Aqua Teen Hunger Force "Boston" (found unfinished episode of Adult Swim animated comedy series; 2008)

The show's original logo.

Status: Found

Date found: 31 Jan 2015

Found by: ATHF Never Forget

On January 31st, 2007, what is now known as the 2007 Boston bomb scare took place; LED Mooninite signs (Mooninites being characters from Adult Swim's animated series Aqua Teen Hunger Force aka ATHF) that had been placed around Boston as part of a guerrilla marketing campaign by Interference, Inc. (a company who specializes in such forms of advertising) and spearheaded by Interference's John aka VJ AIWAZ and Boston artist Peter Berdovsky aka Zebbler for the then-upcoming Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters caused panic and controversy after being mistakenly identified as improvised explosive devices by both the Boston Fire Department and the Boston Police Department. The incident led to Turner Broadcasting and Interference being required to pay a combined 2 million dollars in damages, plus the resignation of Cartoon Network general manager and executive vice president Jim Samples.

The Episode

In response to the incident, an episode of ATHF titled "Boston" (intended as Season 5's opening episode) was produced, although it was never aired due to Adult Swim's fear of inciting any further backlash regarding the incident. Since the episode's creation, it has only been publicly discussed on a few rare occasions by ATHF creators Dave Willis and Matt Maiellaro; aside from said discussions, the only other official acknowledgment of "Boston"'s existence was in an episode listing that appeared on Adult Swim's now-defunct ATHF website, where its description was given simply as a question mark. The episode is said to have gone through several re-writes and edits (due to intervention from Adult Swim, who were on the fence regarding the episode throughout its entire production period), resulting in the existence of a total of three different versions of "Boston", all of which were ultimately rejected; scant more information on the episode has been divulged and when asked whether or not it was ever going to receive a release, Willis replied "Yes, as soon as Boston gives us back our money." implying that there are no plans for the episode ever to see the light of day.

Availability

Notably, following the release of "Rude Removal" (the infamous unaired episode of Dexter's Laboratory), which came to fruition largely as a result of fan interest, campaigning and word of mouth, a campaign was organised by Pan-Pizza (a prevalent online animation commentator who had previously campaigned, via petitions and the like, to have "Rude Removal" released), though unfortunately, Adult Swim gave no response of any kind.

The earliest form of content available prior to the leakage was a press photo of Meatwad dressed as a cowboy, which appeared in the first segment of the episode. The image first surfaced around 2012 but was not associated with Boston until much later. While it is unknown how it surfaced, it may have been used for press media (hence the file name) or was an early version of the Auction Daze photo within the episode.

On January 31st, 2015, exactly 8 years to the day of the bomb scare, a somewhat incomplete version of "Boston" leaked onto YouTube. It went virtually undiscovered until early April when several news websites reported on the incident. While the original upload has since been removed from YouTube, other YouTube users have re-uploaded the episode, and several mirrors of the episode are available on various file-hosting websites.

Dave Willis later said about the leak:

"...it wasn't my fault, and whoever leaked it is a dick. Whatever that was, it was half-done, if that. We had a GREAT script - and we were going to complete it for this run of 10 eps - but then weren't allowed to finish it. And then this leaked. I was hoping we could always have one completed episode that no one was ever going to get to see, and then 40 years from now, Betty White's emaciated titanium exoskeleton could open the Williams Street vaults to view the lost episode on TV Land. It would have been fitting. But the internet won't let you have nice things."

On May 20th, 2023, an animatic of Boston was screened at the Berklee Performance Center. While this version of the episode is said to be unseen, it is unknown if there are any differences or if its finished. This version has yet to resurface in any way.

Gallery

Images

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  One of the LED devices that sparked panic in Boston in 2007.

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Footage

"Boston"

Videos

Pan-Pizza's Midnight Society video on "Boston," released as a part of his campaign to unearth the lost episode.

See Also

• 12 oz. Mouse (lost original pilot of Adult Swim animated comedy series; 2004)
• The Eric Andre Show (partially found demo tape for Adult Swim sketch comedy series; 2009)
• Harold & Kumar: The Animated Series (partially found Adult Swim pilot of cancelled TV adaptation of film trilogy; 2011-2014)
• King of the Hill (partially found Adult Swim bumpers for Fox animated sitcom; 2011-2013)
• Mary Shelley's Frankenhole "Mother To Be-Sa" (found unaired episode of Adult Swim stop-motion animated series; 2010)
• Moral Orel "Abstinence" (found episode of Adult Swim stop-motion animated series; 2008)
• The New Big Ball With Neil Hamburger (found unaired Adult Swim pilot; 2010)
• Penguins Behind Bars (found Adult Swim exclusive pilot of animated series; 2003)
• Rick and Morty "The New Jared" (lost series of unaired Subway commercials for Adult Swim animated sitcom; 2010s)
• Soul Quest Overdrive (lost unaired episodes of Adult Swim animated series; 2011)
• Three Busy Debras (lost unaired pilot of Adult Swim surreal comedy series; 2018)

External Links

• Wikipedia page on the 2007 Boston bomb scare.