Was "Dental Hyjinks" the Muppet Babies series pilot?

[wiley207]

I had recently watched the Muppet Babies episode "Dental Hyjinks" again and I kinda have to agree with some of the YouTube users' comments. This was most likely the series pilot, and once the show was greenlit, "Noisy Neighbors" was produced as the first episode to air. This would make sense; it's like the Doug episode "Doug Can't Dance" (series pilot, but aired as the second episode) and the Rocko's Modern Life episode "Trash-o-Madness" (again, the series pilot, but aired in the middle of the first season).

This episode uses a different music cue for the title card, compared to the music cue heard in the other 1984-1985 episodes. Also, the animation is a bit rougher than the other 1984 episodes (it looks very similar to the 1984 "G.I. Joe - Revenge of Cobra" miniseries Marvel also produced at the same time), and a few of the voices are not fully perfected yet (Fozzie has sort of an accent when he speaks, almost like the 1976 Fozzie, Baby Gonzo has a more deeper-sounding voice, and Rowlf sounds more gruff), as if the voice actors were basically trying to imitate younger versions of the adult Muppets (Frank Welker's Baby Kermit stayed the same, and I always thought Howie Mandel's Animal was a little off compared to Dave Coulier.) The sound effects are also more similar to a Ruby-Spears or DePatie-Freleng cartoon (incidentally, DePatie-Freleng was the precursor to Marvel Productions prior to 1981), while other 1984 episodes mostly used the Hanna-Barbera sound effects.

Any thoughts/comments?

 

[Drtooth]

I'd have to check that out again... I do remember Fozzie's VA trying to get a first Season Fozzie accent of sorts that got more relaxed and natural (and oddly enough more Fozzie sounding).

But quite often do they bury the pilot in the rest of the series run. Sometimes, it's fairly obvious. There's an episode of Real Ghostbusters, while not the pilot exactly (the pilot as we know is actually a short animated film set to the theme song) was the first episode into production. Killerwatt if you want to check it out yourself... Maurice LaMarche does a more dead on impersonation of Harold Ramis for Egon, making it more, let's say froggy and gruff. Funny thing is, he got the part even though specifically they DIDN'T want him to impersonate Harold Ramis... every other episode he gave a more relaxed performance.