The show's characters.
Has anyone ever wanted to make a TV show and have it air on television? I'm sure most people did this as children. For instance, when I was a kid I wanted to see a show about a family of humanoid rhinos that lived in the suburbs.
I know, that just sounds stupid, but I was an imaginative boy. This is a little known fact, but Nickelodeon once had a phase where they would sometimes accept fan-made shows.
Let me explain. For a few months in 1992, Nickelodeon had decided that if a fan sent in their idea for a TV show and Nickelodeon liked it, they would actually turn it into a show. They never announced this, of course, they just did it secretly.
Few people actually did mail in suggestions, but there was one man named Wallace Moreau. Moreau was a guy, 23 years old at the time, who dreamed of becoming a TV writer. Moreau was a children's puppeteer and had a passion for entertaining people
He got the idea to make a children's cartoon when he realized how much little kids loved his material. Parents would often invite him to perform puppet shows at parties, and he would often get paid from this. He thought he could get even more money from producing a funny, kid-friendly cartoon for a big channel like Nickelodeon.
Moreau came up with a cartoon called "Jeff & Jeff's Dog". It was to be about a student named Jeff, who believed he could solve crimes but unknowingly always made the matter worse, and his dog named Jeff's Dog (That's right, the dog was named Jeff's Dog) who would always have to get Jeff out of the situation and serve justice himself.
Moreau wrote this idea down and wrote some little bios for the characters. He even came up with a recurring villain named The Cliffhanger, who would always commit a terrible crime right before commercials. (Hence his villain name.)
Soon, Wallace Moreau had stapled together a 'packet' of papers including the plot description, character run-down, and even a teleplay for the first episode. Moreau sent this packet to Nickelodeon Studios and waited desperately for a response, if one were even to be given.
In about 3 weeks, Moreau had gotten a reply from Nickelodeon. They had sent a letter claiming they loved the idea and they would be happy to create a cartoon from it. Moreau was overjoyed. He was told to stop by Nickelodeon Studios so they could work on a few episodes.
Moreau had arrived to the studio and met up with the people Nickelodeon decided would work on the show. Most of them seemed to be fresh out of college, and some of them just looked like they didn't want to be there. Moreau wasn't sure if he wanted these people to be writing episodes, but he reluctantly agreed and asked what he would do with the show.
Moreau asked this question to the president of Nickelodeon. Unfortunately, Moreau had been expecting a response telling him that he would be executive producer, director, or writer of the show. The response he actually got infuriated him. Nickelodeon had told him he would be assistant animator.
That's right, Moreau was to be assistant animator.
Wallace grew a hatred for this decision. He believed it was incredibly unfair. He had created the premise, and all he got was the position of assistant animator? Moreau hated this idea so much that he actually quit from the team after only animating about 3 minutes of the first episode. He had never wanted to go back to Nickelodeon Studios again, and he vowed to never watch the show.
To add insult to injury, Moreau's puppeteering skills were deteriorating, as he hadn't gotten a call for about 2 months. He hadn't even performed at a birthday party for 2 months. Some rumors even claim he tried committing suicide by hanging himself, but the rope snapped and he survived. However, this can't be confirmed.
Moreau had almost forgotten about the cartoon until Nickelodeon had sent him a letter. The letter read as follows:
"Dear Wallace J. Moreau,
We are happy to announce that the entire first season of Jeff & Jeff's Dog has been animated, and that we will air the first episode very soon. We have credited you as the creator and assistant animator, but since you quit so early we couldn't give you any more than that. We are hoping to show it at about 3:30 AM on June 1. Have a good one! ~Cyma Zarghami, President of Nickelodeon Studios"
Moreau would've probably thrown the letter away had he read the final sentence one more time. It said that the episode would be airing at 3:30 AM. This intrigued him. Why would they show it so incredibly early in the morning? What kid would be up at that time? He was almost certain they meant 3:30 in the afternoon, and they made a simple typo. Moreau then decided he would watch it, just to see what they did to it.
However, when Moreau turned on his TV at 3:30 in the afternoon, the episode wasn't on. Moreau was confused, and then thought maybe Nickelodeon DID mean 3:30 in the morning. Somewhat disappointed, he shut off the TV and went to do something else.
Moreau stayed awake all night, playing video games and surfing the Internet waiting for 3:30 AM to finally arrive. He was all out of ground coffee at about 3:00 AM, so he had to stay awake on his own until then. The time eventually came, and Moreau turned on his TV. This was it. The premiere of his big cartoon that he came up with himself.
He had turned the TV on at 3:28 AM, which meant he would simply need to watch a few commercials for the episode to finally air. When it did, it seemed like any other Nickelodeon cartoon intro. It played some sort of surf music in the background, showing an animated Jeff walking down a street with Jeff's Dog. This continued for a solid minute until "JEFF & HIS DOG" was spoken, by an old-sounding narrator. She sounded like some sort of old hag who snuck into the Nickelodeon studio to record that.
Moreau had been feeling very optimistic up to this point, and was sure the show wasn't going to be bad. However, the disappointment was awaiting him. When the actual cartoon began, Moreau was hit by a wave of sadness. Nickelodeon had butchered Moreau's idea.
Jeff was seen as a short, chubby black kid in a suit, completely different from what Moreau had drawn and sent in (his drawing was included in the packet he mailed to Nick). In fact, the intro got Jeff's appearance accurately. Why couldn't the actual cartoon segment?
Jeff's Dog was a German Shepherd, but he was dressed in a pink skirt and only shouted corny catchphrases. Moreau had believed this was Nickelodeon getting back at Moreau for quitting so early. Maybe Nickelodeon had been angered by Moreau's temper tantrum, and they were simply mocking him by butchering his show.
In fact, this wasn't even what Moreau had animated. Remember how he had only animated the first 3 minutes before quitting his job? It was as if Nickelodeon had scrapped that and re-animated the show completely. The first couple of minutes however followed the plot pretty faithfully. A stereotypical burglar was seen stealing a woman's purse, and Jeff had tried to 'help' the woman by tackling her and screaming "A BANDIT STOLE YOUR PURSE!" into the woman's ear. This was somewhat loyal to Jeff's original personality.
Then Jeff's Dog was seen running after the burglar, tackling him, taking the purse and returning it to the lady. Moreau's idea was that a whole episode would just be Jeff acting like a doofus and Jeff's Dog solving the crime instead, but for some reason, in this episode that only happened in the first 2 minutes.
After that, the show abruptly cut to the commercial break. The show returned to absolute static. It was as if Nickelodeon had gone off air. However, after about 30 seconds of static, it cut to another animated clip. Jeff was standing on a rooftop, chatting to some random guy. Suddenly, Jeff's Dog ran up to Jeff and bit him in the leg. Jeff stumbled back, and then tripped. What resulted was that Jeff had fallen from the rooftop.
The rooftop seemed to be on top of a skyscraper, and Jeff's body was seen helplessly falling and whirling down the side of the building. His body soon smashed into the ground with a splat and blood flew from his corpse. The 'camera' then zoomed back up to show Jeff's Dog, with a massive smile on his face, laughing maniacally. He then stared at the camera, and started to speak in a deep voice.
"Wallace Moreau, as Zarghami hast decreed, so have I done. We have turned your cutesy show into a nightmare in Hell. Holy art Zarghami, Zarghami is Lord. You will never be forgiven, for Zarghami... is God."
The TV then cut to more static and Moreau heard a crash in his house. At this point, he was scared to the point of where his knees turned to jelly, so he let out a loud shriek and went to investigate. He saw a shattered plate on the floor of his kitchen and assumed it just accidentally fell out somehow.
After cleaning up the mess, Moreau went back to the TV to see if the static was gone. What was being aired instead was a photograph of Jesus Christ, with Cyma Zarghami's face photoshopped onto it. Demonic music was being played in the background, and eventually Moreau heard another crash in his house.
This time, there was no broken plate. The glass on the sliding glass door was shattered, and a figure was seen standing outside. Moreau knew what to do. He finally found a use to the gun that he owned. He grabbed his pistol and went to investigate what was happening THIS time.
The mysterious figure was still standing at the door. According to Moreau, it had been completely naked, and it was very pale. Its head seemed to look swollen, and veins were bursting out of it. Oddly enough, it had no genitalia. The eyes of the creature were blood-red, and it had scars carved all over its entire body.
Moreau had screamed, pointed the gun at the figure, and pulled the trigger. The monster had been shot. It let out a loud scream, got on its knees, and seemed to hop away. Moreau walked outside to make sure this dreadful being was gone. The creature was seen crossing the street, and Moreau once more shot it. This time it simply continued hopping down the road. When Moreau was about to walk inside, it yelled something that would be etched into Moreau's mind forever.
Moreau had heard the beast scream, "Moreau is the Devil, Zarghami is God".
AftermathEdit[]
What happened to Moreau after this incident is shrouded in mystery. Some say he moved to Canada and got a job as a taxi driver. However, some say he still lives in the U.S. but stays away from the public eye.
As for the peculiar humanoid creature, only one thing is known about it. Apparently, the creature had also attacked a family 3 blocks away from Moreau's house. The creature was also seen staring through a sliding glass door. The family opened the door and the father of the family drove a knife through the animal's head. It dropped to the ground, dead, and the family eventually took it to a biologist who lived nearby, who told them that the creature was presumably engineered by highly advanced technology never seen in this era.
Jeff & Jeff's Dog has not ever been mentioned by Nickelodeon again, and it is unknown what happened to the other episodes of the series. Nick had claimed they had animated the whole 1st season, so it is not known what happened to the rest of the episodes. Moreau is the only known person who has ever acknowledged the show's existance.