Spring of ‘09, I went to Hollywood to be filmed for my part in a Nickelodeon Special.  O'Malley/Creadon Productions (who did the excellent documentaries "Wordplay," and "I.O.U.S.A") were hired by Nickelodeon/Viacom to do the one-hour special to celebrate SpongeBob Squarepant's ten years on the scene.  O'Malley/Creadon, having seen my SpongeBob book (above) from Berkley, asked me to take part. They were terrific to work with.  They flew me out first class and put me up in the Hollywood Renaissance Hotel and Spa, just around the corner from famed Grauman's theatre and the sidewalk of stars.  It was a lot of fun. I managed not to swallow my tongue while on camera. Putting on my seldom-used Dr. Spruill hat, I held forth on the psychological aspects of the main characters, the plots, the fans, and so on. The Special first appeared on Nickelodeon on Thursday, July 23, from 10:00 to 11:00, PM.  It is expected to play again several times during the summer so watch local listings for Nickelodeon and VH1. Click here for a short sneak preview: http://www.vh1.com/video/play.jhtml?id=1614600&vid=403768 

    The book that attracted all the attention is shown, above.  I wrote it under my “Steven Harriman” pseudonym.  It has been my one explicit nod to my Clinical Psychologist past: a self-help book based on a cartoon character.  As it happens, I think the SpongeBob cartoons on Nickelodeon were hilarious, especially for the first three seasons, when the show included quite a bit of sly humor aimed at adults and precocious kids, kind of like the old Tom Terrific/Mighty Manfred the Wonder Dog series on Captain Kangaroo.  My editor at Berkley Books knew I liked SpongeBob and that I had been trained as a shrink.  She pitched the self-help book idea to my agent and I was delighted to make it my first foray into “non-fiction.”  I even did the art work for the book (except the jacket). 

    My favorite review of the book, by editor and author Robert Reid, says this: “You don't have to be a big SpongeBob fan to enjoy this fun and informative book (I have rarely seen the show but am the father of three young SpongeBob fans). The author neatly intertwines real-life situations with events from SpongeBob episodes that he explains with the right amount of detail so that even those unfamiliar with SpongeBob will get the point about love, fear, getting along with others, getting along with yourself, and even theology ... all of which are explored in a series of short and witty chapters, full of plenty of nautical puns to soak up (plus cleverly drawn cartoons)!”