As you may know, the Disney Channel cartoon "Fish Hooks" is about fish that are going through high school. It's a pretty zany show. The three main characters, Milo, Oscar, and Bea, are all friends who try to get through the tough times of high school with each other. However, the original pilot episode, entitled "The Fishy Times of Freshwater High" almost kept Fish Hooks from ever airing.
I used to have a job at Disney Channel in their animation department and I was supposed to be working on "Gravity Falls", when it was back in early production back in 2011. The producers of Fish Hooks were holding a press conference with the V.P of marketing for a one time airing of the original pilot. I was in the room next to that conference room on the phone with "Rough Draft Studios" to see how the animation was going. I heard a very loud voice. The V.P said if that episode is aired that Noah Z. Jones and Maxwell Atoms can forget about Fish Hooks ever airing again. The creators walked out of the room, and Craig McCracken surprisingly walked in. When pretty much everyone was gone late at night, I snuck into the conference room to look for any evidence. Papers, storyboards, any info I could get on this lost episode. I couldn't find anything. Right when I was walking out of the room, with all hope lost, I tripped over a trash can and a DVD case flopped out. I opened it and there was a disc with the words "Pilot" written on it. I had it. The original pilot of Fish Hooks. I immmediantly drove home and popped the DVD in my DVD Player.
When the episode started, the title intro was very different than the one that was choosen. The only frame of the episode I could acquire. The pet shop.for the actual episodes. The real title of the series is called "The Fishy Times at Freshwater High", which is the episode title as well. The episode started outside the pet store. The background was a dark reddish color, and it gave me chills. Inside the store was Bud, the pet shop owner. His corpse was lying on the floor. I froze in horror. Then it was time to go into the "wonderful" school of Freshwater High. Inside, the school was the normal Freshwater school. It was registration day. I knew this because there was a banner hanging from the ceiling that read "Welcome New Students!" Milo, Bea, and Oscar were talking to each other. The audio quality was very poor, and the characters were talking like they were saying sentences through tears. The cafeteria was loaded with high school students waiting for their demise. As the scene went on, a robber was holding a knife, trying to murder the students. Milo, Bea, and Oscar were very close to the murderer, so they tried to escape. The robber threw a knife at Milo's fin, and he fell to the ground. Bea and Oscar, unaware of Milo's injury, continued to flee the school while a line of robbers are shooting innocent bystanders. Apparently there was a demon who is possessing the cops and robbers. I heard the demon say, "Sic 'em'!". All the cops started to shoot at Oscar and Bea. They couldn't dodge them all. They were both bleeding on the colored rocks, which were all red now. "Bea, these are our last hours on earth.", Oscar moaned. With one final breath, they both died. The demon decayed their bodies, and then threw their bodies onto a pile of bones. The episode ended immmediantly. No credits, no studio credit, nothing. I brought the DVD back the next day.
Well, I was fired that next day after my boss caught me with the DVD. He asked me if I posted it online and I said no. He broke the DVD as I was walking out the door. When I got home I saw on my computer that I archived the episode.