Peanut Butter and Jelly (PB&J Otter Pilot Segments; 1997-1998)

Peanut Butter and Jelly is the original name for PB&J Otter, and is a series of pilot segments that aired on Disney Channel in November 15th, 1997 until February 26th, 1998, before the actual series even began next month. The series follows an animated talking peanut butter (male) and jelly (female) sandwich with some help from friendly animals (like squirrels, chipmunks, mice and deer) by solving problems to get them right.
=== Episode List ===
# Welcome Home, PB&J (11-15-1997): We get to meet Peanut Butter and Jelly for the first time, by getting to know them, their interests, their personalities and their friends. And when they solve problems, they do a special dance called the Noodle Dance.
# First Day of School (11-20-1997): Peanut Butter and Jelly are not excited to go back to school, but learning something new is probably a good thing for them to discover.
# The Tooth Be Told (12-9-1997): Peanut Butter gets a loose tooth from eating crunchy snacks and discovers that he will get a lot of money to buy presents from the Tooth Fairy. Jelly finds out about that and meets a squirrel who tells him that his teeth aren’t wiggling at all.
# Bedtime (12-13-1997): Peanut Butter and Jelly are getting ready to go to bed, by brushing their teeth, reading a bedtime book, taking a bath and putting on their pajamas. But when they get nightmares and can’t fall asleep, do they need a better way to go to sleep?
# Feel Better Soon (1-12-1998): It’s Jelly’s Birthday, and Peanut Butter and his friends are getting ready to celebrate. But when Jelly is sick and her birthday party is delayed, can they solve their problems before Jelly gets better?
# Merry Christmas, PB&J (1-14-1998): Peanut Butter and Jelly are excited for Santa Claus to get them presents, but when they don’t have their presents, they do the noodle dance to try to come up with ideas to get the presents to appear. He also brings out cookies and milk for them to eat and drink.
# Vaccine-Itis (1-16-1998): Jelly is scared to get a vaccination at the hospital, but Peanut Butter faces Jelly’s fear and discovers that vaccinations are a little scary, but also interesting.
# The Dentist (1-19-1998): Jelly is scared about seeing the dentist for the first time, but Peanut Butter helps her out by learning how to brush her teeth every day. Dr. Floss gives Jelly an appointment in Blansford Dental.
# The Best Sleepover Ever (2-8-1998): Peanut Butter and Jelly are getting ready to have a sleepover at Squirrel’s tree, by brushing their teeth and telling bedtime stories, but when things go wrong and Peanut Butter has a nightmare, they decided to solve a problem and get things done for Peanut Butter to go to sleep.
# Dance Fever (2-10-1998): Peanut Butter and Jelly are having a Noodle Dance Contest with their friends, but when Peanut Butter can’t dance, Jelly teaches him to try some dancing skills until he gets used to dancing in the contest.
# Thanksgiving (2-26-1998): It’s Thanksgiving in Blansford, and Peanut Butter and Jelly have things to be thankful for. Some animals arrived for Thanksgiving dinner, like squirrels and chipmunks. The delicious turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and cranberry sauce are waiting for them to eat and enjoy.
=== Differences ===
* The Noodle Dance in the pilot series is somewhat similar to the actual series, with some adults singing instead of kids, and without a blue background with some white things, like a question mark, a flashlight and a crayon.
* Like Barney and the Backyard Gang (another pilot series for Barney and Friends), the series has similar plot styles.
* The peanut butter later became Peanut and Baby Butter Otter and the jelly later became Jelly Otter.
* The peanut butter doesn’t have any clothes while the jelly has eyelashes, a bow and purple shoes. In PB&J Otter, Peanut has brown shoes while Jelly has no bow and has dark blue or black shoes.
* The peanut butter and jelly themselves later become otters.
* The parents of Peanut Butter and Jelly are offscreen voices, but in the actual series, the parents of Peanut Butter and Jelly are later named Opal and Ernest, and are actually seen.
* The theme song is short, and is in a low pitch, like the actual series’ long and normal pitched theme song.
* The episode, called The Dentist, is later on being titled Butter’s First Check Up in the actual series, Feel Better Soon later on being titled Otter Pox, Dance Fever later on being titled Gotta Dance, Bedtime later on being titled Go Away Gorilla, and The Tooth Be Told later on being titled Nothin But the Tooth, and The Best Sleepover Ever later on being titled The Greatest Sleepover Ever.
* The squirrel later became Munchy Beaver, the mouse in the pilot series is still here as Simon Fieldmouse in the actual series’ Christmas special The Ice Moose, the chipmunks later became Pinch and Scootch Raccoon, and there is no deer in the actual series after the pilot series is gone and was considered to be lost media, and the rabbit later became Flick Duck.
* The squirrel’s mom later became Betty Lou Beaver, Munchy’s mom, while Munchy’s dad is never seen or mentioned in the actual series, but is in the pilot segments as the squirrel’s dad, while the rabbit’s mom later became Shirley Duck, Flick’s mom, while Flick’s dad is never seen or mentioned in the actual series, but is in the pilot segments as the rabbit’s dad, and the chipmunks’ parents later became Walter and Wanda Raccoon, Pinch and Scootch’s parents, respectively.
* The pilot series has two mouth cams by Peanut Butter and Jelly themselves, like in the episode The Tooth Be Told, when Peanut Butter touches his wiggly loose tooth for Jelly, and in The Dentist when Dr. Floss cleans Jelly’s teeth with a drill, but in the actual series, they don’t have any mouth cams at all.
* Dr. Floss, a male talking dental floss in the dentist episode, later became a female dentist fox named Dr. Molar Fox, in the actual series’ episode called Butter’s First Check Up.
* Their Aunt Nanner is seen in one episode called Bedtime before she became a primary character in the actual series.
* Baby Butter is absent in the pilot series, but is here in the actual series.
* Bubbles appears as cameo, appearing as a red and purple finned bass fish instead of a purple/pink and green finned bass fish, living in a fish bowl instead of both living in a fish bowl and underwater.
* A few characters, like Mayor Jeff, Captain and Connie Crane, Ootsie and Bootsie (plus their parents) and The Ice Moose are never shown in the pilot series but are shown in the actual series.
* The pilot series is animated and live action, while the actual series is traditionally animated.
* The pilot series is also similar to A Little Curious and Blue’s Clues, because it has objects and food that talk.
* The series (Peanut Butter and Jelly) was originally created by Mark Chapman and was animated by Curious Pictures (the same company behind A Little Curious, despite the company’s name), but Jim Jinkins, the founder of Jumbo Pictures, had an idea to create the actual series, called PB&J Otter.
* The series had a total of 11 episodes, while the actual series itself has more episodes than the pilot series.
* The pilot series’ running time is 12 minutes, while the actual series’ running time is 25 minutes (11 minutes in length between episodes)
* The pilot series’ main location is Blansford, while the actual series’ main location is Lake Hoohaw.
== Trivia ==
* The episode in the PB&J Otter pilot series, titled Dance Fever, has the same name as a Bear in the Big Blue House episode, which is another Playhouse Disney series, and coming right before PB&J Otter even aired.
* The entire pilot series hasn’t been found yet since it is lost media in 2020, but it has been leaked and was found in 2023, when the actual show, called PB&J Otter, officially became a little popular.
Category:Pilots
Category:Segments
Category:Disney Channel
Category:Disney
Category:PB&J Otter
Category:Live-Action/Animated
Category:Educational
Category:Preschool
Category:1997
Category:United States