HI ELIZA i’ve been rewatching the old spongebob seasons one by one and i was just wondering - what would you say would be your favorite pre-first movie SB episode and why? hope you’ve been doing well!

SAMMMMMM!!! it is SUCH A DELIGHT TO HEAR FROM YOU MY FRIEND i hope YOU’VE been doing well too!! THIS IS SUCH A FUN AND GOOD IDEA i REALLY need to do that myself!! i used to be good about watching an episode every day before starting work but have been getting lazy… it feels nice to watch things in non-animatic form LOL BUT UMMMM

this is SO HARD it’s so hard to narrow it down!! i GOTTA go with Texas though—i LOVE THE SOUNDTRACK. country musician Junior Brown provided his original soundtrack (AND I FOUND THE MUSIC TO THIS SCENE!! this scene right here is my favorite sequence in all of SpongeBob i have such a fond attachment to it and i was so happy when i discovered the song a few months ago. that he got to slip in a sample of his own original music is so sweet!) which makes it very unique right off the bat, and steel guitars are one of my very favorite instruments. i grew up listening to a lot of old country like Hank Williams, Bob Wills, Hank Snow, Patsy Cline, Loretta Lynn, etc etc and i still am very much a lover of old country for that reason, and i have a VERY strong nostalgic attachment to that sort of music/steel guitars. SpongeBob i have an equally strong nostalgic attachment to because it was ALL. I. WATCHED. AS. A. CHILD. i’m talking 8 hours a day every day i never ever missed a single episode up until i was around 14 or 15. it is ingrained in my DNA so to have those two nostalgic factors is a very strong NOSTALGIA BOMB to start—and that Sandy’s song is a direct parody of a Hank Williams song is even better! Hank’s one of my favorite musicians of all time so i LOVE IT

I THINK IT HAS A GREAT BALANCE OF HUMOR AND SINCERITY… i don’t even love it for the gags so much as i do its earnesty, but the gags are all VERY FUNNY whether it’s as blunt as “NO I’M TEXAS” or as subtle as a banner saying “HAPPY TEXAS” in the background. i think it’s a very heartwarming cartoon on top of that and has some GORGEOUS visuals—Vincent Waller who storyboarded the episode draws some insanely cute Sponges and i’m still a huge fan to this day.

IT’S JUST LIKE. the ULTIMATE comfort episode. it’s one of the only episodes of a show i have downloaded to my phone that i paid money for because i love it so much. i think it’s unique, it’s one a lot of people rightfully remember, and it has such this strong warmth to it and a great message of togetherness and i just REALLY admire it as a whole, coming from someone who works with these characters daily and their CREATORS daily! i really respect and admire what went into it.

(runners up would be Ripped Pants because it was my favorite as a kid and i would watch it on loop to a very obsessive degree, Plankton! because I Love Plankton, Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy II because it’s super nostalgic to me as well and i adore the drawing style, Bubble Buddy, Christmas Who, and The Algae’s Always Greener)