The Live-Action Island is Still Intact + Some 1997 Opening Sequence Archives!

[LARRY22]

Yeah, so I've went to Adam Paloian's Twitter, and found a random tweet from April of this year, saying that SpongeBob's Bikini Atoll island they use in shots, like the theme song (1999-2016) is still there, at Nickelodeon Studios. It makes me wonder why they used the CGI one in the HD theme song, instead of that one (Maybe they couldn't find it at the time, and now they've found it?). Either way, I hope that since they've found it, they'll use it in future episodes.

Tweet: https://mobile.twitter.com/adampaloian/status/988458583594385408

In other news, Adam Paloian made a tweet way back in August, and he said he has some title cards from the 1997 theme song, which I know alot of people want to see it in high quality, since it's a very rare sequence. I actually hope that we get higher quality releases of each of these episodes (Season 1's film reels or original cels being reshot with 1080p or 4K cameras, Seasons 2-8 being released with their original 480p copies or prints/digital episode files, since those most likely won't have the interlacing issues, dot crawl (Seasons 1-3 and a couple of Season 4 and 5 episodes), or random MPEG (Not JPEG) compression artifacts we see on TV, or some home video releases, and Seasons 9 and onward released on Blu-Ray, since DVDs are in SD. I know this would take a very long time to do, and the people remastering would be burned out, so this is just a guess.

Tweet: https://mobile.twitter.com/AnimationCrave/status/899418557288775680
https://mobile.twitter.com/adampaloian/status/899401401314361344

I legit hope someone at Nickelodeon is working on showing us the 1997 theme in better quality, since most of the versions online are ruptured VHS recordings, also hope that Nick is working on bringing the live-action island back into the future episodes, not the theme song though, 'cuz I think it's too late for that, and hope that Nick is working on higher quality versions of these episodes. I know I keep talking about SpongeBob being in high quality, but imagine, it would actually be so cool to see for example Big Pink Loser/Bubble Buddy in a crisper 480p quality, and as I've said before, without PaleBob

 

[Original Raw and Uncut]

Am I the one who prefers the 1997 version of the theme song

 

[EmployeeAMillion]

There needs to be a SpongeBob archive site for all these rarities.

 

[FinnDinner]

Very interesting, sometimes I feel like they should just use that intro instead of the iconic, you know just to liven things up.

 

[LARRY22]

Very interesting, sometimes I feel like they should just use that intro instead of the iconic, you know just to liven things up.

Yeah, I really like how simple and brief the 1997 SpongeBob theme song is, compared to the long (but really catchy) 1999 one.

 

[FinnDinner]

Yeah, I really like how simple and brief the 1997 SpongeBob theme song is, compared to the long (but really catchy) 1999 one.

Definitely, they should like play the original intro before specials or longer episodes and use the one now for episodes, I don't know seems like a nice touch.

 

[Pugs4Thugs]

Nice to see that a relic like the island is still around. I hope it sees some future use.

 

[RomNick]

Definitely, they should like play the original intro before specials or longer episodes and use the one now for episodes, I don't know seems like a nice touch.

They couldn't play it because the guy who composed it (Brad Carow) quit the show in 2002, and if they DO want to use it, they'll have to pay him a ridiculous amount of money each time it is used in episodes.
The same goes for Ron Wasserman and Pat Irwin with their sole tracks in 2009 and 2011, respectively.

Nice to see that a relic like the island is still around. I hope it sees some future use.

Season 11's production is almost complete, so you definitely won't see it in this season's episodes.

I actually hope that we get higher quality releases of each of these episodes (Season 1's film reels or original cels being reshot with 1080p or 4K cameras, Seasons 2-8 being released with their original 480p copies or prints/digital episode files, since those most likely won't have the interlacing issues, dot crawl (Seasons 1-3 and a couple of Season 4 and 5 episodes), or random MPEG (Not JPEG) compression artifacts we see on TV, or some home video releases, and Seasons 9 and onward released on Blu-Ray, since DVDs are in SD.

Nickelodeon isn't Disney with their revamped shows like Chip and Dale, Goof Troop, Timon and Pumbaa, 101 Dalmatians, etc. It is a much smaller company. They don't keep ALL the cels or files for their shows.
Plus, it is a REALLY long and exilarating process, if you really think about it.

 

[FinnDinner]

They couldn't play it because the guy who composed it (Brad Carow) quit the show in 2002, and if they DO want to use it, they'll have to pay him a ridiculous amount of money each time it is used in episodes.
The same goes for Ron Wasserman and Pat Irwin with their sole tracks in 2009 and 2011, respectively.

Season 11's production is almost complete, so you definitely won't see it in this season's episodes.

Nickelodeon isn't Disney with their revamped shows like Chip and Dale, Goof Troop, Timon and Pumbaa, 101 Dalmatians, etc. It is a much smaller company. They don't keep ALL the cels or files for their shows.
Plus, it is a REALLY long and exilarating process, if you really think about it.

That sucks, Nick really doesn't have much power when it comes to composers it feels like.

 

[LARRY22]

They couldn't play it because the guy who composed it (Brad Carow) quit the show in 2002, and if they DO want to use it, they'll have to pay him a ridiculous amount of money each time it is used in episodes.
The same goes for Ron Wasserman and Pat Irwin with their sole tracks in 2009 and 2011, respectively.

Season 11's production is almost complete, so you definitely won't see it in this season's episodes.

Nickelodeon isn't Disney with their revamped shows like Chip and Dale, Goof Troop, Timon and Pumbaa, 101 Dalmatians, etc. It is a much smaller company. They don't keep ALL the cels or files for their shows.
Plus, it is a REALLY long and exilarating process, if you really think about it.

That's true, but we can't really say for sure if they still have them or not, since we have not been to Nick Studios. I know Nick is a smalller company than companies like Disney, but we could never actually know, until it has been confirmed. Adam Paloian doesn't know yet (As of August of 2017 at least) since he responed to one question.

https://mobile.twitter.com/AnimationCrave/status/899418557288775680

 

[Birds858]

Very interesting, i guess they use a CGI island to make the theme song more "modern".

 

[LARRY22]

Very interesting, i guess they use a CGI island to make the theme song more "modern".

Or they couldn't find it at the time.

 

[LARRY22]

Nice to see that a relic like the island is still around. I hope it sees some future use.

Me too, the CGI one looks very off, to me at least.

 

[MasiHosseini]

So nostalgic!

 

[a_load_of_barnacles]

They couldn't play it because the guy who composed it (Brad Carow) quit the show in 2002, and if they DO want to use it, they'll have to pay him a ridiculous amount of money each time it is used in episodes.
The same goes for Ron Wasserman and Pat Irwin with their sole tracks in 2009 and 2011, respectively.

Season 11's production is almost complete, so you definitely won't see it in this season's episodes.

Nickelodeon isn't Disney with their revamped shows like Chip and Dale, Goof Troop, Timon and Pumbaa, 101 Dalmatians, etc. It is a much smaller company. They don't keep ALL the cels or files for their shows.
Plus, it is a REALLY long and exilarating process, if you really think about it.

Are you sure about that first part? Because the Action Theme was used in For Here or to Go which is a season 8 episode and I doubt that if they had to pay a large fee they wouldn't have done it for that random scene. I'm fairly sure if your write music specifically for the show it belongs to the network and they can do what they want to with it.

 

[RomNick]

Are you sure about that first part? Because the Action Theme was used in For Here or to Go which is a season 8 episode and I doubt that if they had to pay a large fee they wouldn't have done it for that random scene. I'm fairly sure if your write music specifically for the show it belongs to the network and they can do what they want to with it.

Chris Ledesma, the music editor for The Simpsons, has a blog, and here, he said that if he wants to use the track which was composed for the earlier seasons, he has to pay the orchestra's musicians who were responsible for this track, but left, a large sum of money.
Same with this, and Wasserman and Irwin's tracks. Both guys have done music for the show in 2009 and 2011, but weren't even credited. Their tracks were used for a specific period of time in a specific amount of episodes they themselves listed. After it ended, the usage stopped.

 

[11th]

Or they couldn't find it at the time.

Correct. I recall someone from the show -- possibly Vincent Waller -- saying that they didn't have it when the update was done. More specifically, they had an idea of where it was, but getting it would require digging it out of a storage unit.

That aside, the island isn't exactly in original condition. A bit battered and worn, nothing beyond repair, but it would still take time to clean up if they did decide to use it again. The CG isn't as nostalgic, but it's easier to manipulate and less likely to be damaged or lost.

 

[fskw822]

Correct. I recall someone from the show -- possibly Vincent Waller -- saying that they didn't have it when the update was done. More specifically, they had an idea of where it was, but getting it would require digging it out of a storage unit.

That aside, the island isn't exactly in original condition. A bit battered and worn, nothing beyond repair, but it would still take time to clean up if they did decide to use it again. The CG isn't as nostalgic, but it's easier to manipulate and less likely to be damaged or lost.

They also get a lot more freedom with angles when they use the island.