| Back at the Barnyard | |
|---|---|
The show logo with the post-2010 Nick logo. |
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| Genre | Comedy Surreal humor Off-color humor |
| Format | CGI Animated series |
| Created by | Steve Oedekerk |
| Directed by | Todd Grimes T.J. Sullivan Mike Gasaway |
| Voices of | Chris Hardwick Jeff Garcia Leigh-Allyn Baker Tino Insana Cam Clarke Rob Paulsen Dom Irrera Wanda Sykes Fred Tatasciore Maria Bamford Steve Oedekerk |
| Composer(s) | Guy Moon |
| Country of origin | United States |
| No. of seasons | 2 |
| No. of episodes | 52 (List of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) | Steve Oedekerk Jed Springarn |
| Producer(s) | Maragret M. Dean (Season 1) Paul Marshal |
| Running time | 22 minutes |
| Production company(s) | Omation Animation Studio Nickelodeon Animation Studios |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | Nickelodeon (2007-2010) Nicktoons (2011) |
| Original run | September 29, 2007 – November 12, 2011 |
| Chronology | |
| Preceded by | Barnyard |
| External links | |
| Website | |
Back at the Barnyard is a Nickelodeon CGI animated show that is a spin-off of the 2006 film Barnyard. The debut series premiered on September 29, 2007 on Nickelodeon. The show is produced by Omation Animation Studio, in association with Nickelodeon Animation Studios. The show mainly features pop culture references and parodies for the entertainment of the show. In February 2008, Nickelodeon renewed the show for a second season consisting of 24 episodes. On January 22, 2010, Nickelodeon ordered 16 more episodes extending it to a third season. In March 2011, the show was in hiatus, due to the more recent Omation show "Planet Sheen" pausing production of "Back at the Barnyard" episodes. The hiatus stopped in August 2011 when they announced the remaining episodes will air on Nicktoons starting on September 12, 2011. This is Steve Oedekerk's second animated series for Nickelodeon, as he was one of the executive producers (but not the creator) of The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius. The show ended on November 12, 2011, with 52 full episodes aired.
The plot generally revolves around Otis (a cow) and his barnyard friends. Otis wants to horse around, but has to be responsible and protect the inhabitants of the Barnyard. He and his friends Pip the mouse, Abby the cow, Pig, Freddy the ferret, Peck the rooster, Duke the sheepdog, and Bessy the cow have many crazy adventures, while at the same time help Otis protect the farm. The setting is unknown but it is heavily implied to be in the fictional Arizona town of Oedeville. While the setting strongly resembles Arizona (the Grand Canyon has been depicted in some episodes, i.e. Cowman and Ratboy), some have questioned whether or not it's in Arizona or a made-up setting. According to the original film and an episode of the spin off, Oedeville (in which Steve Oedekerk most likely named after himself) are 20 miles from the actual city of Phoenix. There is still debate of whether this should be the official location because there are many scenes in the show where the nature background does not look at all like Arizona (it is green and hilly, whereas Arizona is more of a desert-like area which is dry, arid and sandy). Otis and his friends have to overtake many obstacles like preventing Mrs. Beady in proving that animals can talk and distracting the farmer for them to throw a party. In every episode, Otis usually gets himself in a sticky situation where his friends have to come to the rescue, resulting in him learning a lesson. Sometimes, the animals dress up like people when out in public, which nobody notices except Mrs. Beady. The locations and artistic style have been reinvented for the series
Otis (voiced by Chris Hardwick) is a black and white male cow who is the leader of the barnyard. Although male, he is called a "cow" not because he is one but because of his udders, the fact that he is male despite being a cow is not explained in the series. He is the show's lead protagonist. In the episode "Cowman and Ratboy", Otis becomes a superhero named Cowman. He also appears as Cowman in the special 1-hour episode "Cowman, the Uddered Avenger". Otis is also a huge party animal (no pun intended) and enjoys anything with action or stunts and enjoys watching sports bloopers. He has a big crush on Abby. Some of his other aliases are "Professor Exposition", politician "Ned Bovine", newsman "Gil O'Malley", golfer Heifer Woods (punning off the famous golf star Tiger Woods) along with many other human disguises, and in the show's Christmas special, we learn he went to high school with two of Santa Claus' reindeer, Donner and Blitzen. He also plays a lot of pranks on Nora Beady (their next door neighbor, who claims to hear them talking and having their wild parties). Character Design of Otis was created by Southern California Artist Mark Beam. He appeared in Nicktoons: Attack of the Toybots as an NPC hidden character. Otis and Pig have made a cameo in the pilot episode of the new series "Planet Sheen".
Pip (voiced by Jeff Garcia) is a great, gray, barn mouse who speaks with a slight Mexican accent and often rides around on his best friend Otis' shoulder. He is known for his crush on Bessy, the sassy and sarcastic cow best friend of Abby, but she always rejects him. Pip's superhero ego is Ratboy, the sidekick of Cowman. Pip is not usually involved with the gang's crazy schemes as much as Freddy, Peck, Pig, etc. are (being a LITTLE more serious), but still, he usually comes along for the ride. Pip's human disguise makes people question him, to which another animal says 'He's the world's smallest man!'.
Abby (voiced by Leigh-Allyn Baker) is a beautiful blonde cow who lives on the barnyard, serving as the replacement for Daisy from the original movie. However, Abby is a bit of a tomboy, a wrestler, and former trapeze artist. Abby still shows a girly personality at certain points, has a major crush on Otis and is thought to be his girlfriend, and also is friends with everyone in the barnyard. There have been certain points on the show where she and Otis seem to have romantic feelings for each other, especially when their mini-clones fell in love. She has a love-shrine to Otis revealed in "Cupig". However, both of them are embarrassed about it so they refuse to admit that they do love each other. Two relatives of Abby mentioned on the show were her unnamed crazy uncle, and her cousin Veronica, who made an appearance in the episode "Abby and Veronica". She also mentioned multiple times that she has 17 brothers, though none of them made an appearance in the series. Her superhero alter-ego is "Cowgirl." Abby has shown to like Otis for probably longer than he liked her. Abby is fond of everyone and is a good sport through it all.
Pig (voiced by Tino Insana) is filthy, not bright, fat and is the only character in the show to be named after his own species living in a mudhole. He is very gluttonous and would eat anything, and he does so uncontrollably. In several episodes, Pig has various segments on the show that often interrupt the episode at its most important parts, with a few memorable segments are "Viewer Mail", "Ask Dr. Pig", a makeover segment and "Hollywood: Fact or Fiction?", which serves as filler time when an episode story is slightly shorter than its air time. Pig has a strong, but quite strange, love for unicorns, and he wished for one in the Christmas special, and is also the animal on the barnyard to dress up and disguise as humans the most times. He has a pet skunk named Skunky, and in one episode he is shown to have a beautiful singing voice. In another episode, after Pig sat on Pip's hand, it left a mark, and the animals believe that he is related to the pet pigs of Prince Fripplehoot, telling by a birthmark shaped like a crown on his backside and is therefore royal, but the stuck-up pigs turned him down. His superhero name is "Mr. Hamtastic."
Freddy (voiced by Cam Clarke) is a very funny but dim-witted ferret and is best friends with Peck, a weak rooster whom he is often tempted to eat. He was a former carnivore but has then become a vegetarian to assimilate to the barnyard. However, in multiple times in the series, Freddy has shown gestures of or attempted to eat Peck, but every time when he tries, his attempt is thwarted, either intentionally or unintentionally. He is illiterate, and suffers from paranoid delusions and has multiple personality disorders. It’s notable how Freddy is the only Character to almost be banished from the Barnyard Twice for crimes he never committed. Also, he is a character who’s been struck by lightning multiple times throughout the series, but once and only once, he temporarily became a genius after being struck. Freddy's superhero name is "Paranoid Man."
Peck (voiced by Rob Paulsen), is an intelligent, but weak rooster who is best friends with Freddy and appears to be unaware of Freddy’s recurring urges to eat him. He is considered to be extremely accident prone, especially with flying meteorites. Peck seems to share a slight rivalry with Root, a larger, braver rooster on the barnyard, such as in "Pecky Suave", where we learn that Peck (as the titular alter ego) is shown to have a crush on a beautiful hen named Hanna. Due to Peck’s accident-proneness and Freddy’s insanity, Peck and Freddy are the show's resident comic relief. Peck's superhero name is "The Green Rooster."
Duke (voiced by Dom Irrera) is the dumb sheepdog who is in charge of the Farmer's flock of intelligent sheep. Duke is clearly no match for the intellect possessed by the sheep he herds. Duke loves being a leader and being in charge of things, though no other animal wants him to be the leader because he is too irresponsible. This was first shown in the movie after Ben, the barnyard leader, was killed and Duke wanted to take his position as leader, but no other animal except his fellow dogs and a cat, wanted him to take the place of Ben and wanted Otis instead. In the series, Duke fancies himself as the barnyard's unofficial safety inspector and makes the barnyard watch a boring safety film once every year. Duke only enjoys dog activities, such as playing ball, so he doesn't hang around with Otis and his friends much, and as a result, sometimes feels lonely and left out.
Bessy (voiced by Wanda Sykes) is a sassy brown cow who lives on the barnyard, and is best with sarcastic comments toward the others. She is the main deuteragonist in the series. In the movie she was Daisy's best friend, but after Daisy was replaced by the more tomboyish Abby, she now serves as her best friend. She is smarter than the other animals in the barnyard and dislike their antics. Although Bessy is known to be the object of Pip's affections, she scornfully fails to return the same feelings. In one episode Bessy reveals that she lost her little son at a county fair, and mistakenly believes it is Otis.
Noreen "Nora" Beady (voiced by Maria Bamford), more commonly known as Mrs. Beady, is a woman who lives close by to the barnyard and serves as the show's antagonist. She is aware about the animals and does various attempts to expose their antics to the world. But no one else believes her because everyone else thinks she's insane, and whenever she attempts to expose the talking animals, the animals always find a way to sabotage her plan.
Farmer Buyer (voiced by Fred Tatasciore) is the vegan owner of the barnyard who Otis cares deeply for. Still, when the animals need some time alone to work on a private project (a movie they are trying to make, a theme park they are attempting to build, etc.), that does not stop them from trying to drive him away with a prank phone call.
Nathan Randall Beady III (voiced by Steve Oedekerk), more commonly known as Mr. Beady, is Mrs. Beady's reluctant husband who miserably tries to convince his wife that animals do not talk. Mrs. Beady often calls him "Mr. Lump" because he always sits on a chair watching TV and rejects everything Ms. Beady says about the talking barn animals.
Eugene "Snotty Boy" Beady (voiced by Steve Oedekerk) is the rude, hateful, and bratty nephew of Nora Beady. He easily falls for pranks pulled on him by the barn animals, being very unintelligent, and is the object of their hatred, calling him "Snotty Boy." Eugene, whose dad is a clown, is extremely obese and the only person who he is ever nice to is his aunt and tortures his uncle.
Snotty Boy and his friends whom he treats badly are parodies of Joe Guire, Plug, and Bradley from How to Eat Fried Worms.
Also, despite his mean ways, he considers himself a ladies' man. In one episode he was "dating" Otis and another girl at the same time. His catchphrase is "Ha-ha!" similar to Nelson Muntz from "The Simpsons"
The sheep (voiced by Frank Welker) are hang around together in an eternally-close herd and are more intelligent than Duke. They often quote famous literature and make snide comments toward Duke. They seem to be very intelligent and philosophical despite their farmly upbringings.
Etta (voiced by Leigh-Allyn Baker) is the lead hen and the mother of Maddy. She used to be a good friend of Ben.
The Jersey Cows are Eddy, Igg and Bud, 3 cows who enjoy pranking humans and dislike having rules. Eddy is the leader out of the 3 cows. They're seen in the episodes "Cow's Night Out" and "Otis' Mom", and also have cameo appearances in several other episodes as well.
Everett (voiced by Lloyd Sherr) is the farmer's old bloodhound. The elderly dog first appeared in the movie, where he celebrated his 13th birthday, making him 91 in dog years. As the oldest animal on the Barnyard, Everett is depicted as being droopy and is as thin as his own skeleton, which can easily be seen. Everett uses a walker to get around, except for when he is playing an instrument, and hardly ever talks, but in very few episodes, he speaks.
Skunky (voiced by Frank Welker) is Pig's pet skunk who is considered as the latter's best friend, much to Otis' chagrin, as seen in "Pig Amok". In "Doggleganger", it is revealed he does not like Duke's tone. He appeared in "Snotty's New Pet", where Pig threw him through the window to skunk Snotty. He appeared in later episodes.
Tony Twocheeks (voiced by Rob Paulsen) is a gopher entrepreneur who lives near the Barnyard. He often cons those who buy from him. He has an Elvis-like hairdo, sunglasses, and is sometimes seen chewing on a toothpick. He never appeared in Season 2, presumably being drowned by Chubs Malone as mentioned in Otis Eleven.
Root (voiced by Earthquake) is Peck's rival. He hosts the weekly talent show at the barn.
Baxter (voiced by Kevin McDonald) was a small white dog with pointed ears who became Duke's nemesis after he met him at an animal clinic in the episode "Doggleganger". He disguised as Duke with the help of dark brown spray paint to give him spots and markings like Duke's. Although Baxter seemed to be a stray, he might had an owner in order to be able to afford medical care. He made 2 more appearances, first as Duke's replacement on the Barnyard, and then tried to marry Duke's sister, Stamps, only for the fact she was second in line to a relative's priceless bone collection.
Buck is a brown horse who lives on the barnyard who has a terrible temper and despises Otis. In the episode "Some Like It Snotty" where Otis dresses up as a girl to prove they have easier lives than boys and ends up becoming Snotty Boy's temporary girlfriend, Buck also dressed up as a girl.
Bigfoot (voiced by Dee Bradley Baker), who debuted in "Otis vs. Bigfoot", was in love with Abby and wanted to live at the Barnyard, but opted to go away. He was seen in several episodes since as a minor character, such as a judge in "Barnyard Idol", a mayoral candidate in "Otis for Mayor" and was also a singer. Apparently, Bigfoot can also fly and has his own theme song similar to Gamera. In multiple episodes it is shown that he is afraid of flash photography.
Goat is a brownish-gray goat who is known for giving rides to Otis (i.e. The Great Sheep Escape, The Chronicles of Barnia). The goat has also played saxophone and even given advice to the others.
The pizza twins (voiced by Rob Paulsen and Steve Oedekerk) are identical twin pizza delivery boys who first appeared in the original movie and often deliver pizza to the barnyard. The duo are very unintelligent and whenever they manage to successfully perform a task (either good or bad) they chant their famous line, "Doodley-doo-doo doo." One of them is of the Lutheran religion and got a fake arm.
Hilly Burford (voiced by John DiMaggio) is the series' British news anchor who also is a judge in "Do You Gots It?", served as Santa Claus in "It's an Udderful Life" and hosts the game show "Trivia Cash A-Ding-Dong" in the episode, "A Beautiful Freddy". His voice and characterization is a tribute to Will Ferrell's impression of longtime baseball announcer Harry Caray.
Officer Fred O'Hanlon (voiced by John DiMaggio) is the series' police officer. In "Chain Gang" he also serves as the prison warden because of budget cuts. He is the main antagonist in "Cow's Night Out" and "Chain Gang". He teamed up with Mrs. Beady to capture Bigfoot in "Otis vs. Bigfoot".
Jessica Allspice (voiced by Maria Bamford) is a celebrity pop diva and was featured as a judge on the show Do You Gots It? Her catchphrase is, "I wanna party with you." She is a spoof of Jessica Simpson.
Three children are in the Barnyard that go to school, where Peck is the teacher. They are Joey the Cow (voiced by Rob Paulsen), Macy the Sheep (voiced by Maile Flanagan) and Boyle the Chick (voiced by Chris Hardwick).
Max Fripplehoot is a wealthy man with a hot temper, who appeared in the episode "Chez Pig", where he tries to buy Pig's truffle pie recipe. The animals refused in the end.
Bingo is a monkey test pilot who appeared in the episode "The Right Cow". He crashed into the barnyard with his spaceship, and he tries to get rid of Otis so he could be Barnyard leader. At the end, he was blasted to outer space on a spaceship, vowing to return. At that time, fans speculated that he was going to be one of the main antagonists of the show, though he has never returned.
Stupid McStinky Head is the name that Snotty Boy gave to his pet snake. He is seen in one episode, "Snotty's New Pet", where Snotty captures Pip and plans to feed Pip to the snake. But eventually the snake becomes friends with Pip when he realizes Pip is the only one who likes him.
Chubbs Malone is the head of the Gopher Underground shop. In Otis Eleven it was mentioned that he took Tony Twocheeks on a fishing trip but Tony never came back, leading to speculation that he drowned Tony Twocheeks. He maliciously tried to take over the barn by cheating to win a game of Fizzbin and make the night barn the gophers' party place. But when Otis saves his life from a falling anvil, Chubbs feels grateful and gives back the barn to the animals.
Krouser Krebs (voiced by Thomas F. Wilson) is a duck bully from Otis's childhood who was famous for making Otis squirt milk at himself. He only appears in "Brave Udders." He only wanted to apologize to Otis until Otis's friends got him mad and made Krebs attack them mercilessly. He leaves the barnyard to apologize to a warthog across town and in anger of Otis's friends attacking him.
Hanna is a hen who's Peck's crush. Peck repeatedly tried to talk to her in an episode but he always gets too shy when approaching her.
Wild Mike is a hairball-like animal with an unknown species. He is usually kept in a cage. When released from the cage, he dances and causes all the animals around him to dance with him. He first appeared in the Barnyard movie, but was never introduced in the television series until the episode "Wild Mike's Dance Party".
Veronica is a cow who is Abby's cousin. She appears in the episode Abby and Veronica, in which she manipulates the other animals who were mesmerized by her beauty to tell them to do whatever she wants them to do. But all she wanted was a giant diamond from a mine.
Dr. Filly (parody of Dr. Phil) is a horse psychiatrist. In "Paging Dr. Filly", the animals hired him to cure Peck and Freddy's arguing, but he appeared to make things worse. It was then revealed that this wasn't the real Dr. Filly and instead, it was an impersonator donkey who was unsatisfied with Dr. Filly.
Shmoozy is a whale who appeared in the episode "Free Shmoozy". The animals liberate Shmoozy from a park but they end up becoming swallowed by the whale. At the end of the episode the animals discover that Shmoozy was just playing around and has no intent of eating them. Shmoozy talks whale language, so only Freddy understands him.
Mr. Wiggleplix is an invisible hedgehog who could only be visible when covered with flour. He is Pig's friend who appeared in the episode "Mr. Wiggleplix". Because he was not visible, everybody believed he was Pig's imaginary friend. In the episode, Pig believed that Otis killed him but in the end, it was revealed otherwise.
"Weird Al" Yankovic (portrayed as a talking horse and voiced by himself) is Bessy's famous accordion-playing friend. Yankovic was seen in the episode, "Get Bessy".
A group of mischievous crows from Canada who enjoy stealing the barnyard's corn. They speak with a French accent. They were the main antagonists in "Treasure Hunt" but were helpful in "A Catfish Called Eddie".
Stamps (voiced by Nika Futterman) is Duke's sister who appeared in "Puppy Love". She was seen dating Baxter, but it was revealed that Baxter did not love her, only her prized possessions.
Prunella is a she-donkey that is in the episode "Hickory Dickory Donkey" and uses Pip as a fake boyfriend to make her real boyfriend, Thor, jealous.
Daisy (voiced by Courteney Cox) was Otis's love interest in the movie. She later gave birth to a male calf and named it Ben after Otis's father, and because Daisy's husband was probably killed after a storm blew Daisy and Bessy's herd away, Otis became baby Ben's adoptive father. In the series, Daisy was completely replaced by Abby, who was more of a tomboy. No mention of Daisy or her son Ben has come up in the series ever since.
Ben (voiced by Sam Elliott) was the former leader of the Barnyard. In the movie, he was killed by a pack of evil coyotes. He was Otis's adoptive father. He was more strict than Otis, who enjoys partying. Daisy also named her baby calf after him at the climax. Ben has only been mentioned on the show once, but seems to have completely vanished from the Barnyard after his death.
Miles (voiced by Danny Glover) was an old mule who was a good friend of Ben's. When Ben passed away, Miles was crucial in mentoring Otis which helped him assume his position of leadership and defeat the coyotes. He has never been mentioned in the show.
Maddy (voiced by Madeline Lovejoy) was a young chick who enjoys playing with Otis. She was slightly troublesome for Etta to take care of because she often wandered off from the chicks.
Dag (voiced by David Koechner is a red coyote who was the main antagonist in the original Barnyard movie. He captured all the chickens but under Otis's leadership, the animals were able to free the chickens and scare away all the coyotes.
| Season | Episodes | First Airdate | Last Airdate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Season 1 | 26 | September 29, 2007 | February 24, 2009 |
| Season 2 | 26 | February 25, 2009 | November 12, 2011 |
Note: As this show is translated into several languages (e.g. into Irish on TG4 in Ireland), the voice actors will be different than the English version.
Much of the original cast from the movie reprised their roles. However, Kevin James, who had voiced Otis in the previous film, Andie MacDowell, who voiced Etta, and Megan Cavanagh, who voiced Hanna, did not return for the series. Others, such as Abby the cow, were created especially for the series.
Volume 1: When No One's Looking
Volume 2: Cowman The Uddered Avenger
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