"SpongeBob SquarePants" [Nickelodeon-Hillenburg, 1999] Season 3 [Oct '01- Oct. '04] [TV-Y7]

The third season of this surprisingly well-regarded (i.e. perfectly legitimate) animated comedy show bridges the gap between the two eras that constitute SpongeBob history-- the older one, which was genuinely funny, and the later one (possessed by a glossier sheen, as should be ineffable by now), which was... uh, less so. It has not fallen utterly yet here; it is still, by far, more often than not possessed by the well-established comic ingenuity that was the best characteristic of the now-almost-legendary-if-not-veritably-so show. It has, by the way, stayed within the topical confines of its past, ridiculously ambiguous though they are, as much as, say, the Simpsons. Grade: B PLUS