| SpongeBob SquarePants episode | |
| "The Sponge Who Could Fly" | |
| Season no.: | 3 |
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| Episode no.: | 59 |
| Airdate: | March 21, 2003 |
| Credits | |
| Writer(s): | Paul Tibbitt Kent Osborne Merriwether Williams |
| Main: | Derek Drymon Carson Kugler Caleb Meurer Mark O'Hare Mark Osborne Kent Osborne Andrew Overtoom William Reiss Paul Tibbitt Tom Yasumi |
| Episode List Select show to expand. |
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The Sponge Who Could Fly (also known as The Lost Episode) is an episode of the Nickelodeon TV cartoon series SpongeBob SquarePants and the one-hundred and sixteenth episode overall. It is a special, double-length episode. The episode aired in the United States on March 21, 2003 as part of SpongeBob SquarePants season 3. The Sponge Who Could Fly was sponsored by Burger King, which also produced a series of SpongeBob SquarePants toys as a joint promotion of the episode with Nickelodeon.
The Sponge Who Could Fly consists of a live action section and an animated section in an "episode within an episode" format. Patchy the Pirate (Tom Kenny) presents the first showing of a new episode of SpongeBob SquarePants. In the animated portion SpongeBob attempts to fly. The episode received mixed reviews with the live action section getting specific criticism. The episode had gained an outstanding 7 million views.
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In the live action section, Patchy intends on presenting a lost episode of SpongeBob SquarePants; however, he has lost it. He then uses a treasure map to find it which leads him to a playground where a video tape is buried. When Patchy starts the video it initially only shows SpongeBob walk cycles which upsets Patchy that he starts getting rid of all his SpongeBob merchandise and runs away. However, Potty informs the tape is still on because the real episode is playing next. Happy again, Patchy returns home and replaces all his stuff.
The animated section begins and SpongeBob wishes he could fly with the jellyfish. He constructs several flying machines, all of which fail to fly for very long. In his attempts, he uses a biplane, bat wings, a garden chair with balloons, and a giant kite pulled by a bicycle driven by Patrick. After attempting to fly (but failing) , he is called "The Birdman of Bikini Bottom" and is ridiculed. Depressed, he finally finds out a way to fly: inflatable pants. Now that he can fly, though, the other citizens of Bikini Bottom take advantage of him. The cannon guy pops through the cannon and flies to SpongeBob, Then pops him off camera. When SpongeBob finally refuses he is left alone in jellyfish fields with his pants taken away. SpongeBob decides that flying is not for him. But the jellyfish take him flying across the sky to cheer him up. When they drop him off at his home, Patrick asks him if he wants to "fly" over to a pizza joint, to which he declines to. Patrick just replies, "suit yourself" and literally flies off, leaving SpongeBob in absolute shock.
After the episode, in another live action section, Patchy decides to play it again. Not knowing a thing about technology, he accidentally wrecks the tape so it cannot be seen again. Outside, the narrator talks about Patchy's day, and then you can see a SpongeBob constellation.
The Sponge Who Could Fly was first broadcast in the United States on March 21, 2003. Nickelodeon promoted the episode in conjunction with Burger King. The fast food company was the sponsor of the episode and produced a series of SpongeBob SquarePants toys for sale along with food.[1] The episode was later released on a SpongeBob SquarePants DVD compilation called Lost At Sea, Absorbing Favorites, and on VHS.There is a deleted scene in the storyboard that had Patchy ripping off a SpongeBob band-aid when destroying his SpongeBob stuff, although he isn't seen ripping it off in reverse. There's another one where Patchy visits a store while following the map to the lost episode. Yet again, there was a scene with the French Narrator saying "Will SpongeBob learn to fly? Stay tuned." is cut from the US DVD releases of "The Sponge Who Could Fly" because there are no commercials. Also, SpongeBob smiled nervously when the townspeople joked about him to look for a statue to poop on. SpongeBob being covered in Black Paint was cut do to racism.
Before it aired, Nickelodeon aired numerous promos that could be seen as part of the episode itself because it highlighted Patchy's travels to get the episode safe until when he was a guest on U-Pick Live, where Brent Popolizio and Candace Bailey wanted to see a sneak peek of the episode on the afternoon before the episode was supposed to air. Originally not wanting to do it, he caved into the pressure, only to find out that the tape fell out of his pocket that apparently had a hole in it. He then took the next couple of hours to re-trace his steps, revisiting places that were highlighted in the previous promos with no luck. Right before the episode aired, Patchy announces that there wouldn't be a show because he couldn't find the episode and announces that he is going to take a shower. This announcement immediately starts the episode where it is seen that Patchy is in the shower.
"The cartoon's OK; what should be lost is the live-action material."
The Sponge Who Could Fly was viewed by 7 million viewers.[2] The episode received mixed reviews. David Kronke of the Los Angeles Daily News criticized the special as being a standard episode that has been padded out to an extra length, with the live action Patchy the Pirate segments not being that entertaining.[3] Dana Orlando of The Philadelphia Daily News Xpress section expressed the opinion that both the cartoon and the live action parts of the episode were funny, and described The Sponge Who Could Fly as one of the best episodes to date.[4] In 2003, The Sponge Who Could Fly received a Hors Concours honor in the Recently Telecast Programs section of the Banff Rockie Awards.[5]
The Sponge Who Could Fly was adapted into a musical that opened at Hackeny Empire in London, England, 9 February 2009. The show toured the United Kingdom after a previous tour in Southeast Asia. Alison Pollard choreographed and directed the adaptation and said that the episode already had a few songs in it, which helped with the conversion to a musical. The adaptation includes twelve songs of various styles. Like many touring shows in 2009, the show closed early due to the recession and subsequent poor ticket sales. It played its final performance at the Liverpool Empire, 24 May 2009. The show has since toured South Africa, Mexico, and Spain.
The cast were as follows:
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