Sanjay and Craig

Plot

The series follows Sanjay Patel and Craig Slithers as they have comedic adventures around the town of Lundgren, often involving their parents Vijay and Darlene. Sanjay also helps Craig as he tries to keep his ability to talk a secret while avoiding their snake-terrified neighbor Mr. Leslie Noodman.

Characters

Sanjay Patel (voiced by Maulik Pancholy) is a 12-year-old Indian-American boy who goes on adventures with his best friend, Craig. He has a crush on Belle Pepper, who works at his favorite place to hang out, The Frycade. Sanjay attends Stuntman School and idolizes Remington Tufflips, a washed-up action movie star from the 1980s. Sanjay struggles to fit in most of the time and always enjoys his time with Craig, despite being annoyed by his occasional arrogance at times. Sanjay is named after the character of the same name from the Showtime dark comedy-drama series Weeds, whom Pancholy had portrayed in live-action from 2005 to 2012.

Craig Slithers (voiced by Chris Hardwick) is Sanjay's pet snake whom he met in a pet store. Craig is a so-called "master of disguise" — whether he is a doctor, a lawyer, or a beauty pageant queen, no one ever recognizes him. Only a few people know Craig can talk; Sanjay and his close friends keep it a secret. Despite being brought from a pet store, Craig does not like to be called just a pet and sometimes gets a little arrogant and overconfident in himself, which usually never ends very well for him.

Vijay Patel (voiced by Kunal Nayyar) is Sanjay's father and owns a clearance store in the neighborhood. He has invented various mechanicals, such as a party-obsessed, dancing robot, the Partybot. He also knows that Sanjay's pet snake Craig can talk.

Darlene Patel (voiced by Hari Leigh in the pilot and later voiced by Grey DeLisle onwards) is Sanjay's Caucasian mother who works at a hospital as a registered nurse and a surgeon. She often tells Sanjay stories about her work. She also knows Sanjay's pet snake Craig can talk. She is rarely seen without her surgical scrubs.

Belle Pepper (voiced by Nika Futterman) is an attractive, redheaded 16-year-old girl who works at the Frycade, Sanjay and Craig's favorite place to hang out. Sanjay has a crush on her, yet when he attempts to talk to her, it does not work out. Though she is a good friend of Sanjay, she rarely shows any signs of seeing him as her boyfriend, unlike Megan, who shows her passion constantly.

Hector Flanagan (voiced by Matt Jones) is Sanjay and Craig's weird, eyepatch-wearing friend of Hispanic-Irish blood. He can annoy them at times and has a crush on Megan. He also has never thrown up in his life, but when Sanjay and Craig get him to look at his own butt, he eventually does vomit.

Production

Howell said that the idea began with a comic he and Dirschberger had made in 2004, where the main character was a snake charmer named Sanji and Craig was his "really crude roommate buddy who's a talking snake". Then, Nickelodeon executive Audrey Diehl recruited Howell and Dirschberger after finding an internet cartoon they had created titled "The Forest City Rockers", the namesake of Howell and Dirschberger's production company.

Sanjay and Craig was unsuccessfully pitched twice to Nickelodeon before Trolf, Dirschberger, and Howell sought advice from Loren Bouchard, whom Howell had designed characters for while creating Bob's Burgers for Fox Broadcasting Company. Dirschberger said of the meeting that "Bouchard showed us the "Bob's Burgers" pitch packet, which was, like, four pages of beautifully executed writing and art, and that was it. So we combined what we had learned from the first two pitches, put it in this really simple presentation." The series' usage of gross-out humor is based on the fact both Howell and Dirschberger have mothers who are nurses, "and they've told us a lot of gross stories over the years", which also served as the basis for the character of Darlene. Over the course of development, Dirschberger changed Sanjay to a twelve-year-old boy "without a weird quirk or affectation", and the premise during the second pitch was "four kids who lived in a garbage dump", providing the basis for Sanjay and Craig's friends Megan and Hector.

Since none of the three creators had produced a series before, Nickelodeon chose McRobb and Viscardi as executive producers; Howell said that their experience on Pete & Pete helped them add "surreal kids' stuff" to Sanjay and Craig. Unlike most animated series, Sanjay and Craig does not rely on scripting; instead the writers make an outline which is then converted to a storyboard. Thurop Van Orman, known for creating The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack for Cartoon Network, served as the supervising producer for the first season.

The series is notable for featuring celebrity guest stars as fictionalized versions of themselves, including Snoop Dogg, Anthony Bourdain, and Dolph Lundgren. Certain episodes are also based on past Nickelodeon game shows and similarly feature their hosts: a first-season episode based on Double Dare features Marc Summers and Harvey, while a third-season episode based on Nickelodeon Guts features Mike O'Malley and Moira Quirk. Bourdain, who voiced a character named Anthony Gourmand, claimed to be a "mega fan of Sanjay and Craig. I've seen absolutely every episode," and that "it's a little weird seeing my voice coming out of Anthony Gourmand, but my friends have been telling me that I've been a cartoon of myself for years, so really I'm kind of used to this." Other guests include Paul Reubens, Adam DeVine, and Michael-Leon Wooley, who voice original characters.

Broadcast

The series aired worldwide on Nickelodeon. It premiered on August 17, 2013, on YTV in Canada, on September 6, 2013, in Southeast Asia, on November 4, 2013, in Australia and New Zealand, on November 5, 2013, in the United Kingdom and Ireland, and on February 3, 2014, in South Africa.

Home media

Reception

David Weigand of the San Francisco Chronicle said that the series is "juvenile but also smart and funny" and "understands that kids are kids but also are often more sophisticated than children's television acknowledges." Giving it 3 stars out of 5, David Hinckley of New York Daily News said that the show "doesn't tiptoe around the stuff kids love most. Like gross stuff and absurd slapstick that in real life would probably get you killed." Marah Eakin of The A.V. Club gave the first two episodes an "A". The premiere episode had an estimated 3.6 million viewers. Emily Ashby of Common Sense Media gave the show 2 out of 5 stars, stating, "There's no rhyme, reason, or reality to the characters' misadventures, which can be a fun departure from real life but at the same time doesn't give them anything positive to glean from the content."