Studios and networks proceed very carefully when it comes to selecting a release or premiere date for movies and television shows. Obviously, there are some no-brainers: when Marvel comes hurtling into the marketplace with a mega-tentpole like “Avengers: Endgame,” you know it’s targeting the outset of the summer movie season. But when it comes to a less star-studded effort like, say, “Captain America: Brave New World,” it might lock in on a less spectacle-laden time frame like February or March, where there won’t be such fierce competition for screens. Meanwhile, with television in the age of miniseries and short season orders, networks and streamers can now use the whole calendar year instead of going heavy in the fall.

It’s all a matter of timing. And sometimes all the strategizing in the world can be rendered irrelevant when an unpredictable global event knocks the world off its axis. When the attacks of 9/11 brought terror home to the United States, there was an initial wave of panic where people were questioning the purpose of entertainment. Greydon Carter of Vanity Fair foolishly declared that we had witnessed the end of the age of irony. Studios combed through their release schedules and punted films with potentially upsetting subject matter (like “The Sum of All Fears,” “Collateral Damage,” and “Big Trouble”) into 2002.

More recently, Hollywood was forced to confront the terrifying unknown of the COVID-19 pandemic. There were major logistical questions regarding the release of big-budget films at a time when most moviegoers, sans a vaccine, were playing it safe by staying at home and burning through their streaming queues. Unlike 9/11, where the world’s appetite for action movies riddled with disposable deaths briefly came into question, there wasn’t a surfeit of movies about the spread of incurable sickness. In fact, the most prescient depiction of a pandemic, Steven Soderbergh’s “Contagion,” proved incredibly popular with locked-down viewers. But that was a movie for adults. What about entertainment for kids? Could they handle a film or television show addressing this remarkably scary moment in their lives? When it came to “SpongeBob SquarePants,” Nickelodeon said absolutely not.

When “SpongeBob SquarePants” (which turned 25 last year) headed into its 12th season on November 11, 2018, the COVID-19 pandemic was still two years away, so no one had any reason to be concerned about an episode titled “Kwarantined Crab.” The episode centers on the forced closure of Krusty Krab due to an outbreak of the Clam Flu, which leads to SpongeBob, Patrick, Squidward, Mr. Krabs, Pearl and Mrs. Puff getting quarantined in the establishment. When Mr. Krabs announces that anyone known to be carrying the flu should be locked up in the restaurant’s freezer, you know it’s only a matter of time before SpongeBob and Patrick wind up in there.

In classic “SpongeBob SquarePants” fashion, the episode, which was written prior to the COVID-19 outbreak, is far too silly and, obviously, divorced from reality to cause anything other than belly laughs. But the risk-averse Nickelodeon wasn’t about to wait around and find out if parents flew into a rage over “Kwarantined Krab.” It pulled the episode from streaming on Amazon and Paramount+, and kept it out of circulation until April 29, 2022. There was some fan discontent voiced on Reddit when the episode was initially removed, but the outcry never reached the level of a full-blown controversy.

Interestingly, this wasn’t the first time a “SpongeBob SquarePants” episode had been yanked from streaming. In 2018, Nickelodeon spiked the season 3 episode “Mid-Life Crustacean” dud to a plot line that finds the carousing trio of Mr. Krabs, SpongeBob, and Patrick breaking into a woman’s house to steal her undergarments. “SpongeBob SquarePants” definitely traffics in adult humor that often flies over kids’ heads, but these “Animal House”-style hijinks feel… ill-considered for a child’s cartoon. I don’t believe the episode should be permanently unavailable, but I do think it should maybe be relegated to a properly-rated Blu-ray release.