Camp Lazlo "Monkey See, Camping Doo" (lost pitch pilot of Cartoon Network animated series; 2004)

The show's logo.

Status: Lost

Camp Lazlo (also stylized as CAMP LAZLO!) is an animated series made by Rocko's Modern Life creator, Joe Murray that ran on Cartoon Network from 2005-2008. The show follows a Brazilian spider monkey name Lazlo and his friends an Indian elephant named Raj and a pigmy rhino name Clam as they spend their summer at Camp Kidney run by Scoutmaster Lumpus and his assistant Mr. Slinkman, as the trio go on many misadventures and hijinks with other campers (known as "Bean Scouts") to the dismay of the Scoutmaster.

Pitch Pilot

In 2004 Murray created a pilot to pitch the series to the network titled "Monkey See, Camping Doo". Its plot was later reworked into the show's first episode "Gone Fishin' (Sort Of)." According to a Reddit user's comment when he asking Murray about the pilot, he responded:

"The pilot was remade into a full episode with Lumpus getting eaten by a lake monster. I’m not sure where the original version is. Somewhere in the archives of Cartoon Network."^[1]

Other sources claim the pilot had some changes from the final show for instance Lazlo speaking with a Brazilian accent instead of an American one and his design looking more closely to a real life spider monkey, Raj having an Americanized accent with a spitty sound instead of an Indian one and Clam that's credited as "Mute Rhino" who never speaks in the pilot.

The camp in the pilot was named "Camp Runnyrump" with Soutmaster Lumpus's character design was a horse and speaking in a "Don Knotts-like voice" with his first name originally Leonard instead of Algonquin. Edward Chip and Skip (originally named Dale and Dave) also appeared in the pilot along with Samson who like Clam, didn’t speak in the pilot and was credited as "Guinea Pig."

Status

Aside from some unconfirmed storyboards and some production art from Carol Wyatt's blog with her confirming it was from the pilot.^[2] Any footage or screenshots from it had yet to resurface as of 2021.