Gone - First Version

I used to work at Nickelodeon Studios in the mid 2000s, and there would be this thing where storyboard artists for SpongeBob SquarePants would be given tapes to unfinished episodes of SpongeBob SquarePants to view them. There was one special tape I was given as I worked on the storyboards of some episodes, the same thing went for the other shows I worked on as a storyboard artist. This episode was very... special, to say the least. 
At the end of the day when I took it home with me, I decided to check the episode out by myself. When I inserted the tape to watch, it started off normally, but with no title card music. Probably due to the episode being unfinished. Keep in mind, this was the first version of the episode before it had been changed to suit kids of a younger age. In the episode, the camera slowly panned into SpongeBob's Pineapple, then moving to where SpongeBob was seen on screen sleeping, until he had been woken up from sleep by his alarm clock, or whatever it was. 
A few minutes into the episode I was already feeling comfortable with what was going on. SpongeBob had started to notice that his friends, or say, all of Bikini Bottom had gone missing. That was in the episode's final version as well. Except, instead of him saying he would live out the lives of the people living in Bikini Bottom, he started to panic and run around the city, after being alone for quite a bit. "Where is everyone, why are they all gone?" SpongeBob had said. After the scene of him running around, with a bubble transition, it quickly cut to a scene of him pretending to cook for people of Bikini Bottom at the Krusty Krab, him playing the role as everyone else, playing the roles as Mr. Krabs, Squidward, etc. SpongeBob then had started to stay still at the grill, staring at his spatula while the patties cooked. 
"It's not the same as it used to be, I wish they were all here." SpongeBob had stated. 
That was a bit of an odd line, but I kept watching anyway. SpongeBob then started to tear up, slowly leaving the Krusty Krab and walking to his house at night. He wiped up his tears and had walked up into his bedroom from his house. Which is what happened in the episode. The episode slowly started to feel like a parody or something, but dark. Not something I'd let my kids see ...If I had kids. I kept watching while SpongeBob walked up to his bed, it cut to a scene of him dragging a chair to his room with a bubble transition, as strange as it can be. 
A bus sound could be heard in the distance, it then cut to show that bus. The entire city of Bikini Bottom had come out of the bus, I felt a little surprised. The episode slowly showed Mr. Krabs walking out of the bus, "National No SpongeBob Day is finally over! Now where's me fry cook?" exclaimed Mr. Krabs. The episode started to feel normal, I had a sense that it might've been close to the end. 
"I think I know where he is, I'll go find him!" said Patrick. It cut to a bubble transition of Patrick knocking on SpongeBob's front door. "SpongeBob.... are you there? I'm back buddy!" Of course, SpongeBob couldn't hear him since he was upstairs in his bedroom, the closed door must've caused that. The camera panned into SpongeBob, and he jumped on the chair he dragged in his room. "Maybe, I can wake up from this horrible nightmare... I just want to be with my friends." Patrick continued to knock on the door yelling for SpongeBob. 
I felt really creeped out after that scene. 
Sandy, Mr. Krabs, and Squidward all approached SpongeBob's Pineapple feeling worried, well Squidward hadn't felt worried yet. "Hey, SpongeBob! Ya in there?" said Sandy. "I've been knocking on his door for a few minutes now." said Patrick. I believe at this point the episode was only storyboards now, since the episode was not complete, this was the first version of the episode. "All right, that's it, stand back guys!" said Sandy. Sandy then kicked down SpongeBob's door. Slight choking could be heard from upstairs. 
"SpongeBob? Is that you?" Said Sandy. I was beginning to feel worried as well, the episode felt really unusually dark for kids. The next scene had the four, Squidward, Mr. Krabs, Patrick, and Sandy rushing to where the noise was coming from. They investigated every room of his home, and finally went upstairs, only to find out that SpongeBob had hung himself. 
There he was, hanging from the roof, his entire face was a purple like color. Patrick had started screaming, Sandy had started crying, Squidward and Mr. Krabs had also shed a few tears. I was shocked, I didn't know what to say, it was just crazy. The episode quickly ended, but there was something different with the end credits.
After it has shown all the credits, there was a little drawing with Stephen Hillenburg's name under it. It was SpongeBob, almost like the one from the intro, instead it was crossed out. This episode was horrifying. I'm glad it was changed to suit a younger audience. I just don't know why such people would come up with these horrible episode ideas.
Category:Lost Episodes
Category:Shortpasta
Category:Death