the primary source. Basically the most important thing we need is something we can point to that we agree on and that makes verification somewhat easy. Idea is to keep the article stable and grounded on something easy to explain and justify. Geraldo Perez (talk) 03:08, 8 November 2022 (UTC)[reply]

True, but I do think that the NickJr.com/character guide order qualifies as something easy to explain and justify/verify too. We could add a comment "The characters are ordered based on Nick Jr's website and character guide." Squittens (talk) 14:24, 9 November 2022 (UTC)[reply]

The current ordering in the article is the most consistent with the manual of style. Ordering based on supplementary materials or a dead website doesn't make any sense to me. Daniel Quinlan (talk) 05:40, 10 November 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Jumping in here - as an editor on the Backyardigans Wiki, I have some more insight about this. (I noticed an IP change the characters' order against the order used in the cited sources -- both sources in the "Plot" section use the order with Uniqua first.) The show's creator, Janice Burgess, said in interviews that she was based on herself and was the "main" character out of the five. That explains why she's often listed first on official summaries, and why she's the only character to appear in every episode. It also agrees with the show's website back when it was up - I don't really agree with calling it a dead website, since it was the show's official site during its run. In the absence of ordered end credits, it's really up to the sources, since these are all official sources from the creators. FunhausFrank (talk) 18:25, 23 November 2022 (UTC)[reply]

As stated in the manual of style, the ordering of cast members is not based on episode count. It's also not based on which character the producer based on themselves. The manual of style says to use the order used by the producers which is pretty clearly the order of the theme song and procession of characters in the show introduction. The article needs an order for all 5 main characters and the show itself is the most consistent and most important source for that. There are many shows where the most important character is not the first character listed. For example, look at The O.C. which puts Sandy Cohen and Kirsten Cohen ahead of Ryan Atwood because that's the order in the show introduction. The show is centered on Ryan Atwood (and the article mentions that), but that doesn't mean Ryan Atwood needs to be listed first. Daniel Quinlan (talk) 22:19, 23 November 2022 (UTC)[reply]

It looks like the producers used the Uniqua-first order, though, with the show's official website and their character guide. I was just adding that the producers' order aligns with the approach the creator took, with Uniqua called the "main" character/leader, but the sources are more important as we can easily use them to back up the ordering. A very similar Nick Jr. example would be PAW Patrol, which also has alphabetical end credits. It has the main dogs introduced in the theme song by a different order (lyrics are "Marshall, Rubble, Chase, Rocky, Zuma, Skye") than what Wikipedia uses (Chase, Marshall, Skye, Rocky, Rubble, Zuma). That Wikipedia page uses the order used by the producers/NickJr.com with the leader of the dogs (Chase) first instead of whoever is named first in the theme song. I would support doing the same here, going back to the Uniqua-first order, as it's in line with the Manual of Style (following other sources from the producers in the absence of ordered end credits). FunhausFrank (talk) 02:13, 10 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

I said before that a comment like "The characters are ordered based on Nick Jr's website and character guide." would be good. All the page really needs is an order that is backed up by a source. Pointing to these sources makes verification easy and will "keep the article stable and grounded on something easy to explain and justify." Squittens (talk) 05:06, 12 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

End Date[edit]

After a couple edits and reverts it got me curious as to what the actual end date of the show is. The citation in the Episode section is an Amazon link. I found this TV Guide episode list that shows the final episode airing May 31, 2010. Here Yet on the top of the page it says 2004-2013. Hopefully we can find a good clear source. Elvisisalive95 (talk) 22:36, 29 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@Elvisisalive95, The show ended in 2010, because the last episode, Tale of the Not-So-Nice Dragon, aired on May 3rd, 2010. So, I don't know why there are still edit wars and disputes about this. 70.50.199.125 (talk) 22:45, 10 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]

What do you think @EvergreenFir?? Elvisisalive95 (talk) 22:48, 10 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Last Episode[edit]

The last episode of the show, Tale of the Not-So-Nice Dragon, was released in May 3, 2010, so it should be changed to say the show ran from 2004-2010 instead of 2004-2013. 70.50.199.125 (talk) 22:21, 10 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]