LazyTown

The series focuses on an 8-year-old[8] pink-haired girl named Stephanie, the newest resident of the LazyTown community. She has moved to LazyTown to live with her uncle, Mayor Milford Meanswell, and is surprised to learn that all of her neighbors lead inactive lifestyles. With the help of an above-average hero named Sportacus, she helps teach the other residents how to partake in more athletic pastimes. Her attempts are often nearly thwarted by Robbie Rotten, who prefers to lead a sluggish life and is agitated by the sudden boom of physical activity. On a regular basis, Robbie devises ill-judged schemes to make LazyTown lazy once again. However, his plans are never foolproof and always end with him losing.

Each of the children that Stephanie befriends embodies negative characteristics. Ziggy, who is kindhearted and wants to be a superhero when he grows up, has an unbalanced diet devoid of fruits and vegetables. Trixie is a troublemaker with little respect for rules and other people. Pixel is an inventor who displays anti-social behaviour and spends too much time on his computer. Stingy has a self-centered attitude and is possessive of nearly everything in town. As the series progresses, the characters become less lazy in favor of a healthier way of living which promotes such lifestyle to the audience watching to help with childhood obesity.

The program features predominantly an Eurodance soundtrack.[9] Each episode features at least one original song and concludes with a different performance of "Bing Bang (Time to Dance)", which is sung by Stephanie. Many tracks are reworked versions of songs from the basis for Icelandic plays.

Fifty-two episodes were produced for the first two seasons of LazyTown between 2004 and 2007. After Turner Europe acquired LazyTown Entertainment, the show was revived for two new seasons, consisting of thirteen episodes each, that aired from 2013 to 2014.

LazyTown began as a storybook published in 1995 titled Áfram Latibær! ("Go Go LazyTown!").[3] In 1996, a stage adaptation of the book was shown in Iceland.[lower-alpha 1] It featured Stephanie as an out-of-shape dancer and Sportacus as an energetic elf. The puppet characters seen in the television series also appeared in human form, but Robbie Rotten did not yet exist. A second stage show titled Glanni Glæpur í Latabæ ("Robbie Rotten in LazyTown") debuted in 1999. It introduced Stefán Karl Stefánsson as Robbie and featured more finalized versions of the other characters. Nickelodeon Australia reported that by the time the second play finished touring, LazyTown had become a household name in Iceland.[13] A variety of tie-in products and media were created in the country before Scheving decided to develop LazyTown into a television program; these included bottled water, toy figures, and a radio station.[14]

In most episodes, the only characters played by live actors are Stephanie, Sportacus, and Robbie Rotten. The rest of the characters are depicted as puppets, made by the Neal Scanlan Studio and Wit Puppets. The show was filmed and produced at 380 Studios, a purpose-built studio near Reykjavík equipped with high-end HDTV production facilities and one of the largest green screens in the world. The production floor area is 1,800 square meters.[15][16] The budget for each episode was approximately ISK 70,000,000 (US$1 million), about five times the average cost for a children's television program at the time, making it "the most expensive children's show in the world" according to Scheving.[17][18]

Its virtual sets were generated with an Unreal Engine 3-based framework, created by Raymond P. Le Gué and known as XRGen4. According to Le Gué, "We start with the live actors and puppets on a physical set with a green screen behind them as a backdrop. The green screen is replaced in real time with the sets created in XRGen4 using UE3. As we move the camera and actors around the physical set, the backdrop scene also moves in real time in complete synchronization with the movements of the real camera. All of this is recorded, and the director can watch the resulting composition in real time."[19] Seasons 3 and 4 of LazyTown were filmed as usual in the LazyTown Studios in Iceland, but the special effects were created this time round by Turner Studios in Atlanta.[20]

In the United States, the show debuted on Nick Jr. on August 16, 2004 and ended on 2010.[21] The second season debuted in the United States on Nick Jr. in 2005.[22][23] It also aired in the United States on CBS as part of the Nickelodeon on CBS Saturday morning block from 18 September 2004 to 9 September 2006. The series aired daily on the Nick Jr. channel until 18 July 2010.[24] On 18 April 2011, Sprout acquired the US TV rights to LazyTown and started airing the series on 5 September 2011.[25] It aired daily on the channel until 26 September 2016.

The series has been broadcast on a variety of networks internationally, many of which belong to Viacom Media Networks. Nickelodeon Southeast Asia has carried the program in eleven territories.[26] In Australia and New Zealand, it is shown on Nickelodeon Australia.[13] In the United Kingdom and Ireland, it aired on Nick Jr. UK, Noggin, and CBeebies.[27][28] The series arrived in the UK in September 2005, making a simultaneous debut on both Nickelodeon and CBeebies. CBeebies aired the first two series and stopped repeats in March 2012. Nick Jr UK stopped airing repeats in 2011.[29][30] After the series was revived for seasons three and four, Turner's Cartoonito in the UK and Ireland premiered episodes from 2013–2014. Boomerang, another Turner channel also air seasons three and four and continue to do so as of August 2018. Viacom's Channel 5 also aired the newer episodes as part of its Milkshake! block until 2016.[31][32] Channel 5's Demand 5 service carried episodes of the British version in 2015.[33]

In 2008, a Spanish-dubbed version of LazyTown debuted on V-me, a television network created for the Hispanic market in the US.[34] NBC began airing it every Saturday on 7 July 2012, as part of the new Saturday morning NBC Kids pre-school block until 25 September 2016. The Spanish-dubbed version also airs on Telemundo (a sister station to NBC) as part of the weekend pre-school morning block MiTelemundo.

In Brazil, the program was first broadcast on SBT, with subsequent airings on Discovery Kids, Boomerang and Cartoon Network.

A Serbian-dubbed version called Lenji Grad was broadcast in Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Montenegro on Ultra TV and several other networks.

A Croatian-dubbed version called Lijeni Grad was broadcast in Croatia on HRT 2.

In the Indian-dubbed version called आलसी शहर, The show aired on Cartoon Network in India.

In the Portuguese-dubbed version, the show aired on Cartoon Network in Portugal.

The series has been dubbed into thirty-two languages.

In the Icelandic dub, actors Magnús Scheving, Guðmundur Þór Kárason, and Stefán Karl Stefánsson dubbed themselves over.

In 2007, the song "You Are a Pirate" from the first season episode "Rottenbeard" became an internet meme. In 2011, the song was covered by the pirate metal band Alestorm in their album Back Through Time. The song "We Are Number One" was named "Dank Meme of the Year" in 2016 on the Reddit subreddit /r/dankmemes, a popular subreddit for memes.[50] The Robbie Rotten memes began in October that year when Stefán Karl Stefánsson, the actor who played Robbie Rotten, announced that he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.

A GoFundMe page was established by LazyTown head writer Mark Valenti to help the actor as he endured his illness. "We Are Number One" and many other LazyTown videos were used to promote the fundraising effort, which eventually surpassed its $100,000 goal. The campaign was popularized by the YouTube channel SiIvaGunner uploading a "We Are Number One" video.[51][52] To thank his supporters, Stefánsson celebrated by uploading a video of that song performed with his former cast members and LazyTown's composer.[53] On 13 August 2017, Stefánsson was declared cancer free after a successful surgery;[54] however, he died on 21 August 2018 after his cancer recurred.[55]

On 15 September 2008, a spin-off television series called LazyTown Extra debuted in the United Kingdom on CBeebies.[56] A "magazine format style show" for 3- to 6-year-olds, it features characters from LazyTown in an assortment of short sketches.[57] 26 episodes of Lazy Town Extra were produced, each between 11 and 15 minutes in duration.[58][59]

In February 2005, Nickelodeon unveiled a collection of LazyTown products at the American International Toy Fair. Fisher-Price partnered with Viacom's consumer product division to produce the merchandise, all of which was designed to encourage physical activity.[35]

The 2007–08 LazyTown Live show at the Alexandra Theatre, Birmingham

From June to August 2005, LazyTown's Stephanie hosted the "Nick Jr. Power Play Summer" event, which involved a series of television spots that replaced the channel's standard on-air continuity. Similarly to the live performances and the program itself, this campaign was an experiment designed by the network to increase awareness of exercise and nutrition in its preschool audience.[60]

Nickelodeon produced a stage show titled LazyTown Live! in 2005. It debuted at Nickelodeon Suites Resort on 6 August.[61] A modified version toured the United Kingdom and Ireland between October 2007 and August 2008. It introduced a new cast to the United Kingdom, including Julian Essex-Spurrier as Sportacus.[17][62][63]

A Spanish-speaking version of the live show premiered in Mexico in 2008, followed by Argentina, Costa Rica, Guatemala and Panama. As of 2009 it was scheduled to tour the United States in 2010.[64][65] New productions of LazyTown Live had their premieres in November 2009 in Portugal and in March 2010 in Spain by producers Lemon Entertainment. A stage play premiering in 2011 introduced the character and concept for Roboticus, which became the first episode of Season 3 of the show in an abridged form.[66]

From 28 January 2009 to 29 November 2009, a live stage production entitled LazyTown Live! The Pirate Adventure toured the United Kingdom and Ireland. It featured characters and songs from LazyTown, performed by a new cast.[67][68] In 2016, a UK production entitled LazyTown Live On Stage ran from 7 July 2016 to 4 September 2016. This production was posted on YouTube and featured the song We Are Number One.[69][70][71]

A live show LazyTown in Schools premiered in Australia in 2012, touring schools to promote healthy eating and fitness for children.[72]

• List of Internet phenomena
• Television in Iceland

Wikiquote has quotations related to: LazyTown

• Official website
• "LazyTown". Nick Jr. Archived from the original on 6 March 2016.
• "LazyTown Season Three Announced". License Global. 3 May 2012.
• LazyTown bubblegum dance music discography at Bubblegum Dancer