Don't Hug Me I'm Scared (partially lost unreleased TV pilot of British surrealist puppet series; 2018)
Don't Hug Me I'm Scared (often abbreviated as DHMIS) is a British surreal comedy horror series created by Becky Sloan, Joe Pelling, and Baker Terry. The original web series consists of six episodes, released from 29 July 2011 to 19 June 2016 on YouTube; the television series premiered on 23 September 2022 on All 4 with a simulcast on Channel 4 the next week. The series combines segments in live action, puppetry, traditional animation, flash animation, clay animation, and computer animation.
Background
On 19 June 2017, a year after the release of episode 6, Sloan hinted towards additional work into the Don't Hug Me I'm Scared series. A teaser trailer titled "Wakey Wakey..." was released on the channel on 13 September 2018, teasing a new television show made in a collaboration between Blink Industries, Conaco, and Super Deluxe. The 30-second video gained over two million views within 24 hours of its release and peaked at No. 1 on YouTube's Trending list.[1] Details of the plot were released on 3 December 2018 in advance of a 2019 Sundance Film Festival screening of the pilot.[2] The pilot episode ran at 23 minutes, and it appeared in the "Indie Episodic Program 1" alongside other short films.
Availability
As of 2022, the pilot has never been released outside of the Festival screening. The series creators had expressed dissatisfaction with the Pilot. Although the pilot helped sell the show, Sloan, Pelling, and Terry decided not to pursue the story presented: they felt the Clayhill setting made the series too similar to South Park and came at the cost of the claustrophobia of the original series. They also found that its focus on "current affairs" (i.e. the pilot's focus on government surveillance) was not in line with what they were trying to do.[3]
Small clips of the pilot from its Festival screening are currently available on YouTube.
Gallery
Footage
Videos
Reference
- ↑ CNET'S DHMIS Article. Retrieved 01 Oct '22
- ↑ "2019 Sundance Film Festival: Indie Episodic, Shorts and Special Events Announced". Sundance Institute. Retrieved 01 Oct '22
- ↑ The Guardian's Article about the Series. Retrieved 01 Oct '22