Nickelodeon once made a habit of creating live-action shows like Clarissa Explains It All and Hey Dude that ran for, at most, 65 episodes before settling into a decade of reruns. Sadly, though, the fondly remembered summer camp-set series Salute Your Shorts ran for only 26 and wrapped after two seasons in 1992. Reasons for the halted run circulated, particularly as Nickelodeon re-aired the show for the next six years, but the first full-fledged answer to the show's legacy -- and the question of whether DVDs would ever be released -- is upon us in the form of a new interview with cast member Tim (now Trevor) Eyster.
Eyster, who played the nerd character "Sponge" Harris, gave up the following tidbits to MillionairePlayboy.com. The final slab of the interview will be published this Friday, where he will confirm what viewers can do to help get DVDs released.
On where the camp scenes were actually filmed:
It's funny, I've browsed the web sometimes when I'm just curious about what fans are coming up with on this one, and let me debunk first - that it was NOT shot in Florida at all. There were two primary locations ... one was a Sound Stage in Sun Valley, CA on Lankershim Boulevard... (in which the set designers built mock-cabins that were all housed under the roof of the sound stage), and the other was various locations in Griffith Park. If I made a few calls, I could probably track down more exact locations ... I was contacted by a fan recently who was going to be visiting LA and asked me where we shot, because he wanted to visit, and I felt bad because I really didn't keep track of that stuff at 12 years old.
His honest answer on what he thinks happened to his character:
I think Sponge would have turned out gay. He's the perfect profile of a kid who didn't play sports, had inattentive parents, didn't get to bond with his male buds, felt misunderstood and often ignored or shoved aside ... and often was rejected by the girls. Whom really only saw him as valuable when they needed something from him - like the answer to a radio contest so they could win $$$. Not to say that being gay is solely the result of environment, I believe there's a very strong genetic component at play. But yep, I think my real honest answer here - is that he'd end up finding a nice guy to love him and help him solve all the world's problems.
Sadly, we'll never know Sponge's future thanks to Nickelodeon's premature cancellation, which I'm betting was the result of the network's budget-busting move to its famous, now-defunct Florida studios. Viacom really gives the worst Awful Waffles of all.
I Am Sponge: An Interview with Trevor Eyster, Part 1 [Millionaire Playboy]