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SpongeBob SquarePants is one of the most watched shows on Nickelodeon, and is an Emmy-nominated American animated television series and media franchise. It is one of Nickelodeon's "Nicktoons."

Although its original network is Nickelodeon, SpongeBob is now broadcasted across the world. It was created by marine biologist and animator Stephen Hillenburg and is produced through his production company, United Plankton Pictures Inc. The series is set in the Pacific Ocean, in the city of Bikini Bottom and the surrounding lagoon floor. The pilot episode first aired in the United States on Nickelodeon after the Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards on May 1, 1999. The "official" series premiere followed on July 17, 1999 with the second episode, "Bubblestand/Ripped Pants."

Setting

SpongeBob SquarePants is a sponge who lives in a pineapple under the sea, while his octopus^[1] neighbour Squidward Tentacles lives in a moai head. SpongeBob's other neighbor and best friend (on the other side of Squidward), is a pink starfish named Patrick Star, who lives under a rock. Squidward always gets annoyed when SpongeBob and Patrick bother him.

SpongeBob and his friends live in the underwater city of Bikini Bottom. In the movie, it reveals that Bikini Bottom is 6 days away from the coast. Also in the movie, SpongeBob and Patrick meet David Hasselhoff in his Famous Baywatch Role. Giving the fact that Bikini Bottom is in the Pacific Ocean and is probably a couple 1000 miles off the Coast of Los Angeles (since Baywatch takes place in Los Angeles). Bikini Bottom is like a regular city with a downtown, suburbs, and coastal areas with its own airport, bus system, and fair park. Stephen Hillenburg said once that Bikini Bottom was loosely based on Seattle, Washington, one good example of this statement was that in the episode Prehibernation week Sandy and SpongeBob were Fighting on a tall structure called the sea aeedle referencing the Space Needle a tall structure in Seattle. Stephen said that he want to leave the location of Bikini Bottom to the peoples imagination claiming that the Baywatch scene was just a reference to his favourite show of all time.

SpongeBob's house-pet is a snail named Gary, whose "meow" is similar to a cat. Although Gary only speaks in a few episodes, the characters have shown an ability to understand him. In addition to this, underwater worms bark exactly like dogs, and are kept on chains. Jellyfish are the equivalent of bees; buzzing, stinging with poison although appears to be an electric shock, and producing delicious "jelly", mocking the name "jellyfish", while still referencing a bee's honey. Fish act as the citizens of the community but, as a rule, are not important characters.

SpongeBob, who is absorbent, yellow and porous, works as a fry cook at the Krusty Krab, a hamburger fast-food restaurant, with Squidward who is the cashier. The Krusty Krab is owned by Eugene H. Krabs, also known as Mr. Krabs. Sheldon J. Plankton (commonly referred to as "Plankton") is Mr. Krabs' arch enemy who owns a low-rank fast-food restaurant called The Chum Bucket across the street which has never had a customer, and he spends most of his time plotting to steal the recipe for Mr. Krabs's popular Krabby Patty burgers. Only in the movie does he succeed; the formula is never actually revealed to the audience. Plankton's computer wife, Karen, alternately helps him in his schemes or bickers with him.

Sandy Cheeks is another friend of SpongeBob. She is a squirrel that lives in an underwater dome in Bikini Bottom. She was sent there by her bosses, chimpanzees. Sandy has a Texan accent and is from the state itself. When not inside her tree-dome, she wears an astronaut suit. Sandy, just like a normal squirrel, hibernates once a year, as seen in a few episodes such as Prehibernation Week and Survival Of The Idiots.

Instead of cars, the residents of Bikini Bottom drive boats. SpongeBob is still in boating school after failing the driving test several times. Once, during an episode set in a wilderness area, Patrick questions how a camp fire is possible on the lagoon bottom. As soon as the question is asked, the fire is immediately extinguished with a sizzle. A flurry of bubbles accompanies actions in many of the episodes to remind the viewer that the setting is underwater. Ironically, when there is a separate body of water underwater, such as a swimming pool or lagoon, a non-car boat must be used to cross it because both SpongeBob and Patrick cannot swim, they must be taught by Larry the Lobster.

Popularity

SpongeBob is the only cartoon to consistently make the Top 10 list in the Nielsen ratings, and is the first "low budget" Nickelodeon cartoon, according to the network, to become extremely popular. Low-budget cartoons had not garnered as much esteem as higher-rated (and higher-budgeted) shows, such as Rugrats, although when SpongeBob aired in 1999, it had gained a significant enough number of viewers in the ratings to be considered popular, eventually becoming more popular than Rugrats had ever been. SpongeBob follows other Nickelodeon shows that have attracted "older" followers: The Ren & Stimpy Show, Rocko's Modern Life, the Kablam! skits, Action League Now! and The Angry Beavers. Other shows have followed in this trend as well: Invader Zim and The Fairly OddParents won a similar fan base when they aired in 2001, and the latter is now second only to SpongeBob in popularity, while the former attracted a cult following. The show debuted in 1999, and during that time, Pokémon was still the biggest craze. SpongeBob did not gain its popularity until around 2000, and it has remained popular since then.

Broad appeal

SpongeBob is one in a long line of cartoons that is designed to appeal to adults as well as children. This has a lot to do with the absurd way underwater life and situations are represented, and with the situations, references, and words used, which younger viewers might not understand. Certain innuendos also are intended to go over younger viewers' heads. For example, SpongeBob tried to show his grandma that he was a mature adult by wearing sideburns and a derby, and listening to 'free form jazz', jokes most children would not understand. Numerous marine biology in-jokes are woven into the show. There are also often complex ironic scenarios that need close attention.

While many newer cartoons revolve around pre-adolescents with strange lives and feature many pop-culture references (e.g. The Fairly OddParents), SpongeBob chooses to go for a formula that was used in highly successful older Nick cartoons such as Ren and Stimpy and Rocko's Modern Life, with non-human young adults in crazy, unrealistic situations, with minimal pop culture references.

Part of the show's appeal has to do with the childlike nature of SpongeBob and his best friend, Patrick Star, both of whom are adults but display an innocence typical of human children. However, the characters are not immune from more adult avocations, including rock musicianship in a stadium performance, reminiscent of a hard rock concert, or Patrick turning to SpongeBob after they had nurtured a baby clam, holding his arms out saying "Lets have another".

Unlike the Nickelodeon network, SpongeBob features well-known independent musicians who contribute to its soundtrack. Alternative rock bands such as Wilco, The Shins, The Flaming Lips and Ween (who have contributed two original songs to the show and their 1997 song "Ocean Man" to the movie soundtrack), as well as metal bands Pantera, Motörhead and Twisted Sister have made appearances on the show and movies soundtracks, and heavy metal group Metallica even released a T-shirt featuring cartoon versions of themselves playing live with the characters SpongeBob and Patrick. British rock singer David Bowie announced that he will be a special guest on a future episode of SpongeBob SquarePants in 2009.^[2]

The show became so popular with teenagers and adults that the series was broadcast on MTV and featured on Spike TV. A quote by Patrick ("It's gonna rock!" from the episode Mid-Life Crustacean) has been used as a promotional tag-line for rock stations. Ren and Stimpy, among others, had followed a similar path. The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie, released on November 19, 2004, features a cameo appearance by actor David Hasselhoff, in a parody of his role from the Baywatch TV series.

Merchandising and marketing

Merchandise based on the show ranges from Kraft Macaroni & Cheese and Kraft SuperMac & Cheese, Kellogg's cereal, and video games to boxer shorts, thongs, pajamas and t-shirts. A line of SpongeBob SquarePants was even produced. The show also spawned a large and popular merchandise line at Hot Topic, Claire's, RadioShack, Target, Wal-Mart and Toys "R" Us stores. There have been kids meal tie-ins at Wendy's for SpongeBob's House Party Special in 2002 and at Burger King restaurants in 2001, 2003, and for the movie in 2004. In 2006, another kids meal tie-in for Burger King was introduced for the Lost in Time special, and a McDonald's Happy Meal or Mighty Kids Meal tie-in will be released soon. In Japan, they had a kids meal tie-in with KFC which featured different toys based on the TV series.[1] SpongeBob was also featured on VH1's I Love the 90s: Part Deux: I Love 1999: Part Deux as part of a commentary by Michael Ian Black and "Weird Al" Yankovic among other celebrities. A tie-in beverage for 7-Eleven convenience stores has been created, a pineapple-flavored Slurpee.

Events in the past with the SpongeBob SquarePants theme include an exhibit at Underwater Adventures Aquarium in the Mall of America called SeaCrits of Bikini Bottom during the summer of 2003. In October 2004, a NASCAR Busch Series race was named The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie 300, presented by Lowe's and broadcast on TNT featuring Jimmie Johnson's #48 Lowe's stock car and Kyle Busch's #5 stock car painted for the race with the SpongeBob Movie paint schemes. There were contests tied in with the movie where fans could win SpongeBob-related items or a trip to the Cayman Islands. The motion simulator/interactive movie ride "Escape from Dino-Island 3D" at Six Flags Over Texas was turned into "SpongeBob SquarePants 4-D", with water squirts, real bubbles, and other sensory enhancements. The SpongeBob SquarePants 4-D ride is set to open at the new Noah's Ark Dive-In Theater located at Noah's Ark Waterpark in Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin in the summer of 2007. LEGO received license to produce SpongeBob SquarePants building sets, which are available in stores now. SpongeBob will also appear at the Mall of America's new theme along with the rest of the Nicktoons in a new Nickelodeon theme park re-branded from The Park at MOA (formerly Camp Snoopy) starting in 2008.

Other items featuring SpongeBob include a special edition Monopoly board game, Life and Operation board game as well as a SpongeBob SquarePants edition of Ants in the Pants and Yahtzee. SEGA Corporation introduced a ticket redemption game based on the show that has become popular with most video arcades.^[3] The SpongeBob SquarePants market saturation has become something of a joke. In the comic strip "Sherman's Lagoon", Hawthorne the crab is showing off a small nuclear (Junior) reactor, and Herman the shark says "Boy, that SpongeBob will endorse anything!"

When the complete first season of SpongeBob SquarePants was released in the United Kingdom, it included some heavy editing (though not to the cartoons themselves). The audio commentaries were cut out, and only two extras were left in, possibly to avoid a 12 rating. A similar approach was taken with the second season; it included no audio commentaries and only one extra, Around the World with SpongeBob Squarepants.

History

Development (1993–1999)

SpongeBob's history can be traced back to 1993 when Rocko's Modern Life first aired. One of the producers was Stephen Hillenburg, a cartoon worker/marine biologist who loved both his careers. When Rocko's Modern Life was canceled in 1996, Hillenburg began working on SpongeBob (although sketches trace back to 1987). He teamed up with creative director Derek Drymon, who had worked on shows such as Doug, Action League Now!, and Hey Arnold!. Drymon had worked with Hillenburg on Rocko's Modern Life as well, as did many SpongeBob crew members, including writer-directors Sherm Cohen and Dan Povenmire, writer Tim Hill, voice actors Tom Kenny and Doug Lawrence (aka "Mr. Lawrence"), actor-writer Martin Olson and animation director Alan Smart. Another crew member with previous Nickelodeon cartoon experience was former Angry Beavers story editor Merriwether Williams, who worked on that show for its first few seasons and switched to SpongeBob in July 1999.

During production of the show, Bobson provided a concept of short comics with the same style of the show, but the characters looked different. SpongeBob used to be named SpongeBoy,^[4] and used to wear a red hat with a green base and a white business shirt with a tie. The name "SpongeBoy" did not make it into the show since the name was already officially trademarked by Bob Burden, creator of Flaming Carrot. Hillenburg later chose the alternative name "SpongeBob". The original name was once referenced in the show by Mr. Krabs' line, "SpongeBoy, me Bob!." The Krusty Krab was originally spelled with the letter C rather than K, but Stephen Hillenburg thought Ks were funnier and it would fit his Ukrainian heritage.

SpongeBob aired its first episode, "Help Wanted/Reef Blower/Tea at the Treedome", after the 1999 Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards. At this time, Rugrats was the most popular show on Nickelodeon and had already outlived dozens of other lower-budget cartoons. SpongeBob, with its generally lower-class animation and humor style more rooted in clever word-play and culture-references unlike the potty humor that made Rugrats so popular, was expected to be just another one of those shows. Following early struggles, its ratings soared, and a year after release, it surpassed Rugrats as Nickelodeon's highest rated show. SpongeBob's signature voice (provided by Tom Kenny) and humorous style was enjoyable to both younger and older audiences.

Peak years (2000–2003)

The first part of 2002 saw SpongeBob at its peak. The beginning of the third season produced many of classic episodes and focused on the same style and animation concepts.

Unfortunately things changed late in the year. Due to rumors of a movie, there was high speculation that the show would be canceled and that 2003/2004 would feature the last season of new episodes. Fans were devastated and online petitions were widely distributed to convince Nickelodeon to produce more episodes by showing continuing fan support. "SpongeBob Meets The Strangler/Pranks A Lot" was the last episode of this season, and aired in October 2004. It was also released on DVD at the end of 2003. Following this, the movie was released in November of that year.

Hiatus and movie era (2003–2005)

A hiatus from 2003 to 2005 challenged viewer loyalty. This led to the program's lowest ratings with Survival of the Idiots on March 5, 2001, causing speculation that the show might even be cancelled after the movie's release.

The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie achieved over $85,000,000 in revenue in the United States, considered to be under-expectations: People assumed that the show's popularity showed something of a decline at the time of its release. It was around this time that the animated series which it is based on, Rugrats, was at the height of its popularity. Interestingly, that movie would also be considered Rugrats' jump the shark moment by fans, while the SpongeBob movie was actually generally well received by fans who saw it. Sandy's Hollywood release.

It was announced late in 2004 that SpongeBob would be continuing with a new session due in 2005. Hillenburg, despite the rumors, did not actually leave the show but has resigned from his position as the show's executive producer (this job now belongs to Derek Drymon, with Paul Tibbitt taking over Drymon's job as creative director).

Comeback (2005-Present)

TV advertisements for SpongeBob's fourth season first aired publicly during the 2005 Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards. The new episodes began airing on May 6, 2005. The first new episode of Season 4 was "Fear of a Krabby Patty"/"Shell of a Man". After airing three new episodes on Fridays from May 6-May 20, Nickelodeon showed no new episodes until September 2005.

For the first time in the series' run, Nickelodeon began airing 11-minute segments of new episodes separately, spread over two weeks. This practice began with the airing of the episode "Selling Out" on September 23; its companion episode, "Funny Pants," premiered the following week.

The Star Online eCentral reported in December 2005 that Nickelodeon had ordered 20 more episodes, bringing the show’s total to 100.^[5]

Spongebob SquarePants has been approved for a sixth season, which consists of thirteen episodes.^[6]

In November 2005, Nickelodeon aired the special "Have You Seen This Snail?" and did not air new episodes until February 2006, when they showed the special "Dunces and Dragons". The show was sponsored by Burger King. They then showed new episodes until June 2, 2006. On September 23, 2006 Nickelodeon began to air new episodes, which included "New Leaf", "Once Bitten" in September. SpongeBob also aired 2 October episodes and the November episodes include "The Best Day Ever", which featured a 24-hour marathon before its premiere. This drew 6.7 million viewers on November 9 along with "Wigstruck" (Originally October 20) and "That's No Lady," which aired late the same month. The new episodes in 2007 started airing on January 15 and, one of the first times in SpongeBob history, aired three new episodes back to back on February 19, 2007. It's announced in February 2007 that KISS rocker Gene Simmons will be voicing the Sea Monster in a new episode called "20,000 Patties Under the Sea", schedule to air in 2007. [2]

Cast

• Tom Kenny: SpongeBob SquarePants, Gary the Snail, Narrator, Patchy the Pirate, Mr. SquarePants, miscellaneous characters
• Bill Fagerbakke: Patrick Star
• Rodger Bumpass: Squidward Tentacles, Dr. Gill Gilliam
• Carolyn Lawrence: Sandy Cheeks
• Clancy Brown: Eugene Krabs
• Dee Bradley Baker: Squilliam Fancyson, miscellaneous characters
• Mr. Lawrence: Sheldon J. Plankton, Larry Lobster, miscellaneous characters
• Lori Alan: Pearl Krabs
• Mary Jo Catlett: Mrs. Poppy Puff
• Sirena Irwin: miscellaneous characters
• Lauren Tom: miscellaneous characters
• Stephen Hillenburg: Potty the Parrot
• Brian Doyle-Murray: The Flying Dutchman
• Jill Talley: Karen (Plankton's computer wife)
• Paul Tibbitt: Mama Krabs ("Sailor Mouth", "Mid-Life Crustacean") Potty the Parrot Friend or Foe?
• Thomas F. Wilson: miscellaneous characters
• Carlos Alazraqui: miscellaneous characters
• Clea Lewis: miscellaneous characters
• Sara Paxton: miscellaneous characters
• Ollie Young : miscellaneous characters

Guest appearances

• Ernest Borgnine: Mermaid Man
• Tim Conway: Barnacle Boy
• Charles Nelson Reilly: Dirty Bubble ("Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy II")
• John Rhys-Davies: Man Ray
• Jim Jarmusch: self ("Hooky")
• John Lurie: self ("Hooky")
• John O'Hurley: King Neptune ("Neptune's Spatula")
• Kevin Michael Richardson: King Neptune (voice in "Party Pooper Pants")
• Amy Poehler: Grandma
• Pat Morita: Master Udon ("Karate Island")
• Martin Olson appeared in a live-action sequence as Chief of the Superheroes ("Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy V")
• David Bowie: Set to appear in a future episode next year playing as Lord Royal Highness. (fact)
• Junior Brown: Sandy Cheeks ("Texas"; sang the last line: "I want to go home.") NOTE: Brown also sang the entire "Spongebob Squarepants Theme Song" over the closing credits; however, because Nickelodeon usually runs advertising or promotional spot announcements during the closing credit sequences, the soundtrack is obliterated on both Nickelodeon and Nickelodeon 2 telecasts of this episode. Junior Brown's vocals may, however, be heard in their entirety on broadcasts of "Texas" that are telecast on the NickToons network, which runs the credits without the promotional vocals that it adds on its two flagship stations.
• David Glen Eisley: SpongeBob SquarePants when he was singing the song ("Band Geeks")
• Pantera: "Pre-Hibernation" plays in "Pre-Hibernation Week"
• Ween: "Loop de Loop" is on a record Gary the Snail plays for SpongeBob to teach him how to tie his shoes in "Your Shoe's Untied."

Crew

Awards

The following list shows the awards the show has won:

Annie Awards

Best Animated Television Production (2005)

Best Writing in an Animated Television Production (2006)

Kids' Choice Awards

Best Cartoon (2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007)

Golden Reel Award

Best Sound Editing in Television Animation - Music (2000, 2001, 2002, 2003)

Best Sound Editing in Television Animation - Music (2000, 2003, 2004)

Television Critics Association Awards

Outstanding Achievement in Children's Programming (2002)

Episodes and media releases

Film:

• The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie (November 19, 2004)

Shorts:

• Astrology With Squidward
• Patrick the Snowman
• Plankton's Holiday Hits
• How The You-Know-Who Stole You-Know-What!
• 12 Days of Nickmas
• The Endless Summer^[7]
• A Random Act of SpongeBob

Music

• Painty the Pirate, who appears at the start of the opening theme song sequence, employs a chroma key for the moving lips. The lips are actually those of Stephen Hillenburg, and the voice is of Patrick Pinney.
• The SpongeBob SquarePants theme song is primarily based on the sea shanty, "Blow the Man Down". It is sung by Painty the Pirate, voiced by Pat Pinney, and can be found on the soundtrack SpongeBob SquarePants: Original Theme Highlights. This song is popularly misattributed to "Weird Al" Yankovic. A cover of the song by Avril Lavigne can be found on The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie (soundtrack). Another cover by the Violent Femmes, which aired as a commercial on Nickelodeon to promote Season 2, can be viewed in the special features of the Nautical Nonsense/Sponge Buddies DVD. A choral version was recorded for the SpongeBob Christmas special where the last repetition of "SpongeBob SquarePants" was replaced by, "It's the SpongeBob Christmas special." The theme song is occasionally utilized as marching cadence.
• Traditional sea shanties are used for the musical themes in the show. Most commonly used is that of "Drunken Sailor". In the episode "Krusty Krab Training Video," a young Eugene Krabs is shown walking to a soda vending machine, la-laing the shanty "Blow the Man Down." Various songs used in SpongeBob SquarePants come from the Associated Production Music library, some of which have also been used in shows such as Ren & Stimpy, Rocko's Modern Life, The X Factor, Camp Lazlo, and My Gym Partner's a Monkey. For competition-based episodes, some of Sam Spence's NFL Films music is used (such as "A Golden Boy Again" used in episodes such as The Fry Cook Games and "Ramblin' Man from Gramblin" is used in Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy V.) Ironically, one of Spence's more famous songs for the NFL Films library of music is an orchestral version of "Drunken Sailor" called "Up She Rises", first suggested by Steven Sabol to his father Ed because he liked the song at summer camp.
• In the episode "Prehibernation Week," the music is played by the heavy metal band Pantera. When ever SpongeBob does something dangerous, the music starts playing. The opening credits have a shot that reads "Special musical guests Pantera".

In-Show Allusions to Outside Works

• In the episode "Karate Island", Sandy must fight her way through a pagoda with a different style fighter on each floor in order to reach the top floor where SpongeBob is being held captive by a timeshare salesman. This bears much resemblance to the never finished "The Game of Death" film by Bruce Lee, in which Lee fights his way to the top of a pagoda in the same fashion that Sandy does. Even more of a clue as to the validity of this reference is that Sandy wears a one-piece yellow jumpsuit, almost identical to the one Lee is famous for wearing.

Magazine

In the United Kingdom, a SpongeBob SquarePants magazine is currently being published by Titan Magazines every four weeks. It was first published on February 3, 2005. The next issue was published on February 1, 2007 and was be the second anniversary of the magazine. The magazine contains comic strips, fan letters, competitions and several features.

Comments

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Updated 29th June 2007

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