Lost version of Harvey Birdman Attorney at Law pilot

I signed up specifically to post about this, and luckily dug up evidence that this exists. Been posting in discord about it, so I'll repeat myself here:

back in december 2000, I was actually around and caught the blind pilots for Adult Swim a few months before it was announced. Most people know about the blind pilots, they were aired around 4 AM completely unannounced, and premiered a bunch of show pilots like aqua teen hunger force and sealab 2021. That's pretty well documented. what I never see anyone discuss is the actual pilots they showed. Almost all of them have been released since on DVDs and such, but one show in particular -- Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law -- had a different pilot than has ever been re-released. It was the Dr. Quest episode.

to clarify, the episode was eventually rereleased as a normal episode, and indeed, adult swim labels this episode as the pilot on dvds and such. This is the episode they call the pilot: www.youtube.com/watch?v=aR4bN8JmGiU

to be sure, what they claim is the first episode, is NOT the original aired pilot. The animation is the same, but the original aired pilot on december 30st, 2000, had 100% completely different audio. I have NEVER seen anyone else talk about this before -- the entire audio for the episode was rerecorded.

the original pilot episode had very bizarre, unfinished sounding audio. The show seemed like it was more avaunt guarde. The quality and tone and even pacing of the audio would change multiple times per scene, like an aesthetic choice. For example, there's the scene where Dr. Quest is on the stand and can't remember Dr. Zin's name. In the official episode, the audio in this part is completely normal, like the rest of the episode. In the original blind pilot, however, it was completely different. The line instead sounded oversampled, with a lot of distortion, and the actual voice actor sounded very far away from his microphone. The clip of Dr Quest saying "Doctor... doctor....?" sounded as though the voice actor was recorded across the room, then they threw the audio clip into a sound editor and intentionally jacked up the bass. Again, the entire episode was full of stuff like this, like it was a deliberate aesthetic choice. At points, character voices would change, but only for a single line of dialog, then switch back. Or sometimes the audio would be sped up for a moment, again, for comedic effect.

when the actual full version of the show premiered later, I caught it, and was confused, because I thought the bizarre audio was one of the show's original hooks. I very much thought the blind pilot was funnier than the released version for this very reason. I used to have this episode on tape, but my VCR ate this blind pilot about 10 years ago, and I've been searching online for it ever since. I NEVER see anyone ever talk about this lost version of Harvey Birdman, anyone else know about it?

Asked around on discord, and some people looked up listings to show I was indeed correct about the air date, but no one had heard of the alternate audio. So I looked around, and found some proof it existed, from a space ghost fansite at the time. A post talking about the stealth pilot: lustforlunch.com/dgp/oldnews.htm#morestealth

"Harvey Birdman Attorney at Law - Pretty much self explanatory, the animation is done by J. J. Sedelmaier Prodcutions (perhaps most famous for creating the animation for Robert Smiegel's cartoons on Saturday Night Live) and features Gary Cole as the voice of Birdman. The episode that already aired featured Harvey representing Dr. Benton Quest in a custody fight."

and the money shot, a post talking about the later airing, noting the different audio: lustforlunch.com/dgp/oldnews.htm#freakhole

"June 4, $20.01 - Last month, Kentucky Nightmare, a previously unseen episode of Space Ghost Coast to Coast, featuring Willie Nelson, was aired in the regular Sunday night time spot. The episode was announced with a subtle hint on the official site. So far, there haven't been any more stealth airings. For those of you who missed the episode and enjoy spoilers, you can peruse this transcript while waiting for it to be re-run. A brief synopsis with spoilers, a screengrab, and the hint from the official site are also available, courtesy of The Renegade Chickens. June 4, $20.01 - For our readers in the New York City area, Cartoon Network Confidential, a free screening of "Cartoon Network's best originals and outrageous animated shorts for discriminating adults" will be shown at 8:00 PM, through Thursday, at the The Screening Room in Tribeca. Monday's screening included Kentucky Nightmare, and, from the December stealth previews, Sealab 2021 (the robot episode), Aqua Teen Hunger Force, and a new version of the previosuly seen Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law with a completed soundtrack and several other additions. Seating is first come, first serve and lines form (eg tickets become available) at 6:30 PM the day of the airing. The screening is part of the Toyota Comedy Festival. The show also included the Beat Alls episode of the Powerpuff Girls, an episode of the series Home Movies (formerly of UPN, done in Squigglevision), Captain Linger, and several groovies and other promos already in rotation. A small supply of Powerpuff Pop Tarts and a large supply of Mad magazines were also given away free (cheap!) "

So, as far as lost media goes, the legwork on this one is pretty much done. It definitely exist, we have documented proof it was different, even an airing date and time: December 30th, 2000 at 4 am EST. If anyone can dig up a recording of cartoon network from that time, you'll nab yourself a piece of lost media