Trivia / LazyTown

Trivia for LazyTown.

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• Acting for Two:
  • Bessie Busybody is voiced by Julie Westwood. In the UK dub, she also voices Pixel.
  • In a similar fashion, Sarah Burgess voices both original series Trixie and UK Stingy.
  • In the French dub, Stingy and Pixel are both voiced by Paolo Domingo.
  • In the Romanian dub, Ziggy, Mayor Meanswell and Stingy^* excluding Season 4 are all voiced by Viorel Ionescu.
  • In the Flemish Dutch dub, all the characters are voiced by the same three actors (Sam Verhoeven, Wanda Joosten, and Door Van Boeckel).
• Adored by the Network: Up until 2017, the late night hours of Boomerang's UK feed were comprised of repeated airings of this show and The Garfield Show to fulfill European content quotas.
• Amateur Cast: Many of the human actors in the show were complete unknowns. Many of them were active with Icelandic theatrical troupes or had been in Icelandic films, while both of Stephanie's actresses had performed in theater and television commercials. Averted for all of the puppeteers, with the exception of Ziggy's performer Guðmundur Þór Kárason, who is more of a puppet builder/designer than a puppeteer.
• Approval of God: Robbie Rotten's actor stated his appreciation for the "We Are Number One" meme and the sheer creativity that came of it. The song's composer, Máni Svavarsson has also stated that he absolutely loves the meme.
• Beam Me Up, Scotty!:
  • A lot of people assume that the phrase Robbie shouts near the end of "We Are Number One" is a Title Scream. What he's actually shouting is "Villain Number One", the original name of the song.
  • The opening lines of "You Are a Pirate" are "Do what you want cause a pirate lives free". However, many people mistake it for "Do what you want cause a pirate is free".
• The Cast Showoff:
  • Sportacus showcases Scheving's and Kristjansson's amazing stunts and talent as gymnasts, to the point where the character won't simply walk anywhere - instead he'll flip, somersault, walk on his hands, cartwheel, etc. just to get to wherever he needs to be.
  • The actresses who play Stephanie are both trained dancers and singers and get chances to show off their moves and voices in most episodes.
  • Stefan Karl (Robbie Rotten) was no slouch either, being an accomplished singer and dancer in his own right. He probably also got the best songs out of everyone else in the entire cast too; "You Are A Pirate", "Master Of Disguise", "Woof Woof Woof" and "We Are Number One" all have him as the lead vocalist.
• Celebrity Voice Actor: Stephanie was voiced in the Norwegian dub by Tomine Harket, the daughter of a-ha lead singer Morten Harket.
• Channel Hop:
  • In the US, the series originally aired on Nickelodeon's Nick Jr. block and on Noggin. In 2011, the series moved to Sprout, and seasons 3 and 4 premiered there as well.
  • In the UK, the series aired on CBeebies and it later moved to the British version of Cartoonito and Channel 5's Milkshake! block in 2013.
• Classically-Trained Extra: Stefan Karl was an acclaimed theater actor who performed in stage musicals along with Chekhov and Shakespeare plays. He endeared himself to many fans by stating that he took Robbie Rotten as seriously as his Shakespearean roles, which certainly shows in his performance.
• Crossdressing Voices:
  • In the Chilean Spanish dub, Stephanie was voiced by a male voice actor (Rene Pinochet, who was the dub voice of Aang) in the first two episodes. He was later replaced by a voice actress.
  • While the male children in the original version subvert this, several foreign dubs (even the UK dub) play it straight with at least some characters (e.g. Lorraine Parsloe as UK Ziggy).
• Dawson Casting: In seasons 1 and 2 Stephanie is eight years old (nine by the time of LazyTown Extra), while the actress started playing her at the age of thirteen and was seventeen when she filmed Extra. When the show was revived in 2013, the role was recast with the ten-year-old Chloe Lang, averting this trope. This is also averted with Shelby Young, who was also ten at the time of filming the pilot.
• Diagnosis of God: In a Word of Saint Paul example, Stefán Karl Stefánsson stated in a 2009 interview that Robbie Rotten has ADHD, OCD and Tourette's.
• Disabled Character, Disabled Actor: Both Stefán Karl and Robbie Rotten had ADHD, OCD and Tourette's, though Stefán stated Robbie doesn't manage his symptoms as well as he did.
• Dueling Dubs:
  • The show has two English dubs. One airs in the US while the other airs in the UK, with the puppets re-dubbed by British actors, and certain terms being changed, such as "mailbox" being changed to "postbox".
  • There are also three Latin Spanish dubs - one in Chile, one in Venezuela, and one in Miami.
• Edited for Syndication: When aired on NBC Kids in the United States, the verse about Stephanie being new in town is cut from the opening theme and the closing credits are aired compressed at the bottom of the screen during the "Bing Bang" song. The opening theme is also compressed. Some episodes are slightly cut to make room for more commercials.
• Fan Works: In May 2023, something called The LazyTown Movie was added to Prime Video. However, what it ended up being was a low-quality bootleg movie created using GoAnimate featuring AI-generated voices of actors and actresses (which is borderline illegal for paid work because it tarnishes the work of the actors), an adult-oriented story that is completely off-tone with the kid-friendly show (especially revolting topics including rape) and claims that the movie was distributed by Universal Pictures, even though they had nothing to do with it or anything to do with the LazyTown IP as a whole.
  • The reason for its existence was that the creator of the movie - Zaki Paul, was displeased with Turner Broadcasting System Europe not doing anything with the franchise and decided to send it to Prime Video for this reason. Somehow, it was accepted by Amazon (likely by bots) and was able to be bought for $20. It was soon uploaded to YouTube as well. However, Zaki Paul's claims were proven to be wrong, as it was eventually taken down both Prime Video and YouTube following a cease-and-desist copyright claim by Warner Bros. Discovery (the owners of TBS Europe and the LazyTown IP). It is still on the former site but is not watchable anymore.
• Fake American: Sarah Burgess and Julie Westwood are both from England and use American accents for Trixie and Bessie Busybody respectively, though both of them used their normal accents when redubbing Stingy for British audiences (Burgess for seasons 1 and 2, Westwood for seasons 3 and 4).
• Filmed Stage Production: The original plays were both released on VHS, but are now out-of-print.
• Keep Circulating the Tapes:
  • The original plays are long out-of-print and were only released on DVD in Iceland, making YouTube the only way for non-Icelanders to experience them.
  • Only episodes from seasons 1 and 2 were released on DVD in the US, and the releases were sporadic and not in any particular order. The soundtrack CDs have an even worse case of this, as the US got limited releases of only a few songs, most songs from seasons 1-3 but not all were released in the UK and Australia, and nothing from season 4 is available on CD at all.
• Meme Acknowledgment:
  • The official LazyTown YouTube channel posted their own variant of "We Are Number One" on December 9, 2016, with promises to release the instrumental version. Not only did they do that, the song's entire stems were released, as well as the song's original lyrics.
  • Even better, Stefan Karl (Robbie's actor) himself performed a live-reenactment of the song on December 11th, 2016. With the supporting actors, no less!
• Non-Singing Voice: Matthias Matthiasson provides Sportacus' singing voice.
• The Other Darrin:
  • When the series returned in 2013 after a long hiatus, Chloe Lang assumed the role of Stephanie in place of Julianna Rose Mauriello because she had aged out of the role.
  • Julianna also took over as Stephanie from Shelby Young, who played her in the pilot but had to turn down the role on the show due to union issues.
  • In January 2014 Magnus Scheving stepped down from the role of Sportacus in live shows, passing the torch to Dyri Kristjansson (he never performed Sportacus in the show due to Turner deciding to pull the plug on the revival).
  • The revival also had Pixel and Trixie replaced with Ronald Binion and Aymee Garcia, with the former being Pixel's puppeteer ever since season 1.
  • The only UK actor to be replaced is Stingy's, who went from Sarah Burgess (Trixie's voice actress) to Julie Westwood (Bessie's voice actress and one of Pixel's two puppeteers).
  • In the European Portuguese dub, Ziggy's voice actor changed to Tiago Retrê in Season 2.
  • The Romanian dub has loads:
    • Gabriel Velicu replaced Cristian Balint as Sportacus in Season 4. Same for Dan Lupu replacing Viorel Ionescu as Stingy.
    • In Seasons 1-2, Adrian Ciglenean played both Robbie Rotten and Pixel. In the revival, Ionut Ionescu voices Robbie and Adrian Venete voices Pixel.
  • In the Spanish dub, Stephanie was voiced by René Pinochet for the first few episodes, before Andrea Perez took over.
  • In the Italian dub, Sportacus was voiced by Francesco Pezzulli for the first three seasons and by Fabrizio Vidale in the fourth.
• Out of Order: Many episodes in Seasons 1 and 2 aired out of production order, with the unfinished episode "The Lazy Dance" being the first episode produced. The first episode aired, "Welcome to LazyTown", was sixth in production.
• Recycled Soundtrack: Several Season 1 episodes reuse a song from an earlier episode with near-identical remade footage. This is noticeable in Good Stuff, in the shots where Robbie is staring at Stephanie and the gang. In "Dr. Rottenstein", he is seen dressed up as a doctor but in "Sports Candy Festival" he is dressed as a carrot.
• Referenced by...: Has its own page.
• Screwed by the Network:
  • The show’s run on Nickelodeon was consistent until 2006. After season 2 premiered, the show only aired when new episodes aired, and reruns being nonexistent between September 2006-February 2007. Reruns did return in February 2007, but they aired at 7AM on weekends until October 2007, with 8 unaired episodes from Season 2, not airing on neither Nickelodeon or Noggin.
  • Happened when WNBC, the New York City NBC affiliate, ran the show as part of NBC Kids. As it and Noodle and Doodle were the last two shows to air as part of their scheduling for the block, the two frequently faced sports pre-emptions and sometimes didn't air at all during some weeks.
  • After moving to Boomerang in the UK, the show only aired in graveyard slots—where absolutely nobody would be awake; even then, only Seasons 3 and 4 were shown.
  • After a few years on Sprout, the network abruptly stopped airing the show on September 26, 2016.
• Suppressed Mammaries: Julianna Rose Mauriello has had to have her breasts taped down since puberty, as Stephanie is supposed to be 8 years old (or 9 as of Extra, since one year's passing has been acknowledged). She was 17 during the last filming of Extra. That said, "Stephanie" (Solla Stirða) was played by actual adult women in all the original Icelandic plays from before the TV show, and one of them was quite busty with no attempt to do anything about it; while Julianna definitely had grown between seasons and doesn't really look any bigger in out-of-character shots from the same era.
• Short Run in Peru: Germany had finished Season 1 by the end of 2005. Every episode starting from Secret Agent Zero aired in Germany before the US.
• Un-Canceled: The final episode of the second season aired in October 2007; the third season premiered in the U.K. in April 2013 and the U.S. in May 2013.
• What Could Have Been:
  • The Pilot for the show from 2002 had a slightly different art style with most of the (puppet) kids having different designs to them as well as voice actors and Stephanie being played by Shelby Young, who had to step down from the role due to union issues.
  • Jives, a character from the original play LazyTown was based on, was intended to be in the show, but ended up getting dropped. Despite this, his house can still be seen in the background of some episodes. In a similar fashion, characters like Officer Obtuse and Hannin the Rooster were intended to appear as well but ended up getting scrapped.
  • Early concepts for the show had the town be a Crapsaccharine World full of instant gratification and temptations Sportacus had to avoid, and had a backstory where Robbie bullied Sportacus when they were kids. Sportacus, who went by Alex as a child, was mentored by Number Nine, who passed on his mantle when Alex was old enough. Bessie Busybody was also Sportacus's mom at one point.
  • One backstory for Sportacus was that as a child he was enslaved in the mines by a man named Mr. Kicker, getting his number in a case of You Are Number 6. He eventually led a slave rebellion and escaped after building an airship.
  • The infamous "We Are Number One" song originally had completely different lyrics, which were discovered when the song's stems were released.
  • The first episode in production order, "The Lazy Dance," was never released due to technical issues. The plot was about Sportacus being embarrassed because he couldn't dance, with Robbie disguising himself as a female dance instructor to teach Sportacus embarrassing, lazy dance moves.
  • An unused song called "We're Dancing", which is about Stephanie teaching Sportacus how to dance was also available on the Nick Jr. Jukebox site. It was written for the unaired episode "The Lazy Dance" and it was not featured in any aired episode; however, "Miss Roberta" uses a short clip of the song and "Dancing Duel" features a remixed version.
  • Another unused song called "Easy Way", which is about Pixel's remote controlled device that can do anything for him was featured on the Nick Jr. Jukebox site. It is usually connected with "Remote Control" (where it is the main topic) leading into a theory that it was going to be used in that episode. The episode actually reuses "Gizmo Guy" (since both have the same tune).
  • The stage play Ævintýri í Latabæ was never officially released due to poor reviews during its preview phase, with the only surviving footage being a trailer and the song Dansa, Áfram Dansa.
  • In an interview with fan site Getlazy, head writer Mark Valenti talked about writing Stephanie out of the series in Season 3 and replacing her with her cousin. Stephanie was supposed to appear on a video screen and explain why she was leaving town to the other characters. That idea was scrapped and Stephanie was simply recast instead.
  • This Reddit AMA mentions a planned LazyTown movie that would have answered what happened to Number Nine, but nothing came of it except concept art. With Stefán Karl Stefánsson's death in 2018 it will likely never see the light of day.
  • Dyri Kristjansson was assigned by Magnus Scheving as his successor in the role of Sportacus in January 2014 for live shows. It's implied Dyri was going to perform Sportacus for the TV series, but Turner pulled the plug on the revival later that year after Series 4 concluded.

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