Season 3 was hated when it first came out

[Original Raw and Uncut]

According to this forum from 2005, when shell of a man and fear of a krabby patty came out. People were pointing out how these new episode are a step up from season 3. Nowadays season 3 is seen as the golden boy of the show, despite the last few episodes of the season being mediocre:

Spongebob Squarepants-"Fear of a Krabby Patty"/"Shell of a Man" Talkback

Season Four of Spongebob premiers tonight, will it be quality episodes again? *happy face* Or will it be back to business as usual? *sad face*

animesuperhero.com

Here's more:

New Spongebob Episodes In 2005!

Yup. Read the news article at TZ. Looks good!! Can't wait! My definite question is... will they still have the same funny/quirky moments SB and the gang normally had? The voice sounds soo different in the SB movie promos. SO I'm curious to know how things will go. Two all-time great shows are...

animesuperhero.com

 

[Yoh Manta]

I...wouldn't make a judgement like that based off of people's thoughts on one internet forum of one pair of Season 4 episodes. I know what a joke TV.com is now, but back then, they were notoriously critical of the later seasons, even Season 4. Their reaction to the first episodes of Season 4 was widely mixed.

http://www.tv.com/shows/spongebob-squarepants/fear-of-a-krabby-patty-shell-of-a-man-415864/reviews/3

Again, I know, it's TV.com. But it proves that you can't make a generalization like that only going off of one source.

 

[jack_of_all_traids]

Maybe cartoon reviewers changed people's receptions on the episodes? That's the only thing I could think of.

 

[Sealand]

The show already had bad episodes before the 2004 movie.

 

[SG-17]

Weren't those two episodes produced with the bulk of the season 3 episodes and just not aired until later as part of season 4?

 

[EditorWiki]

Weren't those two episodes produced with the bulk of the season 3 episodes and just not aired until later as part of season 4?

That was debunked by Vincent Waller years ago.

 

[Cykamp]

That was debunked by Vincent Waller years ago.

Where? On twitter?