An unusually tired-seeming Bandit pushes a much younger Bluey in a stroller.
Season one of Bluey, while more consistent with the following seasons than most other shows, still had a few differences.Pilots
- The original 2016 pilot is different in spades:
- It was produced by Brumm's own Studio Joho instead of Ludo Studio.
- Instead of an original song, the opening music is an excerpt from "Pinball Lez" by Custard, but with the lines "Bluey! Ruff ruff!" added to it; "Pinball Lez" was also used as a leitmotif.
- Only Bluey appears in the opening, which simply consists of her dancing above an edgier-looking Bluey logo, instead of the Heelers playing musical statues with Bluey winning.
- The art style is very different, consisting of sharper edges, brighter colors, and simpler backgrounds.
- Bluey appears to be younger, as she is shown on a stroller in the beginning and wanting to go on the "big girl swing". She also has five spots on her back instead of three, and has a brown nose instead of black.
- Bandit is a much more tired, disengaged and irresponsible father who inattentively pushes Bluey on the swing set (causing her to do a 360) while playing a game on his phone, rather than the more caring Family Man and Standard '50s Father reconstruction he would become in the series. He is also voiced by Joe Brumm instead of David McCormack, and his dark blue fur doesn't completely go over both eyes.
- Content like the aforementioned 360-degree swing would never be seen in the series proper: in fact, this aspect was criticized for being far too reminiscent of shows like Family Guy.
- When Bluey calls out Mackenzie's name as he and Rusty run to the swing, it's Rusty who responds with Bluey's name. This implies that Rusty was going to be named Mackenzie before that name was given to the Border Collie.
- The 2017 pilot, a prototype of the episode "The Weekend", is more fleshed out, but still has quite a few major differences from the final version, as well as the show in general.
- Mackenzie, Rusty, and Bluey are the only ones to appear in the opening, which also consists of them dancing above Bluey's name. They're also shown in their 2016 pilot designs in the intro, with the pilot itself using an artstyle closer to the eventual series.
- Like in the 2016 pilot, "Pinball Lez" with the line "Bluey! Ruff ruff!" is used as the theme music.
- The characters' eyelids aren't visible when they blink.
- The episode's title is not spoken aloud, and no illustration is shown in the title card.
- Bluey still has a brown nose, along with darker facial markings.
- Bingo's snout is longer and the markings on her back are nearly completely different.
- Bandit has no dark blue markings on the left side of his face, and there is no yellow on his belly.
- The appearance of each room in the house is completely different from the show, with Bluey and Bingo having separate bedrooms; the eventual series sees them share a bedroom.
- Chilli's voice is softer.
- Due to the final version of "The Weekend" reusing scenes from the prototype, the characters often looked rather Off-Model compared to other episodes of the show.
Series
- The first season has more moments of the characters acting like or having traits of real dogs (Socks, in particular, acts more like a real puppy throughout season 1 and most of season 2, doing things like barking and moving on all fours). This was toned down in subsequent seasons, and starting in the season 2 finale "Christmas Swim", Socks becomes more anthropomorphic like the rest of the cast to show how she's growing up.
- Chilli was often absent or separated from the rest of the family throughout season 1, often leaving early in each episode to go play hockey with friends or go to yoga classnote . The intention was likely meant to encourage fathers to spend more time with their children, but the show felt notably lopsided due to it, hence the change to include Chilli more in episodes.
- Indy had longer ears/hair in her first appearances. Her hair was shortened to make it easier to animate.
- In "The Weekend", dollars are called by the standard Aussie slang term "dollarydoos"; fairly soon the show would start using Bluey's idiosyncratic term "dollarbucks" exclusively.
