I Never Met a Dead Fish

I Never Met the Dead Fish
SpongeBob ruins the TV service for the entire town then suffers from withdrawls from no TV.
Season: 1 Episode: 2
Total Episode Count: 2
Prod. no.: 1ACX02
==Characters==
===Main===
*SpongeBob
*Pearl
*William Shatner
===Other===
*Patrick
*Squidward
*Fred Rechid
*Bob
*Barbara
*Road Runner
*Wile E. Coyote
*Bigfoot
*Sunny
*The Creature from the Black Lagoon
*Willy Wonka
*Fred
*Velma
*Shaggy
*Daphne
*Scooby-Doo
*Ensigh Ricky
*Captain Kirk
*Lt. Uhaura
*Mr. Spock
*Dr. McCoy
* Bubble Buddy
*ALF
*Gilligan
* Robot
*Jeannie
*Elizabeth Montgomery
*Charles Peterson
*Dennis
*Ponch
*Sandy
*Plankton
==Plot:==
Pearl is out to get her driving license. SpongeBob, who would much rather watch "Fast Animals, Slow Children" on TV, reluctantly gives her a lesson in which he teaches her to race red lights. Naturally, Pearl completely fails the test, and SpongeBob must drive her home. Unfortunately, he dosen't pay attention to the road, focusing instead on trying to watch TV trough the window of a nearby house and crashes into the local satellite receiver dish, knocking out cable TV for the entire Bikini Bottom area. He places the blame on Pearl making her less popular than usual, but he promises her a convertible when she finally gets her license. SpongeBob, who according to Squidward is addicted to television, copes with the loss of TV by creating a harness that holds a cardboard television set in front of his face, allowing him to pretend that things around him are on TV.
Pearl finally cracks under the pressure of the town's resentment and tells everyone that SpongeBob was the driver who wrecked the receiver. The town is ready to lynch SpongeBob, but Sandy convinces the town that now that Tv is gone, everybody can focus on more wholesome activities. The townsfolk forgive SpongeBob and move on to enjoy real life.
SpongeBob learns to participate in family activities to fill the void. However, his enthusiasm for life quickly exhausts the rest of his friends. When television service is restored, the gang is unable to tempt him back away from real life, as he opts instead to attend a Bavarian folk festival with William Shatner.
Meanwhile, Plankton is revolted by the broccoli he is fed. Rather than eat it, he plans to wipe out the crop worldwide by modifying a See 'n Say into a weather control device. He uses the remains of the satellite dish, which were tangled around the bumper of SpongeBob's car, to amplify the machine's signal and he succeeds in creating a freezing rainstorm, but the process is interrupted by a bolt of lightning, which destroys the machine, though the storm rages on.
Sandy takes Pearl out on a driving lesson and the two get caught in the storm. SpongeBob and Shatner begin running back to the house barefoot in the rain, but are run over by Pearl. Shatner dies on the spot while SpongeBob is subsequently hospitalized in a body cast. The nurse leaves the television turned on, and SpongeBob can't resist being drawn in.
==Cutaways==
#Road Runner run over
#CHiPs
#Fast Animals, Slow Children
#It's a girl
#Stupid kid stuff
#SpongeBob embarrasses Pearl
#Willy Wonka
#Scooby-Doo Murder Files
#Charles Manson
==Reception==
Reviews for the episode were generally favorable. A 2008 review of the episode by Ashan Haque of IGN was positive, calling the storyline involving Plankton "elaborate [and] creative." He gave the episode a perfect score of ten, calling it one of the most "memorable" episodes in the entire serie. Haque went on to note that "the tightly woven and hilarious and storyline, combined with a constant barrage of cleverly inserted random jokes, and some truly unique imagery help make this episode one of the finest of the series. This is Family Sponge at its best, and definitely sets a very high bar for animated comedy." Robin Pierson of The TV Critic rated the episode 70 out of 100, making it the highest-rated episode of Family Sponge on the site. Pierson described the episode as "A really fun twenty two minutes of television. There are so many jokes to enjoy and they are more focussed that the pilot," in particular praising the Fast Animals, Slow Children sequence.
In 2008, Haque later listed Plankton's plan to freeze broccoli crops as number one in his list of "Plankton's Top Ten Most Diabolical Evil Plans" and placed SpongeBob's idea to pretend the world is a television program by attaching a cardboard cutout of a television set around his waist in fifth place on his list of "SpongeBob SquarePants' Top 10 Craziest Ideas".
==Rating:==
TV-14: DL
==Trivia/Notes:==
*This is the first time Pearl gets embarrassed by SpongeBob (cutaway only).
*Starting with this episode, the series is now rated TV-14.
==Gallery==
Jnjrupm.png|French title card
INMtDF(J).png|Japanese title card
Neaupm.png|Spanish title card
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Category:List of Family Sponge Episodes
Category:Family Sponge Season 1
Category:Family Sponge