TEA AT THE TREEDOME

Episode Title: "Tea at the Treedome"

Episode Airing Number: 1

Episode Production Number: 1

Original Airdate: May 1, 1999

Season: 1

On DVD: "SpongeBob SquarePants: The Complete First Season", "Tales from the Deep"

On VHS: "Deep Sea Sillies"

Aired With Episode: "Help Wanted" and "Reef Blower"

Running Time: 11:00

Storyboard Director: Paul Tibbitt

Storyboard Artist: Mark O'Hare

Writers: Peter Burns, Mr. Lawrence and Paul Tibbitt

Animation Director: Tom Yasumi

In Brief: SpongeBob meets a new friend, who is a squirrel.

Story: While trying to catch a jellyfish, Spongebob hears some sort of noise, or fighting, in the background. He walks over to the edge of the cliff and notices a creature fighting with a giant clam. He realizes he's seen that creature somewhere before. So, he gets out his 'Field Guide' and notices the picture of a squirrel in there. He tries to help out the squirrel but ends up being caught in the clams mouth when the squirrel jumps out. Later, Spongebob is saved by the squirrel and they introduce themselves to each other. They learn that they both love karate. Spongebob also mentions that he cannot give enough air into his lungs. After hearing this, Sandy, the squirrel, invites him over to her treedome for some tea and cookies.

When Spongebob is invited to Sandy's treedome, he runs home to tell Patrick of his meeting with Sandy and asks him questions about air. Patrick tells him it's all fancy talk and to be fancy, Spongebob should hold his pinky up high in the air.

Spongebob arrives at Sandy's treedome and rings her bell. When she answers and lets him in, the water level disappears and Spongebob panics. Spongebo pretends to go along and like the air but the lie only further messes up his body. While Sandy is talking about random things, Spongebob notices a bird bath with water in it. So, when he gets enough time from Sandy not looking at him, he jumps over and absorbs all the water. After Spongebob hands Sandy his flowers, he requests some water. But when Sandy brings back the flowers in a vase full of water, he goes balistic and drinks the water from the vase, even with his pinky in the air. Patrick comes running in, after seeing Spongebob quit, and tells him he's going to blow it. Patrick walks further into the treedome and ends up being like Spongebob, raspy and dried up. When Sandy returns with the tea, she notices Spongebob and Patrick in their real form so she puts fish bowls on their heads and fills them with water. After everything is back to normal, she tells them that they should've asked if they needed water. They toast to new friends and drink their tea with their pinkys in the air.

Song: (none)

Quotes:

SpongeBob: What's air?

Patrick: Huh?

SpongeBob: I just met this girl. She wears a hat full of... air.

Patrick: Do you mean she 'puts on air'?

SpongeBob: I guess so.

Patrick: That's just fancy talk. If you want to be fancy, hold your pinky up like this. *holds up pinky* The higher you hold it, the fancier you are.

SpongeBob: *holds up pinky* How's that?

Patrick: Higher.

SpongeBob: *holds up pinky even higher* Like that?

Patrick: Now that's fancy! They should call you SpongeBob FancyPants!

Patrick: Remember, when in doubt, pinky out.

Sandy: You know, you're the first sea creature to ever visit.

SpongeBob: *raspily* I can't imagine why.

Observations:

Blue Jellyfish This is the first occurance of a blue jellyfish in the series. It's head is shaped differently than in the other episodes. He would appear in a couple more episodes throughout the series.

Field Guide This is the only episode that Spongebob uses his Field Guide.

Flowers There are a couple of instances when Spongebob is looking over the cliff that the flowers, attached to the cliff on the bottom right of the screen, are not there.

Are you nuts? Sandy's patch on her suit is 3 dots. In just about every other episode, her patch is an acorn.

Sunbathing This is the only instance where Patrick is sunbathing on his rock. The other times he is sunbathing at the beach.

Opening Doors Patrick opens up the door into the treedome for Spongebob but later he cannot open the door from the inside of the treedome.

Doorbell When Spongebob steps inside and rings the doorbell, Sandy lowers the water level. When Spongebob is whistling as the water level drops, the doorbell is gone.

Flowers...again? When Spongebob picks up the flower vase, one of the flowers breaks off. But when he drinks the water from the vase, all three flowers fall off.