Miss Spider's Sunny Patch Friends

Miss Spider's Sunny Patch Friends
Created by	Based on the Miss Spider books by David Kirk
Developed by	Nadine van der Velde
Starring	Kristin Davis Robert Smith Rebecca Brenner Mitchell Eisner Julie Lemieux Scott Beaudin Austin Di Lulio (first season) Alexandra Lai Aaryn Doyle Marc McMulkin Cameron Ansell (second season)
Opening theme	"Be Good to Bugs"
Country of origin	Canada  United Kingdom  United States
Language(s)	English, Spanish, Portuguese
No. of seasons	4
No. of episodes	63
Production
Executive producer(s)	Michael Hirsh Scott Dyer Nicholas Callaway Doug Murphy
Producer(s)	Callaway Arts & Entertainment Absolute Digital Nelvana
Location(s)	Toronto, Ontario, Canada London, England
Running time	24 minutes (12 minutes per episode)
Broadcast
Original channel	Teletoon/Treehouse TV (2006-present) Five Cartoonito Nick Jr. Nickelodeon (2008-2009), Nick Jr. (2009-present)
Original run	September 7, 2004 (2004-09-07) – present

Miss Spider's Sunny Patch Friends is an animated program based on the children's books by David Kirk, which airs on Nick Jr. in the United States, on Treehouse TV in Canada, and on Discovery Kids in Brazil. Each episode follows the everyday adventures of a family of bugs, who have made their home in what is called the Hollow Tree, led by the gentle, kind-hearted Miss Spider.

Our gifts, they are many: We hop, fly and crawl. But kindness is the finest of all! - Miss Spider

Characters

• Miss Spider — voiced by Kristin Davis.^[1] Like three of her children, Miss Spider is an adoptee, adopted by Betty Beetle when she could not find her spider mom. 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."

• Holley — voiced by Robert Smith.^[2] 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, including the most important decision of his life—to marry Miss Spider.

• Shimmer — A pink jewel beetle voiced by Rebecca Brenner. She is one of Miss Spider and Holley's adoptive children.

• Dragon — A purple dragonfly voiced by Mitchell Eisner. One of Miss Spider and Holley's adoptive children. Dragon was flying with his birth family and fell into the river. A waterbug rescued Dragon and introduced him to Holley and Miss Spider. From that day, Dragon becomes a part of Squirt's family. Originally voice cast by Barbara Weber Scaff.

• Bounce — A blue bedbug voiced by Julie Lemieux. Is one of Miss Spider and Holley's adoptive children. He is a two-legged, high energy bug. Bounce lost his way when we wandered from home. Bounce and Dragon are best bug buddies.

• Squirt — A green spider voiced by Scott Beaudin. Squirt is considered to be the lead character of the children and appears in more stories than any of the others. He enjoys websurfing and even dreams of flying like Shimmer or Dragon. He is often ready to take the lead in an adventure.

• Spinner — A yellow spider voiced by Austin Di Iulio (and Cameron Ansell in season 2). Sporting very large eye glasses, 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 basketberry (he is merely the scorekeeper), he has a wonderful talent for the bugpipes.

• Snowdrop — A yellow spider voiced by Alexandra Lai. She is Pansy's twin. Her distinguishing feature is a green bow on a strand of hair on her head. Has a beautiful singing voice.

• Pansy — A yellow spider voiced by Aaryn Doyle. She is Snowdrop's twin. Her distinguishing feature is a pink bow on a strand of hair on her head. Sings well, but not as naturally as Snowdrop. '
• Wiggle — A blue spider voiced by Marc McMulkin. Tends to be the worrier of the group and quite emotional.

• Beetrice — The queen bee voiced by Catherine Gallant.

• Honey — Beetrice's daughter and princess of the hive.

• Stinky — A stinkbug voiced by Scott McCord. Lives in the Dribbly Dell. Grace's adoptive father.

• Whiffy — Stinky's sister. Lives in a different forest and visits every now and then, is now living with her brother to be Grace's mother.

• Grace — An orange-shelled Asian lady beetle, who was supposed to meet her parents in Sunny Patch. They never returned for her and she was adopted by Stinky and his sister Whiffy.

• Spiderus — A white spider voiced by Tony Jay. He is married to Spindella. Spiderus is somewhat sulky and overly touchy, as the innocent and (most of the time) harmless antics of the children can send him into a fit of rage. He is also known for selfish and sometimes villainous behavior, such as the time he spread rumors to discredit Shimmer. However, he does show a glimpse of chivalry and kindness every now and then, especially now that he is a father himself. This was Jay's final voice acting role before his death.

• Spindella — A red spider voiced by Kristina Nicoll. Married to Spiderus. In a sense, Spindella is a foil to Spiderus; she is much warmer and appreciative of the kids. Spindella revealed that she was pregnant at the end of the special episode "Be Good to Bugs... and Frogs." It was thought that this storyline might not been through to completion due to Tony Jay's death during the show's production. However, the spiderlings were hatched in the episode "Lulla-Bug" and "The Most Perfect Parent".

• Mandrake — Spiderus and Spindella' son. Looks like a small, pudgy version of Spiderus and speaks with a British-English accent.

• Belladonna — A pink spider; Spiderus and Spindella' daughter,(Poison) Ivy's twin sister; generally called Bella.

• Poison Ivy — Belladonna's twin sister, generally just called Ivy.

• Mr. Mantis — A green praying mantis voiced by Wayne Robson. Mr. Mantis is the Sunny Patch schoolteacher, providing wise instruction to Miss Spider's kids, as well the other youngsters of the Patch.

• Gus — An asparagus beetle voiced by Peter Oldring. Uncle to the young bugs. Originally voice cast by Joe Ranft.

• Betty Beetle — A green beetle voiced by Patricia Gage. Adopted Miss Spider when she was a spiderling. Grandmother to the young bugs.

• Ned and Ted — 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.

• Sawyer — a female carpenter ant who is an aphid rancher and is responsible for clearing out mushrooms whenever they start to overgrow Sunny Patch.

• Eunice — an earwig voiced by Cara Pifko. She is Lil Sis and Eddie's mother.

• Eddie — a young earwig. He is Eunice's son.

• Lil Sis — an earwig voiced by Tajja Isen. She is Eunice's daughter.

• Snack — a young female ladybug and friend to Miss Spider's children.

• Rocky and Roxie — A pair of dragonflies that run the Flying Aces: a team of daredevil dragonflies and also a school for dragonfly daredevils-in-training. It is not known if they are siblings or married.

• 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. Felix has formed a friendship with the Spider family children.

Episodes

Season 1 (2004-2005)

1 - I'll Fly Away / All Pupa'ed Out First broadcast: September 7, 2004

• 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.

2 - Country Bug-Kin / A Star Fell On Sunny Patch First broadcast: September 8, 2004

• 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.

3 - A Little Slow / Stalking the Beanstalk First broadcast: September 9, 2004

• 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.

4 - Fly Away Friends / Bedtime Story First broadcast: September 10, 2004

• 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.

5 - The Marin Rose / A Sticky Situation First broadcast: September 13, 2004

6 - Sing It Sister / Ant-tution First broadcast: September 14, 2004

• 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.

7 - Something's Stinky in Sunny Patch / The Listening Walk First broadcast: September 15, 2004

• 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.

8 - Wiggle's Squiggles / Basketberry Blues First broadcast: September 16, 2004

• 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.

9 - What a Tangled Web / Cry Buggie (Cry Baby) First broadcast: September 17, 2004

• 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.

10 - A Scarey Scarey Tale / A Bug-A-Boo Day Play First broadcast: October 25, 2004

11 - Hum Bug / Dashing Through the Snow First broadcast: December 10, 2004

12 - Happy Heartwood Day / Ground House Rules First broadcast: February 14, 2005

13 - Family Circus / Eight Is Not Enough First broadcast: March 14, 2005

• 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.

14 - Taste-Bugs / Top O'Big Tree First broadcast: March 15, 2005

15 - No-See-Um Is Believin'! / A Little Bug Music First broadcast: March 16, 2005

• 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.

16 - The Bug Flu / A Time Telling Tale First broadcast: March 17, 2005

17 - Bug Your Mom Day / Cloudy Day in Sunny Patch First broadcast: May 2, 2005

18 - Froggy Day in Sunny Patch Special - First broadcast: June 20, 2005

19 - The Big Green Bug Special - First broadcast: July 21, 2005

Season 2 (2006-2007)

20 - Captain Sunny Patch / Captain Sunny Patch Flies Again First broadcast: March 13, 2006

21 - Family Tree / The Jitterbug First broadcast: March 14, 2006

22 - Big Bad Bugsitter / Thinking Stone First broadcast: March 15, 2006

23 - Seeing Straight / Stumped! First broadcast: March 16, 2006

24 - Eight Legs Up / Spider Mom First broadcast: March 20, 2006

25 - Snuggle Bugs / Best Bug Buddies First broadcast: March 21, 2006

26 - Fungus Among Us / Ground Bound First broadcast: March 22, 2006

27 - Pitch and Itch / Bounce Back First broadcast: March 23, 2006

28 - Be Good to Bugs...and Frogs Special - First broadcast: June 27, 2006

29 - The Prince, The Princess and the Bee TV Movie - First broadcast: July 24, 2006

30 - Giddy-Up Bugs / Snake Charmer First broadcast: September 16, 2006

31 - Eclipse / Hide and Sleuth First broadcast: September 17, 2006

32 - Good Deed Seeds / Shelly and the Brain First broadcast: October 8, 2006

33 - Night and Day / Cob Fog First broadcast: October 22, 2006

34 - Lulla-Bug / The Most Perfect Parent First broadcast: November 19, 2006

35 - Frog in the Moon / Moon Music and Sun Songs First broadcast: December 3, 2006

• 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.

36 - Spring Unsprung / Bumbling Bees

37 - Snake Charmer / A Party For Pops

38 - Mr. Mocking-Bug / Odd Bug Fellows

39 - Bug Talk / The Befuddled Butterfly

40 - Master Mantis / Bug-Versity

41 - Lost and Sound / It's My Party FIRST AIRED: May 14, 2007

42 - Dam the Puddle / Flower Power FIRST AIRED: May 16, 2007

• 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.

43 - Little Ladybug Lost / A Beetle-ful Family

44 - Bringing Up Shrubby / Stuck On You

Season 3 (2007-2008)

44 - The Fall Festival / Shimmer's Birthday First broadcast: September 3, 2007

45 - Gracie's Friend / Spindella's Cousin First broadcast: September 4, 2007

46 - Dragon's Vacation / Girls Only First broadcast: September 5, 2007

47 - Bounce's Best Friend / Family Party First broadcast: September 6, 2007

48 - A Spider for a Night / The Ladybugs First broadcast: September 7, 2007

49 - A Party for Bug Children / Spiderus' Brother First broadcast: September 10, 2007

50 - Summer Bugs / Thanksgiving Party First broadcast: November 12, 2007

51 - The Thanksgiving Festival (TV movie) First broadcast: November 16, 2007

52 - The Winter Parade / Winter Day First broadcast: January 13, 2008

53 - Hide and Seek / Happy Birthday, Dragon First broadcast: January 14, 2008

54 - The Bug Dance / Bug Scout Scavenger Hunt First broadcast: January 15, 2008

55 - The Spring Parade (TV movie) First broadcast: April 7, 2008

Season 4 (2008-2009)

56 - Merry Christmas, Bounce! / The Christmas Festival First broadcast: December 15, 2008

57 - Happy Birthday, Spindella! / Shimmer's Best Friend First broadcast: February 2, 2009

58 - Valentine's Day! (TV movie) First broadcast: February 3, 2009

59 - Kite Flying Day / The Big Fight First broadcast: February 4, 2009

60 - Happy President's Day! / Dragon's Cousin First broadcast: February 18, 2009

61 - The Flower Day Festival (TV movie) First broadcast: March 16, 2009

62 - Happy Spring! / St. Patrick's Day First broadcast: March 20, 2009

63 - The Easter Festival / Squirt's Friend First broadcast: April 3, 2009

64 - Shimmer's Sister / Spider Love First broadcast: April 7, 2009

65 - Healthy Day / Playtime Club First broadcast: April 8, 2009

66 - Rub-a-dub Dub / Clean Day First broadcast: April 10, 2009

67 - Bubble, Bubble, Bubble! / Shimmer's Game Club First broadcast: April 13, 2009

68 - Holley's Brother / Squirt's Spring Party First broadcast: April 15, 2009

69 - Dance Party / The Spring Songs First broadcast: April 16, 2009

70 - Spring Love / Dragon's Dance Club First broadcast: April 17, 2009

References

1. ^ http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0004862/
2. ^ http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0809747/

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