Trivia / SpongeBob SquarePants S1 E1 "Help Wanted" / "Reef Blower" / "Tea at the Treedome"

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• Colbert Bump: Many got their first exposure to Tiny Tim through "Help Wanted".
• Deleted Scene: There was going to be a scene in the pilot where SpongeBob tries some free samples of the seafood section at the Barg-n-Mart, as shown in a storyboard page. The background painting of said area implies that the scene was going to be animated.
• First Appearance: Of SpongeBob, Patrick, Squidward, Gary and Mr. Krabs in "Help Wanted" and Sandy in "Tea at the Treedome". Fred also makes a brief cameo when SpongeBob zooms past the intersection in "Reef Blower".
• Out of Order: Airdate-wise, "Reef Blower" was the first episode to establish that SpongeBob and Squidward are next-door neighbors. But in terms of production order, it was made after "Bubblestand", the first written episode to establish that.
• Pop-Culture Urban Legends: A longstanding claim about the "Reef Blower" short is that it was originally going to have voice acting, but faulty recording equipment that could not be replaced in time forced the episode go without voice acting (even the episode's Trivia page on IMDB once claimed it as fact). However, according to storyboard artist Jay Lender, the real reason "Reef Blower" has no spoken dialogue is because it was made to extend "Help Wanted" to a full half-show. Since the episodes were produced separately, Screen Actors Guild rules mandated paying the actors a second set of session fees which would've been around $2,500 USD at the time of production, and because the episode was so short to begin with, it was easier to just forgo recording dialogue.
• Screwed by the Lawyers: Licensing issues involving the use of Tiny Tim's recording of "Livin' in the Sunlight, Lovin' in the Moonlight" kept "Help Wanted" off of the first season DVD set and earlier releases. It was eventually included as a bonus feature for Season 3 and has been released on other sets (including the "First 100 Episodes" set) and streaming.
  • Oddly enough, instead of not broadcasting/releasing this episode, some countries (especially Brazil and Italy) replaced the song played in that scene with the instrumental theme of another Nickelodeon show, as you can see here.
• Similarly Named Works: There is also an episode of Barbie: Life in the Dreamhouse titled "Help Wanted".
• What Could Have Been:
  • According to the "We're Not Just Cartoons: We're Nicktoons!" book, there was originally a scene in "Help Wanted" where Gary eats a cactus.
  • "Tea at the Treedome" originally had a title card with a different background and font color.
• Word of God: While "Tea at the Treedome" leaves Sandy's origins a mystery for comic purposes, the pitch bible simply states that she's there to study undersea life. This would eventually be confirmed in the Season 4 episode "Chimps Ahoy".
• Working Title: Through the backgrounds that were scanned online, "Reef Blower" was originally titled "Pilot Extension".

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