Not Natural

I remember an animated show titled Life, and it was an educational show aimed towards children. It talked about serious issues, like divorce, death, and life-threatening deseases, but at the same time, it remained kid-friendly. When I was 8, I watched this show on Saturday mornings when I had spare time. I actually liked the show a lot, but sadly, like all the best shows around, it was cancelled. The cancelation date was 7/7/2004. I woke up on that date and turned on a TV, waiting for the new episode to air; the channel I was on even placed a few banners during Arther that a new episode was about to air. The time was 8:00, and instead of airing the episode, a re-run of a previous episode was aired. I was confused about this, and complained to my parents about it.

On 7/8/04, I heard rumors of this "Not Natural" episode of Life showed gruesome content, so the channel replaced it with a re-run of "Passing Away", an episode where the main character's mom dies. I knew that rumors should not be believed rather than believed. I looked at next week's schedule on the channel, but there was no sign of Life to air at all. I later learned that Life was canceled. 

Ten years later, I became a writer for a kids show on Nickelodeon. By then, I have forgotten about Life until a co-writer mentioned it to me. He told me that Life might be rebooted on Nick, and that the show's writer was recently hired to direct the reboot. The first idea that popped in my head was the cancelation of it. I asked him, "Did you hear the suppossed reason why it was cancelled?" He stated that he did, and went on talking about the rumors of Not Natural. He even told me info that I did not even know, like its premise. To me, it sounds like a normal episode. It was about a mentally challenged kid struggling in society.

The creator of Life, named Tyler Johnson. He walked in the main hall, and I noticed him. I ran up to him and asked him the only question in my head: Why is "Not Natural" so controversial? He glanced at his surroundings, checking to see if anyone was there, and he handed a VHS tape to me, and he said, "This is a tape of the unaired episode of Life, Not Natural. If you watch this, you won't be happy."

I walked home, holding the VHS tape and the note in my hands. I slid the VHS tape in my VHS player and started watching. The opening theme was playing, and my nostalgia started taking over. I was singing to the tune. It was fun until the title card was shown. The words "Not Natural" were shown. The pattern of the text resembles a human brain.

The episode started with a 10 year old who gets ready for school. His parents help him dress up, brush teeth, and eat breakfast. Along with his voice, it is implied that he has a "slow" brain. The setting shifts to his school, where he is teased cause of his condition. He doesn't notice it and acts like everything is normal. One day, he bonked his head on a  metal pole and suddenly has the mind of a normal child. However, everyone thinks he is still dumb. When he gets teased, he actually gets the message and cries. When he came home, he saw his parents, noticing his normal IQ. His parents pretended to be happy, but when he walked away, the parents were revealed to have Empty Nest Syndrome. They start missing the pasttime of caring for thier son and they decide to make him dumb again to fufill thier wish. The kid's father is revealed to be a doctor, and knows how to manipulate the child's brain.

The kid was put to sleep and was dragged to a wooden table. What I saw made me puke. 

The show now was in live action, and a guy who voiced like his dad started chopping around the kid's forehead until the skull is shown. He used a hammer to crack open the skull, but he "mistakenly" smashed through his brain and it splattered everywhere. I looked at the hand used, and it looked oddly familiar. It cut back to animation and his parents were sobbing. A transition card appeared, stating "2 days later".

It cuts to a funeral of the child, and everyone who was at the funeral was there to make fun of him, making extremely harsh statements such as, "I bet he died of thinking a real thought." His mom stated to argue with her husband, stating that it was all his fault. When they return home, the dad punched his wife hard, thinking that it would end the argument. I actually noticed a realistic bone-crackling sound, and she screamed loudly. Blood was starting to bleed of her head, and the camera turns to show the extent of the injury. She passed out, and the husband bagged her up, and put her on the same table as his son was shown earlier. He started to laugh menacing, and the episode cuts to the credits. 

I was disturbed of the footage and thought to throw the VHS tape away, but instead, I thought of a better idea. The next morning, I walked to Nickelodeon and showed the tape to the CEO before Tyler Johnson arrived. He was shocked at what he saw, and decided to fire Tyler Johnnson on the spot. Even though I watched the episode, I still had one question: Why was it made? I guess I shouldn't know.

Epilogue:

I was on the internet on my day off, researching about Tyler Johnson. I found a photo of him dated 7/07/04. His hands looked similar. Too similar....

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