Pilot Episode
In the Pilot episode, the Sabahbies are created as the backstory and plotline are established. The episode moves around Gloomsburg and shows the townsfolk at their absolute “lowest” point. We see the town of Gloomsburg, dark and desolate, presented in muted hues and gloomy shadows. Looming over the entire town is a huge, dark, ominous cloud with thunder, lightning, rain, and wind blowing through the streets. A thick fog lingers just above the damp, muddy ground. We see people of Gloomsburg walking through the town, all with small personal clouds looming over their heads. (Some people’s clouds are bigger than others.) The more gloomy the person, the darker and larger the cloud. We see children playing in a run-down playground, not having much fun. See-sawing on a broken see-saw, sliding down a damaged slide and hitting a pile of rocks at the bottom. Playing an obviously boring game which consists of throwing pebbles into a circle of dirt. The kids appear bored to death from the monotonous, repetitive, and dull life that they live. Each child has a small cloud following him. We see the Gloomsburg hospital where a baby is about to be born. You’d think it would be a happy place, but even there we see gloom and apathy. The baby appears, swaddled like a newborn, looks around, lets out the first cry of its life and the tiniest cotton ball of a cloud forms over its head.
[ The cloud over the entire town grows and rumbles. ]
A delivery guy leaves an office building, walks through the soaking rain and gets into his van. “The last stop of the night is a pickup of bubblegum at the Gloomsburg Laboratory,” the guy says examining his task list on his smartphone. He starts the engine – which hesitates as it sputters and chokes a bit. He begins to drive and turns off the main road onto a dark, dreary, windy road. As he drives along a particularly deserted stretch of the road, his engine sputters and the van creeps to a stop as the storm outside intensifies. No cell reception. Nowhere to go for help, the outlook appears grim and desperate. He can hear the rain beating down on his metal rooftop as the chill of the cold night begins to overtake the interior of his broken down car.
[ The cloud over his head grows, and the cloud over the entire town grows and rumbles. ]
A Gloomsburg scientist doesn’t have the “know-how” to figure out the best formula for a new type of bubble gum she wants to create. She tries and tries, but instead of advancing, she gets frustrated and smashes things in her lab, exploding sticky, pink slimy goo everywhere in the process.
[ The cloud over her head grows, and the cloud over the entire town grows and rumbles. ]
A Gloomsburg resident, with no confidence, is pacing in his office. He has just decided not to go after the promotion he deserves. He is talking to himself. He tells himself he is the worst person for the job. What was he thinking? ANYONE would be better at the job than he would.
[ The cloud over his head grows, and the cloud over the entire town grows and rumbles. ]
A schoolkid on his way home, decided to “take the short way home,” forgoing a fun and adventurous bike ride through the hillside. “I have to get home to do my homework and recount my jellybean collection.”
[ The cloud over his head grows, and the cloud over the entire town grows and rumbles. ]
At this point, the level of gloom, darkness, depression and pain has become too great in Gloomsburg and the huge cloud above the town lets out a dramatic, mysteriously magical and mystifying flash of light followed by a peculiar sounding, albeit booming thunder clap, followed by an enormous, comforting, hushing POOF. Erupting from the top of the cloud above the town (up in the sunshine) are the Sabahbies. They each greet each other and do something that expresses their unique personalities. Hank and Sabahba have a sort of power struggle (Hank as the leader and Sabahba as the elder). They evaluate the town below then and decide what they can do to help.
[ The scene cuts to a spaceship millions of miles away ]
Opazit’s onboard ship computer shows him that an anomaly was detected and nine new Sabahbies have been created in the Milky Way Galaxy in a small town on the planet Earth. He asks the computer to tell him how many Sabahbies are required to power up the Sabahbinator and unlock the secret of the universe. The Computer replies “nine.” He tells the computer to set a course for the blue planet and tells Scraggie to prepare the Sababinator. He lets out an evil laugh (muhu huhuhu haha) and rubs his hands together. “How long until we get to earth?” Opazit asks the machine. “Three months,” replies the computer. Opazit blinks his three eyes a few times then holds a blank stare at the information on his screens.
The Sabahbinator—a complex device with nine glass-like balls attached with long flexible, telescoping arms—starts powering up. The display panel shows “power up status” at 1%. Scraggie checks the controls and dials, shrugs his shoulders, curls up into a snuggly ball on the floor and takes a nap.
[ Meanwhile, back in Gloomsburg ]
While most of the Sabahbies argue over how to best help the people of Gloomsburg overcome their gloom, Krunt slips away in the shadows and poofs down to help the guy whose van had just broken down on that road off the beaten path. He poofs into a nearby shadowy tree to assess the situation. Krunt, being a mechanical genius, is able to figure out what is wrong with the vehicle almost immediately. He decides to have a little fun first, and tries to scare the van driver. Startled, bitter, and a little freaked out, the guy accepts Krunt’s help. The guy is actually amused, entertained, and uplifted by Krunt’s sarcasm and dark humor. Together they repair the car, and the man is back on the road heading to his next pick-up.
Inside the scientist’s bubblegum lab, things have not progressed at all. She is wading through sticky, slimy goo and emoting extreme frustration. Peekhaboo and Mo appear. She is so surprised that she falls backwards into a soft pile of pink goo. Peekhaboo asks the “Whys” and the “Hows.” The scientist reluctantly answers the questions. Mo comes in with his “Mo-How” and talks her towards a solution through logic. They help her make good out of the bad. They discover the pink stuff won’t make good bubble gum, but makes amazing slime! Box it up and sell it to the kids. They’ll have as much fun playing with slime as they would chewing on gum. Maybe even MORE fun. Finally convinced, she adds a few final touches. She smiles then bursts into cheering laughter as she realizes she is now in the slime making business!
The kid on his bike sees the road has a fork in it. This is where the “short way home” meets the fun and scenic route. Kippi wasn’t going to let THAT happen. He’d miss out on an ADVENTURE! Kippi leads the kid down a long and windy path. An amazing road, filled with discovery. Lots of cool sights and fun hills. Bridges and tunnels. Bike jumps and water splashes. ; The kid and Kippi come out the other side of the path. They are laughing and chasing some weird gloombugs. The clouds over the kid’s head shrinks and loses some of its darkest greys.
The delivery guy, driving his van that Krunt helped him fix, pulls up to the Bubblegum scientist’s workshop. He looks at his ‘notes on his phone.’ He reads aloud “Pick up Bubblegum.” Pulling a handcart, he enters the lab. “Hi, I’m here for a shipment of bubble gum,” he says to the receptionist. The scientist comes to the front desk from the back of the laboratory. She tells him there is no bubblegum. The experiments were an absolute failure. He gets a gloomy look on his face and turns to leave. The scientist yells “WAIT!” I have a dozen crates of SLIME you can take. I know kids will love them! They’ll probably love them more than bubble gum. Hesitantly, he takes the stacks of boxes away on his hand truck and loads them into his van. He drives into town and drops the unusually brightly colored boxes at various stores around the gloomy town of Gloomsburg.
The guy looking to get a promotion is still pacing in his office. He is trying to convince himself he isn’t worthy of the promotion. His body language is saying he lacks the self confidence he needs to achieve. Hank poofs in and talks to him about self-confidence and the positive, can-do attitude he needs to be promoted. The guy, stands tall, pushes his shoulders back, puffs up his chest and with the hint of a smile on his face, goes into the boss’s office. You see the two people talking, but cannot hear the conversation. Then you see them shake hands. The guy walks out of his boss’s office, laughing and smiling! His cloud is shrinking. He tells Hank he got the promotion! Hank says, “Stay large and in charge!” and poofs away. The guy leaves the office. He gets in his car and heads towards home. He passes a store and stops to buy balloons, flowers, cake, and SLIME. (“Wow, this is new, I bet the kids will love it he thinks”) He is ready to celebrate with his family.
The man arrives home and greets her wife with the good news. As they kiss in celebration of the promotion, each of their clouds shrinks a significant amount. The man’s son arrives on his bike (after the excursion with Kippi) and he is already smiling from the fun he had. He tosses him a tub of the new slime.
The next day, the boy arrives at the playground (where they were playing at the beginning of the episode) with his tub of slime, only to find other kids have colorful tubs of their own as well. Now you see smiling, laughing happy children playing with SLIME.