The SpongeBob SquarePants voice cast reveal what's in store for a first-of-its-kind Super Bowl crossover event between Nickelodeon and CBS Sports, kicking off Sunday at 6:30 p.m. ET
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| (L-R) Nate Burleson and the cast of 'SpongeBob SquarePants'. PHOTO: CBS SPORTS/NICKELODEON |
As the Kansas City Chiefs take on the San Francisco 49ers during Super Bowl LVIII on Sunday, Nickelodeon and CBS Sports are teaming up for Super Bowl LVIII Live from Bikini Bottom, featuring the SpongeBob SquarePants crew.
SpongeBob SquarePants (voiced by Tom Kenny) and Patrick Star (voiced by Bill Fagerbakke) will be going live from the booth in the alternate, kids-friendly telecast airing on Nickelodeon. The dynamic duo will be joined by CBS Sports analyst Nate Burleson and play-by-play announcer Noah Eagle. Meanwhile, Sandy Cheeks (voiced by Carolyn Lawrence) will serve as a sideline reporter as Larry the Lobster (voiced by Mr. Lawrence) provides live commentary.
"We are so excited to just go into this massive sports event and just be goofy and silly, and make it a fun experience for kids and Nickelodeon fans," Fagerbakke, 66, told PEOPLE.
"There'll be so many other Nickelodeon characters involved," he continues to tease. "We're going to have Plankton and we're going to have, I'm sure Squidward and Mr. Krabs will be in the stands. It's going to be a lot of fun. And the announcers, Noah Eagle and Nate Burleson, they're all in for fun too. So, we're going to have a good time."
Kenny, 61, notes that "the conceit is that the Allegiant Stadium has been transported to Bikini Bottom through a crazy series of events having to do with an invention of Sandy's there."
He teases, "That gives the animators, the technicians, the computer guys, us, the real live sports casters that Bill mentioned, license to take the game into a whole new level of oddball silliness because you're going to be looking at the Super Bowl the same way it is if you watch it on a conventional broadcast — but there's jellyfish and bubbles and craziness and cartoon characters running through frame, just this whole overlay of insanity making the Super Bowl even weirder and crazier than it is normally."
Although Sandy Cheeks voicer Lawrence, 56, hopes Bikini Bottom's villainous Plankton "doesn't try to do something" to disrupt the fun, Fagerbakke predicts that "he will."
For Kenny, "Part of what makes it cool is that if you're a football newbie or a younger member of the family who maybe is just learning about football or just getting interested or getting on board, this will be a nice primer for that."
"There's little interstitial things, tutorials and things about football terminology and gameplay and all that," he adds. "SpongeBob and Patrick, at least, are the perfect people to learn, too, because they don't know anything about football. They've never seen football. Everything they know about football, they learned from their Texas pal Sandy Cheeks."
As Bikini Bottom is transformed in time for kickoff, NFL Slimetime's Young Dylan and Dylan Schefter will also report live from Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas. Additionally, Dora the Explorer (voiced by Diana Zermeño) and Boots (voiced by Asher Colton Spence) will help explain penalty calls during the game.
Super Bowl LVIII Live from Bikini Bottom airs Sunday at 6:30 p.m. ET on Nickelodeon.
From ComicBook.com:
SpongeBob SquarePants Cast Celebrates 25th Anniversary Ahead of Super Bowl LVIII Takeover
The cast of SpongeBob SquarePants talks their Super Bowl LVIII broadcast, 25 years and more!
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| (Photo: ComicBook.com) |
SpongeBob SquarePants will be officially celebrating its 25th Anniversary this year, and things are kicking off with a full Super Bowl LVIII takeover. The cast of the Nickelodeon animated series will be teaming up with CBS Sports on a new Super Bowl LVIII Live from Bikini Bottom broadcast that will be perfect for kids and families exclusively on Nickelodeon. This broadcast will not only feature the big game itself, but will also see SpongeBob SquarePants (Tom Kenny) and Patrick Star (Bill Fagerbakke) join the Nickelodeon booth alongside CBS Sports analyst Nate Burleson and play-by-play announcer Noah Eagle to help call the game. But that's not all.
They will be joined by Sandy Cheeks (Carolyn Lawrence), making her sideline reporting debut with Larry the Lobster (Mr. Lawrence) providing more live commentary, and Dora the Explorer (Diana Zermeño) and Boots (Asher Colton Spence) will be on hand to help explain penalty calls. NFL Slimetime's Young Dylan and Dylan Schefter will also be there to help report live from Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, Nev.
Airing exclusively on Nickelodeon, Sunday, Feb. 11, 2024, at 6:30 p.m. (ET), Super Bowl LVIII Live from Bikini Bottom will feature all sorts of fun things to keep an eye out for (including a recreated "Sweet Victory") and ComicBook.com got the chance to speak with Tom Kenny, Bill Fagerbakke, and Carolyn Lawrence all about this huge broadcast ahead of its debut!
Speaking on being a part of SpongeBob SquarePants after 25 years of episodes, favorite moments, and getting ready for the big game, you can check out our full interview below (which has been edited for grammar and clarity).
Has It Sunk In?
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| (Photo: Nickelodeon / CBS Sports) |
NICK VALDEZ, COMICBOOK.COM: It's absolutely wild getting to speak with you because, I remember like it was just yesterday, learning to drink with my pinky up and calling myself "Dirty Dan" for the first time. Now it's been 25 years of SpongeBob SquarePants, and things are kicking off with a full [Super Bowl LVIII] takeover! So I do have to ask the three of you, has this huge milestone sunk in?
BILL FAGERBAKKE (Patrick Star): It's hard. It can't really sink in because there's no way to really grasp it completely. The way it resonates is-
TOM KENNY (SpongeBob SquarePants): Firmly grasp it.
FAGERBAKKE: I want to firmly grasp it. It's too unnatural. Nothing prepares you for it. Just the wide array of people that share their joy and their love for the cartoon in this incredible job we've had the good fortune of having a part. It's constantly a beautiful, fulfilling experience for me.
CAROLYN LAWRENCE (Sandy Cheeks): It's kind of surreal and mind-blowing. I can't really fully grasp any of it.
KENNY: Firmly grasp it. It's weird because stuff just kind of sneaks up on you. It's happening all the time. It's kind of theoretical, and SpongeBob universe, SpongeBob world is always kind of in full swing. I always say it's like a treadmill set on 11. You're just working on stuff every day. And then there's the stuff that isn't SpongeBob, and then there's kind of like this Super Bowl thing that they're like, "Hey, would you be interested? Do you have any interest in this?" And you're like, "Yeah, fine." And then before you know it, it's here.
Also, I think ComicBook.com is the one place that I would kind of admit this on this whole press junket is that for me, the Super Bowl isn't as huge as it is for most Americans. For me, the Super Bowl is a day where I can go to that restaurant that I have trouble getting into usually. So now to be a part of the biggest thing on Earth, I try to walk through a world where this giant thing is going on, and I'm like outside it looking in and going, "Oh yeah, that's today."
FAGERBAKKE: You get pulled in.
KENNY: You get pulled in. And now I'm in the thick of it. It's kind of like, "Okay, now it's all hands on deck."
When Did It Feel Special?
Speaking to the constantly moving at 11 and speeding along, was there a moment early on where it slowed down and really felt like, "Oh, I'm in something special?" Like, "SpongeBob's going to be here for a long time"?
FAGERBAKKE: I can tell you that for me, when the show debuted in '99, my children were five and 11. And so when I found myself a year later or so coming to pick the girls up after school and feeling like one of the Beatles, because there'd be this wave of six to eight-year-olds running at me going, "Patrick." What's happening? So that was crazy, definitely foreshadowing.
KENNY: You know what? I was just on my 20-year-old daughter's college campus to see her in a show at her college. And it was the same except those six-year-olds were 20-year-olds now, 21 year-olds. And they were pumped. My daughter was like, "Oh God." So yeah, it's kind of crazy, it's weird. Because we're all just kind of short-term employees generally. If you're on something that lasts a couple of seasons, you're lucky. That's a statistical anomaly if something lasts a season or two, or a year or two. And now here we are headed into the quarter-century mark, and it's really never abated. It's not a reboot. It's not like, "Oh, remember this cool thing?" It's not like, "Remember this weird old thing that you used to like when you were a kid? We're rebooting it."
It's the same cast, the same show, a lot of the same writers, same animators. And it is just kind of this nice comfort food constant in American life. And I think it's weird how long it's been on. As freelancers, we're not programmed to think of ourselves as part of stuff that's long-term. You're just kind of grateful for hopefully you'll have enough little poppy things that happen throughout your career that you don't have to be homeless and you get your medical benefits.
That's really all you care about. There's this thing. So yeah, it still hasn't sunk into me how big it is and multi-generational. When I go to Comic-Cons and stuff like that, that's when you really hear about that aspect of it from people. How many years they've been watching it, how many man hours they've spent watching it, how their kids watch it, they watch it with their parents. So that's when it kind of sinks in for me. Like, "Oh yeah, it's been longer than a couple months."
LAWRENCE: I know for me, I felt like early on, personally, I think it was special with the cast, right? With the creator and the cast with Stephen Hillenburg. Like it felt very special to me, but I didn't know if the rest of the world would feel the same way, because I've been on a lot of shows that I'm like, "Oh, this cast is tight." And then it never goes anywhere. So I think the first three seasons every week I was like, "Oh, are we still going to do this? Oh, are we still going to do this?"
KENNY: I still feel like that.
LAWRENCE: And then here we are 25 years later and I'm like, wow, we're still doing this.
Yeah, it's a full-on universe now too. I think they officially called it the SpongeBob Universe.
KENNY: Yeah, the SpongeBobiverse. I'm not sure how I feel about that. Nobody talked about the Popeyeverse, the Bugs Bunnyverse, I don't know. Everything's universe building now, I guess. That's kind of what the world is now.
Getting Ready for Super Bowl LVIII
Got to get in that door! SpongeBob has grown outside of its universe too. It's like with memes online that are just taking on a whole new life outside of that, and now with this [Super Bowl LVIII] takeover, you have to be on your toes because who knows what's going to happen? And then with SpongeBob's version, we're getting teases of Plankton and all sorts of wild shenanigans. So how are the three of you getting ready for the big game?
FAGERBAKKE: [in Patrick's voice] Well, I'm brushing up on my jellyfishing because I think a Jellyfishing tournament might break out. You don't know, maybe Patrick Mahomes likes Jellyfishing.
KENNY: That's what's happening in Allegiant Stadium on February 11th, the big jellyfishing game. After they clean up from the Super Bowl mess, they're bringing in the jellies. You got it right exactly. You've got to be on your toes. But there's sort of not a real way to prepare for being on your toes except to kind of know that you got to be on your toes. And sometimes when I start to freak out about this, I freak out about a lot of stuff. But when I start to freak out about this, it's like it's just us being our characters. We just are inhabiting our characters the way we've been doing it for 25 years. "You got this, Tom. Deep breaths, you got this Tom. Count to 10. You're just being SpongeBob and you're just being SpongeBob. You know how to do that." That might be the only thing I do know how to do in the whole world.
But you're just in character. You're ad-libbing in character, and you're reacting as this alter ego that's been sharing head space, brain space with you for over 25 years. So it's okay. And then the technology, whatever, the motion capture, all that, that should work flawlessly. But hey, there's always wild cards to everything. And if that happens, it happens. It's just always kind of hope for the best, prepare for the worst. But I'm not even preparing for the worst. I'm really excited about it. And just going, like you said, just being on your toes. I'm like, "How do you think the guys down there on the field feel?" Talk about pressure, and talking about all the pressure of being a tiny part of the Super Bowl. But the pressure those guys must be feeling, I can't even, my brain would just melt. I don't know. I'd have to call in sick.
FAGERBAKKE: And if it screws up for us, then it's just something dumb like you get to see a couple of old guys in fluorescent green tights. Instead of seeing the characters, you'll see the reality, and that'll be shocking.
KENNY: Which I do a lot of that on my OnlyFans page.
Super Bowl LVIII Predictions
On that note, I do have to say thank you for taking the time out to speak with me today. Just a final quick question, who's winning the Super Bowl?
LAWRENCE: The winner.
KENNY: Yeah, I think Bikini Bottom is taking it home. I think if there's a win, hopefully who's winning are the families that are going to be able to watch the Super Bowl together with this added element of cartoon silliness along with all the bone crunching, gladiatorial champion-shipping. So I think it's great. I think it's really cool. And it's amazing to be a part of the biggest sporting event that exists.
LAWRENCE: I can't think about it too much or I'll get totally freaked out.
FAGERBAKKE: I know.
KENNY: I've got my little exercises I do.
Super Bowl LVIII Live from Bikini Bottom airs exclusively on Nickelodeon on Sunday, Feb. 11, 2024, at 6:30 p.m. (ET)
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From Sportico.com:
HOW SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS IS PREPARING TO CALL THE SUPER BOWL
Nick is employing a new strategy with its biggest NFL broadcast yet.
If Tom Kenny gets nervous on Sunday, no one will blame him. The 60-year-old actor has never called a football game before, much less a Super Bowl. He doesn’t even follow the sport that closely.
“I’m terrified because it’s not my bailiwick at all,” he said during a call this week. But as his heart rate rises Sunday, Kenny knows what he’ll tell himself:
“All you’ve got to do is be SpongeBob. OK, I’ve been doing that for 25 years.”
The last time a Super Bowl aired on two TV channels was Super Bowl I in 1967, which both NBC and CBS were allowed to televise. Fifty-seven years later, now that sports’ biggest game has fully crossed over into a four-quadrant entertainment event, CBS is once again sharing the day—this time with its Paramount relatives at Nickelodeon.
Wikipedia has already done the hard work, adding to the list of Super Bowl commentators—hallowed names like Frank Gifford, Pat Summerall and John Madden—the equally iconic monikers of SpongeBob SquarePants, Patrick Star and Larry the Lobster.
Dora the Explorer will serve as the rules expert.
“It really is football, reimagined,” CBS Sports coordinating producer for Super Bowl LVIII on Nickelodeon Shawn Robbins said.
Just like the traditional broadcasters, Nick has gone all out in preparing its tech for the Super Bowl. While its past games dating back to 2021 have featured slime and silliness layered on top of NFL action, the central conceit is different this time around. The Super Bowl, according to the broadcast’s invented lore, is now taking place in Bikini Bottom, SpongeBob’s underwater home.
“It’s going to look different and more vibrant than we’ve ever done before,” Nickelodeon VP for tentpole event production Jennifer Bryson said during a press call. “This one will have more [augmented reality] than we’ve ever done.”
Staffers created an entire in-universe rationale for why the game is taking place within Nick’s universe. Notably, real world news doesn’t make its way to the show’s watery depths, so SpongeBob doesn’t know about Patrick Mahomes, or even Taylor Swift (which means Kenny is also off the hook when it comes to prep work). Play-by-play announcer Noah Eagle and analyst Nate Burleson will help guide the characters—and young viewers—through the action. Motion capture technology will put cartoon characters on either side of them. CBS and Nick colleagues tested the behind-the-scenes elements three times at Las Vegas’ Allegiant Stadium during the regular season.
Disney and ESPN teamed up for a similar concept this year, entirely recreating Jaguars and Falcons action within the Toy Story universe. Nick will aim for a middle ground, continuing to show the actual plays and players while augmenting what’s around them.
It remains to be seen just how popular the Super Bowl simulcast is. Will it bring families together for a shared experience, or further segment our entertainment world as the adults tune into Nantz and Romo while leaving the kids to watch their own version in another room? More than a dozen Nick-specific ad slots reportedly sold out for roughly $300,000 each.
Either way, the trend of integrating pop cultural touch points into sports broadcasts using next-generation technology isn’t going anywhere.
“What I love about the Nickelodeon show is that I feel like it’s the most perfect use case for augmented reality in a live broadcast,” CBS Sports VP for remote technical operations Jason Cohen said. “AR can truly help enhance the storytelling.”
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FILMSCENE: Bikini Bottom heads to the Super Bowl
"Who lives in a pineapple under the sea?" is a question that has been posed to our nation's youth for more than two decades. Even if you have never seen an episode of the children's show, odds are that you already know the answer is the bright yellow, big blue-eyed, humanoid sea sponge, SpongeBob SquarePants. The one thing you might not know about the Nickelodeon show that started all the way back in 1999, is that it has a pretty big Arkansas connection. SpongeBob's frequent antagonist and neighbor, the long-faced, pessimistic clarine-playing Squidward J.Q. Tentacles is played by Arkansas native Rodger Bumpass.
Bumpass' Squidward will be making a special appearance this Super Bowl Sunday on Nickelodeon's simulcast of the big game. CBS and Nickelodeon recently announced a partnership where SpongeBob and his fellow cartoon chums from Bikini Bottom will be calling the game alongside human CBS Sports analyst Nate Burleson and play-by-play announcer Noah Eagle. The simulcast will be using augmented AI to incorporate Squidward and pals onto the field and in the announcer's booth.
Recently I sat down with Bumpass to talk about his career, and his journey from Arkansas to being a mainstay on one of the longest-running cartoons on TV, which has 15 seasons and several films and even more movies that are in development. I met up with Bumpass at a local comic convention. He was obviously dressed for his fans, as he looked like a cartoon character, with a bright blue Hawaiian shirt and a comically long and cartoonish, Rip Van Winkle beard.
Al Topich: I think this is the first time I've ever interviewed a cartoon character. Plus you're one of the more famous Arkansans in the entertainment industry. I know you've been nominated for a daytime Emmy. A while back, the Arkansas State Legislature passed a resolution honoring your career, and you're even on the Arkansas Walk of Fame. It's quite the list of accomplishments. I know you're from Arkansas, but what part of the state are you from?
Rodger Bumpass: I was born and raised in Little Rock. I went to Central (Little Rock Central High School). I went up to ASU (Arkansas State University at Jonesboro) and got my degree in broadcasting. But I became more interested in acting. And then I left Arkansas for the canyons of New York City.
AT: That must have been quite the culture shock moving up north.
RB: It was, but I was ready for it. I had fellow students in theater that had made the trip first and had come back and encouraged me to do it. So I said, "you know, throw your marbles out and see what goes." And fortunately it turned out good.
AT: Before you went to ASU, were you interested in acting or were you more set on becoming a broadcaster?
RB: You know, at puberty my voice dropped like crazy. I had a really high voice as a kid, and it just dropped. Then I had this sound that we all connected to what an announcer sounds like. A voice technician would tell you it's a certain number of cycles that we as a society have said that that's what an announcer should sound like. I was like, "I could do that." I wouldn't have to be a journalist, I wouldn't have to do anything but just talk.
AT: You do have an incredibly appealing and distinctive voice. So you're on this route to being a broadcaster, then suddenly it's acting. What caused you to switch paths?
RB: There's a moment that I quote my director in college. After a theater competition, he was talking to each actor individually, telling us how proud he was of all of us and whatnot. And quite casually he just said, "and I look forward to seeing your work in professional theater." No one had ever suggested to me to pursue professional theater. Even my family thought the word ''actor'' was always preceded by "starving." So I was never encouraged, but that one little moment, that director saying that, it put me on this path. So I tell people, be careful what you say to young people, because you can either discourage or encourage with one little sentence.
AT: When you made it to New York, how were you and your voice perceived?
RB: When I got up there, I was considered an alien, even though, because of broadcasting, I had shed most of my Southern accent. And the reason I chose New York is because you could pick up the trades every day, and they would have the open auditions listed, where you didn't have to have an agent. And I finally found this audition for National Lampoon, which was my favorite magazine, other than Mad magazine, at the time. This was around when "Animal House" was about to come out. And they were putting together a rock 'n roll and comedy roadshow, basically promoting the National Lampoon brand, and I got a part in that. I toured the whole country. Fortunately I got these nice reviews wherever I went.
AT: And then eventually you get cast in SpongeBob, which, if I'm honest, was a little after my time. I grew up on things like "Ren and Stimpy" and "Rugrats." But my nieces and nephews love the show. And I'm a pretty big fan of the cast. You've got Tom Kenny as the sponge and Clancy Brown as Mr. Krabs. How has this cartoon lasted 20-plus years?
RB: Funny is funny, and it struck a nerve. I find that it mimics Looney Tunes. They're both 11-minute cartoons, short cartoons. And SpongeBob utilizes animation like the older toons -- like where you get hit in the face with a frying pan, then your face takes the shape of the pan. And when SpongeBob cries, he turns into a lawn sprinkler. It's that kind of thing that's exclusive to animation. And it's so much fun coming to these comic cons and having young adults come up and thank us for their childhood, which is something that I would have done if I had ever had the chance to meet Mel Blanc. But I still watch cartoons even today. I watch a lot of SpongeBob just to see if the older episodes still hold up. And they do.
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Originally published: February 11, 2024.
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