As Seen on TV

Characters

• Mr. Doodles ^{(name revealed)}
• Eugene H. Krabs
• King Neptune ^(mentioned)
• Incidental 2
• Incidental 30
• Bamboo rod holder Template:Debut
• Incidental 16
• Incidental 31
• Short construction worker Template:Debut
• Tool belt worker Template:Debut
• Dancers Template:Debut
• Incidental 42
• Handyfish Template:Debut
• Incidental 36
• Incidental 5
• Incidental 151
• Fish in the tomato slice costume Template:Debut
• Incidental 27
• Incidental 25
• Squidward Tentacles
  • Jen
• Incidental 107
• Bandit fish Template:Debut
• Mr. Krabs' double Template:Debut
• Clown Template:Debut
• Incidental 37A
• Incidental 23
• Incidental 108
• Fish in the Krabby Patty costume Template:Debut
• Incidental 10
• Incidental 105
• Fred
• Incidental 3
• Incidental 67
• Incidental 9
• Incidental 22
• Incidental 15
• Incidental 41
• Incidental 46
• Incidental 73
• Incidental 17
• Incidental 106
• Incidental 49
• Incidental 47
• Incidental 152
• French narrator
• Template:Data:Links
• Gary the Snail
• Cowboys on horses
• Pearl Krabs
  • Amy
• Old Man Walker
• Incidental 4
• Incidental 6
• Incidental 39
• Glandy McPinkfish ^(mentioned)
• Flounderman ^(mentioned)
• Incidental 103
• Incidental 7
• Incidental 153
• Incidental 64
• Vampire ^(mentioned)
• Nun ^(mentioned)
• Astronaut ^(mentioned)

Synopsis

Mr. Krabs walks to the Krusty Krab with his pet worm Mr. Doodles one morning to see the completion of the first ever Krusty Krab TV commercial, which is being directed by Squidward. However, upon seeing the expensive production values, he fires all of the cast and crew except the clown and decides to direct it himself, using himself, Squidward, Pearl, and SpongeBob as the cast.

File:As Seen on TV 048.png

The Krusty Krab commercial.

SpongeBob is extremely excited to see himself on TV and watches the commercial when it airs in the extremely cheap time slot of 3:28 AM. Despite the horrendous production values and quality of the commercial, and SpongeBob's background role in it, he proclaims it to be the best 60 seconds of his life.

The next morning, while SpongeBob is walking to work, Old Man Walker sees him and tells him that he saw him on TV the previous night, albeit not in the same commercial. SpongeBob does not know this, making him think that he is famous. At work, he treats people as if they were his fans and fails to perform his job properly.

File:As Seen on TV 152.png

"The Striped Sweater Song."

Eventually, he quits his job to become an entertainer and is confronted by the crowd of hungry customers, who he thinks want him to entertain them. He begins to juggle patties and accidentally slips on grease, sending the patties flying. Just as he thinks that his "career" is over, the patties drop on the grill, which pleases the customers.

SpongeBob notices this and continues to make Krabby Patties like normal, still believing he is entertaining his customers and is very famous. Mr. Krabs gives SpongeBob his hat back, even though he still thinks he is a celebrity while the episode ends.

Production

Release

• This episode is available on the Christmas, Complete 3rd Season, First 100 Episodes, Nick For the Holidays!, Holidays with SpongeBob 3-DVD Gift Set, Christmas DVD Double Pack, Collection Triple, The SpongeBob SquarePants 8 Season DVD Collection, SpongeBob Goes Prehistoric (Russian only), SpongeBob vs. The Big One (Greek only), 2-Season TV Pack, The Ultimate SpongeBob Box Set, From the Beginning, Part 1, SpongeBob SquarePants Vol. 4, The SpongeBob SquarePants Collection, Turned Into Hero?!, The Best 200 Episodes Ever, The Third & Fourth Seasons, and Complete Third Season DVDs and on VideoNow.

Reception

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• Template:Rank2

Trivia

General

• The German title of this episode is "Der Fernsehstar," which translates to "The TV Star."
  • The French title is just "Seen on TV."

File:Pearl-Mr-Krabs-Squidward-adventure-card.jpg

The trading card of the Krusty Krab commercial.

• In 2004, Upper Deck released a trading card based on the Krusty Krab commercial from this episode. The card featured "Amy" and "Jen," and the back of the card mentions SpongeBob's cameo.
• This is the only time in an episode where there are two Krusty Krabs next to each other. However, the second Krusty Krab did not have the number 2 on it unlike the one in the first movie.
• The title card background is relatively similar to those of "Naughty Nautical Neighbors", "Karate Choppers", "Squidville", "Gary Takes a Bath," and "Jellyfish Hunter."
• This is the second appearance of Mr. Krabs' pet worm, Mr. Doodles. The first was "Sandy's Rocket."
  • His name is revealed in this episode.
• This is the first time Pearl calls Mr. Krabs the same name, rather than calling him "dad" or "daddy."
• This is the third time Squidward eats a Krabby Patty. The first was "Your Shoe's Untied," and the second was "Just One Bite."
• The picture seen in the background in the scene where Old Man Jenkins is watching the commercial is the same one seen in "Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy" where Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy play checkers.
• SpongeBob's song "Striped Sweater" has become popular on the internet.
• Irony: Mr. Krabs, Squidward and the customers should have told SpongeBob he should be cooking in the kitchen and he should not be giving entertainment.
• This is the first time the Krusty Krab does advertising.
• Mr. Krabs says that the commercial that is featured in this episode is the first-ever Krusty Krab commercial, but in "Truth or Square," it is revealed that Mr. Krabs did one in the 1950s.
  • It is possible he forgot and only remembered recently.
• Although Mr. Krabs tells the clown to stay for the commercial, he does not appear afterwards and does not appear in the commercial.
  • It is possible the clown left.
• In the Arabic dub, this episode's title is "الإعلان" which translates to "the commercial".
• In the Polish dub, the episode's title is "Piękny SpongeBob z telewizji," which translates to "Beautiful SpongeBob from TV."
  • This is its only usage within an episode.

File:As Seen on TV 080.png

• This is the second time SpongeBob is mistaken for a cereal box. The first was "Prehibernation Week."
• After the Bran Flakes commercial is seen, SpongeBob says "You did?" and when he says it, his wavy edges disappear, but they come back in the next shot. This was done to emphasize his similarity to the Bran Flakes box.
• SpongeBob slices up a zucchini while making Krabby Patties.
• According to the episode's production number (5571-172), this was meant to be a season 2 episode.
  • The same happened with "Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy IV" and "Idiot Box."

Cultural references

• The Bran Flakes cereal seen in this episode is a real cereal by Kellogg's.
• The lighting company that was going to supply the lighting of the Krusty Krab commercial is Lamp Ray Lighting. This is a reference to the fish Lamprey.
• One of the fish mentions "Flounderman," a parody of talk show host David Letterman.

Errors

• Incidental 41 is shown twice in the crowd of actors as they leave.
• The crowd, in unison, ask for onions and cheese, but no cheese is shown being placed on the patties.

File:Error in As Seen on TV.png

Cut off arm.

• The number of patties on the grill near the end of the episode changes between shots.
• When the next shot cuts to Incidental 41 after SpongeBob says "Why sir, I'm flattered," his arm is cut off for some frames.
• When the crowd says "We want patties!", Incidental 46's waist is purple.
• The second Krusty Krab is only shown when Mr. Krabs mentions it; in any other shot, it is not there.
• In the French dub the writers are credited as "Paul Tibbitt, Kent Osborne and Merriwether Williams."

Video

File:SpongeBob SquarePants - The Striped Sweater Song - Nickelodeon UK