So, this is something that's been perplexing me for a while. Season 3's production ended in early 2002, at which point the crew explicitly considered it to be the end of the show and went to work on the movie which was supposed to be the show's big conclusion, and Nick just spaced out the unaired Season 3 episodes as much as possible to hold people over. We know that at some point, Nick decided that they wouldn't let the show end even though Stephen Hillenburg wanted it to, which led to Paul Tibbit's takeover and Season 4. But the timing and circumstances of this have always been a bit of an interesting mystery to me. Season 4's first episodes aired in early 2005, so production for them must date at the very least as far back as early 2004, very likely going into 2003 or even 2002. But the crew didn't intend for Season 4 to exist at first, and made the movie to be the ending of the series. So at what point did Nick force them to continue? And how does this tie in with the movie- clearly Season 4 production and production of the movie must have overlapped, but wouldn't this have caused delays for either Season 4 or the movie? In addition, it seems like at first they only produced a few episodes of the season, since its airing stretched into 2007 unlike most other seasons which lasted roughly a year. I've also heard rumors that a few early S4 episodes like Krusty Towers and Patrick SmartPants were "originally intended for" Season 3, but I'm not quite sure how that works either. To be fair, I read that in the Trivia section of a Wikia article, so it's probably made up and it wasn't cited, but still interesting if there's a reputable source that backs that up.
The production timings of the first movie and Season 4
- Thread starter spongegiy
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Jai The Guy
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Inb4 killer queen
Honest Slug
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Those "Rumors" are fake news made by people who don't want to give post-movie credit honestly.spongegiy said:
Web Surfer is Back
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This rumor is absurd as those episodes were written well into season 4, and by the new writers on top of that. There's little supporting that they were meant to be for season 3.spongegiy said:
I remember seeing sources dating the "original" release date of "Fear of a Krabby Patty" to December 2004 or January 2005; mere deduction could pin their production to about 2003 or early 2004. It's vital to remember that the earlier episodes of season 4 (from "Fear of a Krabby Patty" to "Good Neighbors") had different art styles, compared to the rest of that season, and the staff involved was also distinct. We had names that would vanish such as Mike Bell or Aaron Springer, and faces such as Luke Brookshier or Casey Alexander were notably absent. It could be that they were produced beforehand, perhaps even before or concurrent to the movie. We'll never know...
The DS Guy
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Like those who think Russia hacked the election because they can't admit that the American people elected Trump. But that's interesting. I had heard people claim that some season 4 episodes were written during season 3, but I never thought that it was because they didn't want to admit that season 4 has some good episodes.Honest Slug said:
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPBPa2BQFRMThe DS Guy said:
Honest Slug
Ink Lemonade hurts me.
Stop bringing up politics in topics that have nothing to do with politics.The DS Guy said:
Jai The Guy
Aren't we all bunnies now?
Too many politics
The DS Guy
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Lol, I'm kidding. Kind of.
Ellie Williams
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Keep in mind people, I was being conceive when this happened
First of all, why the hell are people posting about politics in this thread??
Second, it makes sense that those episodes weren't meant for S4- it was just an unsubstantiated rumor, but I figured it might have had something official to back it up. Shame that nobody could really provide a concrete answer, but we'll never truly know I guess.
Second, it makes sense that those episodes weren't meant for S4- it was just an unsubstantiated rumor, but I figured it might have had something official to back it up. Shame that nobody could really provide a concrete answer, but we'll never truly know I guess.
I guess we can look at the second movie to understand how the series' production works. The series went on a halt with production (I can only guess in 2012?), and Nick spaced out the episodes like they did with Season 3. Episode concepts were thrown around, and only made it so far before being scrapped once the writer's overhaul took place (Dueling Picnics for one was originally being worked on by Casey Alexander, and was later reworked by Sherm Cohn as Company Picnic). Season 10 started production in 2015, so my guess is that Season 9 episodes were in production in 2014. My personal guess with Season 4 is that early episodes were rushed around late 2004/early 2005, which can explain why Fear of a Krabby Patty is modeled after C.H's style more than any other episode he worked on. The animator's could've focused on trying to get it out faster, so they didn't spend as much time trying to keep it as on model as usual. Once Nick got episodes airing in 2005, a little more time was taken when producing episodes for the latter half of Season 4 that would air in 2006 and 2007.
MrColeslaw
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I always assumed that the first half of season 4 was produced by a separate team at the time of the film, and when that began broadcasting, the second half was being created.. just speculation, though.
Really like this topic idea, though - always wondered the same thing, myself.
Really like this topic idea, though - always wondered the same thing, myself.
Honest Slug
Ink Lemonade hurts me.
There's this.Hudgegratskid said:
Tom Kenny mentions they finished the first 4 season 4 episodes around the end of 2004. While not season 3 holdovers these episodes would've been made earlier than the rest and would explain why a lot of the writers for Fear of a Krabby Patty-Good Neighbors were different than the crew that worked on the rest of season 4.
Jibbix
Balloon Traveler
This is actually a very good explanation. It's also notable that there's a big 3 month airing gap between those first four episodes and the rest of the season, which is telling. I feel like some circumstances led to those first 4 being done with a skeleton crew leftover from the movie (Greenblatt, Springer, Tim Hill, Waller, and Tibbitt) and some random freelancers (like Mike Bell and Kyle McCulloch, who I'm convinced Nickelodeon has frozen in a cryogenic tank, only to use him when SB is short on writers) before Tibbitt got some time to assemble a real crew, which is what we got from Selling Out onward.