Miss Spider's Sunny Patch Friends
Miss Spider's Sunny Patch Friends, sometimes shortened to Miss Spider or Sunny Patch, is an animated television series produced by Nelvana Limited, AbsoluteDigital Pictures and Callaway Arts & Entertainment as a follow-up to the television special Miss Spider's Sunny Patch Kids. Created by David Kirk and developed by Nadine van der Velde, it was based on Kirk's Sunny Patch brand and the accompanying Miss Spider book series. In Canada, the show aired on Teletoon before moving over to Treehouse TV. In the United States, it aired on Nick Jr, and later Qubo. 40 episodes were produced.
Premise
The show takes place in a peaceful meadow called "Sunny Patch", populated by anthropomorphic bugs, and primarily focuses on a 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. They are threatened by two snakes, Mama Snake and Baby Snake.Episodes
Characters
Main
- Miss Flora Spider is an adoptee, adopted by Betty Beetle when her biological mother abandoned her before she hatched and Holley's wife. Miss Spider tries to be a kind and caring mother and gives equal time to all of her eight children. She strongly believes that "We have to be good to bugs, all bugs."
- Squirt is a curious and very adventurous lime green spider, with a party hat on top. Squirt is considered to be the leader of the children and as such, more stories that focus on him than any other. He really 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 certain situations.
- Shimmer is a pink jewel beetle with an interest in sports and games. Shimmer is quite 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.
- Dragon is a purple dragonfly who is one of Miss Spider and Holley's adoptive children. He is the oldest of the Spider children and often very brash towards the others, especially Squirt. In many episodes, Dragon serves as an example of peer pressure. For example, in "Cry Buggie", Dragon makes fun of Squirt when he shows his feelings. However, he still loves his family.
- Bounce is a blue bedbug who is one of Miss Spider and Holley's adoptive children. He is a two-legged, high-energy bug and the only bug character in the show to have teeth. He and Dragon have been "best bug buddies" ever since they met because of their similar experiences regarding their native families.
Supporting
- Holley is Miss Spider's best husband. Holley is a great musician who loves to play the guitar. He has a special thinking stone where he makes decisions.
- Spinner is a yellow spider with very large eyeglasses just like Holley’s. He looks almost exactly like him, with Miss Spider’s coloring. He is a very smart and wise bug often looked to for advice. While he isn't great at physical activities, he has a wonderful talent for the "bugpipes".
- Pansy and Snowdrop are orange spiders who are two identical twins. Pansy sings well, but not as naturally as Snowdrop sings yet. Pansy wears a purple bow while Snowdrop’s is green.
- Wiggle is a light blue spider who tends to worry the most out of the group, and is quite emotional.
- Ned and Ted are Australian-accented and New York-accented fire ant brothers. Ned has a tuft of hair between his antenna. Both of them are scheming, mischievous and deceptive, and have only two main interests: food and getting more of it. A common running gag is that when Ted is mistaken for Ned or vice versa, they would say "I'm Ted. He's Ned." or vice versa.
- Stinky is a green New York-accented stinkbug who takes up detective work in his free time. He is also very talented at playing the xylophone.
- Felix is a young and giant leopard frog who longed to be a bug himself and refuses to eat bugs, as he never finds them yummy. Instead, he eats only berries.
Recurring
- Betty Beetle is Miss Spider's adoptive mother, the spiderlings' maternal grandmother, and Holley's mother-in-law. It is revealed that when Miss Spider couldn't find her actual mother, Betty decided to adopt her.
- Uncle Asparagus "Gus" is an orange and green jewel beetle who is Miss Spider's adoptive brother, Betty's son, Holley's brother-in-law, and the spiderlings' maternal uncle. He really likes to stargaze with his nephews and nieces.
- Shelley is a snail who is good friends with the Spider family. He is also part of the Sunny Patch Bug Scouts.
- Spindella is Spiderus' wife who he met in the Snakey Woods near the farm.
- Mandrake is Spiderus and Spindella's son.
- Bella and Ivy are Spiderus and Spindella's twin daughters.
- Grub is a larva that has told Squirt about the Snakey Woods.
- Whiffy is a light green stinkbug who is Stinky's sister.
- Grace is an orphaned baby ladybug who was adopted by Stinky and Whiffy.
- Lily is an adult ladybug.
- Snack is a juvenile ladybug.
- Eunice Earwig is one of the Spider family's neighbors and the mother of Eddy and Lil Sis.
- * Eddy Earwig is Eunice Earwig's son and oldest child. He is good friends with Squirt.
- * Lil Sis is Eunice's youngest child and Eddie's younger sister.
- Mr. Mantis is the teacher of the spiderlings' class.
- Beatrice is a queen bee in a hive part of the Hollow Tree.
- Honey is the princess of the Hollow Tree and the daughter of Beatrice. She loves honey and hanging out with her friends.
- Cookie is an orphaned monarch butterfly.
Villains
- Spiderus is a short-tempered, stubborn, conniving, arrogant, and cowardly white spider and Spindella's husband. Despite this, he cares for his family and others. He lives in a crack at the bottom of the Hollow Tree.
- Mama Snake is a corn snake that terrorizes the inhabitants of Sunny Patch.
- Baby Snake is the son of Mama Snake.
Production, broadcast and release
On June 20, 2005, a second season with 25 episodes was announced. The second season premiered on March 13, 2006 in the US, with the episode "Captain Sunny Patch" airing that same day. A third season followed and Treehouse TV finished airing the show's final season on June 17, 2007. The series' final episodes did not air in the US until 2009 when many episodes which had yet to be aired in the country were aired on Noggin. The final episode of the show aired on October 26, 2008. Reruns of the show aired on the Nick Jr channel from September 28, 2009, until December 12, 2014. Qubo aired repeats of the show from October 1, 2018 until it discontinued on February 28, 2021 due to Scripps' acquisition.