The show was cancelled before the West Coast airing finished. BoJack spent the next seven years on his couch, rewatching Horsin' Around and wondering why the "serious art" felt so much lonelier than the sitcom.
Fresh off the legacy of Horsin' Around , BoJack is desperate to be seen as a "serious artist." He has teamed up with Cuddlywhiskers, a Harvard-educated neurotic, to create something edgy, avant-garde, and profoundly depressing. The original pilot is a black-and-white existential nightmare where BoJack stares into a mirror for twenty minutes.
"It’s about the emptiness of fame, Princess Carolyn!" BoJack shouts, nursing a scotch. "It’s high art!" [S3E2] The BoJack Horseman Show
Princess Carolyn checks her Blackberry. "The reviews are in, BoJack. One critic called it 'the end of television.' Another just posted a picture of a dumpster fire."
On the night of the premiere, BoJack sits in his mansion, surrounded by "friends" he barely knows. The title card flashes: The BoJack Horseman Show . The show was cancelled before the West Coast airing finished
BoJack tries to fight it, but the lure of a "hit" is too strong. He lets them add a wacky neighbor. He lets them add a laugh track. By the time they reach tape night, the show is a bloated, nonsensical mess of toilet humor and forced cynicism.
As the credits roll to the sound of a synthesized fart, the room is deafeningly quiet. "The reviews are in, BoJack
Enter the network executives. They hate the mirror. They hate the silence. They want "attitude." They want "edge" that appeals to teenagers who buy sugar-frosted cereal. Under pressure, the show begins a slow, agonizing transformation. The black-and-white film is replaced with neon lights. The existential dread is swapped for a catchphrase: "Wassup, bitches!"