"Rock Bottom" is the second segment of the 17th episode of the first season of the American animated television series SpongeBob SquarePants. It first aired on Nickelodeon in the United States on March 15, 2000. In the episode, SpongeBob gets stranded in an abyssopelagic zone that is a city called Rock Bottom. The episode was written by Paul Tibbitt, Ennio Torresan, and David Fain, and the animation was directed by Tom Yasumi. Upon release, "Rock Bottom" was viewed by two million households and received positive reviews from critics. Plot summary SpongeBob and Patrick board a bus to go home from Glove World, a glove-themed amusement park. They accidentally board the wrong bus, which then takes them down a 90-degree cliff. The cliff leads to an abyssopelagic zone called Rock Bottom, which is inhabited by many strange deep-sea animals. Patrick becomes frightened of Rock Bottom, so SpongeBob leaves him at the bus stop while he goes to get a bus schedule. As soon as SpongeBob leaves, the next bus to Bikini Bottom arrives, with Patrick leaving SpongeBob behind. Unable to climb the 90-degree cliff, SpongeBob decides to wait for the next bus. After a number of mishaps prevent him from boarding a bus, SpongeBob heads to a bus station and waits in a very long line. By the time he reaches the front, he finds out that the next bus leaves in 5 seconds; he misses it and learns that it was the last one until morning. As the lights go out for the night, SpongeBob hears a resident of Rock Bottom and dashes back to the cliff in terror. The resident is revealed to be a friendly-looking anglerfish creature, who has retrieved SpongeBob's Glove balloon. The creature blows up the balloon and ties it to SpongeBob's wrist, which allows him to rise up the cliff. Believing that SpongeBob is still stuck in Rock Bottom, Patrick boards a bus and heads down the cliff to fetch him. SpongeBob spots him on the way out, but decides to leave Patrick on his own as to not get stuck again. Production "Rock Bottom" was written by Paul Tibbitt, Ennio Torresan, and David Fain, with Tom Yasumi serving as animation director. Tibbitt and Torresan also worked as storyboard directors. The episode originally aired on Nickelodeon in the United States on March 15, 2000, with a TV-Y7 parental rating. Series head writer of the first