Jake and the Never Land Pirates is a musical interactive animated series for preschoolers that aired on Disney Junior. The series ran for four seasons and is currently available on Disney+.
According to an interview (https://www.oregonlive.com/movies/2011/02/two_portland_performers_provid.html the pilot episode started production in late 2007 and finished in late 2009. After the pilot was finished, the characters Sharky and Bones were created for the series, who first appear in episode 1B, “The Old Shell Game”. After the pilot finished production, the series was green lit with a season of 26 episodes, with the first episode “Hide the Hideout” starting production.
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According to an interview, Skully initially didn’t have a voice in the pilot.
It’s likely that the pilot started production under the old title Jake’s Team Pirate, and was revised when the title changed to Jake and the Never Land Pirates.
The series was initially planned to air in late 2010 on Playhouse Disney, but was pushed back to 2011 to air on Disney Junior instead.
The show’s original title was going to be called “Jake’s Team Pirate”, according to a tweet from the voice actor of Jake, Colin Ford. The tweet can be found here.
Concept art for Jake and the Never Land Pirates can be found http://cartooncave.blogspot.com/2011/03/jake-neverland-pirates.html.
A clip of the pilot was found. The character appearances are different, most notably Jake, Cubby, Skully, and Bucky. Pirates Island also has a notable difference in its color pallet, with simpler designs compared to the final show.