The Angry Beavers debuted on Nickelodeon in 1997. It was the story of two beaver brothers, Dag and Norb, who live in an Oregon forest. By 2001, the show's creators sensed cancellation was inevitable and imminent. "We were significantly over budget, behind schedule, and had generally worn out our welcome" with Nickelodeon, co-creator Keith Kaczorek told Vice. So what did Kaczorek, creator Mitch Schauer, and production staff do? Buckle down and made some whiz-bang episodes company brass enjoyed so much that the show got renewed for five more seasons? Nope.
Kaczorek and writer Roger Eschbacher knocked out a script for a finale episode called "Bye Bye Beavers," a darkly funny, self-referential extravaganza of nuttiness. The plot: Dag and Norb grow self-aware, realizing that they are cartoons and that their cartoon show is about to be canceled...which means they're essentially about to die. There are also sly digs at Nickelodeon, particularly its penchant for airing endless reruns, as well as references to voice actors' previous roles. Norb, portrayed by Nick Bakay, is called Salem on occasion, a nod to the puppet cat he voiced on Sabrina the Teenage Witch.
Amazingly, the mucky-mucks at Nickelodeon approved production "every step of the way," Angry Beavers writer Micah Wright told Vice. "Then they saw it all put together and said, 'Wait, this makes us look bad,' so they killed it." The episode was never completed, but an audio recording of the script leaked online in 2006.
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