Has anyone heard of the show Bernard Bear? It's a foreign series of CGI shorts that was originally made in South Korea sometime around 2002 under the name Backkom and began premiering on the Gingo channel on November 15, 2013 in the United States. It centers around the bizarre adventures of a clumsy polar bear named Bernard, who doesn't usually talk but does communicate through his guttural sounds, and also features other characters such as two penguins named Lloyd and Eva, and a lizard named Zack.
The show was a big hit in Asia and some other countries, but received a mixed reception in the US, mostly by fans of Gingo when it first appeared on the Gingo channel. Why you ask? Because they criticized the low-budget animation with an awful framerate, some gross-out humor, some dark endings for a kid's show, confusing plotlines, numerous animation errors, and most notably, the main character being a rip-off of Gromit from Wallace & Gromit. But you may not know is that there was an episode of Bernard that was not supposed to be seen by anybody. In fact, it was once aired on February 20, 2014 in a few stations.
Many people have claimed to see the episode and complain that it was too dark and disturbing for their children. How I know about this episode was when I saw a news report on it. When I remember what the report said, it was that many kids were very traumatized about the episode and a lot of them had to go to hospital and some even died. That was when I began to investigate. I tried contacting the people who worked on the show via emails, but I never got a response or I only got an answering machine.
My last resort was contacting the director of the series. I managed to get on a Skype interview with him, and I asked him several questions like "Where did you get the idea for this show?" and "What did you think of the finished show?" and whatnot. So when I finally asked him about the purported lost episode, he just kind of looked at me weird. I could tell by the expression on his face and he looked really nervous and anxious. He proceeded to tell me, "Don't look for it. Just let the memory die." He hung up the call right then, and I just sat at my desk, confused.
Before I went to bed, I had a phone call from the creators of Bernard, saying that the director had somehow quit. They also said that it was because of the episode and that they would mail it to me. About a week later, I went to check my mailbox and there it was. The episode was in a VHS tape with a label reading, "BERNARD SEASON 2 EPISODE 14 (DO NOT RELEASE TO THE PUBLIC)". I went inside, popped it in my VCR and let it play. The screen showed static for 30 seconds. After doing some research, I noticed something strange, there was no episode 14 of season 2.
After my research, I went back to the TV. At first, it showed a TV spot for Mr. Peabody & Sherman, but then the screen cut to black for a few seconds before showing the "Coming up next is Bernard" bumper. Anyway, it went to the theme song but the music was very distorted, probably because of the crappy VHS quality I guess. Then it showed the episode's title screen which read "Bernard Snaps" and showed Bernard with bloodshot eyes and an angry look on his face.
The episode started off normally with Bernard watching TV in his house, until when Lloyd comes into his house asking if Bernard would watch TV with him. Bernard then starts roaring at Lloyd, telling him to leave but Lloyd didn't seem to respond to what the polar bear was saying to him. Then Bernard then got even angrier and started eating Lloyd alive. Lloyd then starts screaming loudly in agony and Bernard ripped open the poor penguin's stomach and started eating his organs as blood sprays all over the place. I nearly vomited during the scene, but that scared the shit out of me.
This lasted for about 15 seconds until Zack and Eva walk into Bernard's house, only to see that Bernard was eating Lloyd. Both Zack and Eva had a traumatized look on their faces and screamed in terror. The two immediately ran to hide somewhere where they cannot be found. Then it showed Eva and Zack hiding under a log, shivering and remaining silent until Bernard appeared in front of them with bloodshot eyes, holding a butcher's knife on his hand. He then grabbed Zack on the tail and started cutting his head off while Zack screamed in pain as the knife dug through his throat. Bernard then grabbed Zack's head and started eating it, so does Zack's whole flesh.
Eva was shaking, she ran as fast as she could get away from Bernard but Bernard followed her running on all fours with the knife on his hand. Eva tripped and was grabbed by Bernard. Then Bernard went back inside his house, went to the kitchen and put Eva in a oven and turned it on. Eva started screaming in pain and saw how the skin of the female penguin was burning and melting little by little, and how blood came out of her eyes. After that, Eva then became a roasted turkey. The final scene showed Bernard eating the now roasted Eva in a table. After he had done finishing eating, Bernard let out a loud burp and the episode ended there with no credits.
I was freaked out on what I just saw, so I slowly took the tape out and threw it in the trash. I didn't know if this was a real episode or some sick joke. I couldn't sleep for a few days and I kept on having nightmares about the episode. Later on, I am never going to watch Bernard or any other show on TV now because of that fucked up episode. If you ever see an episode like that, just... don't watch it. Avoid it.