
The animators pushed the animation to make it funnier and changed the theme song. The animation took place in South Korea at Rough Draft Studios. During the television event, Nickelodeon also debuted – "Face Freeze!" and "Demolition Doofus" – of the eighth season. Moreover, "Squirrel Record" was written by Brookshier, Ceccarelli and Iversen, and Alan Smart served as animation director. It was guest starred by actor Johnny Knoxville. The episode "Extreme Spots" was written by Luke Brookshier, Marc Ceccarelli, and Derek Iversen, while Tom Yasumi served as animation director. On July 21, 2012, the season premiered with the episode " Extreme Spots"/"Squirrel Record" during a SpongeBob SquarePants television marathon event called "The Super Spongy Square Games". SpongeBob SquarePants became the sixth Nickelodeon series with most episodes, surpassing Rugrats with 172 episodes, having 178 after the eighth season had completed broadcast on television. During production of the eighth season, Deadline Hollywood reported on January 3, 2011, that Nickelodeon had renewed the series for a ninth season, with 26 episodes in order, which would push the series over the 200th episode mark. The season's executive producers were series creator Stephen Hillenburg and Paul Tibbitt, who also acted as the series' showrunner. The SpongeBob SquarePants: The Complete Ninth Season DVD was released in region 1 on October 10, 2017, and region 4 on October 7, 2020. The ninth season is the longest-running season of SpongeBob SquarePants to date, airing for four and a half years. A total of 26 episodes were produced for the season, bringing the number of episodes up to 204. The season was first announced on January 3, 2011. This season marks the show's transition to 1080i HDTV by now having episodes produced and aired in widescreen (16:9), the native aspect ratio of high-definition. Starting with "Lost in Bikini Bottom", Marc Ceccarelli and Vincent Waller became the supervising producers and showrunners and served in that position for the rest of the season. The season was executive produced by series creator Hillenburg and writer Paul Tibbitt, the latter of whom also acted as the showrunner for the first 11 episodes of the season. The series chronicles the exploits and adventures of the title character and his various friends in the fictional underwater city of Bikini Bottom.

The ninth season of the American animated television series SpongeBob SquarePants, created by animator and former marine biologist Stephen Hillenburg, originally aired on Nickelodeon in the United States from July 21, 2012, to February 20, 2017, and contained 26 episodes (49 segments), beginning with the episode " Extreme Spots"/"Squirrel Record".
