Yahoo Lifestyle I Genuinely Can't Watch "Bluey" The Same Way After Learning These 15 Facts About The Heelers
There are many milestones I've experienced as a first-time toddler parent — first words, first steps, and, of course, first time watching Bluey.
My husband and I long wondered what all the hype was about the show, so when we were ready to introduce a little screen time, we dove right in and never looked back. For my daughter, the show (and particularly its catchy theme song which ultimately became my most-streamed Spotify song of 2023) was an immediate hit — and we found ourselves genuinely enjoying it too.
Of course, that's not surprising. According to Nielsen, Bluey was the second most streamed show of 2023 with a whopping 43.9 billion viewing minutes on Disney+. Families everywhere love the adventures of Bluey, Bingo, Bandit, and Chilli, and in celebration of the beloved Heeler fam, here are 15 facts you probably didn't know about the show:
1.Show creator Joe Brumm was largely inspired by his own two daughters when he came up with the idea for the show — and he also drew inspiration from his childhood dog who was named Bluey.
“I drew a little friend as a blue heeler,” he told The Independent. “I just kept returning to this bright blue dog — and I thought, this is kids’ TV. We need bright colours. And I used to have a dog that was a blue heeler called Bluey growing up. It was perfect, because then you can have red heelers, as well — so you’ve suddenly got your little sister."
2.And before Bluey became the main character who we all know and love, Joe originally planned to center the show around Rusty, a kelpie. Eventually, Rusty would become a side character and one of Bluey's friends on the show.
“It was originally a kelpie, because that was the last dog I had through my teenage years," he said.
3.In case you've ever wondered, this is what a Blue Heeler dog looks like in real life.
The official name is Australian Cattle Dog, and they're nicknamed Blue Heeler (like Bluey and Bandit) or Red Heeler (like Chilli and Bingo) based on their fur color.
4.Joe's vision for the show was that it should be something that both parents and kids alike genuinely enjoy sitting down to watch together.
"There were shows like that in older demographics, but they were a bit few and far between at the preschool stage, and I thought this is probably where you need it the most because you do end up watching a lot of it," he told The Hollywood Reporter. Mission clearly successful since here I am writing this article.
5.But at one point early on in the show's development, he considered pivoting the show to be for adults only and centering the realities of parenthood.
"It was going to be a kids’ thing, and then we weren’t getting much traction with the pilot because it was a bit hard for people to see what it would be," he told The Hollywood Reporter. "So, I always thought it would be kind of funny to do an R-rated Peppa Pig. Using Peppa Pig’s grammar but telling the story about parenthood as it really is, you know, mastitis and all that. And I wrote that script out, and it was 22 minutes, and I reread it recently, and I really like it. I’d love to make it one day."
6.Bluey and Bingo's parents, Bandit and Chilli, both have jobs that allude to the point that they are, in fact, dogs. Bandit is an archaeologist (like Joe Brumm's brother), which is a playful nod to the fact that dogs like to dig up bones. Meanwhile, Chilli works part-time at the airport, a nod to the use of sniffer dogs in security.
In a funny short where he's presenting his findings, Bandit even makes a playful nod to the fact that their species walks upright on two legs, having evolved from dogs that walk on all fours.
7.There is a viral theory that the color scheme of the Heelers has a deeper meaning because it's been proven that dogs can see a limited color spectrum of blues and yellows (sound familiar?) but this seems to be just a lovely coincidence.
However, many TikTok commenters have noted that their dogs do, in fact, love to watch the show.
8.It takes a whopping five months to create a single episode of Bluey — but the production overlaps so that several episodes are worked on at the same time.
9.Dave McCormack and Melanie Zanetti, who voice Bandit and Chilli only met each other in person for the first time in 2022 — four years after the show premiered.
"We record separately, we live in different cities and I travel a lot for work," Melanie shared on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.
10.Dave and Melanie told Jimmy Fallon they would love to see a Bluey movie — and I'm pretty sure they're not alone in that sentiment.
"A trilogy," Dave joked. Come on, Hollywood, get on it!
11.And you might be wondering about who voices the characters Bluey and Bingo, but the show has been very intentional about keeping the child actors' identities private and they've never been revealed, which is just so lovely to see.
12.The show has such an emphasis on play, and you'll never explicitly see the kids "learning" or "counting" — in fact, the show is a first of its kind for depicting "unstructured childhood play."
“There’s no counting in Bluey, there’s no learning this or that...just show ’em playing,” Joe told Perth Now. “It’s to show parents that the kids aren’t just mucking around. They’re learning to play, learning to share...and generally, you can just put your feet up and let ’em do it.”
13.Each episode of the show is famously seven minutes long, which was the sweet spot between a longer show like Charlie & Lola (11 minutes) and a shorter show like Peppa Pig (5 minutes).
"I like having that limitation because it does force you to really just cut out a lot of extraneous stuff, and sometimes it’s jokes that you want, but it forces you to be quite disciplined with the storytelling," Brumm told The Hollywood Reporter. "And listen, sometimes we just can’t do it, and we have to go to seven minutes and 30 seconds or eight minutes, and once or twice I’ve found myself at five minutes just going, 'Holy shit, what am I going to do now?' So, yeah, seven minutes is perfect for me, but there was no science behind it. It was that I didn’t want to go as long as Charlie & Lola, and I didn’t want to go as short as Peppa Pig."
14.The delightful Heeler family games throughout the show (everything from freezing to magic statues to Keepy Uppy) were often inspired by real-life games played by Joe Brumm and his family. However, there is one game that didn't make the cut, which definitely seems to be a blessing in disguise for parents.
"There's an episode called 'Ticklecrabs,' where the kids play these little crabs who go and tickle the parents," Brumm told NPR. "Now, that game was originally called Pinchy, because the game I used to play with the kids was — there was this crab that, you know, would sneak home from the beach with me. And they would pinch you. And I said to them, you're allowed to play this game for one minute once a month...So that when it came time to actually make it, I just thought, look, I'm sorry, I have my limits. I cannot inflict this on the wider population. So we changed it to Ticklecrabs. The episode suffered a little, but I think parents are probably kind of thankful for it in the end."
15.Finally, it wouldn't be a complete article without mentioning the show's supremely catchy theme song. Composer Joff Bush reflected on creating the now-iconic song, and explained that it was essentially a "game of musical statues."
"The thing that really unlocked it was Joe Brumm told me I’ve got to make the titles a game of musical statues,” Bush told Fatherly. “And so, then it was like I know what to do now. I have to tip my hat to Joe for even approving it because it’s a pretty weird song! If you think about it on paper, there’s no drums – it’s melodica and hand claps. It’s something people are dancing to, but there’s no steady beat throughout...There’s no lyrics other than shouting the characters’ names."
You can stream (billions of minutes of) Bluey on Disney+.
