Janice Burgess, Longtime Nickelodeon Producer and Creator of 'The Backyardigans' Passes Away, Aged 72

Janice Burgess, a former television executive, screenwriter, and producer for Nickelodeon, sadly passed away on Monday, March 4, aged 72.

Courtesy of Nickipedia.

The two-time Daytime Emmy winner's death was confirmed by Nick Jr. creator Brown Johnson, a friend who told The New York Times she died of breast cancer.

Burgess' passing was also confirmed by Nickelodeon on their Nickelodeon Family Instagram account. In a tribute to the late producer, Nickelodeon said: "We are saddened to learn of the passing of one of the great architects of Nick Jr. and creator of the globally beloved series, The Backyardigans. Janice Burgess was one of the greats--inherently creative and kind, and dedicated to the preschool audience everywhere."

Burgess, who celebrated her birthday just last week, joined Nickelodeon in 1995 as executive-in-charge of production. During her time at Nickelodeon, she created the Nick Jr. series The Backyardigans and worked as a writer and creative director for Nickelodeon's revival of Winx Club. Both shows were produced at the Nickelodeon Animation Studio.

Fracaswell Hyman, a long-time friend who previously worked with her, confirmed on Monday (March 4) that Burgess had recently died. Her cause of death was not immediately known.

“Janice created The Backyardigans and guided countless other shows for Nickelodeon, Sesame Workshop, Disney and Apple TV,” Hyman wrote. “Her script/story critiques were astute, clear and constructive – and I really thank her for that.”

“I will miss my dear friend,” he added.

Burgess grew up in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and attended The Ellis School. Planning to become an art historian, she graduated from Brandeis University in 1974 with a bachelor's degree in art history.

According to an interview with Investor's Business Daily, Burgess did not enjoy traveling "in art circles with collectors and high society," so she sought out a different career after college. She volunteered for a job at the public television station WQED, where she was put in charge of craft services.

In the early 1990s, Janice Burgess held positions at the Children's Television Workshop, including as an assistant travel coordinator for 3-2-1 Contact and project manager for Ghostwriter. For the latter, she coordinated the efforts of a tie-in magazine and teacher materials with the content and goals of the television show. It was during this job that she was notified of an opening at Nickelodeon; Burgess joked that she interviewed for the job "about 11,000 times." She was hired as the executive in charge of production for Nick Jr., overseeing the development of Blue's Clues and Little Bill. Burgess later became the vice president of Nickelodeon's preschool Nick Jr. division.

While working as an executive, Burgess attended scripting and concept development meetings, where she enjoyed helping the creative teams with characters and storylines. Burgess was eventually given the opportunity to transition to a creative role by senior vice president of Nick Jr., Brown Johnson. She asked Burgess to develop an idea for a new Nick Jr. show, and Burgess produced a pilot episode called Me and My Friends at Nickelodeon Studios Florida in 1998. The pilot was a live-action, full-body puppet show that featured music and dance. 

It was not picked up for a full series, but several months after the rejection, Johnson asked Burgess to retool the concept. She liked the characters and music from Burgess's pilot and felt the show would work better in animation.

Using the characters from Me and My Friends, Burgess wrote a second pilot, which was produced at Nickelodeon's New York studio in 2001. The show, now fully computer-animated and renamed The Backyardigans, was greenlit for a full season of 20 episodes. Reflecting on the shift to animation, Burgess said, "Sometimes your first attempt is just not all that great. In this case, my second attempt was much better." The Backyardigans premiered on Nickelodeon on October 11, 2004.

Janice Burgess served as executive producer for The Backyardigans throughout its run of four seasons. In 2006, she described her work on the show positively: "making The Backyardigans has become sort of like an adventure that I go on with my friends. Of course, we get paid, but we do get to be carefree in our work, enjoy each other, hang around a lot, travel a little bit, and make up stuff."

The Backyardigans follows animal neighbors Austin, Tasha, Tyrone, Pablo and Uniqua as they seek out fun-filled adventure and reimagine their backyard as different landscapes. Song and dance was central to the themes featured in the series, which was partly inspired by Burgess' own childhood backyard adventures growing up in Pittsburgh. As a kid, she and her friends would play hide and seek and imagine they were sailing ships and fending off lions.

“I really remember it as a wonderful, happy, safe place,” Burgess once told The New York Times. “You could have these great adventures just romping around. From there, you could go anywhere or do anything.”

And one of the five characters was even inspired by her.

“Uniqua is me. Or at least, who I was as a kid,” Burgess explained. “She’s a ringleader. Out of the five, Uniqua is the main character, and we use her in every story. I think most preschoolers have a sense of their own specialness, and that’s what Uniqua is about.”

In 2021, The Backyardigans had a post-pandemic moment on TikTok when a pair of songs from the program, "Into the Thick of It!" and "Castaways," delighted the internet and 2000s kids alike.

"Why is Backyardigans a musical? Why not?," she told Nickelodeon Animation.

Burgess drew inspiration from action films when writing episodes of the show, as she wanted to adapt high-stakes stories for a young audience. The series received eight Daytime Emmy Award nominations, and Burgess won the 2008 Emmy for Outstanding Special Class Animated Program. After The Backyardigans wrapped production in 2010 on the fourth and final season, much of the series' staff members regrouped to work on Nickelodeon's Winx Club, including Burgess. She worked as a writer, story editor, and creative director on the action-adventure series.

During her time at Nickelodeon, Burgess worked on a number of shows for Nickelodeon, including Gullah, Gullah Island, Allegra’s Window, Blue’s Clues and Bubble Guppies. She also served as a writer on Unfabulous and as a producer on House of Anubis. She also wrote for Three Delivery, which aired on the Nicktoons Network.

R.I.P. Janice Burgess, 1952-March 4, 2024.

Originally published: March 04, 2024 at 03:56 GMT; Sources: Wikipedia, @PopBase, @KeydalisColo.