User:SmuckAmuck/Sandbox2
Production
On December 17, 2010, Kenny Pittenger, who was a background layout supervisor on the show at the time, announced that the series had been renewed for a ninth season. Pittenger said he had meant to tell of the news sooner, implying that the show was given a season under wraps sometime during 2010.[1]
The season would officially be announced by Nickelodeon on January 3, 2011, for 26 episodes, bringing the amount of episodes in the series up to 204, passing the 200-episode mark. The president of animation at Nickelodeon and MTV Networks Kids and Family Group, Brown Johnson, stated that the series' "success in reaching over 200 episodes is a testament to creator Stephen Hillenburg's vision, comedic sensibility and his dynamic lovable characters." Paul Tibbitt, the series' executive producer following Hillenburg's departure, said that "[the crew] never imagined [they] would be going on for that long but we're going to keep going," with "the trick [being to try] to keep the episodes simple and press from here and there."[2] Just like seasons 6 and 7, season nine contained 52 11-minute production segments.[3]
Production on season nine would begin sometime during 2011, and the production process for episodes did not differ significantly in comparison other seasons of the series. An article written by Derek Iversen's friend Lynette Carrington was published in the AZ Sports & Lifestyle magazine on May 1, 2012, where Iversen was interviewed and he detailed the production process of the show: he wrote an idea that was approved by Paul Tibbitt, and later, network executives for further ideas. After a final outline was written, it would go through a series of storyboard directors, artists, and revisionists, as well as an animation director before having a rough draft animation made in Rough Draft Korea. He said that a total of 50 people had a hand in the making of each episode.[3] Iversen said that many stories he wrote were born from childhood experiences and were based around SpongeBob's "fish-out-of-water" character, being "a square peg trying to fit in a round hole." He said the crew never tried to dumb down the show, and that "Sincerity counts nowhere more than SpongeBob."[3]
The ninth season would be the first season of the series to be entirely produced in high-definition. The series had previously experimented with this format in "Truth or Square" and "It's a SpongeBob Christmas!" The first episode of season 9 to be produced with this format in mind was the season premiere, "Extreme Spots."
Crew changes
Between seasons eight and nine, many crew members would leave the series. Storyboard director and writer Aaron Springer, who had written multiple from the last eight seasons, would leave to work as a director on Walt Disney Television Animation Studios' Gravity Falls. Sean Charmatz, who served as a writer, storyboard director, and animatic director, would leave to work at DreamWorks. Three story writers would leave the series in 2010: Dani Michaeli,[4][5][6] Steven Banks,[7][8] and Richard Pursel.[9] Storyboard artists Marcelo Souza, Janice Tolentino, and Monica Tomova would leave throughout late 2011,[10][11] and storyboard revisionist and production assistant Kris Wimberly would leave by November.[12] Longtime background painter and animation director Andy Clark and Andrew Overtoom would also no longer work on the series by the end of the year.[13][14]
The series was left with two storyboard teams: Casey Alexander and Zeus Cervas, and Luke Brookshier and Marc Ceccarelli. Early into the season's production run, Blake Lemons, who had worked on the show as animatic director and storyboard revisionist, was placed onto Alexander and Cervas' storyboard team. His first episode was #325-911 "Squid Defense." In production order, he worked up to episode #325-931 "Safe Deposit Krabs," then leaving to work as a supervising director on Sanjay and Craig.[15]
The series would have Mr. Lawrence, Derek Iversen, and Andrew Goodman help develop story outlines for episodes. The storyboard plussing team included Maureen Mascarina, Dave Cunningham, Ted Seko, and Brad Vandergrift. The animation directors were Alan Smart and Tom Yasumi. Virginia Hawes acted as the sole character designer for the season, and Peter Bennett and Kit Boyce would help paint backgrounds.
Developments
On July 28, 2011, Vincent Waller would post a drawing on top of a censored outline on his Facebook page. The drawing featured Patrick licking Pearl, to her surprise.[16] Storyboard artist Brad Vandergrift replied to Waller's post, saying "Naughty Patrick." This drawing would end up being from the episode "The Crush."[17]
On December 7, 2011, Waller posted a few images from a voice recording session on his blog from an episode: "Was pleased to get to hang with Mr. Borgnine, Mr. Conway, Mr. Lawrence, and Mr. Joles this afternoon to watch them all do voice magic."[18] The only episodes that the would have lines recorded for at the time considering the production frame of this post was "Patrick-Man!"
During the winter 2011-12 season, two episodes of season 9 would have models colored and shipped to Rough Draft Studios for animation: "Squid Baby" and the aforementioned "Patrick-Man!"
Throughout winter and spring 2012, more episode models would be designed by the series' sole character designer during season 9, Virginia Hawes. Models for "Squirrel Record," "Little Yellow Book," "Bumper to Bumper," "Eek, an Urchin!," "Squid Defense," "Jailbreak!," "Evil Spatula," and "It Came from Goo Lagoon" were completed and ready to be colored and prepared for shipping.[19][20]
During late 2011, Johnny Knoxville would announce to the offices of Dickhouse Productions that he would be guest starring on an episode of SpongeBob SquarePants. On January 5, 2012, the first episode of the season, "Extreme Spots," was announced. The episode was announced to air in the summer of 2012, and it involved the extreme sports team The Drastic Radicals coming to Bikini Bottom, and their new fans, SpongeBob and Patrick, do whatever they can to get in. Knoxville was announced to be Johnny Krill, the leader of the Drasticals, and he had recorded his lines for the episode that week. Paul Tibbitt told that the episode was specifically written for him: "This episode was written specifically for him. The network wanted to do a show about extreme sports and the first thing that came to mind was Johnny Knoxville, because there are few humans living that are as extreme as him." Knoxville stated that he got a lot of street credibility doing the show and everyone around him was psyched. He said that as soon he finished doing "Spots," he begged to come back and record another episode.[21] On January 25, Knoxville talked more about the production of the episode: he was loaded up with tons of series' merch, got to do a photo shoot with SpongeBob, and even got to perform stunts for the episode. Knoxville said that it was "amazing."[22]
On January 24, 2012, popular mathematician and YouTuber Vi Hart made a video exposing the logical fallacies of SpongeBob's house, believing it to not be a pineapple as its lines didn't spiral under the Fibonacci sequence. A week later, Kenny Pittenger, who enjoyed the video, redesigned SpongeBob's pineapple for the show to fit the sequencing, even adjusting elements like the amount of rivets on SpongeBob's door to count to 13, and the amount of flowers around the ridge at the bottom of the house to 5 on each side. Pittenger told them to "keep up the good work" and come for a tour at the studio when they are in Burbank.[23]
On March 22, 2012, Vincent Waller would announce on his Twitter account that episodes of SpongeBob would eventually be produced in HD.
On April 25, 2012, Waller would a sketch of Mr. Lawrence he did during a meeting, with the drawing being done on top of an episode outline. The title ended in "-s," From what can be seen, at one point in the outline, Squidward (shortened to Squid) takes something.[24]
An article about the series was published in the AZ Sports & Lifestyle magazine on May 1, 2012, and Derek Iversen was interviewed. At the time, writing for season nine was said to be underway.[3]
Iversen posted the link to the article on Facebook on May 11, 2012, and while a fair bit of credit in the article was given to Iversen, he stated that if it wasn't for the help of Paul Tibbitt, Vincent Waller, Doug Lawrence, Zeus Cervas, Casey Alexander, Marc Ceccarelli, Luke Brookshier, and the entire SpongeBob crew, as without them, his stories would only be words on a page. He also gave a shout-out to voice actors Tom Kenny, Bill Faggerbakke, Rodger Bumpass, Clancy Brown, and Carolyn Lawrence in the comment section.[25]
During the following month in June 2012, Iversen would leave the series. He wrote a total of 56 episodes for the show, and 19 episode outlines for season 9.[26]
The Super Spongy Square Games and more confirmed episodes
On June 6, 2012,[27] a clip for "Extreme Spots" was released on Nick.com,[28] showcasing the series' new high-definition animation. In the clip, SpongeBob and Patrick want to join the Drasticals, and attempt to participate in extreme sport activities, but fail, and Johnny Krill asks something they're good at. They attempt to impress them with jump rope, but Patrick gives up, and Krill says they aren't ready to join. The clip was removed from Nick.com later in the day.[29][30]
On June 29, 2012, the episode was announced to premiere on July 21 at 8:00pm.[31] An image from the photo shoot Knoxville mentioned in January was also released.[32] On July 2, 2012, Nickelodeon would reveal that the episode, alongside "Face Freeze!," "Demolition Doofus," and the newly-confirmed "Squirrel Record," where SpongeBob helps Sandy break numerous dangerous world records, would air as a block called The Super Spongy Square Games, with a 12-hour marathon leading up to the event starting at 9:00am. Nickelodeon would also release online games to tie in with and help promote the event.[33] More clips from "Spots" and "Record" would be released on July 14, 2012. The clips referred to the episodes under the packaging numbers of 179a and 179b, meaning that they were part of season 9, as season 8 had only been ordered for 26 episodes.[34]
On July 10, 2012, Fabian Fernandez announced that he would be doing a SpongeBob session at the editors' studio for a new episode called "License to Milkshake."[35] On August 6, 2012, it and 3 other episodes would be added and confirmed to the United States Copyright Catalog: "Patrick-Man!" as 180a, "Gary's New Toy" as 180b, "License to Milkshake" as 181a, and "Squid Baby" as 181b.[36]
On August 28, 2012, an airdate for "Squid Baby" was announced on Zap2it, being September 3 at 7:30pm. The episode was said to be about SpongeBob and Patrick taking care of Squidward when he reverts to being a baby.[37] On the same day, Nick.com published clips of it,[38] alongside "License to Milkshake."[39] On August 30, an airdate for "License to Milkshake" was announced, being September 7 at 5:00pm.[40] On August 31, Nickelodeon would publish a press release affirming more details about the premieres: the series would marathon all day on September 3 from 9:00am - 8:00pm, and "The Good Krabby Name" would air with "Squid Baby," and back-to-school themed episodes of the show would air daily from 5:00pm - 6:00pm leading up to the September 7 debut of "License to Milkshake"; the episode itself was revealed to be about SpongeBob's milkshake license expiring and being forced to go back to milkshake academy, with Michael McKean voicing the academy instructor. The press release mentioned the episode's premiere moved to 8:00pm,[41] however, the episode would actually air at 5:00pm like intended.
End of production
On February 28, 2012, the series' second movie was officially confirmed, following the movie being rumored[42] about after being mentioned as a part of Paramount's animated film slate on March 4, 2011.[43] The movie had a tentative release date of late 2014. The movie would serve to start off or be one of [Paramount's] films to start of [their] new animation effort," according to then-Viacom president Philippe Dauman.[44] By mid-to-late 2012, production of the series would begin to halt and most of the series' crew would begin to transition to the movie.
During August 2012, storyboard director and writer Casey Alexander would leave, going off to work on Peter Browngardt's Cartoon Network series Uncle Grandpa in September,[45] with Luke Brookshier and Marc Ceccarelli following suit. Storyboard artists such as Dave Cunningham would transition from the show to the movie sometime during 2012.[46]
Between June and August of 2012, Erik Wiese would return as a storyboard artist on the episode "Kenny the Cat," plussing the entirety of the storyboard by himself.[47] He would also move on to the second movie, becoming part of the head of its story in August.[48]
Throughout the fall of 2012, model sheets for the final episodes that were able to be completed were shipped to Korea, such as "Don't Look Now," "Kenny the Cat," "Yeti Krabs," and "SpongeBob You're Fired."
In an interview with the East-West AUDIO Body Shop YouTube series on November 11, 2012, Tom Kenny had announced the series was on a year-long break of TV episodes while the movie was being written, meaning that the show was on a production hiatus. In an interview with Hollywood on December 22, 2012, Kenny said that the crew had just wrapped on some episodes before the movie, as the writers for the series would get repurposed for the film.[49] On February 11, 2013, an article focusing on the show's storyboard supervising director Tuck Tucker stated that the production hiatus on SpongeBob allowed him to work as a director on another Nickelodeon cartoon, The Fairly OddParents![50]
On March 6, 2013, Vincent Waller announced on his Twitter account that "it's hump day on [his] last week of TV SpongeBob..." and that "things are getting very busy." When asked if the show was ending, he said that they will be working on the movie, and would be scheduled to return and finish out the rest of season 9.[51] This meant that the first half of season 9 officially concluded production on March 8, 2013.
On May 2, 2013, "It Came from Goo Lagoon," (185) "Don't Look Now" / "Séance Shméance," (187) "Kenny the Cat" / "Yeti Krabs," (188) and "SpongeBob You're Fired!" (189) had been registered under copyright and completed, via the United States Copyright Catalog.[52]
Further episodes aired
While season 9's first half was nearing the end of production by October 2012, more new episodes from season 9's first half were rolled out. On October 3, 2012, "Gary's New Toy" was announced to premiere on a Sunday night on Zap2it: October 14 at 7:30pm. The episode was announced to be about SpongeBob taking drastic measures when Gary becomes obsessed with his new ball.[53] On October 9, 2012, a clip from the episode would be released on Nick.com.[54]
On October 15, 2012, the Extreme Kah-Rah-Tay DVD was announced, releasing on January 15, 2013. The episode would be the first home video release for the first two season 9 episodes, and would publicly announced the episode "Squid Defense." The DVD was set to release prior to the premiere of the episode's debut on television, which was scheduled to air on January 18, 2013, as a part of the "Kah-rah-tay" event.[55]
On October 16, 2012, "Eek, an Urchin!" was announced by Zap2it to air on October 28 at 7:30pm.[56] On October 21, MSN announced that the episode "Patrick-Man!" was to air with it at 7:45pm. In the episode, Patrick becomes a superhero and plans to clean up Bikini Bottom.[57] On October 23, 2012, a clip from "Eek!" was released on Nick.com. The packaging number in the link of the clip was listed as "183."[58] On October 25, 2012, the premieres were moved to October 27 at 9:00am.
References
- ↑ Kenny's Korner: 9th Season
- ↑ Andreeva, Nellie (January 3, 2011). Nickelodeon Renews SpongeBob for Ninth Season. Retrieved on February 14, 2018.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 AZ Sports & Lifestyle v4.3 2012 May-Jun - Issuu
- ↑ AquabatS! - Welcome to Incoherent-Thought
- ↑ Experience | Dani Michaeli | Linkedin
- ↑ And SpongeBob History Repeats Itself - SpongeBuddy Mania
- ↑ Experience | Steven Banks | Linkedin
- ↑ Banks to guide 'Governator' - Variety
- ↑ Experience | Richard Pursel | Linkedin
- ↑ Experience | Marcelo De Souza | Linkedin
- ↑ Experience | Monica Tomova | Linkedin
- ↑ Experience | Kris Wimberly | Linkedin
- ↑ Experience | Andy Clark | Linkedin
- ↑ Experience | Andrew Overtoom | Linkedin
- ↑ Experience | Blake Lemons | Linkedin
- ↑ Vincent Waller on Facebook - "Meeting Doodle"
- ↑ File:SB908-title.jpeg
- ↑ 4 fer - Welcome to Incoherent-Thought
- ↑ SpongeBob SquarePants - Ginny Hawes
- ↑ Props - Ginny Hawes
- ↑ Johnny Knoxville Visits SpongeBob and Friends - Animation Magazine
- ↑ 'SpongeBob' Cameo Gives Johnny Knoxville 'Street Cred' - MTV
- ↑ Called Out! - Kenny's Korner
- ↑ A Bunch - Welcome to Incoherent-Thought
- ↑ Derek Iversen on Facebook - "Hey everybody, my friend Lynette Carrington wrote..."
- ↑ Derek Iversen | Linkedin
- ↑ Extreme Spots Clip is here! - SpongeBuddy Mania
- ↑ SpongeBob SquarePants: The New Summer SpongeBob Special SpongeBob Video - Nick.com
- ↑ Extreme Spots Clip is here! (post #10) - SpongeBuddy Mania
- ↑ Extreme Spots Clip is here! (post #14) - SpongeBuddy Mania
- ↑ Johnny Knoxville's 'SpongeBob' Cameo: Exclusive First Look! - MTV
- ↑ Exclusive: SpongeBob Teams Up With Johnny Knoxville - MTV
- ↑ Nickelodeon Debuts Four Brand-New Episodes of 'SpongeBob Squarepants' in 'The Super Spongy Square Games' One Hour TV Event - TVbytheNumbers
- ↑ The Super Spongy Square Games (post #22) - SpongeBuddy Mania
- ↑ Fabian Fernandez on Facebook - "Doing a "spongebob" session today..."
- ↑ From the United States Copyright Office catalog: Public Catalog - Copyright Catalog (1978 to present) - Basic Search [search: "SpongeBob SquarePants : 180" or "SpongeBob SquarePants : 181"]. United States Copyright Office.
- ↑ Season 9 Episodes (post #18) - SpongeBuddy Mania Forums
- ↑ Season 9 Episodes (post #26) - SpongeBuddy Mania
- ↑ Season 9 Episodes (post #29) - SpongeBuddy Mania
- ↑ Season 9 Episode (post #39) - SpongeBuddy Mania
- ↑ Nickelodeon Cures Back-to-School Blues woth a Dose of 'SpongeBob SquarePants' - TVbytheNumbers
- ↑ SpongeBob Movie 2 - confirmed! *SPOILERS* | SpongeBuddy Mania
- ↑ Success for Paramount's 'Rango' could lead to end of deal with DreamWorks - Los Angeles Times
- ↑ Paramount to Release 'SpongeBob' Movie in Late 2014 - The Hollywood Reporter
- ↑ Experience | Casey Alexander | Linkedin
- ↑ Dave Cunningham | Linkedin
- ↑ SPONGEBOB SEASON 9 "KENNY THE CAT" - Erik Wiese on Tumblr
- ↑ Experiences | Erik Guerrero-Wiese | Linkedin
- ↑ THE VOICE OF 'SPONGEBOB' ON TAKING CHRISTMAS UNDER THE SEA... OLD SCHOOL STYLE - HOLLYWOOD
- ↑ 'SpongeBob SquarePants' storyboard director to discuss the art of animation at Institute for Creativity, Arts, and Technology lecture - Virginia Tech
- ↑ Vincent Waller on Twitter - "It's hump day on my last week of..."
- ↑ From the United States Copyright Office catalog: Public Catalog - Copyright Catalog (1978 to present) - Basic Search [search: "SpongeBob SquarePants : 185," "SpongeBob SquarePants : 187," "SpongeBob SquarePants : 188," or "SpongeBob SquarePants : 189"]. United States Copyright Office.
- ↑ New episode - "Gary's New Toy" - October 14th, 7:30pm (post #1) - SpongeBuddy Mania
- ↑ New episode - "Gary's New Toy" - October 14th, 7:30pm (post #20) - SpongeBuddy Mania
- ↑ SpongeBob SquarePants - Street Date Announced for an Extreme Kah-rah-Tay DVD 8 new-to-home-video episodes will be available this January - TVShowsonDVD.com
- ↑ Eek! An Urchin Airs Oct. 28th @7:30pm (post #1) - SpongeBuddy Mania
- ↑ Eek! An Urchin Airs Oct. 28th @7:30pm (post #11) - SpongeBuddy Mania
- ↑ Eek! An Urchin Airs Oct. 28th @7:30pm (post #21) - SpongeBuddy Mania
