Derek Drymon.
In 2004, production resumed on Nickelodeon's hit show SpongeBob SquarePants. Its creator, Stephen Hillenburg, left and handed over showrunner duties to Paul Tibbit, who was also the supervising producer, and Derek Drymon, a major player on the crew.
Season 4 (2005-2007)[]
The show returned, and three more crew members returned, having worked on season one, those being Vincent Waller, who became the technical director and also paired with Drymon to storyboard/write episodes, animation director Alan Smart, and writer Chris Mitchell, who was paired with Casey Alexander. Drymon wrote several episodes during the season, most of which were praised.
Season 5 (2007-2009)[]
Drymon was paired with Waller again for the first half of the season. Chris Mitchell was paired with Eric Shaw. In the second half, Drymon was paired with Aaron Springer. This is also the point where, according to fans, the quality of the show began to go down.
Season 6 (2008-2010)[]
Drymon and Springer were paired together again. Mid-season, writer Tim Hill left, disgusted with the way the show was (or wasn't) handled and predicted that the show would end in 2011. The quality of the writing in some episodes was said to be worse.
Season 7 (2009-2011)[]
This is where, according to fans, the decline had reached its peak. Drymon and Springer were still paired, and the episodes they wrote were considered the only bright spots by fans.
Season 8 (2011-2012)[]
Considered only slightly better than the previous season, this was the final season in which Drymon and Springer were paired together, for Springer left after this season.
Season 9 (2012-2013)[]
Drymon was paired with Chris Mitchell and Eric Shaw. Tim Hill and Kaz were convinced by Drymon to return to the series. According to fans, this is where the quality started going back up.
Season 10 (2014-2015)[]
Drymon was one of the few crew members who chose not to work on The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water, reasoning that he was "as committed to the series as possible". Because of that, Drymon was the only showrunner for this season. He also chose to retain Casey Alexander and Zeus Cervas, but paired with other writers, as Drymon felt that Alexander and Crevas were "more suitable with other writers". This season is considered by many to be better than Season 9.
Season 11 (2015-2016)[]
For this season, Drymon was joined by Vincent Waller and Marc Ceccarelli as showrunner, and the quality increased as a result, especially with Stephen Hillenburg back. Drymon also stopped writing for the show to focus on his role. Paul Tibbit made this his final season, as he wanted to focus on the third movie.
Season 12 (2016-2017)[]
Nothing much changed from Season 11, aside from Paul Tibbit's departure.
Season 13 (2017-2018)[]
Nothing much changed, except that, mid-season, Drymon demoted Waller back to writer for his response to the criticisms on the episode Ink Lemonade.
Future[]
The series was renewed for Seasons 14 and 15, thus taking the show to 2020. Drymon has stated that those will be the final two seasons of the show, as he didn't want the series to "go back to Davy Jones' locker". He also stated that a TV movie and the third movie will be the series finales, and that he, along with the entire writing team for the show, were hired to be on the writing team for the hit Nickelodeon show, The Loud House.