Original pilot

In December 2010/January 2011, Disney Channel Latin America showed footage of what seems to be the pilot of the series "Fish Tales", the original title of "Fish Hooks". It was written and directed by William Reiss.

Plot
The short seems to revolve around picture day at Freshwater High, and that Oscar does not like his picture.


 * The following is from the footage was shown in the 2011 preview for Disney Channel Latin America

The footage shows Oscar lying on the floor, and his hair pops up. Milo gasps and spins a ship wheel. While Milo holds up a piece of paper, Bea looks at it, while Oscar from behind peeks. Milo and Oscar then lay on the floor.

Production
The series, and this episode, started out when Noah Z. Jones was contacted by Disney executives after seeing some of Jones's work online. They asked Jones if he would like to do anything with his drawings for a television series. Jones sent Disney 5 ideas for a short, and out of those ideas, Disney picked one that would eventually become Fish Hooks.

According to Chelsea Kane, the pilot was originally a 5-minute short, which was produced in 2009. She confirmed that she voiced Bea in the short.

During early production, Fish Hooks was called Fish Tales. The original pilot is likely to be an early version of "Bea Stays in the Picture" (the premiere episode), and parts of it have only been seen in a promotional advertisement for 2011 TV series and movies in Latin America. It is unknown however, if Fish Hooks or Fish Tales was the title at the time of producing the pilot.

In an interview with Geekscape.com, Noah Z. Jones said that after sending in ideas for a show for Disney, the production team were doing a short, and the whole time they were working on the short, Noah was thinking, "This isn’t ever going to go anywhere", because he's already worked on projects that have fell through, so he never got too excited about it. Disney had high hopes for the short, saying "Hey, short’s testing really well. Do you want to do a pilot?" Noah agreed, and the pilot episode ("Bea Stays in the Picture") was completed. The pilot was testing well, and Disney said that if they made it into a series, would Noah move his family out to Los Angeles. Noah spoke to his wife, and she agreed.