Studio: United Plankton Pictures, Nickelodeon Animation Studio
Distributor: Nickelodeon
Short Synopsis
In the undersea town of Bikini Bottom, SpongeBob SquarePants, an eager young sea sponge who lives in a pineapple, wakes up determined to get a job as a fry cook at the Krusty Krab restaurant. His best friend Patrick, a starfish, cheers him on, but at the restaurant the grumpy cashier Squidward wants nothing to do with him, and the owner, Mr. Krabs, sets him an impossible test to get rid of him: fetch a hydrodynamic spatula with port and starboard attachments and turbo drive. While SpongeBob is away on his hopeless quest, five buses full of hungry anchovies descend on the Krusty Krab and overwhelm the staff. SpongeBob returns, with a spatula, and to the music of Tiny Tim's "Livin' in the Sunlight, Lovin' in the Moonlight", flips patties at superhuman speed, feeding the entire crowd. Mr. Krabs hires him on the spot, and the anchovies carry him out in triumph.
Why It Matters
- The episode sets out the whole series in eleven minutes: SpongeBob's boundless optimism, Squidward's misery, Mr. Krabs's greed and the rhythm of absurd, sincere comedy, all drawn in the bright, flat style with tiki-flower skies that marine biologist Stephen Hillenburg designed for his ocean world.
- It is the pilot and premiere of SpongeBob SquarePants, which became Nickelodeon's most successful series and one of the most-watched and merchandised animated franchises in history. It first aired after the 1999 Kids' Choice Awards.
Notes and Trivia
- Tiny Tim's song caused the episode to be left off the first-season DVD, because Nickelodeon did not want to pay his estate for its use.
- An early version was shown at a screening in Austin, Texas, in April 1998.
- See also: Space Ghost Coast to Coast: Fire Ant (1999), Treehouse of Horror V (1994).