The New Woody Woodpecker Show Pilot

Pilot
Series	The New Woody Woodpecker Show
Season	0
Episode	0
Overall episode	0
Directed by	Jeff DeGrandis
Air date	N/A
Chronology
Next	Wiener Wars

The Pilot is the pilot episode of The New Woody Woodpecker Show.

Plot

The plot of the pilot is unknown, but is believed to be a proof of concept for numerous segments planned for the series (Think Tiny Toon Adventures and Animaniacs from Warner Bros. and Mickey Mouse Works from Disney, but with Walter Lantz characters). Besides characters from the Woody Woodpecker and Chilly Willy segments, other characters were also planned to appear but were later dropped. This includes Andy Panda, Pooch the Pup, Fatso the Bear, Maw and Paw, Windy and Breezy, Meany, Miny, and Moe, Lil' Eightball, Maggie and Sam, Pepito Chickeeto, Sugarfoot, Inspector Willoughby, Homer Pigeon, Baby-Face Mouse, Cuddles the Great Dane, Hickory and Dickory, and Dynamo Doc, and Champ, Hercules, Space Mouse, The Beary Family, and Oswald the Lucky Rabbit.

The pilots art style appears more reminiscent to the shorts directed by James Culhane, with some influence from Spümcø-based productions due to the use of clashing color choices and exaggerated character designs. Characters who did end up in the official series appear radically different from there final designs, mainly Wally Walrus, Dapper Denver Dooley, Winnie Woodpecker, Splinter and Knothead, Smedley, and Miss Meany. Much of the unused characters and designs would be used for merchandise before and/or after the release of The New Woody Woodpecker Show.

Gallery

A still from the pilot

A cel featuring Woody and Winnie Woodpecker

A cel featuring Chilly Willy and Smedley

A cel featuring Woody, Splinter and Knothead

Concept designs by Stephen DeStefano

Misc. Content Related to the Pilot

Tie-in Woody Woodpecker poster

A T-Shirt that used early designs for some of the characters

Universal Studios Florida artwork

Notes

• The pilot was made in 1996.
• An animation cel featuring Chilly Willy and Smedley in their earlier designs (pictured above) surfaced prior to this. While unconfirmed, it possibly has some relation to this pilot.
• This show would've been on par with Tiny Toon Adventures, Animaniacs and Timon & Pumbaa in terms of exaggerated slapstick comedy, visual gags and energetic hilarity.
• Had Oswald and Ortensia appear in the show, his cartoons in The New Woody Woodpecker Show would've been a more wackier version of his rubber-hose era cartoons complete with Looney Tunes/Tom and Jerry/Tex Avery/40's-50's Walter Lantz-esque humor and similar to the Mickey Mouse shorts from Disney's Mickey Mouse Works, which premiered in the same year. He would've been voiced by either Rob Paulsen (in a similar voice to Looney Tunes' Foxy from the Tiny Toon Adventures episode "Two Tone Town") or Frank Welker (in his Curious George voice).
• Some of the stuff from the pilot made its way into the licensed Woody Woodpecker games as Woody Woodpecker Racing on the PS1 featuring Space Mouse and Dooley being playable using their supposedly 1999 designs, Woody Woodpecker: Wacky Challenge! using the prototype designs and the Woody Woodpecker Gameboy game featuring all the scrapped characters albeit as enemies including Oswald.
• Space Mouse, Windy & Breezy, Oswald and Willoughby showed up in the El Pajaro Loco exclusive by Mexican comics published by Grupo Editorial Vid in the 2000s, making good use of them compensating for not showing up in the 1999 show, Dooley and Smedley also show up using their prototype designs.
• Even though Oswald isn't in the show this didn't stopped Universal Studios Japan from using his blue design in merchandise.