Nickelodeon Officially Greenlights a Second SpongeBob Spin-Off Series Called “The Patrick Star Show”

By: Samantha Bravo

The second “SpongeBob SquarePants” spin-off revolves around Patrick Star and his loving family. Credit: http://www.tvline.com

Many of us are familiar with Nickelodeon’s longest running series, “SpongeBob SquarePants.” Created by the late Stephen Hillenburg, SpongeBob is best known for its memorable characters including the happy-go-lucky sea sponge and his fun-loving, but dimwitted best friend, Patrick Star.

But what people didn’t expect was for SpongeBob’s best friend to have his own spin-off.

After releasing the new “SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run” and first SpongeBob spin-off, “Kamp Koral: SpongeBob’s Under Years” on Paramount +, Nickelodeon decided to launch another spin-off called “The Patrick Star Show”. In March 2021, it was announced that the studio already ordered 13 episodes of the series, which will be airing this summer, however there was not an official release date.

It is set to be released on their own channel, but it is also to be shown on Paramount + along with their other original spin-off.

“That’s our marvel universe,” said former Nickelodeon President, Brian Robbins. “You have this amazing show that’s run for almost twenty years.”

“The Patrick Star Show” will be a prequel to the SpongeBob series. It follows a younger Patrick who hosts a late-night talk show with the support of his family.

Patrick Star will be voiced by the show’s veteran, Bill Fagerbakke. Past SpongeBob characters like SpongeBob, Squidward, Mr. Krabs, and Sandy will make a few occasional appearances.

The series will also have new characters complete with new voice actors. This includes Patrick’s parents Bunny and Cecil Star, his younger sister Squidina Star who works behind the scenes and is the show’s producer, and his grandfather GrandPat Star.  

“Nickelodeon is diving deeper into Bikini Bottom to give fans a look at our lovable young adult Patrick Star and his entire family with a sitcom only he can imagine up,” said Ramsay Naito, President of Nickelodeon Animation.

Unlike “Kamp Koral” and “Sponge on the Run,” the series will also have its original animation style rather than CG animation.

However, the series already received a negative response from Gen Z and the Millennials.

Some fans of the series complained that there were continuity errors.

In an episode from the second season, we were introduced to Patrick’s parents whose names were Margie and Herb Star. In another episode from the seventh season, we were also introduced to his older sister, Samantha.

All their character designs are also completely different from the ones in the spin-off. Unlike Bunny, Cecil and Squidina, Herb, Margie and Samantha looked more like Patrick except with different clothes and accessories.

The show’s co-executive producer, Vincent Waller explained that the reason why Cecil and Bunny looked so different is because the animators felt that the original iterations of the characters were bland and boring.

Other fans of the series have said the show is a cash grab and is disrespectful to Stephen Hillenburg’s memory.

“The show is about SpongeBob, he’s the core element, and it’s about how he relates to the other characters,” Hillenburg said in a 2009 interview. “Patrick by himself might be a bit too much. So, I don’t see any spinoffs.”

Not surprisingly, this is not the first time this has happened.

Before “Kamp Koral” was released, they were met with a similar response. Paul Tibbitt, who worked on the show for 18 years expresses similar feelings, even going as far as to saying that it was “greedy” and “lazy.”

There were several petitions demanding Nickelodeon to cancel the show. So, there could be a chance that “The Patrick Star Show” would fail in the first season.

Despite that, it would be interesting to see how “The Patrick Star Show” would turn out once it’s been released.