In the Baa-Ginning
Original air date: 8/18/2000
In the pilot for Sheep in the Big City, Sheep leaves Farmer John's farm in pursuit of a happy life in the big city.
The Sheep in the Big City pilot contains examples of:
- Early Installment Character-Design Difference: This pilot features two character designs that are noticeably different from how the series proper depicts them.
- Lady Richington has a burlier appearance, lacks her necklace and bracelets, and her wig is a different shape.
- General Specific has hair on his temples and the brim of his hat is colored black instead of green.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: The pilot lacked many of the commercials that the series loved to milk for all they're worth, and the Ranting Swede. Private Public wasn't as much of an Only Sane Man as he would be in the show, the Angry Scientist's speech pattern is more normal than it would be in the show, and Swanky, Lisa Rental, and the Plot Device were nowhere to be found. It was also animated in a very primitive form of Adobe AfterEffects (which is why everything appears to float), whereas the series proper was traditionally animated.
- Good Angel, Bad Angel: One scene has an angel and devil appear behind Sheep when he tries to decide whether or not to leave the farm. They turn out to be hand puppets from a puppet theater Sheep was standing in front of.
- Gossip Evolution: Private Public's message to a line of disguised soldiers starts as "Secret invasion at dawn, pass it on" and eventually becomes "Aardvark!" by the time it reaches the last soldier. When the soldiers hear that "Sheep is gone," the message returns to General Specific as "Meryl Streep's sarong."
- No Animals Were Harmed: In the end credits: No sheep were injured during the filming of this special. The next day, however, Sheep walked into a wall and stubbed his toe.
- Obvious Stunt Double: Sheep finds himself cornered on a rooftop by Farmer John and General Specific. While the two argue over the General's penmanship (or lack thereof) on the cue cards, Sheep uses this opportunity to escape: he unravels his wool, creating a rope for him to swing over to the roof of the building across the street. Cut to a shot of a man wearing a Sheep costume swinging from a rope to the other building, only crash against the facade and tumble down to the street below (all in slow motion, and with added film grain), before cutting back to Sheep, who is now lying on the cracked sidewalk in a daze.
- Overly Long Name: General Specific refer to the mission as Operation Kidnap The Sheep That We Need For The Ray Gun And Make Sure He Doesn't Get Away Again Storm (replying to Private Public's query of the name being a little long by suggesting he use the acronym: Operation KTSTWNFTRGAMSHDGAAS.)
- Parental Bonus: When Farmer John sees Sheep in a dress, he laments "What has the city done to you?" The obvious implication is that he's assumed Sheep has become a cross-dressing prostitute.
- Pilot: The pilot for "Sheep in the Big City."
- Retcon: In the pilot, it is revealed that Farmer John was named Farmer because he loved farming so much - other character even acknowledge throughout the rest of the pilot how odd it is that Farmer would be someone's name. In a skit in the actual series, however, we see Mr. and Mrs. John giving his first name as Far (because Mrs. John wanted him to go far in life) and his middle name as Mer (because Mr. John wanted to name him after his beloved Aunt Mer) - to wit: Far Mer John.
- Shaped Like Itself: In the pilot, Farmer John explains that he named the title character Sheep because when he was born, he looked just like a little sheep.
- Shout-Out: The pilot ends with the anticlimax of General Specific, Private Public, and Farmer John getting arrested just before they are about to capture Sheep for beating up the seemingly inconsequential Little Bo Peep character, similar to the end of Monty Python and the Holy Grail where the main cast are all arrested just before the final battle for killing the seemingly inconsequential Historian character.
- Right before the credits roll, Sheep throws his wool up in the air as the narrator says "Sheep's gonna make it after all!"
- Who Names Their Kid "Dude"?: General Specific wonders exactly this about Farmer John when he and Private Public meet him as they are looking for Sheep.
- The pilot states that he's named Farmer because he likes farming so much, but a skit in the actual show reveals that it's actually a combination name: Far (because his parents wanted him to "go far") and Mer (after his great-aunt Mer). Him being an actual farmer is just a coincidence.
- Would Hurt a Child: Little Bo Peep annoys Farmer John, General Specific and Sheep enough that they throw and punt her away.
