you like jazz dead memes aside the mighty bee was a show that came in and out of the
cartoon zeitgeist faster than the lifespan of a queen honeybee that's a fact look it
up rounding up the end of the odds and lightly touching the 2010s the show may not have left
a long lasting impact as some other flash in the pan short-lived shows during this era did
much like a hive of bees the mighty bee blended in well enough as to not stick out in both a good
and bad way good because it felt like a nicktoon but bad as it didn't stand out with the special
pizzazz to capture your attention over other shows on the network but personally for some reason the
mighty bee did stick around in the deep recesses of my mind despite not remembering more than
the show existed and the people behind the show's creation so i figured today on our why you barely
remember series that i wanted to see why i and maybe by extension you barely remember this show
originally premiering on nickelodeon on april 26 2008 the mighty b was a light-hearted offbeat
series centered around the misadventures of nine and three-quarters bessie higginbottom a
passionate and spirited member of honeybeetroop828 yet i can only count to 827. based in a colorful
exaggerated version of san francisco most of the episode's plots revolve around bessie as she
with the help of her friends family and fellow troop members did everything in her power to
collect every badge in the honeybee handbook to finally reach her full potential as the superhero
the mighty bee ah now the title makes sense while the show originally aired on nickelodeon's
flagship channel it was later moved to nicktoons in 2010 to complete its 40 episode two season run
and we all know what the nicktoons channel is heavily known for rest in peace the fallen tv
show souls you may be gone but i'm sure i'll cover you at some point on this channel the mighty bee
was created through the combined efforts of three entertainment heavyweights cynthia true
who worked on the show as a writer eric weiss who served as the director of the show and amy
poehler who not only wrote for the show but also provided the voice of bessie throughout the series
polar as a long-respected icon of comedy thanks to both her success on parks and recreation and her
tv origins as a cast member on snl was a strong creative force behind the show helping to shape
its final concept and style pairing her comedic prowess with wise a renowned original member of
spongebob squarepants production team who has been credited as being the driving force behind
getting spongebob kicked off with his work on the pilot episode help wanted and writing veteran true
who already had writing credits on such iconic cartoons as my life as a teenage robot and the
fairly oddparents the success of the mighty bee was more of an inevitability than anything but
compiling all this talent may not have been the inevitability they were all banking on
on paper everything seems solid but it always comes down to the execution throughout her badge
earning adventures bessie is aided by a cast of characters in her pursuit of becoming the mighty
bee including her mom hillary higginbotham who is always supportive of her daughter's pursuits
despite having to balance the running of a busy cafe with her daughter's extracurriculars bessie's
six-year-old brother ben who desperately wishes to become bessie's superhero sidekick one day
her best friend and dog happy who despite his occasional critiques of bessie is always there
for her and finally finger bessie's imaginary friend she drew on her index finger making up the
main cast of fellow honeybees in troop 828 with bessie is penny lefkowitz bessie's absent-minded
but well-meaning oldest friend portia gibbons the snooty rich daughter of the troop leader who
often teases bessie and corsha's best friend who often joins in on the teasing of bessie
this mighty be not the best time for you to go anywhere we've still got more mighty bee
after the break the mighty bee is buzzing your way next right here on nicktoons
through re-watching the show it had all the makings of what made some of the other cartoons
around this time and some from before it but what i felt gave it those lackluster memories i had of
it is just that the same makings rather than improve in their own way with these tropes and
concepts of cartoons past it opted to play it safe and close to the hive with the inspirations around
it but i wouldn't say that makes it in any way a bad show drawing these inspirations in a crowded
space should give it that launch pad to be more unique and try and shine through especially since
the show like i said had so much going for it leading up to it premiering not only eventually
having one of the more expensive animation budgets at the time it had been in the works for years
prior with nickelodeon's animation president brown johnson ecstatic to be working with such comedic
talent with the working title of super scout a lot of those proposed ideas would still be implemented
within the series one of those major points touted is that bessie is not at a boy crazy age
or mean towards other females and was more focused on herself and her aspirations also basing bessie
off of a character amy poehler played when she was part of second city and upright citizens brigade
which were comedy groups based around improv going back to the animation quality as the show would
have a more cleaner and look to it for its second season it's not hard to see the heavily stylized
look drawing inspiration from both ren and stimpy as well as my life as a teenage robot without
directly being the exact same look as those two shows and critically the show was something that
seemed to have everything looking up and up with positive reviews as well as being nominated for
several awards in various animation fields heck it even won a daytime emmy in 2009 for outstanding
individual achievement and animation but none of that matters seriously you could have one of the
most heavily critically praised shows of all time best animation ever put into production in the
funniest comedic writing that'll have you belly laughing until you pass out but if no one watches
the show enough to hit the numbers that justify the network keeping it around then again none of
that matters it's bye bye over to the nicktoons channel of obscurity you go but did it have
low viewership or were there other issues that led to the end of the show's lifespan we'll circle
back to this it definitely tried hard to be a show that was liked bringing energy that was quoted as
similar to spongebob but it didn't have that specific spunk that overall attention-grabbing
tenacity that keeps you coming back for more adventures now a larger issue that loomed over
the show which is that it felt a little too one-dimensional falling into the majority of
the episodes having that cut and pace formula of doing something in the pursuit of earning
a badge something pokemon itself heavily focused on but a large portion of that also mixed up the
situations in between those moments now what do pokemon and the mighty bee really have in common
not much i don't know why i'm making this part of the point i have to stop scriptwriting at
4am whatever back to the point it would be few and far between that bessie would focus her attention
on anything other than earning badges like in the episode dang it feels good to be a gamester
a reference to a song with a similar name by the ghetto boys where in which the focus shifted away
from the badges and more on the distraction of a video game and while of course as a scout sure the
story focusing on earning badges isn't bad or to be unexpected it just lacked that distinct
enough difference between each episode as to not be tired of the same concept while overall
i didn't downright dislike the show it has its moments of fun animation and hilarious writing
it didn't seem like a surprise to me why this show didn't become another flagship property that would
carry the network further coming back to the whole viewership aspect well over its few year
run was dwindling a bit going from a great 3.1 million viewers turning in for the first season
essentially the third highest viewed property behind the likes of spongebob and back at
the barnyard to then having its second season completely pushed aside off to another channel
to slowly end eric weiss in late 2009 would cryptically post on facebook a goodbye to the
characters even though there has been no public announcement of the show not continuing which then
started a concern for the future of the show and more surprisingly than the people creating
the show like the writers and the animators not wanting this project to come to an end i mean who
would want to wake up and not have their job the next day but the network themselves didn't want
the show to cease existence either while the real reason of the show met with its fate is not fully
disclosed as it rarely ever is it was labeled as preventable with some speculating amy poehler's
busy schedule with a ton of movies and other shows she was a part of relegating working on the mighty
b in between everything else maybe one day the answer will be more clear as it seems for once
the network nickelodeon may have believed in a property beyond an initial green light i mean
literally this year in 2021 it was announced that the show would be airing reruns on teennick's nick
rewind programming block giving it a second life on tv a decade after it ended its run originally
still pulling in tens of thousands of viewers at weird airing times mostly though in an effort to
promote the show or just the service in general being available to now watch on paramount plus
on the physical media side of things two dvd compilations were produced in 2009. we got the
b and being bessie higginbottom for me personally i find the background of this show's start and end
extremely fascinating especially seeing how much nickelodeon for once it seemed believed in the
property so much and despite i'm sure many best efforts could not keep the show alive beyond its
two seasons while i don't love the show at the end of the day i enjoyed my time with what the
show had offered will it be something i want to revisit again and again for years to come
maybe not but that's not to dissuade you from doing so and giving it a shot or to directly
disrespect the viewers of the show who really enjoyed it and if you did i am really happy that
you do one thing i love about doing this series is diving back into the shows and rediscovering
a love i had for them or truly seeing why they are just barely remembered check out the playlist
to see a bunch of other shows that possibly you barely remember it as well and if you have some
suggestions for me to look into and want to see eventually covered feel free to let me know in
the comments also let me know your thoughts on the mighty bee was it your cup of tea with a dab
of honey or was it not something sweet enough for your liking i'm genuinely curious as most
people i've brought this show up to while working on this video have either said it
was something they moderately enjoyed or they completely were not into it whatsoever anyways
thank you so much for spending some time here today with me make sure to hit the like button
and subscribe for more content like this i'll be back soon with another video but until then later
you