General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20266 min read

Welcome to the Wayne

Welcome to the Wayne is an American animated mystery-comedy series created and written by Billy Lopez for Nickelodeon, set in a strange New York City high-rise apartment building called the Wayne. It began as Nickelodeon's first web-exclusive short-form series in 2014 and became the network's first digital series to be developed into a full television series, which premiered on July 24, 2017 and ran through May 31, 2019.¹^•²

Key fact	Detail
Created by	Billy Lopez, Emmy Award-winning writer and composer (The Wonder Pets!), who also voices Olly Timbers²
Digital origin	Nickelodeon's first web-exclusive series, launched August 4, 2014, with six 4-to-5-minute episodes on Nick.com and the Nick App¹
Television run	Season 1 of 20 episodes premiered July 24, 2017 at 5:30 p.m. (ET/PT); Season 2 of 10 episodes aired on Nicktoons from May 3 to May 31, 2019²^•³
Main characters	Ansi Molina (Alanna Ubach), Olly Timbers (Billy Lopez), and Saraline Timbers (Dana Steingold), who call themselves Team Timbers²
Premise	Three children investigate the oddities of their apartment building, known as "Wayne Phenomena"⁴
Format	Animated, TV-Y7, 22-minute episodes⁵
Recognition	Daytime Emmy nominations in 2018 for Outstanding Writing in an Animated Program and in 2019 for Outstanding Children's Animated Series³

Spoilers

Premise and characters

The Wayne is a high-rise apartment building in New York City where nothing is quite what it seems. Ansi Molina, a new resident, befriends siblings Olly and Saraline Timbers, and the three friends, calling themselves Team Timbers, set out to explore the building's ever-growing mysteries, which the show labels "Wayne Phenomena." Each investigation brings them face to face with new characters, creatures, and oddities, from hidden rooms and secret passageways to spies and flying creatures.⁴^•²^•⁶

The three leads are characterized in complementary ways. Olly is an adventurous 10-year-old, the son of a toy maker and a military scientist and a lifelong resident of the Wayne; Saraline, his responsible and more mature little sister, is skilled with technology and gadgets; Ansi is the anxious new kid in town.²^•⁷ The voice cast also included Veronica Taylor as the Spy from Apartment 8-I, Marc Thompson as Masterson, Dave Willis as George the Doorman, Dana Snyder as Wendell Wasserman, Nikki M. James as Julia Wiles, and Carey Means as Jonah Bishop.²

Episodes and broadcast history

Season 1 ran 20 episodes. The first five aired on consecutive days from July 24 to July 28, 2017, beginning with "Rise and Shine Sleepyhead," in which Ansi must work with Olly and Saraline to stop a rampaging threat deep within the building; the remaining episodes followed in September 2017 and October 2018, with the season finale, "Keep an Eye on the Nose," airing October 26, 2018.²^•¹²

Season 2 consisted of 10 episodes broadcast on Nicktoons in the United States from May 3 to May 31, 2019, ending with "Whoever Controls the Wayne, Controls the World."³^•⁶ Across its television run the series totaled 30 episodes in two seasons, in addition to the six digital shorts.⁷

From web series to television

The show began as a single short. Billy Lopez, then part of an initiative at Nick Digital to collect short-form digital pitches from writers and artists, brought 15 to 20 loose ideas to a meeting; the idea that became Welcome to the Wayne was chosen, and one short was produced, followed by five more. The result was a six-episode digital series of 4-to-5-minute episodes, launched on Nick.com and the Nick App on August 4, 2014 as Nickelodeon's first web-exclusive series.¹^•⁸

In April 2015 Nickelodeon ordered 20 half-hour television episodes, marking the first time one of the network's digital short-form series had been greenlit for television. The pickup also included a companion app, "The Wayne," intended to let users explore the story at their own pace; Nickelodeon's president of content development and production, Russell Hicks, described the property as transmedia from the start.¹^•⁹

The full-length series premiered on Nickelodeon on Monday, July 24, 2017, at 5:30 p.m. (ET/PT), with episodes airing daily through July 28 and encores on Saturdays. Its executive producer was Michael Pecoriello, an Emmy-winning creative executive known for Yu-Gi-Oh!. Lopez said the digital episodes were kept as an official origin story, with the television pilot beginning some time after those events.²^•¹⁰

Production

The series stayed close to its New York roots: pre-production was done at Nick Digital's Hudson Street studio in Manhattan, which the trade press noted was a rarity for the network outside Nick Jr. productions, while the animation was handled by Toronto-based Switch Animation (formerly Yowza! Animation).⁹ The sound design was developed by Beatstreet NYC, working with the foley team at Alchemy Post Sound from the project's earliest two-minute test onward.¹¹

Origins in Lopez's childhood. Lopez has said the show draws on his own upbringing in New York's Greenwich Village, where his family moved into a huge apartment building he found "ominous and spooky." He recalled Halloween nights when he and neighborhood friends ran through the buildings they lived in, starting at the penthouse and banging on every door on the way down, and said much of Welcome to the Wayne comes from those memories.⁴^•¹⁰

Reception

Common Sense Media rated the show appropriate for ages 7 and up, describing it as an adventure comedy in which three kids investigate bizarre happenings in their building, with mildly scary resident monsters and occasional name-calling as the main content notes. The review highlighted the characters' curiosity and teamwork, noting that Saraline refuses to be discouraged from solving mysteries, while judging the show as entertainment rather than education.¹³ The series earned two Daytime Emmy nominations, for Outstanding Writing in an Animated Program in 2018 and Outstanding Children's Animated Series in 2019.³

References

Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Series and fictional screen worlds › Scripted television and comedy series › Animated television series (individual series) › Children's animated adventure and fantasy series › Comedy and slice-of-life series › Premiered 1961 to 2019

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026

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