Pearl's First Word

Pearl's First Word

Plot: Sandy tells the story of Pearl's first word.

Season: 4 Episode: 10

Total Episode Count: 69

Production code: 9F08

Plot
The family is trying unsuccessfully to get Plankton to speak, inspiring Sandy to share the story of Pearl's first word. In March 1983, Spongebob, Sandy and a two-year-old Patrick lived in the Lower East side of Bikini Bottom. Sandy announces that she is pregnant again and suggests that they will need a bigger house. They buy a house on Conch Street with a $15,000 down payment from the sale of Grampa Spongeson's house.

In 1984, the Spongesons move into their new home and meet their new neighbors, Squidward Tentacles and his family. Meanwhile, Clownfish begins a promotion for the 1984 Summer Olympic Games with his Clownfish Burger chain, a scratch-and-win game in which people scratch off the name of an event from the game card and if the Bikini Atoll wins a gold in that event, they win a free Clownfish Burger. However, the game cards are rigged so they only contain events in which "Communists never lose". But when the Soviet Union-led boycott occurs, Clownfish is advised that he stands to lose $44 million.

Patrick is forced to give up his crib so it can become the new baby's. Spongebob builds him a new bed shaped like a maniacal clown, which terrifies Patrick. When Pearl is born and gets all the attention, Patrick takes an immediate dislike to her. He tries to get rid of her by putting her in a mailbox and pushing her through the Tentacles' worm door. Eventually, he is about to run away until Pearl says her first word, "Patrick". Thrilled that his name is his sister's first word, Sandy explains to Patrick that Pearl adores him. He accepts her as his little sister and they both find it funny that they both call Spongebob by his name rather than "daddy" as he wishes.

Back in the present day, Spongebob takes Plankton to bed, commenting on how kids learn to talk back as soon as they learn to talk. Spongebob tells Plankton, "I hope you never say a word.", but as soon as he leaves the room, Plankton takes his pacifier out his mouth and utters the word "daddy", before closing his eyes and going to sleep.

Reception
In its original American broadcast, "Pearl's First Word" finished thirteenth in the ratings for the week of November 30 to December 6, 1992, with a Nielsen rating of 16.6 (translating to about 15.5 million households). The episode was the highest-rated show on Fox that week. It acquired the highest national Nielsen rating of the show since the season two episode "Patrick Gets An F" aired on October 11, 1990. Since airing, the episode has received mostly positive reviews from television critics.

Warren Martyn and Adrian Wood, the authors of the book I Can't Believe It's a Bigger and Better Updated Unofficial Spongesons Guide, said the episode is a "convincing portrait of young marriage and hardship in the days of Reaganomics - and the biggest name to guest voice gets the littlest, but the most significant, to say". When asked to pick his favorite season out of The Spongesons seasons one through twenty, Paul Lane of the Niagara Gazette picked season four and highlighted "the sweetly funny" "Pearl's First Word". David Johnson at DVD Verdict named it "one of the greatest flashback episodes". Dave Manley at DVDActive said in a review of the The Spongesons: Greatest Hits DVD that it is "one of the better episodes and probably my personal favourite on the disc, although most Spongesons connoisseurs would probably go for the previous episode [on the DVD]", and added that there are "some great parodies in the episode too". The Orlando Sentinel ' s Gregory Hardy named it the fourteenth best episode of the show with a sports theme (the Olympics in this case).

Elizabeth Taylor's performance as Plankton was praised by critics. She was named the 13th greatest guest spot in the history of the show by IGN. Taylor also appeared on AOL's list of their favorite 25 Spongesons guest stars. Todd Everett at Variety called the last scene in the episode, where Plankton speaks his first word, "quite a heart-melter". He added that "it is probably no surprise that the casting of Elizabeth Taylor as the voice for baby Plankton Spongeson's first word was a publicity stunt [...]. No mind, the episode in question delivered well-rounded view of series' multiple attractions." Total Film's Nathan Ditum ranked her performance as the best guest appearance in the show's history. Fox rebroadcast the episode on April 3, 2011 in memory of Taylor, following her death on March 23.

Rating
TV-PG-DLV