Miss Spider's Sunny Patch Friends

Miss Spider's Sunny Patch Friends
Genre	Children's television series
Created by	David Kirk
Developed by	Nadine van der Velde
Starring	Kristin Davis Scott Beaudin Rebecca Brenner Mitchell Eisner Julie Lemieux
Opening theme	"Be Good to Bugs"
Ending theme	"Be Good to Bugs" (instrumental)
Country of origin	Canada
Original language(s)	English French
No. of seasons	3[1][2]
No. of episodes	44 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s)	Michael Hirsh Scott Dyer Nicholas Callaway Doug Murphy
Producer(s)	Teletoon Original Production Callaway Arts & Entertainment AbsoluteDigital Pictures Nelvana
Running time	24 minutes (12 minutes per episode)
Release
Original network	Teletoon, TVO Kids, (Canada) Nickelodeon, Noggin (US) Milkshake! (UK)
Original release	September 7, 2004 – June 19, 2007
Chronology
Preceded by	Miss Spider's Sunny Patch Kids
External links
Website

Miss Spider's Sunny Patch Friends (sometimes shortened to Sunny Patch) is a Canadian children's television series based on the children's books by David Kirk. The series originally aired on Teletoon in Canada and Nickelodeon in the United States.^[3]

Premise

The series is set in "Sunny Patch" (a miniature town made of common forest items), populated by anthropomorphic bugs, and primarily centers around the Spider family. The episodes follow the children's adventures playing in Sunny Patch and learning life lessons, such as being kind to others, being imaginative, having responsibility, and being curious about the world around them.

Characters

Main characters

• Miss Spider (voiced by Kristin Davis) – Like three of her children, Miss Spider is an adoptee, adopted by Betty Beetle when she could not find her biological mother. Miss Spider tries to be a kind and caring mom and give equal time to all of her many children. She strongly believes that "We have to be good to bugs; all bugs." Voiced by Kristin Davis.
• Squirt (voiced by Scott Beaudin) – A curious and adventurous green spider, Squirt is considered to be the leader of the children and as such, more stories center around his character than any other. He enjoys surfing the air on his webs, dreams of flying like Shimmer or Dragon, and is often ready to take the lead in an adventure. Because of his impulsive and curious personality, he often needs the advice of his parents to help him with situations. Voiced by Scott Beaudin.
• Shimmer (voiced by Rebecca Brenner) – A pink jewel beetle with an interest in sports and games, Shimmer is different from the rest of the family as she has abilities the others do not (such as heat sensors). She is one of Miss Spider and Holley's adoptive children. Voiced by Rebecca Brenner.
• Dragon (voiced by Mitchell Eisner) – A purple dragonfly and one of Miss Spider and Holley's adoptive children. He is the eldest of the Spider children and often assumes the role of an antagonist, especially towards Squirt. In several episodes, Dragon serves as an example of peer pressure. For example, in "Cry Buggie," Dragon pokes fun at Squirt when he explains his feelings. Voiced by Mitchell Eisner.
• Bounce (voiced by Julie Lemieux) – A blue bedbug and one of Miss Spider and Holley's adoptive children. He is a two-legged, high-energy bug and the only bug character in the series to have teeth. He and Dragon have been "best bug buddies" ever since they met because of their similar experiences regarding their original families. Voiced by Julie Lemieux.

Supporting characters

• Holley (voiced by Robert Smith) – He is Miss Spider's husband. Holley is a songwriter and loves to play his guitar. He has a special thinking stone where he makes decisions.
• Spinner (voiced by Austin Di Iulio in season one and Cameron Ansell in season two) – A yellow spider sporting very large eyeglasses, he looks almost exactly like his father, Holley. He is a smart and wise bug often looked to for advice. While he is not great at physical activities, he has a wonderful talent for the "bugpipes".
• Snowdrop (voiced by Alexandra Lai) – A yellow spider and Pansy's twin. Her distinguishing feature is a green bow on her head. She has a beautiful singing voice.
• Pansy (voiced by Aaryn Doyle) – A yellow spider and Snowdrop's twin. Her distinguishing feature is a pink bow on her head. She sings well, but not as naturally as Snowdrop.
• Wiggle (voiced by Marc McMulkin) – A blue spider who tends to be the worrier of the group, and is quite emotional.
• Ned (voiced by Jonathon Wilson) and Ted (voiced by Philip Williams) – A pair of red ant brothers. Ned speaks with a Cockney accent and has a tuft of hair between his antenna and Ted speaks with a New York accent. The both of them are scheming and deceptive, and have only two interests: food and getting more of it.
• Stinky (voiced by Scott McCord) – A green stinkbug who takes up detective work in his free time.
• Felix – A frog who was introduced in the three part special "A Froggy Day in Sunny Patch." Felix longed to be a bug himself and refuses to eat bugs, as he does not find them tasty. Instead, he eats only berries.

Episodes

Below is a list of episodes of the children's television series, Miss Spider's Sunny Patch Friends, created by David Kirk. It's pilot episode aired on September 7, 2004 and the series finale episode aired on November 27, 2013.

Season 1 (2004-2006)

№	Title
1	I'll Fly Away / All Pupa'ed Out	Dragon wants to leave Sunny Patch to join the Flying Aces, who are dragonflies like he is. He feels like he would belong better with them. Squirt and Shimmer find an orphaned baby caterpillar in the meadow. They ask Miss Spider and Holley if they can take care of her, but get more work than they bargained for	September 7, 2004
2	Country Bug-Kin / A Star Fell On Sunny Patch	An orphaned cockroach named Sweetie is blown by the wind into Sunny Patch. She is taken in by the Spider family until it is safe to go home. Squirt is taken with her, and tries to impress her by taking her on a midnight stroll. He worries when he thinks nothing will interest her. The bugs, along with Uncle Gus, go out stargazing. They learn about constellations, shooting stars, and wishing stars. Squirt makes many wishes on a star, and Uncle Gus jokes that he wished the star out of the sky. When Squirt and some of the other bugs find what looks like a wishing star, Squirt worries that what Gus said was true. They try to return the star to the sky.	September 8, 2004
3	A Little Slow / Stalking the Beanstalk	In "A Little Slow" Miss Spider takes the bugs on a nature walk for Bug Scouts. Squirt takes along his friend, Shelley the snail. But the others get annoyed at having to walk slowly to keep pace with Shelley. The other bugs race ahead while Miss Spider and Squirt discover the things you do not always notice when passing by too fast. When the other bugs get lost, they are found by Miss Spider, Squirt, and Shelley. They worry over how they will get home when Shelley shows them how he leaves a trail of slime wherever he goes. They follow the trail to get home.	September 9 2004
4	Fly Away Friends / Bedtime Story	In "Bedtime Story", Miss Spider and her husband, Holley, try to get their children to go to bed on time. After spinning a web to help their children reach their goal of going to bed on time for an entire week, Miss Spider and Holley meet success. But they still cannot seem to get to bed on time themselves! This story was also made into an iPad app called Miss Spider's Bedtime Story.	September 10, 2004
5	The Marin Rose / A Sticky Situation
6	Sing It Sister / Ant-tution	The bugs see the Dribbly Dell Singers. Pansy hears that they are doing tryouts and starts practicing. The other bugs try to be nice, but they see it's not her natural talent. When Snowdrop's beautiful singing is overheard, she's asked to give Pansy advice. Pansy realizes that she sounds better singing with her twin. Pansy has some trouble at her audition, so Snowdrop sings with her. Snowdrop is accepted instead. On the night of the show, Snowdrop refuses to go. But she and Pansy arrange for them to sing together to everyone's surprise. It's time for harvesting in Sunny Patch. All the bugs are working to put away storage for the winter. Squirt loses control of a cart that rolls toward Ned and Ted's ant hole. When the ants come out, Squirt explains they are harvesting. Ned and Ted convince Squirt that winter's far off and nobody should need to harvest for a while. They throw a This Summer Will Never End party. Miss Spider's crew collect all they need, and Ned and Ted are surprised at the end of the night when snow begins to fall.	September 14, 2004
7	Something's Stinky in Sunny Patch / The Listening Walk	Opened in a Private-Eye style mystery, Stinky investigates the case of the theft of bark from Mr. Mantis' house. Spiderus accuses Shimmer of eating the bark, and spreads the rumor. Shimmer realizes how much gossip hurts her feelings. It is figured out that the culprit was the bark beetles, who eat and lay their eggs in bark. The beetles apologize for not realizing they were eating someone's house. Wiggle is scared of nighttime noises. Miss Spider takes him on a listening walk, like her mother took her on when she was a young bug. They are joined by Squirt and Dragon on their walk, followed by Bounce a little later. One by one, the bugs identify the nighttime noises and realize it's really the nocturnal bugs who are active at night.	September 15, 2004
8	Wiggle's Squiggles / Basketberry Blues	The bugs learn at school how to collect "colors" from the meadow to paint. Mr. Mantis instructs them to paint the daisy he has placed them in front of. Wiggle is excited to show his painting off, but after first viewing Shimmer's painting which looked like a perfect recreation, he gets discouraged. Then he refuses to show everyone until he can paint a better one. After a few mishaps, he shows them his original painting which everyone loves. He learns that he has his own creativeness that he can be proud of. The bugs are trying out for basketberry, Sunny Patch's version of basketball. Dragon is a very talented basketberry player, and Spinner usually just keeps score. One day Spinner plays with them, but he's not very good. Miss Spider convinces Dragon that he should help coach Spinner to build his confidence. He resorts to trickery, so Spinner thinks he's improving. When Spinner discovers the trick, he is upset and refuses to try out. With some convincing and apologizing from Dragon, he tries out, realizing that he can still have fun playing anyway.	September 16, 2004
9	What a Tangled Web / Cry Buggie	Squirt accidentally leaves all of his leftover webs all over Sunny Patch and instead of cleaning it up he goes off to play. So Miss Spider is stuck cleaning up after him. But when Roxie the Sky Queen gets injured from one of the wayward webs, Squirt realizes what he must do, and he helps his mom clean up all of the webs. On the day before the Soccerberry tournament, the kids have a practice game. When Wiggle loses, he bursts into tears. Dragon explains to Squirt that Wiggle's a "cry buggie" and that older bugs never cry. Squirt takes these words to heart and does not even cry when he hurts one of his legs and cannot play in the tournament. Squirt keeps all of his bad feelings bottled up inside of him, until his parents tell him that all bugs need to cry sometimes, even older bugs. Squirt then bawls his eyes out and he starts to feel a lot better. After the tournament is canceled due to rain, Dragon starts to cry, but is too embarrassed to admit it, so Squirt tells Dragon the same thing his mom and dad told him, that it's okay to cry.	September 17, 2004
10	A Scarey Scarey Tale / A Bug-A-Boo Day Play		October 25, 2004
11	Hum Bug / Dashing Through the Snow		December 10, 2004
12	Happy Heartwood Day / Ground House Rules		February 14, 2005
13	Family Circus / Eight Is Not Enough	The children get out of hand while waiting for the circus. To improve their behavior, Holly shows them the wishing web. When the others reach the top of the web before them, Bounce, Dragon, and Squirt vow to help each other. When Squirt's plan backfires his brothers come to his defense and Holly and Mrs Spider decide they can go to the circus for helping each other. Miss Spider and Holley are busy trying to keep up with their little buggies' activities when Holley injures himself. Mrs Spider decides to take over all parent roles while Holley rests. She tries very hard to run back and forth so that she can see each of her children at their activities, but ends up springing her ankle and has to be carried home. The kids are upset a first until they realize their mom had gotten hurt.	March 14, 2005
14	Taste-Bugs / Top O'Big Tree		March 15, 2005
15	No-See-Um Is Believin'! / A Little Bug Music	In the "No-See-Um" episode, when Squirt wants to continue playing volleyberry but his siblings want to go home, he gets sad. But then he hears a voice that seems to come out of nowhere. The voice says her name is Pippy, and she is a bug that is very tiny and difficult to see. So when Squirt befriends her and they play together but Pippy doesn't talk, they begin to suspect that Squirt has an imaginary friend. But then when they are all playing together one day, they are threatened by a chicken, but Pippy jumps in to save them, proving that even if you are very tiny, you're never too tiny to help out your friends. And Squirts family then apologizes for not believing him before about his new friend.	March 16, 2005
16	The Bug Flu / A Time Telling Tale		March 17, 2005
17	Bug Your Mom Day / Cloudy Day in Sunny Patch		May 2, 2005
18	Froggy Day in Sunny Patch		June 20, 2005
19	The Big Green Bug		July 21, 2005

series premiere

Season 2 (2006-2007)

№	Title [4]	Overview [4][5][6]	Release Date
41	Captain Sunny Patch / Captain Sunny Patch Flies Again		First broadcast: March 13, 2006
42	Family Tree / The Jitterbug		First broadcast: March 14, 2006
43	Big Bad Bugsitter / Thinking Stone		First broadcast: March 15, 2006
44	Seeing Straight / Stumped		First broadcast: March 16, 2006
45	Eight Legs Up / Spider Mom		First broadcast: March 20, 2006
46	Snuggle Bugs / Best Bug Buddies		First broadcast: March 21, 2006
47	Fungus Among Us / Ground Bound		First broadcast: March 22, 2006
48	Pitch and Itch / Bounce Back		First broadcast: March 23, 2006
49	Be Good to Bugs...and Frogs		First broadcast: June 27, 2006
50	The Prince, The Princess and the Bee		First broadcast: July 24, 2006
51	Giddy-Up Bugs / A Plushy Parable		First broadcast: September 16, 2006
52	Eclipse / Hide and Sleuth		First broadcast: September 17, 2006
53	Good Deed Seeds / Shelly and the Brain		First broadcast: October 8, 2006
54	Night and Day / Cob Fog		First broadcast: October 22, 2006
55	Lulla-Bug / The Most Perfect Parent		First broadcast: November 19, 2006
56	Frog in the Moon / Moon Music and Sun Songs	When Felix the frog talks with his bug friends about how high he can jump, they wonder about what it would be like if he could jump all the way to the moon. The spiders spin a web-trampoline to help him jump higher, but Felix still can't jump any higher than parts of the Hollow Tree. Felix really wants to be the first frog on the moon, so he decides to stay up late and try, but only succeeds in getting himself stuck in the very highest part of the tree. The little bugs think that Felix really made it to the moon, but Miss Spider and Holley realize Felix is stuck, and they all work to get him down safely. Felix is sad that he didn't make it to the moon, but his friends reassure him that he is still special because he is the first frog to jump all the way to the top of the tree. One night when all the little bugs are headed off to bed they hear some loud music coming from the base of the tree. Miss Spider realizes that this must be their new cricket neighbors, so the next morning she and Holley (joined by Spiderus) go to welcome the crickets (a cricket named Scratch, and his brothers) and ask if they could please keep the volume down on their music. The crickets just say that they are "doing their own thing" and the confused spiders leave them be. Tired, but excited about the energetic music, Dragon and some of his siblings decide to start their own band and play music during the day. This annoys the crickets though, who ask the young bugs if they could please be quiet. The young bugs protest that they too, are just "doing their own thing" but Miss Spider and Holley say that they have to stop, because they want to respect their neighbors' need to sleep. The crickets realize they were also too loud, but Miss Spider and Holley come up with a solution: both bands can practice in a location further away from the tree, so that neither will have their sleep disturbed with the music that is being made.	First broadcast: December 3, 2006
57	Spring Unsprung / Bumbling Bees		First broadcast: March 26, 2007
58	Snake Charmer / A Party For Pops		First broadcast: March 31, 2007
59	Mr. Mocking-Bug / Odd Bug Fellows		First broadcast: April 7, 2007
60	Bug Talk / The Befuddled Butterfly		First broadcast: May 2, 2007
61	Master Mantis / Bug-Versity		First broadcast: May 8, 2007
62	Lost and Sound / It's My Party		FIRST AIRED: May 14, 2007
63	Dam the Puddle / Flower Power	In "Dam the Puddle", the weather in Sunny Patch has gotten very warm, and Taddy Puddle (where Felix lives) is drying out. He sadly tells Squirt and the other bugs that his parents want them all to move before there isn't any water left, and they become stranded. Squirt doesn't want his friend to move, so he rallies a lot of other bugs to build a dam for the puddle, so that the water that is still there will stay, and Felix won't have to move. Holley appreciates his son's enthusiasm, but gently reminds Squirt that they might not be able to finish such a large project in only one day. However, with a lot of teamwork, the project is finished! And in the morning when the little bugs rush back to see if their project has worked, it has! They all celebrate, since this means that Felix doesn't have to move away.	FIRST AIRED: May 16, 2007
64	Little Ladybug Lost / A Beetle-ful Family		FIRST AIRED: May 20, 2007
65	Bringing Up Shrubby / Stuck On You		FIRST AIRED: June 19, 2007

Season 3 (2007-2008)

№	Title
1	The Fall Festival / Shimmer's Birthday		First broadcast: September 3, 2007
2	Gracie's Friend / Spindella's Cousin		First broadcast: September 4, 2007
3	Dragon's Vacation / Girls Only		First broadcast: September 5, 2007
4	Bounce's Best Friend / Family Party		First broadcast: September 6, 2007
5	A Spider for a Night / The Ladybugs		First broadcast: September 7, 2007
6	A Party for Bug Children / Spiderus' Brother		First broadcast: September 10, 2007
7	Summer Bugs / Thanksgiving Party		First broadcast: November 12, 2007
8	The Thanksgiving Festival		First broadcast: November 16, 2007
9	The Winter Parade / Winter Day		First broadcast: January 13, 2008
10	Hide and Seek / Happy Birthday, Dragon		First broadcast: January 14, 2008
11	The Bug Dance / Bug Scout Scavenger Hunt		First broadcast: January 15, 2008
12	The Spring Parade		First broadcast: April 7, 2008

Season 4 (2008-2013)

№	Title
1	Merry Christmas, Bounce! / The Christmas Festival		First broadcast: December 15, 2008
2	Happy Birthday, Spindella! / Shimmer's Best Friend		First broadcast: February 2, 2009
3	Valentine's Day!		First broadcast: February 3, 2009
4	Kite Flying Day / The Big Fight		First broadcast: February 4, 2009
5	Happy President's Day! / Dragon's Cousin		First broadcast: February 18, 2009
6	The Flower Day Festival		First broadcast: March 16, 2009
7	Happy Spring! / St. Patrick's Day		First broadcast: March 20, 2009
8	The Easter Festival / Squirt's Friend		First broadcast: April 3, 2009
9	Shimmer's Sister / Spider Love		First broadcast: April 7, 2009
10	Healthy Day / Playtime Club		First broadcast: April 8, 2009
11	Rub-a-dub Dub / Clean Day		First broadcast: April 10, 2009
12	Bubble, Bubble, Bubble! / Shimmer's Game Club		First broadcast: April 13, 2009
10	Holley's Brother / Squirt's Spring Party		First broadcast: April 15, 2009
11	Dance Party / The Spring Songs		First broadcast: April 16, 2009
12	Spring Love / Dragon's Dance Club		First broadcast: April 17, 2009
13	It's Bug-vention Time! / Pill Bug Rampage		First broadcast: October 22, 2013
14	Boom, Whack, Bug! / The Buggy Personality		First broadcast: October 28, 2013
15	Kids and Bugs / Dragon's Sniffles		First broadcast: November 4, 2013
16	Bug Time! / Buugy Buugworm		First broadcast: November 18, 2013
17	The Horn of Plenteeee! / Horn and Yanc-ee		First broadcast: November 27, 2013

References

1. https://www.amazon.com/Fungus-Among-Us-Ground-Bound/dp/B00AWMGQ7W
2. "Nelvana Shows: Miss Spider's Sunny Patch Friends". nelvana.com.
3. Corus Entertainment/Nelvana Limited (20 February 2005). "Nelvana reveals its long-anticipated licensee line-up for Miss Spider's Sunny Patch Friends". prnewswire.com.

External links

• Miss Spider's Sunny Patch Friends on Noggin
• Miss Spider's Sunny Patch Friends on Nick Jr. - For Parents
• Episode Guide on TV.com
• Miss Spider's Sunny Patch Friends at the Internet Movie Database
• Miss Spider on TreehouseTV.com

Production

The series was first announced on February 17, 2004 as part of a Callaway Arts & Entertainment press release.^[1] On March 19 of the same year, it was reported that the show was slated to premiere in August 2004 and that Canadian animation studio Nelvana was currently producing it.^[2] The series premiered in August 2004 on Teletoon in Canada and in September 2004 on Nickelodeon in the United States.

On June 20, 2005, Nickelodeon ordered a twenty-five-episode second season of the series.^[3] The second season premiered on March 13, 2006, with the episode "Captain Sunny Patch."^[4] A third season followed and Teletoon aired the show's last episode in June 2007. The series' final episodes did not air in the United States until 2008, when several episodes which had yet to be broadcast in America were aired on Noggin.^[5] The show continued to air on Nick Jr. after its cancellation until September 12, 2014, when the show was pulled from the channel's daily lineup.

References

1. Callaway Arts and Entertainment (17 February 2004). "Callaway Arts & Entertainment's plans for the Sunny Patch brand". prnewswire.com.
2. Nelvana Limited (19 March 2004). "Kristin Davis lends her voice talents to Nelvana's Sunny Patch". prnewswire.com.
3. "Nick to Spin More Miss Spider's Sunny Patch Friends". Animation Magazine.
4. Nick Jr. (13 March 2006). "Nick Jr. Premieres Season Two of Its Hit 3-D Animated Series, Miss Spider's Sunny Patch Friends". prnewswire.com.
5. "Sunny Patch on NOGGIN". noggin.com. Archived from the original on 23 December 2008.

External links

• Episode Guide on TV.com
• Miss Spider's Sunny Patch Friends at the Internet Movie Database