Bluey is one of the greatest children’s shows ever made for several reasons. The Australian series about a family of blue heelers is both intelligent and often hilarious, imparting lessons about grace and growing up in an accessible way for both kids and parents. It’s also willing to tackle issues ranging from the thoroughly silly to the understatedly important.
This can mean tackling little ideas in big ways and big ones with the imagination of a child. Occasionally that runs against the strict controls of the show’s American streaming partner, Disney+. The streamer’s TV-G rating meant the delay of “Family Meeting,” the episode where the Heelers hold an impromptu court case to determine whether dad Bandit passed gas — “fluffied” in Bluey parlance — in front of eldest daughter Bluey.
It also meant the ongoing prohibition of “Dad Baby,” an episode where youngest daughter Bingo finds an old baby carrier and the girls pretend Bandit is pregnant for the day. That episode can’t be found on Disney+ in North America — but the official Bluey YouTube channel made sure American audiences can finally watch it by releasing it online.
Make no mistake, “Dad Baby” is a classic episode of Bluey. The kids run roughshod over their father in service of learning a lesson. Bandit expresses a level of tolerance that pushes the boundaries of playtime and cements his place in the canon of all-time great television parents. And Lucky’s Dad shows up to get abused with a smile on his face, serving as midwife to bring Bingo into the world (again).
Disney hasn’t given an official reason why the episode doesn’t show up in its library, though it likely centers around the two-minute labor scene that is in no way graphic but does capture the difficulty of the process in standard silly fashion. Disney may have wanted to spare parents from the questions what could follow — pretty reasonable questions about a difficult topic, sure — and shelved “Dad Baby.” Or maybe there’s something else to it.
Either way, Ludo Studios decided we needed to see “Dad Baby” and released it in full online. And in true Bluey form, it’s seven very funny minutes that teach a lesson about growing up and empathy.