Season 8/production

Developments

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Poster used by Bill Gorman to announce the series' eight season on TVbytheNumbers.

On December 15, 2009, it was announced by president of Nickelodeon/MTVN Kids & Family Group, Brown Johnson, that the series had been renewed for a 26-episode eight season. This appeared to cap off the series' 10th anniversary celebration "Think Happy - The Year of the Sponge," and it followed the ratings success of season 6's "Truth or Square," which premiered with 7.7 million viewers and was the most-viewed cable program that week. The event had also coincided with the release of the song "Don't Be a Jerk," which as described by the TVbytheNumbers article, was "symbolic of the optimism and kindness [SpongeBob] has represented for the past 10 years." Johnson stated that with the series' renewal, "[he and Nickelodeon are delighted] to be serving up additional original episodes to our viewers for many years.

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On March 17, 2010, Vincent Waller posted a doodle of a woman with a gun on the back of an episode's storyboard. On the storyboard, a shot of Mr. Krabs' eyestalks could be seen in one panel. On another panel, a barrel and a bench hooked up to the walls are visible, with a snippet of dialogue seen below it. This panel would end up being from the first episode of season 8, "Accidents Will Happen."

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On April 13, 2010, Waller posted a doodle on an episode outline. From what could be seen, the premise involved Mr. Krabs hiring Squidward to do something, and someone (a male character) having a lax attitude and behavior, which calms them. A version of SpongeBob starts to act like Squidward, who loves it.

On April 17, 2010, Kris Wimberly, who had served as an intern during season 6 and a production assistant in season 7, had announced that he had been promoted to storyboard revisionist at the brink of season 8. He also announced that the season was officially in production, with the aforementioned "Accidents" being storyboarded, likely being plussed and revised.

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"Whispering Tentacles" sheet

On June 29, 2010, Waller posted a doodle of a boy named RatBoy, on top of an episode production schedule. On the schedule, the title of an episode named "Whispering Tentacles" could be seen, being produced in Paul Tibbitt's office.

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On July 15, 2010, Waller posted a doodle of the ancient dolphin warrior from "Sponge-Cano!" on an episode's storyboard cover, saying he was "having to go in and adjust a board to match a character change, after the initial animation was done. On the storyboard cover, behind the dolphin sketch post-it, a title could be seen, reading "-ure." The full title of the episode was "Pat's Sooo Mature," which was the original title of the episode "Squidward's School for Grown-Ups."

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On July 28, 2010, Waller posted a doodle of a character known as "Noseypeddler" on the back of a page. Faintly, a drawing from "Ghoul Fools" featuring Patrick laughing could be seen on the front side of the page.

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Waller posted a doodle of a character known as the "bug eyed aviator" on the back of an episode storyboard page on August 10, 2010. On the flip side of the page, a storyboard panel of Squidward and Plankton from "Sweet and Sour Squid" is visible.

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Thomas F. Wilson uploaded a video showcasing himself doing voice-over work at Nickelodeon Animation Studio onto his YouTube channel on August 22, 2010, with some work for the episode "The Hot Shot" being in the video, as some of Tony Fast and Tony Jr.'s lines could be heard being recorded at the 2 minute and 45 second mark.

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On the same day, Vincent Waller posted a few doodles he did during lunch and during a meeting on top of an episode outline. These two doodles on the left featured SpongeBob driving into Mr. Krabs' butt and Plankton holding a measuring tape, referring to "Move It or Lose It." Some text seen near Plankton's antennas read "-0ft," which is likely supposed to fully read as 100ft, the distance that the Krusty Krab and Chum Bucket must be apart from each other, or reinforcements will be made. The original end of the episode, which can be seen on the second picture, involved customers enjoying the taste of the Money Patty, which appeared in "Model Sponge" when SpongeBob was a bank teller, alongside the taste of Mr. Krabs' tears.

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On August 24, 2010, Waller posted a rough character design of a fish named Bill, saying that "once in a while [he gets] to rough in a character for the show." In the comments of the post, someone said that it seemed like the type of character for SpongeBob and Patrick to drive absolutely crazy, but in response Waller said that it's him who drives someone else crazy, although that was all he could reveal at the time. The character would end up appearing in "Mr. Krabs Takes a Vacation." It's also the first episode where Marc Ceccarelli started working on, after Nate Cash left.

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On September 23, 2010, Waller would post a doodle of a woman's scrunched rump on top of a heavily censored episode outline, likely from this season. The doodle was inspired by something he saw at Malibu Beach on Sunday that week.

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On October 6, 2010, Waller posted a doodle called "Squeeze Play." It was called this because he drew one portion of the picture extremely large and he made the rest small with the remaining space he had. He had to do that or add it onto a post-it sheet, which would've been distracting as he was in a pitch meeting. Behind the doodle paper, an episode outline could be seen, with SpongeBob and Sandy being mentioned. Multiple parts of the outline appear to refer to "Home Sweet Rubble," with SpongeBob forgetting to feed Gary, and Gary holding a can in his mouth and dropping, which would end up being Furnished Pineapple in a Can, the item that prevents SpongeBob from having to move out of Bikini Bottom.

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By the end of 2010, story writing for season 8 would appear to be finished, as three of the show's staff writers, Dani Michaeli, Richard Pursel, and Steven Banks would leave the show by December of that year. All of their final episodes ("For Here or to Go," "Treats!," "Chum Fricassee") have production codes that point towards the end of the season. "For Here or to Go" is 268-840, "Treats!" is 268-847, and "Chum Fricassee" is 268-850. Around the same time, the first two episodes of season 8 were registered under copyright and completed, with "Accidents Will Happen" and "The Other Patty" being finished on December 8, 2010.

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On January 28, 2011, Tom Kenny did a interview on the radio station 97.9X Rocks to help promote the The Legends of Bikini Bottom special event, and at the end of the interview, he announced that a new Christmas special, based off of the song "Don't Be a Jerk," would be released in 2012.

As early as February 16, 2011, the eighth season of the show had been put up for an iTunes listing. The page described four different premises:

• "Join SpongeBob and pals on vacation..."
• "...trick-or-treat your way through Bikini Bottom..."
• "...enjoy an encore visit from Bubble Buddy..."
• "...and check out the Krusty Krab's new drive-thru."

The first premise referred to the SpongeBob's Runaway Roadtrip event, while the second, third, and fourth premises referred to "Ghoul Fools," "Bubble Buddy Returns," and "Drive Thru," respectively.

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Between June 30 and July 11, 2011, Robertryan Cory posted tons of SpongeBob models he drew for an upcoming episode on Flickr that he said would premiere next year. That episode would end up being "Face Freeze!"

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By the middle of 2011, rough storyboarding and writing for a majority of season 8 episodes was likely finished, as backgrounds and episode models for late season segments such as "Squiditis," "Glove World R.I.P.," and "Demolition Doofus" were being made.

San Diego Comic-Con 2011

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On July 7, 2011, the SpongeBob's Runaway Roadtrip miniseries was announced to premiere on DVD, with the plot synopses for each road-trip episode being hinted at in the article's description. The DVD was set to debut on September 20, 2011. On July 8, the series was announced to have a panel at the San Diego Comic-Con on July 22 at 1:00pm, with Paul Tibbitt, Vincent Waller, and Doug Lawrence attending, and Nickelodeon executive director Claudia Spinelli would moderate the event. The panel was announced to have sneak peeks of various upcoming episodes, and would reveal more information about the Roadtrip anthology. Following the in-person panel, Nickelodeon would live-stream a separate panel with Tibbitt, Waller, and Lawrence at 6:30pm on IBM Cloud Video (known as Ustream at the time), featuring a live chat that fans could ask questions from at home. The panel can be watched here.

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At the in-person panel, a clip from the "Patrick's Staycation" were shown in lieu of the miniseries. Also, the episodes "Mermaid Man Begins," "Bubble Buddy Returns," "InSPONGEiac," and "Ghoul Fools" were announced, as well as the plot synopses of the episodes "Super Evil Aquatic Villain Team Up is Go!," "Plankton's Good Eye," and "House Sittin' for Sandy." "Ghoul Fools" was also reported to have Chris Elliot guest star as the first mate ghoul, who would end up being the character Lord Poltergeist. Finally, the stop-motion special "It's a SpongeBob Christmas!" (then known as "Tis' the Season to be Jerky") was once again announced, with a clip from the episode showing the Bikini Bottom gang being reimagined as puppets, being sculpted and painted specifically for the episode.

On the livestream, a clip from "A SquarePants Family Vacation" was shown. When asked about the use of stop-motion for the snow monster in "Frozen Face-Off," Paul Tibbitt said that the character wasn't menacing enough as a line drawing and it was chosen to animate them with stop-motion provided by Screen Novelties. Tibbitt said that they're one of the few companies that still use the old-stop motion process, and they're a big fan of Ray Harryhausen's stop-motion films from the 1960's. When the inquirer of the panel asked if they would use the process again, Tibbitt referred to the aforementioned Christmas special that would premiere in 2012. He said it would be inspired by Rankin/Bass Animated Entertainment specials such as Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and The Year Without Santa Claus.

On August 2, the anthology event was announced to air on television by November 2011. On August 10, the Comic-Con livestream sneak peek was put on Nickelodeon's website.

• "inSPONGEiac"
  "inSPONGEiac"
• "Ghoul Fools"
  "Ghoul Fools"
• "Demolition Doofus"
  "Demolition Doofus"

When documented by Scott Meisner on experience it all.com, the premise for "inSPONGEiac" was mistakenly stated to be about Mr. Krabs having a nightmare and turning into a mustard dispenser. This would be disproven on September 1, 2011, as storyboard artist Marcelo Souza posted storyboards for the episode that featured SpongeBob having a nightmare. Alongside the storyboards for "inSPONGEiac," there were storyboards for "Ghoul Fools" and an episode featuring a deflated Mrs. Puff in the hospital wanting SpongeBob dead, as well as SpongeBob in a costume trying to move out of the way of a diving-suited man that is trying to ram into him. The source code for the storyboard images listed them under the production code "845," referring to "Demolition Doofus."

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Vincent Waller replying to an assumed statement about the episode.

Sometime during 2011, a fan on Waller's blog saw the title "Whispering Tentacles" on his blog and someone else guessed that it was an upcoming episode. Waller said that he couldn't confirm it. The episode would end up being scrapped and replaced with the mid-season 8 episode "Restraining SpongeBob."

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During a tour of Rough Draft Korea for students of Yongsan International School of Seoul in 2016, various SpongeBob color background books were discovered for many episode segments. One of the books found was created for the first half of "Hello Bikini Bottom!," confirming that it was shipped to Korea on March 23, 2012.

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This would be the final episode of season 8 to be shipped, as by this point, Korea had already been receiving models for season 9 as early as December 2011. The episode would be completed by August 3, 2012.

Crew doodles

• Most of these were drawn by Vincent Waller.

• "All Shines and No Bones," 3/17/2010[2]
  "All Shines and No Bones," 3/17/2010
• "Whaaa," 3/25/2010. Drawn by Paul Tibbitt.[35]
  "Whaaa," 3/25/2010. Drawn by Paul Tibbitt.
• "PTSKETCHBOOK," 5/17/2010. A drawing for Paul's sketchbook.[36]
  "PTSKETCHBOOK," 5/17/2010. A drawing for Paul's sketchbook.
• "The Annoyer," 5/17/2010. This was inspired by a forehead Vincent Waller saw over the weekend.[36]
  "The Annoyer," 5/17/2010. This was inspired by a forehead Vincent Waller saw over the weekend.
• "Payday Pickle," 5/26/2010. Vincent apologized to Plankton for this drawing.[37]
  "Payday Pickle," 5/26/2010. Vincent apologized to Plankton for this drawing.
• "Commercial Meeting Doodle," 5/28/2010[38]
  "Commercial Meeting Doodle," 5/28/2010
• "Timecard Doodly," 6/3/2010[39]
  "Timecard Doodly," 6/3/2010
• "Post Meeting Doodle," 7/20/2010[40]
  "Post Meeting Doodle," 7/20/2010
• "Yet Another Time Card Sketch," 7/21/2010[41]
  "Yet Another Time Card Sketch," 7/21/2010
• "Phly," 7/21/2010[41]
  "Phly," 7/21/2010
• "Taste of India Lunch with Jim Smith and Sean Charmatz," 7/23/2010[42]
  "Taste of India Lunch with Jim Smith and Sean Charmatz," 7/23/2010
• "A Drawing by Mr.Lawrence," 7/28/2010[43]
  "A Drawing by Mr.Lawrence," 7/28/2010
• Upside-down version.[43]
  Upside-down version.
• "SpongeBob Bought Me Lunch Today," 8/5/2010. A drawing that helped compensate Vincent Waller's lunch.[44]
  "SpongeBob Bought Me Lunch Today," 8/5/2010. A drawing that helped compensate Vincent Waller's lunch.
• "Baby Shower Card," 8/6/2010. An in-house congratulations card for someone at Nickelodeon who had a baby.[45]
  "Baby Shower Card," 8/6/2010. An in-house congratulations card for someone at Nickelodeon who had a baby.
• "Shine2," 8/20/2010. A drawing for a charity auction.[46]
  "Shine2," 8/20/2010. A drawing for a charity auction.
• "The Horror!," 9/24/2010.[47]
  "The Horror!," 9/24/2010.
• "Clancy card," Dec. 2010. A Christmas card for Clancy Brown.[48]
  "Clancy card," Dec. 2010. A Christmas card for Clancy Brown.
• "Card tom," Dec. 2010. A Christmas card for Tom Kenny.[48]
  "Card tom," Dec. 2010. A Christmas card for Tom Kenny.
• "Card Rodger," Dec. 2010. A Christmas card for Rodger Bumpass.[48]
  "Card Rodger," Dec. 2010. A Christmas card for Rodger Bumpass.
• "Card Bill," Dec. 2010. A Christmas card for Bill Faggerbakke.[48]
  "Card Bill," Dec. 2010. A Christmas card for Bill Faggerbakke.
• "Jill's card," Dec. 2010. A Christmas card for Jill Talley.[48]
  "Jill's card," Dec. 2010. A Christmas card for Jill Talley.
• Dec. 2010. A Christmas card for Carolyn Lawrence.[48]
  Dec. 2010. A Christmas card for Carolyn Lawrence.
• "Drawing for me by Mr. Lawrence," 1/13/2011. It's the same as the drawing as the one from July 2010, but with more space.[31]
  "Drawing for me by Mr. Lawrence," 1/13/2011. It's the same as the drawing as the one from July 2010, but with more space.
• "Baby Feed Thy Self," 2/8/2011. It was a drawing Vincent Waller did on a napkin during an animatic.[49]
  "Baby Feed Thy Self," 2/8/2011. It was a drawing Vincent Waller did on a napkin during an animatic.
• "Mambo Doodle," 2/8/2011. Vincent Waller drew this during lunch.[49]
  "Mambo Doodle," 2/8/2011. Vincent Waller drew this during lunch.