You know the Backyardigans… right?
Well, you should know that the ones you see on TV, happily dancing and prancing around the screen, aren't really the first Backyardigans. No, the story of the Backyardigans began a long time ago, before the current ones were even born. The first generation was initially comprised of two childhood friends, Gary and Aileen, who used to play daily at a patch of weed near their houses. However, the imagination only kicked its way into their games with the arrival of Melody, a joyful… ummm… something. Actually, neither Gary nor Aileen knew what was Melody's species anyways: she had spots all over her body and a pair of antennae ending in curls on top of her head. Though they were puzzled at first, they eventually became used to Melody's wide imagination and she quickly became part of their group, even giving it a nickname: Backyard Apostles of Imagination.
The three had a lot of exciting adventures until one day when Gary announced he would be moving to Ohio because his parents got back together. After his departure, playing became a lot harder: without him as the mediator, Aileen and Melody's arguements never seemed to end, and their games rarely took any direction. Finally, they decided to break up the group, seeing that without Gary they would be better off alone. However, to keep the good times on her memory, Melody wrote with permanent marker the words 'Backyard 4ever' on a picture of her with Aileen and Gary, and placed it deep in her closet.
The years past. Melody moved with her family to Toronto, Canada, and met a young man who was of the same unknown species as her. They got married and had children, and later, their children had children of their own. One day, Melody's youngest granddaughter, Ulrika, found the picture with 'Backyard 4ever' written on it, and asked Melody about it. Melody told her the whole story, and inspired on that, Ulrika decided to form her own Backyard Apostles of Imagination trio with her best friends Paula the penguin and Allen the alligator. A few days after the group's formation, two new members arrived: Paula's neighbor Tristan the moose and his best friend, Thaddeus the hippo.
The new group had some wonderful adventures, but one day a tragic event surfaced: Ulrika noticed that Allen was more and more absent from the games, and called him through the phone, only for him to answer that he was missing, not because of his naturally shy personality, but because he was recently diagnosticated as being HIV positive. Allen fought as much as he could to stay alive and be able to play once again with his backyard friends, but it was hopeless: he died two weeks after Ulrika's phone call. The four remaining Backyard Apostles of Imagination were present at his funeral, and Paula placed his Yeti hat from the last time they played together on his tomb. Due to Allen's sudden death, the four decided to split up, and it didn't take long until Ulrika moved away to Texas with her parents. To keep the good memories alive for long, Tristan took a picture of the five of them back when Allen was alive and wrote, with light blue permanent marker, the words 'Backyard 4ever' on the front and a message on the back:
If you're as young as my friends and I were on this picture, keep on with the backyard tradition. I'm counting on you.
Tristan placed the picture inside a music box, hoping that one day someone would find it and have the same kind of fun he used to have. He grew up, met a young moose girl and they got married around the same time Paula met a penguin boy who shared the same likes as her. Soon enough, Tristan, Paula and Thaddeus were all married and expecting. Tristan's son Tyrone was the first to be born, later followed by Thaddeus' lovely daughter Tasha. Finally, the egg laid by Paula hatched into a healthy little male penguin that she named after her deceased uncle, Pablo.
That's where our story truly begins.