Cyberchase "The Poddleville Case" (Found 1999 Test Pilot Of PBS Kids Show)

Check out the Lost Media Wiki’s article on the test version of The Poddleville Case!!

The pilot of the 2002 animated program Cyberchase originally was privately distributed for schools in May 1999, then known as the Poddleville Case. It was then publicly premiered in August 1999 through September 1999, and again in March 2000. The pilot was digitally edited, completely redubbed, slightly rescripted and reused as Episode 7 for the final series

Available to the public, for the May showcase for schools, a report based on the studies of how it affected children noted a breakfast scene for Jackie, which was scrapped in final. The 3 min promo shows the end of this scene

For the 17th Anniversary of Cyberchase, the Official Facebook account for it released the original 3 min promo for the August broadcast. Seeing this, there are many differences between the original pilot and Final edit

Finally, one of the storybook and ancillary character artists of the pilot (Gino Patti) revealed he had the August tape. He uploaded some screenshots on his Instagram, revealing another logo, original end credits, video time and physical proof, as well as 1 scene not in either the promo or final.

Jackie about to be sucked into the portal after choosing the egg

Jackie about to have breakfast

pilot first screenshot

Logo Differences

The one in the 3 min promo is from the WNET site, one of the last remnants of it before being rebooted for the PBS Kids site version

Several reused scenes in final have the hue shifted. It's unknown why this error occurs, since other unedited scenes didn't have their colors affected

Digitally Reanimated bits

The promo noticeably lacks the CG effects for many areas, with the exception of Proto Motherboard. It's safe to say this scene was newly made for Final (Note, a later Poddleville centric episode also reuses this CG sequence)

Rest were notably edited, some with differing lengths

This scene abruptly ends in final. In the Pilot it continues on with the camera tracking Hacker, then several more scenes with Buzz and Delete interacting with the Hacker are shown, scrapped in final

Let's be thankful Final series changed her looks

This sequence is roughly twice as long in Final, to make up for removed footage

Flatville in Final. Removed shading too

Flatter perspective again. There was a negative invert flash right on impact in final, potentially as a censor

Video Lengths

Time for Pilot: 24:15

Time for Final: 22:30

This notes that about 2 min of footage from the pilot was scrapped, potentially for character intros

What's not in the pilot

Many people think the live action segment in Episode 7 is from the pilot, due to using a different actor than the rest of the episodes, and overall older footage. However, nothing of the sort was noted in the May report, nor is the VHS tape of the pilot long enough to have both the animation and 3 and a half minute Live Action segment. Gino Patti himself didn't know one was made

Sources:

1999 May report: https://www.informalscience.org/formative-evaluation-cyberchase-poddleville-case-full-report

Gino Patti's Instagram with End Credit's footage: https://www.instagram.com/p/BjAWsFfnx_n/?igshid=1wt11daj1861z

Cyberchase 1999 Pilot Pitch

The test pilot.

Cyberchase Promo Comparison to Final

More info on Cyberchase Pilot