Penguins Behind Bars (found Adult Swim exclusive pilot of animated series; 2003)
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Status: Found
Date found: 20 Dec '17
Found by: Anonymous
Penguins Behind Bars is a pilot created for Adult Swim that aired in 2003. It was adapted from a 1989 novel of the same name by Janet Perlman.
Plot
The pilot of Penguins Behind Bars follows the story of Doris Ferfeather, a female penguin who is framed as a pearl stealer and was sentenced to ten years in the penitentiary. In there, she met a few other jailbirds such as Madam Milly, an experienced jailer, and Flotsom, a much crazier jailbird. There are other important characters in the pilot special as well, such as Matron Roughwater, one of the wardens and side antagonists, Babs and her "slave-girls," who serve as the main antagonists to Doris, and her "boyfriend" Charlie Apploni, who used her to steal the pearls at the bank that she was framed for. In the prison, Doris discovers that Charlie is running for mayor of the unnamed town, and it is up to Doris to solve that problem along with other problems with adjusting to a new setting.
History
The animated pilot was only aired once in 2003 (around the time the Venture Brother's pilot was aired), and due to poor ratings it wasn't greenlighted or aired again. The creator, 'Janet Perlman', stated that she didn't have the right to release the short itself; it was up to Cartoon Network because they owned it. Purchasable copies have appeared online, however, it is unknown if these are legitimate copies or not.
The pilot didn't gain traction online until September 20th, 2016, when YouTuber and somewhat frequent LMWW user Rebeltaxi made a transcript of what he saw during the only airing, along with his opinions on the pilot.[1]
Discovery
On the 20th of December, 2017, a Tumblr user named ken--f posted a blogpost on Pan-Pizza's Tumblr page who says that his friend who works at a university in Canada found the entire pilot and leaked it online in a jumpshare link.[2] Even though the link to the original jumpshare post is broken for right now, YouTube user vulgar managed to reupload the pilot onto his channel on the 21st of December, 2017.
Video
- ↑ Pan-Pizza's transcript. Retrieved 23 Dec '17
- ↑ The blogpost that has the jumpshare link. Retrieved 23 Dec '17