Sanjay and Craig

Did You Know?

• The series aired on YTV in Canada starting August 17, 2013.
• Sanjay and Craig was first pitched in 2009 and officially began production in June 2012.
• The series ended with the half-hour special episode 'Booyah for Bollywood'.

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 The Frycade, and attends Stuntman School while idolizing washed-up 1980s action star Remington Tufflips. Sanjay struggles to fit in and is sometimes annoyed by Craig's arrogance. He is named after a character from the Showtime series Weeds, which Pancholy had portrayed in live-action from 2005 to 2012. Craig Slithers, voiced by Chris Hardwick, is Sanjay's pet snake who can talk and considers himself a master of disguise, though only a few people know his secret. He can be arrogant and overconfident, which often backfires. Vijay Patel, voiced by Kunal Nayyar, is Sanjay's father who owns a clearance store and has invented mechanicals like the Partybot; he knows Craig can talk. Darlene Patel, voiced by Hari Leigh in the pilot and later by Grey DeLisle, is Sanjay's Caucasian mother who works as a registered nurse and surgeon; she also knows Craig can talk and is rarely seen without surgical scrubs. Belle Pepper, voiced by Nika Futterman, is a 16-year-old redhead who works at The Frycade; Sanjay has a crush on her but struggles to connect. Hector Flanagan, voiced by Matt Jones, is Sanjay and Craig's eyepatch-wearing friend of Hispanic-Irish blood who has a crush on Megan and has never thrown up until he looks at his own butt.

Production

The show's origins trace back to a 2004 comic by Howell and Dirschberger, which featured a snake charmer named Sanji and his talking snake roommate, Craig. Nickelodeon executive Audrey Diehl discovered the pair through their online cartoon "The Forest City Rockers" and brought them on board. The series was rejected twice by Nickelodeon before the creators met with Loren Bouchard, a collaborator of Howell's from Bob's Burgers. Dirschberger recalled that Bouchard's simple, four-page pitch packet for Bob's Burgers inspired them to streamline their own presentation. The show's frequent gross-out humor came from the creators' mothers, both nurses, whose stories also shaped the character Darlene. During development, Sanjay was reimagined as a typical twelve-year-old boy, while an earlier pitch about four kids living in a garbage dump led to the characters Megan and Hector. Because none of the three creators had prior series experience, Nickelodeon brought in McRobb and Viscardi as executive producers; their work on Pete & Pete helped inject surreal, kid-friendly elements. Unlike most animated shows, Sanjay and Craig skips traditional scripts, instead using outlines that are turned directly into storyboards. Thurop Van Orman, the creator of The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack, served as supervising producer for the first season.

Reception

Critics were split on the cartoon. One reviewer called it juvenile yet clever, praising its respect for kids' actual intelligence. Another gave it three stars, highlighting its embrace of gross-out humor and dangerous slapstick. A different critic awarded the first two episodes an A grade. The debut pulled in about 3.6 million viewers. However, a Common Sense Media reviewer gave it two stars, arguing the characters' chaotic adventures lack logic or any positive takeaway for children.