SpongeBob SquarePants (seasons 6-8)

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SpongeBob SquarePants (seasons 6-8)

This is what happens when you let inexperienced writers help write on a show that's made for kids.
Genre: Comedy
Surreal comedy
Slapstick
Dark comedy
Animated sitcom
Running Time: 11 minutes (most segments)
23 minutes (certain double-length episodes)
Country: United States
South Korea (Animation production)
Release Date: March 3, 2008 - October 21, 2012
Network(s): Nickelodeon
Nicktoons
Created by: Stephen Hillenburg
Distributed by: Paramount Media Networks (formerly ViacomCBS)
Starring: Tom Kenny
Bill Fagerbakke
Rodger Bumpass
Clancy Brown
Mr. Lawrence
Jill Talley
Carolyn Lawrence
Mary Jo Catlett
Lori Alan
Dee Bradley Baker
Seasons: 3
Episodes: 47 (season 6 & 8)
50 (season 7)


SpongeBob SquarePants, also simply referred to as SpongeBob, is an American animated comedy television series created by former marine biologist and animator Stephen Hillenburg for Nickelodeon. It is chronologically the tenth Nicktoon to debut. The series is produced by Nickelodeon Animation Studio and United Plankton Pictures, Inc. The series chronicles the adventures and endeavors of an accident-prone yellow sea sponge and his various friends in the fictional underwater city of Bikini Bottom. The series' popularity has made it a media franchise, as well as the highest-rated series to ever air on Nickelodeon, and the most distributed property of MTV Networks. As of 2015, the media franchise has generated $12 e Krabbillion in merchandising revenue for Nickelodeon and is currently one of the most well-known and beloved cartoons to date.

While seasons 1-4 (1999-2007) and 9-12 (2013-2022) were well received and seasons 5 (2007-2009) and 13 onwards (2020-present) gained mixed to positive reception, seasons 6-8 (2008-2012) are a different story, which 6 and 7 panned by fans and critics (albeit not as much by critics) and caused the series to undergo a massive decline in quality, although receptions for seasons 8 were much higher than seasons 6 and 7, and were often considered mixed, as many people either like or hate those seasons.

P​remise

A square yellow sea sponge named SpongeBob SquarePants lives in a pineapple with his pet snail, Gary, in the city of Bikini Bottom on the floor of the Pacific Ocean. He works as a fry cook at the Krusty Krab. During his time off, SpongeBob has a knack for attracting trouble with his starfish best friend, Patrick. An arrogant octopus Squidward Tentacles, SpongeBob's neighbor, dislikes SpongeBob because of his childlike behavior.

Why These Seasons Dropped On a Deck and Flopped Like a Fish

  1. In a similar vein to what happened during the production of Dragon Ball GT over a decade earlier, the main problem with these seasons is that the original creator (in this case Stephen Hillenburg) didn't really have that much involvement in these seasons other than being an executive producer (he has left the series during season 4 to be fair, but that is a much lesser extent), which led to these seasons lacking any charm and heart that the previous and later seasons had.
  2. The other main problem with these seasons is that they often don't stay true to their original routes and lack the charm and cleverness of the first three seasons and the ninth season onwards, and to a lesser extent, the fourth and fifth seasons.
    • Not helping is the fact that nearly all the original writers of the previous seasons such as Sherm Cohen (tho he returned on Season 9b), Merriwether Williams, Kaz, C.H. Greenblatt, Derek Drymon, Mark O'Hare, etc. have already left the show to work on other projects by then, with Steven Banks (who's a biggest fan), Casey Alexander, Zeus Cervas, Paul Tibbitt, Nate Cash, Luke Brookshier, Dani Michaeli, Mr. Lawrence (Plankton's voice actor) and Aaron Springer (with some few people that worked on Season 5 and then later left as Tom King, Eric Shaw and Chris Reccardi) being one of the only few original writers that stayed on, while 6 writers have been replaced by Sean Charmatz, Derek Iversen, Marc Ceccarelli, Andrew Goodman and Richard Pursel, they (despite that Zeus did work on the storyboarder director since season 2 and after those seasons and Sean and Derek I. haven't wrote episodes until Season 6) barely had any experience in working on the series' earlier seasons, which therefore explains the series' massive decline in quality during these seasons due to the various problems such as bad writing and character butchery as listed below
    • This is not helped by the fact that Seasons 6b & 7 only sped up the decline
      • Season 6, while only slightly better than Season 7, kick started all of the problems and is when the show's decline became really apparent. This season also has the worst animation. Plus unlike Season 7 and 8, this season ended quite badly and got worse by the second half (even though it started and ended on production/number code on surprisingly good). This season has the most Squidward punching-bag on the entire show and is also home to some of the worst episodes of the entire show.
      • Season 7 is by a hair, considered to be by many fans the worst season of the whole show, especially during its first half as it not only has the most rehashed episodes from the earlier seasons (like how this season alone has three episodes that rip-off "Imitation Krabs"), and showed so much flanderization (which is evident with both Patrick and Mr. Krabs) but also some of the worst, infamous, and notorious episodes such as "A Pal for Gary", "One Coarse Meal", amongst others
      • Season 8, while an improvement over Seasons 6 & 7, is infamous for having the most Patrick's a Prick episodes. Patrick is also at his worst in this season. Most of the bad Season 8 episodes were caused by him being a jerk.
    • While the show's downfall started in "Spongehenge" in Season 5, despite ""Good Neighbors" in Season 4 being the start of the show's decline in general, these seasons solidified the show's decline in quality.
  3. Quantity over quality: Like many long-running shows, the series has run for way too long (it started in 1999 and there are no signs of the show ending anytime soon), spanning a total of 14 seasons and 260+ episodes and counting. The show itself isn't bad by all means, it is a great show overall, but a long-running series will often jump the shark.
    • Starting in season 6, Nickelodeon began ordering 26 episodes per season compared to 20 episodes per season in the first 5 seasons.
      • It should be mentioned that however, season 10 didn't have 26 episodes, but had 11 instead.
  4. Many characters have gotten flanderized badly, to the point of becoming unlikable caricatures of their original selves and lacking the charm they previously had:
    1. SpongeBob himself in seasons 6b and 7 has transformed from a naive, childlike, and eccentric yet optimistic and happy-go-lucky protagonist with a certain level of maturity when necessary, into an extremely obnoxious, moronic, immature, and deranged manchild. His voice has become higher pitched with a shriller laugh, he is excessively and obnoxiously cheerful, and has turned into a crybaby who tends to burst into tears much more frequently, for longer durations, and for far pettier reasons. Particularly in Season 6b, he displays a tendency to relentlessly annoy and stalk Squidward.
    2. Mr. Krabs arguably experiences one of the most extreme cases of flanderization, transforming from a greedy but somewhat well-meaning business owner with redeeming traits into a malicious and depraved character. His greed is exaggerated to absurd levels, leading him to commit evil and immoral acts solely for financial gain. Additionally, while he is portrayed as a father figure to SpongeBob in earlier and later seasons, during this period, he frequently exploits and mistreats SpongeBob, showing concern only for his potential to generate more money.
    3. Patrick also suffers from one of the worst types flanderization as he was already flanderized in season 4 (more specifically the second half), going from a simple-minded yet fun-loving starfish who was slightly slow on the uptake but with a few intelligent moments to an extremely unfunny and detestable sadistic moron who's as dumb as a bag of rocks. He has also become an obnoxiously malicious, ungratefully selfish jerk who could care less about anyone and that includes SpongeBob, who is supposed to be his best friend to the point where he arguably admits his stupidity is deliberate in "The Card" after walking through a whole bunch of dangerous places with a Mermaid Man trading card, He also rarely, if ever, gets any comeuppance
    4. Pearl has also been flanderized from being an emotional yet likable teenage girl to being an extremely whiny spoiled brat who always wants very expensive things as well as being an annoying crybaby similar to SpongeBob. Speaking of SpongeBob, Pearl does not get along with him very well in these seasons compared to the first five seasons. However, she became more likable in season 8
    5. Plankton also became a punching bag just like Squidward, where bad things happen to him, even when he doesn't do anything wrong. He's also a less effective "villain" to the point where he is arguably more likable than his nemesis.
    6. Karen also underwent flanderization. In the first five seasons, she was loyal and devoted to Plankton, if a bit snarky at times. In these seasons, she is defined by her snarky demeanor started on "Krabby Road" (after what Plankton said in "Spongicus" in number code), to the point that she rarely has anything supportive to say too Plankton, even when he's on the brink of suicide. She often gets frustratingly aggressive with Plankton's attempt to out-stage Mr. Krabs
    7. Sandy just like how she was in season 5, became a lot more obsessed with science than her other traits (eg. karate and Texas), even more so than in season 4, up to the point where she's become a bland, one-dimensional, and neurotic science geek with no interesting personality whatsoever. While she did have an interest in science in the first four seasons, it wasn't her defining trait back then. However, she still managed to be likable and helpful since she wasn't flanderized into a jerk at all.
    8. Squidward became a constant grouch to everyone and everything around him, showing little care towards SpongeBob or anyone else. In the earlier seasons, he was quite grumpy, but had a good heart inside and would defend SpongeBob if he was in the right. Just like Plankton, he is also used as a complete punching bag in a huge number of episodes that there are too many to list, see some of them below
      • In these seasons, as well as the modern seasons (mostly from Season 11 and 13), he often just gets hurt for no good reason whatsoever. In earlier seasons, he would try to do something bad to SpongeBob, but it would backfire and hurt him instead, which is where his comeuppance would come off as hilarious and satisfying. However, much like Chris Griffin, he didn't see too much decline in his character
      • But worst of all, Squidward going through unnecessary pointless torments are always used just for the sake and hopes of laughs, and it feels like the writers (mostly for Richard Pursel) just wanted to express all their unjustified hatred towards him.
      • In certain episodes, Squidward is shown to be a much bigger jerk to SpongeBob than he was previously, even though SpongeBob doesn't even deserve it, like in the episode "A Day Without Tears" for example
    9. Mrs. Puff became a bigger punching bag than she was in the previous seasons (more so on that latter), even if she is unlikable at the correct times, such as "Demolition Doofus"
    10. The background characters/incidentals seem to have become bigger and bigger jerks as well. Yes, they were always jerks, but they were never this mean, and they show their jerkish side more often in these seasons. Harold seems to take this to extreme levels, as he is generally considered to be the most antagonistic background character.
  5. These seasons are filled to the brim with bad episodes (see "Notable Bad Episodes From These Seasons" section below).
    • To make matters worse, during these seasons, Nickelodeon often demanded more new episodes and rushed the production of these episodes, hence why they were often either poorly executed like "Truth or Square" or bad from the start like "One Coarse Meal", "The Splinter", and "Trenchbillies"
    • Speaking of "Truth or Square", it wasn't a good way to celebrate the show's 10th anniversary (which was six months before this episode aired, being Nov 6, 2009). The main problem was the Patchy segments because they were lame, filler, and just made the episode a 60-minute piece of garbage that only serves to waste everybody's time
    • Some episodes have gross-out entirely, like "The Splinter", which shows grotesque moments of SpongeBob's splinter. Even Tom Kenny (the voice of SpongeBob) himself hated the episode. House Fancy has the infamous toenail ripping scene where Spongebob Squarepants accidentally got the couch on Squidward’s foot causing the toenail to be ripped
    • Back to "Cephalopod Lodge", it is a torture episode involving Squidward getting kicked out of the lodge because SpongeBob and Patrick disrupted their lodge, SpongeBob and Patrick only making things worse, and then Squidward never being welcomed again at the end of the episode because the same thing with SpongeBob and Patrick cheering happened again
      • While Aaron Springer's episodes in those seasons are the least hated out of all 3 of the combos, their writing started to get lazy during the late Season 6 and 7, and overuse of small "SpongeBob's cheek" faces.
  6. The animation in these seasons, while still a decent effort as animated by Rough Draft Studios, is a pretty noticeable downgrade from that of the previous seasons and season 9 onwards:
    1. The color palette looks very dull, washed-out, and unappealing
    2. The animation is very restricted and lacks the energy of the other seasons. Season 7's animation is a little looser, but still duller and bland
    3. Season 6 arguably has the worst animation as it relies way too much on closeup gross-out images by Robertryan Cory. Though, it got toned down a bit during season 7.
    4. The facial expressions can look overly detailed in some areas, particularly in season 6, despite the fact that Robertryan Cory (who made those facial expressions) did a wonderful job
    5. "Rodeo Daze" poorly implements live-action elements into the animation, showing out some of the worst animations in SpongeBob history imaginable
    6. While the animation improved in season 8, it has some frame-rate issues.
      1. While Virginia Hawes' models is more model compared to Robert Ryan Cory's models, they're however, more stiffer and blander.
  7. The writing and humor have been downgraded from being amazingly clever, unique, eccentric, and hilarious to being obsessively mean-spirited, unfunny, stupid, nonsensical, and horrendous, which is a downer because it's what the other seasons (particularly the first four and nine onwards) are beloved and well-known for.
  8. Some of the recurring characters such as Kevin The Sea Cucumber (though he did return in season 13) & Incidental 70 (you know the "hey! SpongeBob's back" fish) are nowhere to be seen or have extremely minor roles in these seasons.
  9. Almost all of the episodes that center around innocent characters like Squidward, Plankton and Mrs. Puff are just simply them getting tortured with either over-the-top punishments (by the Bikini Bottom Police Force) or being unfairly treated (by SpongeBob, Patrick, and/or Mr. Krabs, who almost always get away scot-free) for little-to-no reasons:
    1. The worst offender has to be Squidward since some of the episodes involve him being treated like crap for dumb reasons, things that were entirely out of his control, or for no reason whatsoever. Unlike the first three seasons where there are reasons why Squidward gets his comeuppance, he receives his comeuppances mainly due to karmic reasons such as Squidward's overconfidence, ego, stubbornness, and arrogance, selfishness, poor decision-making, or even Squidward just putting the misery onto himself like in "Pizza Delivery". But here, most of the episodes showcase him going through nothing but hell for pretty bad reasons. Seasons 4-5 and 8 did this as well, but to a lesser extent than said seasons
    2. Similarly, even Plankton himself gets tortured horribly, notably in "One Coarse Meal" and "Plankton's Regular", where these two episodes depict Mr. Krabs at his worst and Plankton being utterly harmless and less like a "villain"
  10. The character focus is very imbalanced in these seasons. To be specific, most episodes only focus on SpongeBob, Patrick, Squidward, Mr. Krabs, Plankton, and occasionally Karen. Sandy, Pearl, Mrs. Puff, and Gary get much fewer roles here.
  11. Sometimes in these seasons, almost all characters aside from just SpongeBob or Patrick are often depicted as acting like idiots than they were in the first five seasons, to the point that it gets irritating and frustrating to watch since it renders almost everyone in the show (yes, even including SpongeBob and Patrick as well) to be complete idiots, with episodes like "Someone's In The Kitchen With Sandy", "Chum Bucket Supreme", "Greasy Buffoons" and "A Pal for Gary" being the worst offenders of such beyond-idiotic portrayals of the non-Patrick Star characters.
    • Consequently, the very idea where everyone in the show are depicted as complete idiots in these seasons just makes all these characters in the show come off as nothing more than weaker clones of Patrick Star, but only with different reasons why they act like idiots. In fact, the episode "A Pal for Gary" has the absolute worst display of character stupidity coming from a non-Patrick Star character (in that case, SpongeBob SquarePants himself) in the whole series to the point that it even makes Patrick Star (especially in (seasons 6-9a) look intelligent in comparison
    • On that topic, in some episodes each scene where all the Bikini Bottomites are complete idiots appear to be even more flimsy than usual, because Patrick Star, the only character in the entire show that is best-known for his stupidity and idiocy since the show's golden era, is absent in some of these episodes. In fact, in these episodes you could replace any of the dumb Bikini Bottomites with Patrick Star and their plots still wouldn't change in the slightest
  12. Many of the episodes in these seasons have many questionable and unfitting, disturbing, disgusting, infuriating, mean-spirited, dark, bleak, nightmarish, and/or violent scenes that were rarely present in the earlier seasons, with most of the episodes that Aaron Springer made, "The Splinter", "Someone's in the Kitchen with Sandy", "Stuck in the Wringer", "Keep Bikini Bottom Beautiful", "A Pal For Gary", "One Coarse Meal" and "Big Sister Sam" being the worst offenders out there.
  13. The title cards while still great, some of them are way too disturbing and creepy such as: Gone, One Coarse Meal and inSPONGEiac.
  14. Some of the episodes are repetitive and formulaic. A prime example is the torture formula where one of the characters gets treated unfairly for no reason.
  15. Many of the episodes (especially for Aaron Springer) in these seasons are very lazily written (like #3 in one of the points, Nick demanded them more) such as "Penny Foolish", "The Card", "Shell Shocked", "Gone", and "You Don't Know Sponge", as the humor itself can get way too repetitive for the sake of killing time, up to the point where it gets old pretty quickly and with no actual creative effort put into the writing (with the episodes that was writes by Richard Pursel is the absolute worst offender). It's almost as if the writers didn't care enough to try or had any more ideas left at the time. One example is "Earworm", where it's nothing, but SpongeBob not only gets an earworm, but it causes him to sing a song called "Musical Doodle" over and over again for almost the entire episode.
    • Besides that, some have no consistency or a little bit of intelligence or morals that were tagged on to the point of practically nothing happening in the episodes. For example, "Stuck In the Wringer" teaches kids that "crying solves all your problems". It doesn't come off as a joke moral, instead, it comes off as an actual moral rather than something to laugh at
    • The TV movie Truth or Square was not well received, mainly due to the blatant bait-and-switches and false advertising. It ended up being the last SpongeBob TV movie until 2019. Aside from that, many other episodes contained false advertising to the point where the staff at Nickelodeon or the series itself have wasted everyone's time when giving what was given to the fans, let alone disappointing every fan
    • In "The Clash of Triton", Triton appears mainly in the second half due to a large amount of filler in this episode and he hardly gets focused on. Not to mention, the original title of the episode, "Neptune's Party" (which is still used in some countries), isn't any better because this title will instead make viewers think it's all about King Neptune's party and there is no focus to it, making the episode feel completely unfocused. We're also expected to sympathize with King Neptune although he locked up Triton simply for using his powers for the greater good of Bikini Bottom
    • "Shuffleboarding" has a misleading title as this episode felt the writers changed the plot at the last minute from having SpongeBob and Patrick covering for Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy to do some shuffle-boarding, to arresting people for dumb reasons or no reason whatsoever. Which, this episode should have not been called "Shuffleboarding" to begin with, instead, it should have been called "Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy VII"
    • Last but not least, some episodes rehash episodes from previous seasons, episodes from other shows, or even other episodes in these seasons. While the series reusing episode plots occasionally isn't necessarily a bad thing in itself as long as it's done right, these seasons (especially season 7) constantly reuse episode plots with insignificant changes made:
      1. "Someone's in the Kitchen with Sandy", "Gramma's Secret Recipe", and "Shellback Shenanigans" from season 7 are all rehashes of "Imitation Krabs" from Season 2, where Plankton disguises himself as someone else to try and steal the Krabby Patty formula. Shellback Shenanigans, however is least bad.
      2. "Krusty Dogs" feels too similar to "Bossy Boots" from season 2, except with a least decent plot and good bits here and there
      3. "Squid's Visit" feels too similar to "Can You Spare a Dime" from season 3, but it contains SpongeBob stalking Squidward.
    • ""Grandpappy The Pirate", while a good episode, is a "pirate" version of "Squilliam Returns" from season 3.
      1. "The Play's the Thing" is a rip-off of "Culture Shock" from season 1
      2. "Model Sponge" feels too similar to "As Seen on TV" from season 3, except without that episode's charm; instead, it's boring and mean-spirited
      3. "Grooming Gary", while a good episode, is nevertheless a version of "The Great Snail Race" from season 3, but at least here, SpongeBob is in character and therefore doesn’t force or demand Gary, whilst the humor is decent and the episode itself offers a good moral lesson at the end
      4. "The Krabby Kronicle" bears many similarities to "Truth or Ed", an episode from the Cartoon Network series Ed, Edd n Eddy, that aired two years before season six of SpongeBob
      5. "A Day Without Tears" from season 7 rehashes "Funny Pants" from season 4, but it replaces laughing with crying
      6. "Rodeo Daze" from Season 7 rehashes "Texas" from season 1, except this episode takes out the charm from said season 1 episode, portrays SpongeBob as a moron throughout the episode (and a jerk who is perfectly willing to kidnap people), and it has a nonsensical story
      7. "Toy Store of Doom" (although decent) feels a bit similar to the Rugrats episode "Toy Palace"
      8. "Buried in Time", while more average/mediocre than actually bad, is overall very similar to "Wishing You Well" from Season 4 since it uses the same concept of SpongeBob, Patrick, and Squidward being trapped in an enclosed space. The difference is that "Buried in Time" doesn't have very many memorable jokes (besides Patrick's future gag) made from the situation, unlike in "Wishing You Well"
      9. "Home Sweet Rubble" while good is a rehash of "Home Sweet Pineapple" from season 1
  16. These seasons have logic that make no sense, even for SpongeBob SquarePants standards. An example is when Sandy literally takes off her fur before taking a shower in the episode "Someone's in the Kitchen with Sandy".
  17. The soundtrack, while still good, gets noticeably repetitive during these seasons, as the Nicolas Carr often replaced iconic associated production music with less memorable (and sometimes annoying) original production music by Barry Anthony Trop (No disrespect to him tho, as he still did a good job for his music.).
      • It particularly reaches its lowest point during seasons 8 and 9A, where both seasons have been criticized for rather unfitting use of the same Barry Anthony's music tracks.
      • As a result of this, many fans to this day often celebrate when a seemingly abandoned production track returns in a new episode.
  18. False advertising: Many episodes of these seasons such as "Shuffleboarding", "To SquarePants or Not to SquarePants", "The Clash of Triton", "The Great Patty Caper" and "SpongeBob's Last Stand" for example are heavily advertised by Nickeolodeon as "special" episodes for no particular reason, yet they end up being typical episodes that have been overhyped by the network way too much, hence making them come off as nothing more than ratings traps.
  19. These seasons also show that the writers (especially for Richard Pursel) of the show do not take kindly to any form of criticism, often lashing out at fans for making criticisms towards the show for being mean spirited, constantly depicting Patrick as a jerk, and relentlessly tormenting Squidward. This refusal to accept criticism even lasts past these seasons.
  20. Some faces SpongeBob makes are disturbing, such as:
    1. A face SpongeBob makes[1] in "Boating Buddies" where he looks at the camera when he breathes to Squidward in a horrifying way imaginable
    2. In "The Clash of Triton", there was another face that SpongeBob makes while talking to Triton through a cage.[2] Not to mention, he also talks with a bad breath as well, which Titan points out, which is both disgusting and disturbing at the same time
  21. The voice acting, while just as great as in the previous seasons, can get annoying and obnoxious in these seasons due to some of the voice actors (especially for Dee Bradley Baker) often yelling the majority of their lines.
    • SpongeBob's higher-pitched voice from the first movie to season 7 is kind of annoying compared to the first three seasons and the eighth season.
  22. Heaps of continuity errors: Though contradiction of continuity is present in the series in general, several episodes in these seasons contradict continuity from the previous seasons way too much all for the sake of plot contrivance:
    • In "Squid's Visit", Squidward says that he has never been to SpongeBob's house before, even though he has several times in previous seasons. Did this episode take place BEFORE those episodes?
    • The whole plot of "Big Sister Sam" is Patrick's sister coming for a visit. However, in "Something Smells" from season 2, Patrick says that he doesn't have a sister. Not like it would matter anyway because, in his spin-off show The Patrick Star Show, Sam is replaced with a squid, though Sam does make a cameo in Klopnodian Heritage Festival
    • In "Pet or Pests", Larry the Lobster says that he doesn't know SpongeBob, which is just ridiculous since he is seen interacting with him on multiple occasions in previous seasons
    • In "A Day Without Tears", the "crying montage" Squidward shows to SpongeBob showcasing all "the hundreds of tears the latter has cried over the years" completely ignores all previous instances of SpongeBob crying in previous seasons from Seasons 1-6 in favor of a lazy and cheaply-animated montage consisting of the same original animation of SpongeBob crying being reused over and over again over different backgrounds, despite that an earlier episode, "Mrs. Puff, You're Fired" from Season 4, did use flashback scenes from the episode "No Weenies Allowed" from Season 3. Also in the same episode, for some strange reason Squidward yelling at SpongeBob seems to make the latter cry, despite that in other episodes SpongeBob doesn't seem to cry when he gets yelled at by Squidward, a mistake which was also previously repeated in the Season 5 episode "WhoBob WhatPants"
  23. These seasons inadvertently encourage bad things, such as:
    1. Bullying
    2. Lying
    3. Stealing
    4. Framing people
    5. Victimizing yourself and putting the blame on others (playing the blame game/innocent)
    6. Being irresponsible
    7. Being immature
    8. Being a jerk
    9. Being an idiot
    10. Being ignorant and oblivious to others
    11. Taking advantage of others
    12. Driving others to suicide
    13. Breaking Rules without good reasons.
    14. Kidnapping
    15. Not learning away from your mistakes
    16. Lacking empathy
    17. Not using proper common sense
    18. Crying to get your problems solved without good purpose.
  24. Overall, these seasons almost killed the reputation of the series, until season 9.

"I'm Ready!" Qualities

  1. There are a handful of good, decent and even some great episodes, such as:
  2. Some of the humor is still hilarious, such as "Hi, how are ya?", music lines reminding Patrick of railroad tracks in "Professor Squidward", and Patrick taking a compartment from the machine that operates the Tunnel of Glove ride that looks like SpongeBob in "Tunnel of Glove".
  3. There are still some good morals here and there, such as:
    • "Be careful with or on wooden materials, or else you'll get a splinter" ("The Splinter")
    • "Don't be fooled by fake friends" ("Porous Pockets")
    • "You can't be in three places at once" ("Overbooked")
    • "Your lies have a way of coming back to you" ("Accidents Will Happen")
    • "Try not trying to hurt yourself for fun, but living life to the fullest" ("A Life of A Day")
    • "It’s okay to lose a game as long as you had fun playing" ("Hide and Then What Happens?")
  4. The voice acting is still good, at least whenever there is no yelling or screaming.
  5. The animation, while more restricted, is still decent and nicely done, especially with Season 6 episodes that wasn't Aaron Springer-directed like "Sand Castles in the Sand", "A Life in a Day", "The Slumber Party" and "Truth or Square".
    • While not fitting for SpongeBob, Robert Ryan Cory did a wonderful job of the facial expressions and poses during Seasons 6-early 7 and "Face Freeze" (which it was surprisingly received positive by Twitter/X users)
    • Despite being very on-model and lacking over-the-top face expressions vibe for RRC, Virginia Hawes' drawings at least pretty nice to look at.
    • The title and time cards are still nicely designed much like the ones from the first five seasons and nine onwards.
  6. The songs and musical numbers are still fun to enjoy, such as "We've Got Scurvy!".
  7. Many of the characters are still likable, never flnderized and retain their original personalities, such as:
    1. SpongeBob SquarePants (except in seasons 6b & 7 and some of the episodes that portray his character wrong in season 6a and season 8)
    2. Gary the Snail
    3. Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy
    4. The Dirty Bubble
    5. Mrs. Puff (except in "Demolition Doofus")
    6. Man Ray
    7. Sheldon J. Plankton (for the most part, especially in season 8)
    8. The Flying Dutchman
    9. SpongeBob's parents
    10. Larry the Lobster (except in season 6)
    11. Patchy the Pirate
    12. Pearl Krabs (only in season 8, besides "Mr. Krabs Takes a Vacation")
    13. Potty the Parrot
    14. Squidward Tentacles (for the most part)
    15. Grandma SquarePants
    16. Fred
    17. Sandy Cheeks (despite her science flanderization in these seasons and in season 5)
    18. Tom
    19. Karen Plankton (only in late season 8, starting at "Karen 2.0" when she gets her own comeppance)
    20. Shubie
    21. Nat
    22. Squiliam Fancyson
    23. Bubble Bass (despite not appearing in seasons 2-7)
    24. Old Man Walker
    25. Norma
    26. Old Man Jenkins
    27. Sandals and Scooter
    28. Even the flanderized characters (such as Mr. Krabs, Patrick, and the other characters who already improved in these seasons) can still have their original personalities in some episodes.
      • Gary, Squidward, Nat, Tom, Sheldon J. Plankton, Fred, Bubble Bass, Harold. Sandals, Scooter and everyone else who was not flanderized.
      • As mentioned above, despite being flanderized as well, Sandy Cheeks is still likable and helpful.
      • Although he was only flanderized in season 6, Larry the Lobster is still likable in other seasons and "A Life of A Day".
  8. While Mr. Krabs was heavily flanderized during these seasons and seasons 9 & 10, there are some instances where he gets his comeuppance for his actions (such as in "Patty Caper", "The Krabby Kronicle", "Krusty Krushers", "No Hat for Pat", "The Cent of Money", "The Wreck of the Mauna Loa", and "Hello Bikini Bottom!").
  9. Despite having most of the Patrick episodes, Season 8, while mediocre, is overall average at best and an improvement over the previous two seasons, as it shares most of the pros, though to a lesser extent.
    • Although Season 6 was the season where the series' decline in quality became very noticeable, it was alright during its first four half-hours and have many good ending for some people like Chris Reccardi, Tom King, Eric Shaw, and Mike Roth who worked on SpongeBob, despite having some stinkers, like "Penny Foolish" and "Gone". It wasn't until "The Splinter" when the seasonal rot officially kicked in and became much more noticeable at least in package order, as the number code order (Spongicus - No Nose Knows) is longer.
    • Season 7 got slightly better in the second half (Part 2) in packing order, as infamous episodes are not as common anymore, SpongeBob's high-pitched voice from the 2004 movie to season 6 has been finally toned down, the animation was a bit better while Virginia Hawes' take over as the lead character designer, and there is less Squidward Torture in this season compared to Season 6 and 8 which had more (it also surprisingly had the least episodes of Squidward Torture compared to the other seasons in the Dark Age and Season 13.)
  10. While Stephen Hillenburg resigned as showrunner of the series after the first film in 2004, he did remain as the executive producer, reviewed all the episodes, and provided suggestions for the crew.
  11. The series has improved since season 9a and to a greater extent, season 10.
  12. The soundtrack is also good like usual.
    • Some tracks (like "Super Highway March") that Barry Anthony Trop made can be nice to hear.
    • Besides Barry, some tracks can be nice to listen, especially for Nicholas Carr, Sage Guyton and Jeremy Wakefield tracks, despite most of the tracks made it poor debut like:
      1. "Slide Whistle Stooges (No Whistle)"
      2. "Slide Whistle Stooges 2"
      3. "Coconut Cream Pie"
      4. "Aloha Bikini Bottom"
      5. "Super Highway March"
      6. "Another Best Day Ever" ("One Coarse Meal").
      7. "12th Street Rag with Bass"
      8. "Bikini Bottom Bound"
      9. "Self Surf"
      10. "Squidward's Tiki Land"
      11. "Greenhorn Rag"

Notable Bad Episodes from These Seasons

Season 6 (2008-2010)

  1. "House Fancy" (especially the toenail scene, which started Season 6 on a weak note in packaging order)
  2. "Penny Foolish"
  3. "Gone"
  4. "Sun Bleached"
  5. "Slide Whistle Stooges" (Probably the most annoying episode of the show)
  6. "Giant Squidward"
  7. "Plankton's Regular"
  8. "No Nose Knows"
  9. "The Splinter" (Which accelerated the downfall of the show and is also one of the most infamous and hated episodes of the whole show, while also started Sean Charmatz's writing career on sour note)
  10. "Boating Buddies"
  11. "The Krabby Kronicle"
  12. "Choir Boys" (also qualifies as one of the worst episodes)
  13. "The Card"
  14. "Dear Vikings"
  15. "Shuffleboarding"
  16. "Cephalopod Lodge"
  17. "Pet or Pests"
  18. "Shell Shocked"
  19. "Pineapple Fever"
  20. "Squid's Visit"
  21. "To SquarePants or Not to SquarePants"
  22. "No Hat For Pat" (a mediocre Patrick torture episode)
  23. "Truth or Square " (Which was not a good way to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the program)
  24. "The Clash of Triton" (which ended season 6 on a poor note in airing/packaging order)

Season 7 (2009-2011)

  1. "Tentacle-Vision (Which started this season on with a challenging beginning in production order)
  2. "Stuck in the Wringer" (Which started this season on a mean-spirited way in production number code order)
  3. "Someone's in the Kitchen with Sandy"
  4. "Greasy Buffoons"
  5. "Model Sponge"
  6. "Keep Bikini Bottom Beautiful" (which, along with the following episode, are the lowest-rated episodes on IMDb)
  7. "A Pal for Gary" (Frequently considered the worst by fans and the lowest-rated episode on IMDb)
  8. "Rodeo Daze"
  9. "A Day Without Tears"
  10. "Summer Job"
  11. "One Coarse Meal" (Often considered the worst by critics and is the most infamous episode of the whole show)
  12. "Gramma's Secret Recipe"
  13. "The Cent of Money"
  14. "That Sinking Feeling"
  15. "Karate Star"
  16. "You Don't Know Sponge"
  17. "Hide and Then What Happens?"
  18. "Yours, Mine and Mine"
  19. "Big Sister Sam" (Which ended this season on a sad way in number code)
  20. "Sponge-Cano!"
  21. "The Main Drain"
  22. "The Curse of the Hex" (a weak ending season 7 and the Legends of Bikini Bottom series in airing order)
  23. "Welcome to the Bikini Bottom Triangle"
  24. "The Monster Who Came to Bikini Bottom "
  25. "Trenchbillies"
  26. "Tunnel of Glove"

Season 8 (2011-2012)

  1. "Oral Report"
  2. "Sentimental Sponge"
  3. "Squidward's School for Grown-Ups"
  4. "Sweet and Sour Squid"
  5. "The Googly Artiste"
  6. "Barnacle Face" (poor way to start Andrew Goodman's writing career in this show)
  7. "Pet Sitter Pat" (which causes the hate messages on Casey Alexander)
  8. "House Sittin' for Sandy"
  9. "Smoothe Jazz at Bikini Bottom"
  10. "Patrick's Staycation" (a sad ending for Nate Cash's career in this show)
  11. "Mr. Krabs Takes a Vacation" (a poor start for Marc Ceccarelli's career in this show)
  12. "Bubble Troubles"
  13. "Are You Happy Now?"
  14. "Restraining SpongeBob"
  15. "Glove World R.I.P."
  16. "InSPONGEiac"
  17. "Treats"
  18. "Demolition Doofus"
  19. "Face Freeze!" (Poor way to ended Robertryan Cory's career in these seasons)
  20. "Super Evil Aquatic Villain Team Up Is Go!"

Reception

In general

While the first three seasons and season 9-12 were met with critical acclaim and seasons 4 & 5, 13 & 14 were met with mixed to positive reviews, seasons 6 & 7 were heavily panned by fans and critics for flanderization of the characters, weaker writing, storylines, animation, humor, and unnecessary mean-spirited moments, and therefore have been widely regarded as the worst seasons of SpongeBob SquarePants, with season 7 being considered the absolute worst season of the entire show overall (although few people arguable that season 6 is worse, according to both PieGuyRulz and PhantomStrider), while seasons 8 are often regarded by many to be a mixed bag. These seasons have tons of bad, awful, or mediocre episodes, like ""A Pal for Gary", "One Coarse Meal", "The Splinter", "Boating Buddies", "Squid's Visit", "Rodeo Daze", "Truth or Square", "Rodeo Daze", "Cephalopod Lodge", "Hide and Then What Happens?", "Yours, Mine and Mine", "A Day Without Tears", "Big Sister Sam", "Slide Whistle Stooges" and the list goes on. Despite how terrible these seasons are, they still have some solid fan favorites, like "Not Normal", "Sand Castles in the Sand", "Suction Cup Symphony", "The Bad Guy Club for Villains", "Enchanted Tiki Dreams", "Perfect Chemistry", "Grandpappy the Pirate", "Spongicus", "Nautical Novice", 'Planet of the Jellyfish", "It's a SpongeBob Christmas!", and "Hello Bikini Bottom!".


It also ultimately ruined the writers reputation which it's Casey Alexander, Zeus Cervas, Richard Pursel and Sean Charmatz. Making them ones of the worst storyboard directors and the writers of all time, which making them the most overhated writers of the SpongeBob series, especially for Casey Alexander and Zeus Cervas as they sadly didn't recovered their writing qualities as they writes many bad episodes, while Casey Alexander somehow gets hate tweets, all thanks to Mr. Enter's review.

Season 6

Season 6 received mixed to positive reviews from media critics but was received mixed-to-negative from fans.

In a DVD review, Paul Mavis of DVD Talk "highly recommended" the set, saying "[The season has a shaky start], but the laughs pick up on the second disc." In particular, Mavis praised the episode "The Splinter" as "one of the very best SpongeBob [episodes]," while "Slide Whistle Stooges", "Boating Buddies", and "The Slumber Party" were described by Mavis as "SpongeBob season's best offerings." In a separate review for the "Volume 2" DVD, Mavis only "recommended" it. He said that the episodes, including "Choir Boys", "Pet or Pests", "Overbooked", "Shell Shocked", "Komputer Overload", "Chum Bucket Supreme", and "Single Cell Anniversary" are "solid entries" and "all deliver steady laughs," but has doubts that "they're on a par with series' best entries like 'The Splinter', 'Slide Whistle Stooges', 'Boating Buddies', and 'The Slumber Party'." In a DVD review for the individual episode DVD release Spongicus, Roy Hrab of the DVD Verdict gave this season a negative review and said "In my previous SpongeBob reviews I have commented that the series has lost its edge. This offering does nothing to change my opinion. But what the heck do I know? Clearly, the show continues to maintain a large following and the franchise is a license to print money for Nickelodeon." The DVD consists of eight episodeThed the episodes "Not Normal" and "Gone" by described as "the best episode on the disc" and "a decent episode", respectively. Also from DVD Verdict, Gordon Sullivan, on the DVD release To SquarePants or Not to SquarePants, said that "[it is] a solid collection of SpongeBob SquarePants episodes." He added "My only serious problem with this set is that it's only eight episodes long; a more complete season-style release would be more efficient. On the technical front, everything is fine, with the bright, solid colors of Bikini Bottom shining through clearly and all the dialogue and effects clear and detailed." Sullivan gave the episodes "The Splinter", "Slide Whistle Stooges", and "The Krabby Kronicle" an 8/10 rating, while "Boating Buddies" received the lowest rating with 3/10.

This is PieGuyRulz's least favorite Season, as he wished it didn't exist, and said that it has the worst episodes of the series like "The Splinter", "Choir Boys", and "Truth or Square", and that it had 12 Good Episodes, 12 Meh Episodes, and 23 ScumBobs. This is one of PieGuy's 2 ScumBob Seasons along with the very next one. Overall, although not as hated as Season 7, it does come extremely close.

Luke Vaughn, somehow and surprisingly like this season, she also somehow give some bad episodes like "Slide Whistle Stooges" and "Giant Squidward" high ratings.

Season 7

Season 7 received mixed to negative reviews, with certain episodes being panned by critics and fans alike.

In his review of the seventh season for DVD Talk, Ian Jane wrote that the series "is one of those rare animated shows that can be enjoyed equally as much by both adults and children." He described the concept of the show as "utterly ludicrous." He cited the episodes "SpongeBob's Last Stand" and "Tentacle-Vision" as "interesting standouts," while the episodes "The Inside Job", "Back to the Past", "Gary in Love", and "The Abrasive Side" as "memorable episodes this time around." However, Jane said that the season is not as good as the previous seasons, writing "It's not that this more recent material isn't fun, because it is, but by this point in time storylines are beginning to get a little repetitive and as such, the series doesn't seem quite as fresh and original as it once did." Jane "recommended" the DVD set, writing "This latest collection of episodes is not a high point in the series but it's still decent enough family friendly entertainment, even if it does get too repetitive for its own good." Josh Rode of DVD Verdict said that the season "has its moments", but is "by far the least consistently funny season of the venerable cartoon." Rode also said that the characters of SpongeBob SquarePants and Patrick Star "have become the least engaging parts of the show, which is a problem since they dominate screen time." He perceived that Patrick "has been dumbed down too far." As for the character of SpongeBob, he criticized his changing voice that has become "more nasal over the years." He described the character "like a happy, fun-loving, not-overly-intelligent sponge," but said that "[He] has entirely lost the naïveté which has long been the basis of his charm."

The seasons has been regarded by several SpongeBob fans to be the worst season of the show and an all-time low with several hated episodes such as "One Coarse Meal". few fans do consider it better than Season 6, though. For example, PieGuyRulz, although giving this season a ScumBob although he said it was better than Season 6 for having 13 Good Episodes, 16 Meh Episodes, and 21 ScumBobs. PhantomStrider also said Season 6 is worse than this one.

Season 8

The season received positive reviews from media critics but was received mixed from fans.

In his review for The Boston Globe, Tom Russo was positive on the season DVD set. Russo praised the episode that "topped the shortlist", "Plankton's Good Eye", writing "the micro-antagonist clones one of SpongeBob's eyeballs for himself, and suddenly develops a more bubbly worldview." Author Richard Reitsma cited a scene in "Squidward's School for Grown-Ups", in which SpongeBob tries to win back Patrick's friendship by dressing as the operatic Brünnhilde (just as Bugs Bunny did in the classic 1957 cartoon What's Opera, Doc?), as an example of the supposed gay subtext in the series, claimed to exist by some critics of the show and denied by its creator.

Fans on the other hand were divided on this season, but many consider it a slight improvement over Seasons 6 and 7.

Trivia

  • Robertryan Cory (the character design) has the flickr page "Spongebob Designs", which the reason why Season 6 has the worst animation and surprisingly have positive reviews. https://www.flickr.com/photos/robertryancory/albums/72157619658736293/
  • Season 6 was announced on December 12, 2006. To see the production, go to here
    • Season 7 announced on March 13, 2008.
    • Season 8 announced on December 7, 2009.
  • Despite its decline in quality, these seasons have still spawned various internet memes, such as "Who put you on the planet? Ugh!" from "I ♥ Dancing" and the "Hi, how are ya?" line in "Not Normal" as mentioned above.
  • Between 2007 and 2013, SpongeBob SquarePants dominated Nickelodeon as episodes aired very frequently and took up a majority of the schedule, just because it was pulling in better ratings than other shows, albeit to a much lesser extent as with Cartoon Network's over-airing of Teen Titans Go! between 2014-2017. In 2012, however, the series' ratings began dipping significantly, mainly due to a variety of reasons such as the series' declining quality, the rise of internet streaming, or the network's over-saturation of SpongeBob SquarePants. As of 2015, the network now reduces the excessive number of airtime for SpongeBob SquarePants, to return diversity to the schedule. However SpongeBob marathons still air on Nickelodeon once in a while, but it's not as frequent as before.
    • During this period, it is alleged that Nickelodeon created an unwritten policy stating that any new Nicktoons had to IMMEDIATELY match or beat the average ratings for SpongeBob, or it would be deemed a failure and burned off on the Nicktoons channel. Shows such as Robot & Monster, TUFF Puppy, Harvey Beaks, and It's Pony! were all well-received critically, but didn't get the ratings Nickelodeon desired. In one infamous example, Making Fiends was never even given a chance by Nickelodeon and was unceremoniously punted to Nicktoons, which treated the series as best it could with the material it had (21 segments spread across six half-hour episodes) and even became the network's highest-rated series before Nickelodeon pulled the plug because, as TheMysteriousMrEnter said, it "wasn't SpongeBob, at a time when Nickelodeon only wanted SpongeBob and tolerated The Fairly OddParents).
  • Casey Alexander and Zeus Cervas, who previously worked as storyboard artists in the show's season 4, serve as the main screenwriters of these seasons, as they wrote the majority of episodes of these seasons until "Yeti Krabs" (which ended their careers in refreshing way).
  • One of the writers of these seasons, Richard Pursel, who wrote some of the most infamous episodes of these seasons such as "A Pal for Gary" and many Squidward torture episodes such as "Cephalopod Lodge" and "Choir Boys" for example, previously worked on infamous Ren & Stimpy "Adult Party Cartoon" before working on this show.
    • Editor note: But not to get angry about him but... He returned to work on this show as writer in 2021.
  • At one point, the episodes cluttered this wiki with their pages before they were all subsequently banned from being posted on that wiki and were later relocated to the Horrible TV Show Episodes Wiki (though the episodes have been restored on the wiki after they were both merged).
  • Season 7 started on the same day that season 5 ended which makes season 7 the only season to premiere during a season finale.

Season 6

  • Beginning with this season, there is no fade from black to the title card; instead it cuts from black.
  • According to concept art for the episodes, the first several half-hours (Spongicus to Boaties Buddies) of this season were produced in mid-to-late 2007. However, they were all copyrighted in 2008
  • Strangely, most DVD releases of this season do not have the episodes in packaging order and instead have the episodes in the orders used on the Season 6 compilation DVDs

Season 7

  • This season holds the record for the most episodes being put on Nick.com before their US premieres, with a total of 11 episodes being put on Nick.com ranging from a day apart to 7 months apart their US premiere dates.
  • This is the last season to start before Nickelodeon's 2009 rebrand.
    • In addition, this is also the final season to have the Nickelodeon lightbulb logo from 2008 appear at the end of the credits. The final episode to use the lightbulb logo is "SpongeBob's Last Stand."
  • Starting with "Hide and Then What Happens?," the 2009 Nickelodeon logo appears above the SpongeBob SquarePants logo in the theme song, and the Nickelodeon Productions logo from 2009 also replaces the Nickelodeon lightbulb logo from 2008. But on some episodes, the Nickelodeon lightbulb laughing audio is still heard. This does not happen on international releases of this season, as the normal 2009 Nickelodeon Productions logo audio is heard.
  • This is the final season where all of the episodes are in 4:3 standard definition. As the previous and following seasons consisted of a single widescreen episode.

Season 8

  • This is the first season to premiere during Nickelodeon's rebrand. Season 7 premiered months before it.
  • This is the last season to be shot and produced in the 4:3 aspect ratio. The only episode from this season not produced in 4:3 is the episode, "It's a SpongeBob Christmas!", making this the second and final season to have one episode be in widescreen with the rest of the episodes being animated and produced in 4:3, while the first instance of this was in season 6.

Videos

Overall

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Season 6

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Season 7

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Season 8

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References

  1. ↑ https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/spongebob/images/f/fa/Boating_Buddies_081.png/revision/latest?cb=20191202182326
  2. ↑ https://static.miraheze.org/terribletvshowswiki/b/b3/2435.png

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