Moral Orel/Season Three

Season Three
Moral Orel
Season Premiere	October 9, 2008
Season Finale	December 18, 2008
Episode Count	13
Previous Season Two	Next N/A

Season Three of Moral Orel premiered on October 9, 2008. Unlike the previous two seasons, the third and final season takes place over a very short period of time, largely pivoted around the two-part second season finale, Nature. The season explores the fallout of Clay shooting Orel and Orel's crisis of faith in his father, as well as why the family is the way it is.

Production

Initially, the networked ordered 20 episodes for the third season. That order was eventually cut back to 13 when the series was cancelled, despite (and due in part to) the fact that much of the season had already been written and all of the episodes had at least been plotted. The reason popularly cited by Adult Swim vice president Mike Lazzo for the series' cancellation was that it had become "depressing" and far removed from what series creator Dino Stamatopoulos had originally pitched. In an interview with The Onion AV Club, voice artist and co-producer Scott Adsit explained, "Lazzo's the one who put the axe down on it, but only because it was depressing him to read the scripts." He also commented that the show "just doesn't suit the audience that Adult Swim has."

As the third season developed, the plan was to gradually flesh out the townspeople and, in the fifth season, rename the series to Moralton. Moral frequently didn't appear in episodes, which instead focused on minor characters or flashbacks—especially while Orel was in the hospital or otherwise incapacitated.

Cut Episodes

Because the episode order was significantly shortened, many elements were thrown out entirely due to time. One cut plotline dealt with Orel's terminally ill paternal grandfather, who would have moved in with the family and acted as a different type of voice in Orel's life (a non-religious and reasonable one). The seven cut episodes were described briefly by Stamatopoulos on the Adult Swim message boards:

1. Easter: "Orel's Grampa (Clay's father) comes to Moralton to tie up loose ends before he dies. He ends up sharing Orel's bed as his death bed for the last ten episodes, giving Orel good advice. (happens during the Sacrifice episode)."

2. Nurture: "Shapey and Block nurture each other and grow emotionally."

3. Narcissism: "After cutting it off with Florence, Putty becomes disillusioned with all women. This makes him incredibly attractive to all the females in Moralton and he becomes the most available bachelor in town, fucking tons of pussy. This makes him even more bored with every lady out there. He starts picturing Florence as he's fucking everyone. When he finally runs into Florence, she is dating someone else and is really really thin. Putty's disappointed in her appearance. He's been picturing fat Florence, and even though she's prettier on a shallow level, longs for her previous look. She explains that she got so depressed when he stopped seeing her that she didn't feel like eating. He happily tells her now that he's back and she can get fat again. She is insulted by his self-centered attitude and tells him to go away. In the end, I think he probably wins her back though by showing he really cares."

4. Untitled: "Bloberta and Officer Papermouth accidentally bump into each other late at night, both reaching into the garbage can outside Nurse Bendy's apt. and simultaneously grabbing the "Sonny" Teddy bear. Papermouth chivalrously let's Bloberta keep it, and this starts off an affair between the two of them. It ends up being very good for the both of them. Not sure how Clay reacts. Didn't get very far on this one."

5. Untitled: "I wanted to write the continuing saga of Orel and Christina, but never got to it. No solid ideas on this."

6. Raped: A script for this episode was briefly put on Stamatopoulos's MySpace blog. It expanded on Miss Sculptham's trauma over being raped. She would take the kids on a field trip to prison to meet the man's cellmate and strike up a brief relationship with him.

7. Death: "Orel's Grampa finally dies. Orel doesn't find too much solace from anyone and becomes a Goth kid, getting heavily into the Christian Death Metal band: Multiple Godgasm. Don't want to say much more about this, on the remote chance that there will be a Moral Orel movie, I'd like to use a lot of this story."

Episodes

#	#	Title			Airdate
31	1	Numb			October 9, 2008
32	2	Grounded			April 1, 2008
33	3	Innocence			October 16, 2008
34	4	Alone			October 21, 2008
35	5	Trigger			October 23, 2008
36	6	Dumb			October 29, 2008
37	7	Help			November 4, 2008
38	8	Passing			November 6, 2008
39	9	Closeface			November 11, 2008
40	10	Sundays			November 13, 2008
41	11	Sacrifice			November 17, 2008
42	12	Nesting			November 19, 2008
43	13	Honor			December 18, 2008