Tuesday, April 12, 2022

The Lazy Dance: LazyTown's Lost Episode Explained

LazyTown, the Icelandic musical series, became a firm favorite with Nickelodeon viewers when it aired on Nickelodeon. Commissioned by Nickelodeon in 2003, the series, created by Magnús Scheving, premiered August 16, 2004, and featured now-iconic characters as Sportacus, Stephanie and Robbie Rotten. The original series ran for two seasons between 2004 and October 2007, before being renewed by Cartoon Network for two new seasons for Cartoonito, airing between March 2013 and October 2014.


Although it’s been off-the-air for quite a long time, it remains a notable part of pop culture, spawning memes and beyond.

However, one thing that LazyTown fans are talking about lately is the lost episode of the series. The Lost Media Archive mentions that there is a lost episode of LazyTown which cannot be watched because it was never actually finished.

Titled "The Lazy Dance", it’s considered the first instalment of the show that was ever produced. However, work on it was never completed due to technical issues.

As a result, it never premiered on television.

Many of you will be familiar with alleged “lost episodes” that are, in fact, creepypastas, and don't actually exist; perhaps the most famous is the SpongeBob SquarePants episode "Red Mist".


Nevertheless, this isn’t the case with "The Lazy Dance", as there has been evidence leaked, such as the images above and below, that the episode was at least partly made.


According to Lost Media Archive, the episode is set on Stephanie’s half-birthday and to celebrate she expresses her wish to host a dance party.

All of her friends gather for the event but Sportacus faces a dilemma because he doesn’t actually know how to dance. However, nobody believes him because they can’t imagine a superhero that can’t dance.

Robbie eavesdrops and uses Sportacus’ lack of dance skills to his advantage, posing as a dance instructor to offer him lessons.

Accepting, Robbie teaches him a bunch of terrible dance moves to embarrass him. When he unveils the moves Robbie taught him, the villain’s plans backfire because the others simply teach him their dance moves instead of ridiculing him.

Another little known fact about the episode is that Jake T. Austin is credited as the voice of Stingy in the pilot episode, before the role went to Jodi Eichelberger. Jake T. Austin went on to voice Diego in Nickelodeon's Dora the Explorer and it's spin-off Go, Diego, Go!, followed by starring in Nickelodeon Movies' Hotel for Dogs and Disney Channel's Wizards of Waverly Place.

During an old interview with Girl.com, creator Magnús Scheving was asked why he called the show LazyTown:

“We asked a lot of kids…. when you are talking about names, you can’t name it Active Town or Smiley Town because kids would never watch it, but they were interested in what LazyTown was doing? Are they lazy?”

He added: “In my mind, the residents of LazyTown are like the underdogs…. so we cheer for them… you can do it! Go. Go Get Up LazyTown!”


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Original source: HITC; Additional source: CBeebies.

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