"Not bad", huh?

Ska and the Backyardigans, originally uploaded by TedsBlog.

This photographer was surprised to see ska on a child's toy, commenting "...the music wasn't bad, actually." The ska, of course, was from the Pirate Treasure episode. ("What do you do with a scurvy pirate? Load the cannon up and fire it! What do you do with a scurvy pirate? Make them walk the plank!")

You can get this toy (Fisher-Price Backyardigans Sing-Along Music Maker) from Walmart. It plays 10 songs (I assume two for each episode pictured) and a microphone so your children can not only sing along but hear their voice coming from the speakers along with the music. Pretty neat, huh?

I've been noticing a lot of Backyardigans stuff on display at Walmart when I make a trip out there. It's great to see the show getting so popular!

More Info On New Episodes

Backyardigans Fan Martha shared this with us in comments:

The two episodes playing on Treehouse on Sept 29 are:

"Whodunit?": Pablo travels to Mystery Manor to find out who stole Tasha's jewels.

"Legend of Volcano Sisters": The Luau Brothers must appease the Volcano Sisters with a special gift to prevent them from erupting their volcano

Two more confirmed shows to anticipate! Whee!

Tasha and Austin - Finally!

Tasha and Austin fans, rejoice! Fellow Fan "Joe is Invisible" shared with us in the comments recently that Ty now has beanie babies for all five of our favorite kids. Which bodes well for an end to the stranglehold Pablo, Tyrone and Uniqua have held on the merchandising of the Backyardigans.



As you can see above, Tasha is in stock at Amazon. As of this date, Austin is still unavailable through them, although you can get him from many other places on the internet. (Not the Nick Jr. store, though. They don't have Tasha yet, either.)

What's next? Austin and Tasha costumes? We can only hope.

So, what exactly does "regular season" mean to Nick Jr.?

In a widely distributed article about the upcoming season of children's programming, several newspapers have printed the following paragraph about The Backyardigans:

"The Backyardigans," 10:30 a.m. Monday-Thursday, new season kicks off with a special, "Mission to Mars," Oct. 9. Regular season begins Oct. 16.

Interesting. I can't help but wonder what exactly a "regular season" might be. After all, this isn't like network tv, where a new season means a large number of new shows. Except with brand new series, Nick Jr. releases new episodes very sparingly it seems.

Nick Jr. spread the first 20 Backyardigans episodes over a two year period. It seems likely they'll do the same thing this time, but that doesn't preclude getting to have, say, three or four new episodes released over a month or two. Which would be nice!

Another Great Backyardigans Birthday Cake

Backyardigans Birthday Cake, originally uploaded by funtolove_1221kari.

There are lots of creative people out there, making Backyardigans birthday parties happen! I'm very impressed at some of the photos I found on Flickr. Me? Not nearly clever enough to do any of these things! My poor child had to put up with a cake that merely had sprinkles on it to make it fancy.

New Episode Speculation

Up to now, we've always had that list of the complete Backyardigans episodes. I've had it up here, TV. com has it up at their Backyardigans section, and Wikipedia has what I think is the best overall picture of each of the first 20 episodes. But, so far, nothing comprehensive on the next 20 episodes has been released.

So, what can we figure out? We know that the first of the new episodes, Mission to Mars, will be airing in October (incidentally, I saw an ad for that this morning featuring Uniqua, Pablo and Austin in the shuttle, with Tasha and Tyrone supporting them on the ground).

Backyardigans fan Robert G. shared with us in a comment that he's seen an episode titled Samurai Pie on Treehouse TV already (he says it's great, very funny, with a spaghetti western soundtrack). That episode and Mission to Mars will be available on a DVD, titled Mission to Mars, due to be released Oct. 10 (according to the Nick Jr. shop.)

Dropping in on the message boards at Treehouse TV, it seems that there was a second new episode aired recently, Monster Party. Evidently it was a surprise birthday party for Austin. Everyone was a type of monster, vampires and werewolves being specifically mentioned.

According to the DVD description at Amazon, there will be four Backyardigans episodes on there. There is nothing about what the other two episodes will be. The same description says the following about the Mission to Mars episode: "... takes the Backyardigans to outer space and an underground Martian city. This DVD release also features the voice of Grammy award winning singer Alicia Keys as Mommy Martian. Alicia Keys also sings one song titled "Boinga" on the main episode."

What else can we figure out? Well, they just showed another ad, this one a montage of clips from upcoming Nick Jr. shows. The Backyardigans clips included: Tasha and Uniqua in some sort of headdresses, in what looks like a cave, lit by torches; Austin and Tyrone dancing in Karate-type outfits (red belt - Tyrone, white belt - Austin) (probably Samurai Pie); Tasha as an empress in a silk robe (Samurai Pie again?); Tyrone again in the Karate-type outfit, hitting a frying pan like a gong.

Books and other products out right now can give us some more clues (most of these are not yet available except through pre-order):

• Mystery of the Jeweled Eggs - Cover shows Pablo in a Sherlock Holmes type detective outfit with the other kids dressed up in a stereotypically upperclass English fashion. (Austin has a monocle, etc.)
• Cops and Robots - Pablo and Tasha are evil robots, Uniqua and Tyrone are space police trying to keep them from reprogamming all the galaxy's robots to be bad.
• Trouble on the Train - Cover shows Pablo and Tasha, mounted on horses, wearing black masks and black hats. Tasha is whirling a lasso over her head and there is a train in the background. I'm guessing traditional western with two of the other three kids as the sheriff and deputy trying to keep Pablo and Tasha from robbing the train.
• Legend Hunters - No picture available yet, and no description. However, since it's new, there's a good chance it's based on an upcoming episode, not one of the previously aired episodes.
• Mud Monster - Cover shows Pablo and Uniqua, dressed in white overalls, wearing backpacks, running from an extremely muddy Tyrone.
• We Love a Luau - Another one with no picture of description available yet. Luau's are Hawaiian, however ...
• A is for Adventure - Judging from the title, I would guess this is an alphabet book. However, the cover does show Tyrone, Pablo and Uniqa in an airplane, wearing leather helmets and goggles. Maybe a scene from an upcoming flying episode?

So. That gives us three definites (Monster Party, Samurai Pie and Mission to Mars) and six possibilities. I'm inclined to look at the Jeweled Eggs, Cops and Robots, and Train stories as strong possibilities. The others, well, who knows? We'll have to wait and see.

There are supposed to be another two episodes premiering Sep. 29 on Treehouse TV, from 6 - 7 pm. If you get a chance to see them, let the rest of us know what they are, OK?

Back To Work

Well, summer's over, school has started, and I guess it's time to get back to paying attention to things other than swimming pools and flowers!

Although, can I just say how quickly the weather has changed? Just this morning, my daughter pointed out to me a tree with red-tinged leaves. ALREADY?

Backyardigans products have simply exploded into availability over the last few weeks. You can see some of the latest products at the new Amazon Backyardigans Store. Check out the Uniqua and Pablo costumes available now for this Halloween! (Are you ready to think about Halloween yet?)