SpongebobSquarepants-related stories
Posted Oct 23rd 2009 4:30PM by John Scott Lewinski
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, Animation, Reality-Free
The popularity of
SpongeBob SquarePants amongst kids (and many adults) is almost beyond explanation.
Don't get me wrong. It's a fun show that skillfully blends little kid appeal with occasional bursts of adult-worthy humor. It also boasts an impressive voice cast, including Tom Kenny and Clancy Brown. But there are kids who can't live without this little tie-clad yellow blob.
To celebrate the little champ's tenth birthday, Nickelodeon has announced
SpongeBob's 10th Anniversary Celebration (Nov. 6 at 8 p.m.) with a list of A-list celebrities, including Rosario Dawson, Craig Ferguson, Will Ferrell, Tina Fey, Ricky Gervais, LeBron James, Pink, Triumph the Insult Comic Dog and Robin Williams.
That impressive collection will appear in an hour-long special featuring
SpongeBob flashbacks.
The special is hosted by Patchy the Pirate, "President of the SpongeBob Fan Club (Encino Chapter)." He sets off for Burbank -- home of Nickelodeon. (It's on Olive, near Victory -- in case you were wondering.)
Posted May 8th 2009 2:04PM by Danny Gallagher
Filed under: Commercials, Children, Reality-Free
Ads for fast food kids' meals usually try to appeal to children. Not the child in all of us, actual children.
Burger King's new Kids' Meal ad doesn't just try to appeal to the parents in the room who don't care about their child's cholesterol intake. Its choice of music tries to appeal to the parents who are deaf.
The ad features a new rendition of Sir-Mix-A-Lot's classic big butt anthem "Baby Got Back" that talks about how he now "likes square butts and cannot lie."
The Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood isn't as amused and has started
a letter writing campaign against the restaurant chain and the Nickelodeon network to express their disgust for cubed booty.
Continue reading The most annoying commercial of all-time of the week: BK's square butts ad
Posted Feb 17th 2009 1:01PM by Brad Trechak
Filed under: Programming, OpEd, Ratings, Reality-Free
It's not just American children, immature American adults and
Japanese women who love the little yellow guy. It looks like
Chinese are big fans of
SpongeBob Squarepants as well. Creator Stephen Hillenburg must be kvelling.
The beautiful thing about the show is its ability to cross cultures. SpongeBob is such an overall silly character that he does well in translation. Not bad for a sponge who's been around for 10 years already.
Given that the Chinese will own the United States within a generation (or so I believe), it's good that Hillenburg is already making conciliatory gestures towards his new Chinese overlords with this series. As the rest of us work the salt mines to pay off our massive bailout debt, he (or his heirs) will be churning out new episodes in the comfort of a small, cramped state-run studio.
On an tangential note, I'm still waiting for Nickelodeon to bring back
Invader Zim. Still waiting...(sigh).
Posted Feb 5th 2009 7:01PM by Brad Trechak
Filed under: OpEd, Reality-Free
It looks like Nickelodeon is getting a little further into the games business by releasing both
SpongeBob SquarePants, iCarly and
Dora The Explorer learning games for the iPhone. They will be available later this year.
My question is this: do children of that age really use the iPhone or iPod Touch that much? Most of the people I know who own one or the other are adults or at least teenagers. While I can see some market for
SpongeBob SquarePants (which has some adult crossover appeal), I just don't see the grown-ups buying
iCarly or
Dora.
Continue reading SpongeBob on the iPhone
Posted Jan 19th 2009 9:03AM by Richard Keller
Filed under: Programming, OpEd, Animation, Children, Reality-Free
I didn't realize that the late 90s offered up so many cartoons that are still around today. A week or so ago, I mentioned that The Powerpuff Girls were celebrating a 10th birthday with a Cartoon Network special and complete DVD box set. Now comes news that a certain walking and talking sponge is celebrating a 10-year anniversary, as well.
Nickelodeon's pants-wearing sponge will be celebrating his decade of entertainment in a number of ways. If you go to the new SpongeBob.com you'll have a chance to play SpongeBob games, watch SpongeBob videos, and read the blog of Mr. SquarePants' creators. If you watch any of the networks of the MTV universe (which Nickelodeon is a part of) you'll be able to view a documentary on the character and its popularity. Finally, if you can wait a few months, you will be able to catch some new SpongeBob SquarePants episodes featuring Dennis Quaid (March) and Johnny Depp (April).
Continue reading A happy 10th birthday to Mr. Squarepants
Posted Jul 17th 2008 10:33AM by Richard Keller
Filed under: Other Reality Shows, Smallville, Animation, Supernatural, Children, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Reality-Free, Comic-Con
Whew! After several days of sore feet (and sore booties from sitting on the hard floor waiting for the next panel), dwindling funds, and tons of TV-related panels, San Diego Comic-Con comes to an end. That doesn't mean that all of the television folks have packed up an left in order to catch the Silver Bullet train to Los Angeles (does a train even run between San Diego and Los Angeles?) or an aeroplane to Vancouver. There are still some panels waiting for your utmost attention.
It's Kids' Day at the convention, so there are panels on a Mr. SquarePants, Phineas and Ferb, The Backyardigans, and those wacky Muppets from Fraggle Rock. For the more adult crowd there are Q&As for It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Supernatural, Smallville, and another panel on cartoon voices. The final TV-related event is a rousing sing-a-long with the Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode "Once More With Feeling." After that, you can climb into your hotel bed, train berth, car seat, or nearby street corner resplendent with the fact that you had taken in everything television at the Comic-Con.
So, if you are staying just one more day, here are the television-related events for Sunday, July 27th. For a full schedule of events you can check out the official schedule on the Comic-Con website. And, for old times sake, remember that times, panelists and events can change at a moment's notice. That, and the panels are on a first-come, first-serve basis.
Continue reading Comic-Con Countdown: Sunday, July 27th
Posted Jun 2nd 2008 2:41PM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, The Simpsons, Family Guy, Animation, Adult Swim, Children, South Park, Awards, Emmys, Reality-Free
Due to the complicated and apparently outdated Emmy Awards nomination rules, prime-time animated shows like
Family Guy, The Simpsons, American Dad,
South Park and others have had to choose which Emmy category they want to compete in, animated or comedy series. Then, that decision impacts eligibility for writers and animators on those shows in other categories. Well,
Family Guy is in a unique position this year, as their "Blue Harvest"
Star Wars parody was classified as a special. And as the animated category looks at single episodes,
Family Guy can submit "Blue Harvest" to the animated category, and the show itself, to comedy series.
I'd say it's a tremendous long shot that an animated show can be nominated over the live-action comedy series it will be facing. But there's always a first time for everything; when Disney's animated
Beauty and the Beast picked up an Oscar nod for "Best Picture" it was groundbreaking in the same way. It's a tough debate. These shows compete with prime-time comedies every week and yet get put up against the likes of
Spongebob Squarepants come awards time. How do you compare
The Venture Brothers and
Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends?
Continue reading Family Guy to vie for comedy series Emmy nod
Posted Sep 28th 2007 3:23PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Industry, Programming, Animation, Children
You know how a lot of kids will actually play with an empty box instead of the toy that came inside the box? I'm thinking something like that is going to happen tomorrow when Nickelodeon goes dark for three hours: a bunch of kids just staring at the black screen waiting for it to come back on, maybe hitting the top of their TVs, changing the batteries in the remote.
Starting at noon tomorrow, Nickelodeon will show nothing for three hours as part of a program to get kids to go outside and exercise.
Continue reading Nickelodeon wants you to go outside tomorrow
Posted Aug 7th 2007 10:30AM by Paul Goebel
Filed under: The Simpsons, Ask TV Squad
I took my kids to see The Simpsons Movie this weekend. While it was their first time seeing the film, it was my second and I still enjoyed it quite a bit simply because it's a funny movie.
Because I have kids, I often go see a lot of crappy animated films based on cartoons. I've seen, Rugrats Go Wild, The Wild Thornberrys Movie and The Spongebob Squarepants Movie among others. For the most part, I enjoyed these films but they were little more than a longer version of the TV show. The Simpsons Movie, however, is much more
Continue reading Stump the King - The Simpsons
Posted May 24th 2007 11:00AM by Paul Goebel
Filed under: American Idol, TV Squad Lists
Welcome to TV Squad Lists, a feature where each blogger has a chance to list his or her own rundown of things in television that stand out from the rest, both good and bad.
When I was a kid, I learned a lot by watching TV with my parents. Imagine my surprise when I realized that I was still learning.
When your favorite gets voted off, you can pick a new one.
My kids and I love to watch American Idol and America's Next Top Model together and every season they pick their favorite early on. Usually that favorite -- whether it's Jael, Chris Sligh or Antonella Barba -- ends up being sent home early on. Without missing a beat, they will turn to me and inform me of their new favorite.
It's perfectly acceptable to aspire to be a model.
I used to think being a model was a shallow aspiration but after watching America's Next Top Model with my girls I realize that there are actually some strong, smart women who vie for Tyra's top honor. It may be glorious to be a top model but getting there doesn't look glamorous at all.
Continue reading Five things I've learned by watching TV with my kids
Posted Apr 11th 2007 11:52AM by Keith McDuffee
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, Other Comedy Shows, Food/Home/DIY, Lost, Scrubs, The Simpsons, Animation, Seinfeld, TV Squad Lists
Welcome to TV Squad Lists (formerly 'The Five'), a feature where each blogger has a chance to list his or her own rundown of things in television that stand out from the rest, both good and bad.
Last week I gave you a pretty big list of
popular "drinkeries" from TV, but I think where I went wrong was trying too hard to list
every watering hole possible. Since I'm covering eateries this week, I'm certain I'll miss some of your favorites, but I'm going to list what I believe to be the most popular dining spots from television, both past and present. And since there are way too many
real spots on TV to mention (Hell's Kitchen, Kitchen Stadium, etc.), I'll stick with fictional spots, even if they're based on real ones.
This time let's go with 14 of them.
1) Arnold's/Al's Drive-In (
Happy Days) -- I struggled for a bit with what I would call the number one eatery on TV, but I kept coming back to this spot. Arnold's/Al's was in nearly every episode as far as I can recall, and of course housed The Fonz's office. After it burned down, the signage changed to Al's.
Continue reading The 14 greatest TV eateries
Posted Feb 9th 2007 8:17AM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Cable, Industry, Programming, Ratings
1.
WWE Monday Night RAW - 10pm (USA)
2.
Angels Fall (USA)
3.
WWE Monday Night RAW - 9pm (USA)
4.
Monk (USA)
5.
Fairly Odd Parents (Nickelodeon)
6.
SpongeBob SquarePants (Nickelodeon)
7.
SpongeBob SquarePants (Nickelodeon)
8.
SpongeBob SquarePants (Nickelodeon)
9.
Ned Declassified (Disney)
10.
Fairly Odd Parents (Nickelodeon)
Posted Jan 25th 2007 8:58AM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Industry, Programming, Ratings
1. WWE Monday Night RAW - 10pm (USA)
2. Monk (USA)
3. WWE Monday Night RAW - 9pm (USA)
4. SpongeBob SquarePants - Sat, 9:30am (Nickelodeon)
5. Fairly Odd Parents - Sat, 10am (Nickelodeon)
6. Ned Declassified (Nickelodeon)
7. That's So Raven (Disney)
8. SpongeBob SquarePants - Sat, 9am (Nickelodeon)
9. SpongeBob SquarePants - Mon, 8:30pm (Nickelodeon)
10. High School Musical (Disney)
Posted Dec 21st 2006 8:15AM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Industry, Programming, Ratings
1.
Monday Night Football (ESPN)
2.
WWE Monday Night RAW - 10pm (USA)
3.
WWE Monday Night RAW - 9pm (USA)
4.
SpongeBob Squarepants (Nickelodeon)
5.
Fairly Odd Parents (Nickelodeon)
6.
SpongeBob SquarePants (Nickelodeon)
7.
NFL - Cowboys/Falcons (NFL Network)
8.
The Parent Trap (Disney)
9.
SpongeBob SquarePants (Nickelodeon)
10.
National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (TBS)
Posted Nov 16th 2006 8:21AM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Industry, Programming, Ratings
1. Monday Night Football (ESPN)
2. SpongeBob: The Movie - Fri (Nickelodeon)
3. College Football - Thurs (ESPN)
4. SpongeBob: The Movie - Sat (Nickelodeon)
5. SpongeBob SquarePants - Fri, 7:30pm (Nickelodeon)
6. SpongeBob SquarePants - Sat, 11:30am (Nickelodeon)
7. SpongeBob SquarePants - Fri, 7pm (Nickelodeon)
8. SpongeBob SquarePants - Fri, 9:30pm (Nickelodeon)
9. SpongeBob SquarePants - Fri, 6:30pm (Nickelodeon)
10. SpongeBob SquarePants - Sat, 9:30am (Nickelodeon)
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