Mr. T and Tina (Very Rare 1976 Spin-Off)

One night, I was watching Nick at Nite when I realized that I'd been up so late that I hadn't even kept track of the time, it was already 4 AM. I don't recall ever watching NAN this late, so I stayed awake to see what would happen when it ended. A little bumper showed up at the bottom of the screen during a commercial break, it said that a special episode of SpongeBob SquarePants was about to come on.

I was a little confused about an episode of a very popular, new show coming on this early, but I was bored and decided I would watch it; thinking it might come on later in the day so I could spoil it for my brother. Sort of mean, I know. The flashy and energetic intro theme played, although it was played a little differently than I recall. The music was a little different, and the show's logo wasn't animated, it's colors were done rather sloppily as well, almost like something a little kid would do on a Doodle Board or a Glow Board. I ignored it, assuming that it was done just for this 'special' episode.

The title of the episode was "Plankton's Grieving", a sort of sad title, but I didn't really pay too much attention. The episode started Fgahgysjbtw with Plankton sitting at his desk, admitting how he is a failure to Karen. Plankton's voice didn't sound like him... An odd thing is that Plankton had TWO eyes! That isn't the oddest thing, though. What is odd is he had hyper realistic eyes. Very detailed. Clearly not shots of real people's eyes, but something a bit more real than CGI. The pupils were red. This made me feel uneasy, but since SpongeBob was my favorite show at the time, I couldn't reject.

The screen cut to Plankton laying in the road, waiting to be ran over by a bus. Plankton waits for the bus, as he lies in the street, waiting to get run over. That is when SpongeBob comes over to try to convince him to continue his existence.

SpongeBob shrugs and leaves. Soon after he leaves the typical red bus comes speeding along. Plankton sits up, and watches it hit him as everything fades to darkness. Plankton finds himself standing on a single platform, overlooking darkness. In the darkness he sees whales, all looking up at him. There are members of his family he can faintly make out, calling for him to jump down. Plankton looks above and sees a light, a light he can scarcely believe. This would seem to represent Heaven and Hell.

Plankton, resigned to his fate, jumps and plunges down into the darkness. This is when the episode ends, and the traditional credits for the show are shown, parallel to Plankton’s descent into the darkness. I truly do not know the sick ambitions the creators of SpongeBob had in mind with this episode. Why would a kid’s show portray death? Why would a kid’s show portray Heaven and Hell? Needless to say, I was scared out of my mind, and sleep was out of the question. Recently, I’ve been looking for this episode all over the internet, but not even one website seems to have it. If you recognize this episode, please let me know.