Chica Sketches

Madeline Fretz - I found this interesting little pic a few years ago and never saw it again for some time, until fairly recently. A few days ago, I was skimming through Sprout-related posts on my Facebook account and came across this exact picture, which I uploaded to the PBS Kids Sprout TV Wiki (I LOVE the wiki!) This picture, as I said in the first sentence, is quite interesting, as it details what Chica was originally going to look like.

Now, I know I've told you Chica's origin story many times on this blog, but if you still don't know it, let me sum it up for you. You see, Sprout's senior vice president (SVP) of programming, Andrew Beecham, wanted a puppet co-host for the channel's new live block. Betsy Oliphant-Ross suggested it be a chicken. Andrew thought preschoolers couldn't connect well with chickens, so Sprout worked with a designer to make sure Chica would look cute enough. As you can see, some sketches included a dancing turkey with a hat and cane, a purple hen, a chicken with a lollipop, and a chicken handing a balloon to a turtle. All these designs look pretty cute.

Potential final design?

I think this is the final design - as you can see the red mohawk(?), the orange necklace, and the yellow belly all present - and those were in the puppet we know. The original Chica puppet was made by Victoria Ellis. And voila! There we have it - the Chica puppet! Such a beauty! Chica, look how far you've come - from a dancing turkey to a cute squeaky chicken! You beautiful swan, you!

Note that how the pic says "2008," yet Chica was introduced in 2007. This must've been a mistake. This picture comes from someone named Ken Perkins, and I think this picture is no longer on his website ... if he still has one. There is this website, but I see no sign of the picture anywhere. Luckily, I found the picture, uploaded it to my Facebook in 2020, and now I rediscovered it. I guess we better keep searching!

Click here to go with the final designs on the Parents and Kids Share Together forum!