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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 show began its second season in 2000 with more high-quality animation and even more popular episodes.

The first part of 2002 saw SpongeBob at its peak. The beginning of the third season produced a lot 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 cancelled 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 of 2004. It was also released on DVD at the end of 2004. 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, as only about 7 new episodes were shown while the previous two-year span, from 2003-2004, aired 20. This led to the program's lowest ratings ever, causing speculation that the show might even be cancelled after the feature'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. The Rugrats Movie, on the other hand, earned $100,494,685 in the United States. 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.

It was announced late in 2004 that SpongeBob would be continuing with a new season 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. The episodes are projected to have finished airing in 2009.

In November 2005, Nickelodeon aired the special "Have You Seen This Snail? (Where's Gary?)" and did not air new episodes until February 2006, when they showed the special "Dunces and Dragons (Lost in Time)". The show was sponsored by Burger King, and got 8.5 million viewers, one of the highest in SpongeBob's history. They then showed new episodes until June 2 2006. On September 23, 2006 Nickelodeon began to air new episodes including "New Leaf", "Once Bitten". Also brand new October episodes airing October 6 with "Squidtastic Voyage", airing October 13 'Bummer Vacation", and airing October 20 "Wigstruck". November episodes will include "The Best Day Ever", airing November 10, which features a 24-hour marathon before its premiere (November 9). Bummer Vacation also suffered title changes. First, it was Bummer Summer, and then they were thinking to name the episode Bummer Vacation, the same title as an old children's book. Despite this, the official name was revealed as Bummer Vacation.

In the United Kingdom, new episodes started airing on November 13, and because it looks like it'll go to the end of the season, it might show an episode before the United States.

Upcoming episodes of SpongeBob SquarePants include:

• That's No Lady (Shown November 25, 2006)
• Driven to Tears (Shown December 2, 2006)
• Rule of Dumb
• The Gift of Gum
• Burn to Be Wild
• Best Frenemies
• The Pink Purlonier
• Squidwood

Cast and characters

• Tom Kenny: SpongeBob SquarePants, Gary the Snail, French Narrator, Patchy the Pirate (real actor, not just voice), Mr. SquarePants, miscellaneous
• Bill Fagerbakke: Patrick Star
• Rodger Bumpass: Squidward Tentacles, Dr. Gill Gilliam
• Carolyn Lawrence: Sandy Cheeks
• Clancy Brown: Eugene H. "Armor Abs" Krabs
• Dee Bradley Baker: Squilliam Fancyson, miscellaneous characters
• Doug Lawrence (a.k.a. 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: Polly the Parrot
• Brian Doyle-Murray: The Flying Dutchman
• Jill Talley: Karen (Plankton's computer wife)
• Paul Tibbitt: Mama Krabs ("Sailor Mouth", "Mid-Life Crustacean")
• Thomas F. Wilson: miscellaneous characters
• Carlos Alazraqui: miscellaneous characters
• Clea Lewis: miscellaneous characters

Guest voices or bodies

• Tiny Tim: (Musical Performer) ("Help Wanted")
• 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")
• Sergio Ristie: King Neptune ("Party Pooper Pants (SpongeBob's House Party)")
• Kevin Michael Richardson: King Neptune (voice in "Party Pooper Pants (SpongeBob's House Party)")
• Thomas F. Wilson: The Tattle-Tale Strangler, Reg, Marty
• Amy Poehler: Grandma
• Pat Morita: Master Udon ("Karate Island")
• David Bowie: Set to appear in a future episode next year playing as Lord Royal Highness.
• Junior Brown: Sandy Cheeks ("Texas"; sung the last line: "I want to go home.")
• David Glen Eisley: SpongeBob SquarePants ("Band Geeks")
• Patrick Pinney: Painty the Pirate (Theme Song)
• 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

• Stephen Hillenburg: Creator/Executive Producer
• Derek Drymon: Creative Director/Writer/Story Editor
• Paul Tibbitt: Writer/Storyboard Director/Supervising Producer (2004- )
• Alan Smart: Supervising Animation Director
• Sherm Cohen: Storyboard Supervisor/Writer/Storyboard Artist & Director
• Aaron Springer: Writer/Storyboard Artist & Director
• C.H. Greenblatt: Writer/Storyboard Artist & Director
• Doug Lawrence (a.k.a. Mr. Lawrence): Writer/Story Editor
• Eric Wiese: Writer/Storyboard Artist
• Mark O'Hare: Writer/Storyboard Artist & Director
• Chuck Klein: Writer/Storyboard Artist & Director
• Jay Lender: Writer/Storyboard Artist & Director
• Heather Martinez: Storyboard Artist
• Caleb Muerer: Storyboard Artist
• Sam Henderson: Writer/Storyboard Director
• Kaz: Writer/Storyboard Artist
• Ted Seko: Storyboard Artist
• Brad Vandergrift: Storyboard Artist
• John Magness: Storyboard Artist
• Steven Banks: Head Writer (2004—)
• Tim Hill: Writer
• Merriwether Williams: Story Editor/Writer
• Steven Fonti: Writer/Storyboard Director (1999)
• Chris Mitchell: Writer/Storyboard Artist (1999)
• Mike Bell: Writer/Storyboard Director (2005—)
• Vincent Waller: Writer/Storyboard Artist & Director/Technical Director (2005—)
• Tom Yasumi: Animation Director
• Andrew Overtoom: Animation Director
• Frank Weiss: Animation Director
• Jimmy Stone: Animation Director
• Sean Dempsey: Animation Director
• Bradley Carow: Music
• Sage Guyton: Music
• Steven Belfer: Music
• Jeremy Wakefield: Music
• Nicholas Cara: Music
• David Wigforss: Special Effects (CG visual effects animator)
• Andy Rheingold: Executive in Charge of Production

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)

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)

Media Releases

Episodes:

Film:

• The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie (November 19, 2004)

Shorts:

• Patrick the Snowman is a computer-animated short (narrated by Nigel Thornberry) shown during Christmas time on Nickelodeon which is a parody of Frosty the Snowman. The cast of Jimmy Neutron build a snowman that looks just like Patrick, then Jimmy puts a magical hat on it and the snowman comes to life. There are two versions of the story:

1. Once the snowman comes to life, the kids scream, "It's alive" and chase him. The end.
2. The kids are excited that their snowman is alive at first, but then the snowman starts to get annoying, so Jimmy transports the snowman 60 years into the future. 60 years later, we see Patrick poking the kids (as elders) with a stick. Cindy says with a grumpy voice, "Nice going, Neutron". The end.

• How the You-Know-Who Stole You-Know-What! is a Rugrats short shown during Christmas time on Nickelodeon which is a parody of the Dr. Seuss book How the Grinch Stole Christmas!. It's about Angelica Pickles stealing the chocolate candy. SpongeBob, Patrick, Squidward, and Plankton made brief appearances in this short.
• The Endless Summer, an educational short about the effects of global warming. (Note: It appeared in Earth to America, which debuted on TBS and was released on November 20, 2005. 2nd Note: It was released online on February 7, 2006.)

Spin-offs:

• Astrology With Squidward is a spin-off short from SpongeBob SquarePants. It features the character Squidward explaining astrological stereotypes, through characters on the show. Featured characters have included:
  • Squidward: Scorpio (on the Tropical zodiac) or Libra (on the Sidereal zodiac) (stereotype: likes the finer things in life, taking it easy, wants to do no work)
  • SpongeBob: Sagittarius (stereotype: overly enthusiastic, optimistic, and foolish)
  • Patrick: Taurus (stereotype: thick-headed)
  • Plankton: Leo (stereotype: diabolical and plotting, among others)
  • Mr. Krabs: Cancer (because he is a crab)
  • Two Fish: Gemini
  • Pearl: Virgo
• SpongeBob's Nicktoon Summer Splash is a program block shown during the summer of 2000 and 2001 that was hosted by SpongeBob and Patrick. Every weekday, it would air a 3-hour marathon of a certain Nicktoons: Rugrats on Mondays, Rocket Power on Tuesdays, The Wild Thornberrys on Wednesday, Hey Arnold! on Thursdays, and Rocko's Modern Life on Fridays. (Rocko's Modern Life only aired one week, and after that was replaced by CatDog) And oddly enough, the only show that still airs is SpongeBob, and he was in the week marathon.

In popular culture

• In Part One of the first season finale of Avatar: The Last Airbender, the character Master Pakku coyly stated to one of his students, "Nice work... a couple more years and you might be ready to fight a sea sponge." The show's creators later said in the audio commentary of Siege of the North Part I that his statement was a friendly poke at SpongeBob SquarePants, another popular Nickelodeon character/show.
• In the movie Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life, there is a short scene in a foreign country where a family is watching the "Jellyfishing" episode of SpongeBob SquarePants in their own language.
• Clips from the SpongeBob SquarePants episode "Bubblestand" are watched by the protagonist, Danny, in Zathura.
• The SpongeBob SquarePants episode "No Weenies Allowed" is watched by the protagonist's brother, Lance Brumder, in Orange County.
• In the film War of the Worlds, the character Rachel can be seen watching "The Secret Box" episode of SpongeBob SquarePants just before the lightning starts.
• In Sleepover, Julie calls Rusell "SpongeBob" three times.
• An episode of X Presidents (from TV Funhouse on Saturday Night Live) depicts SpongeBob refusing to star in a pro-Gulf War II propaganda commercial, and getting held prisoner for it. Tom Kenny provides SpongeBob's voice, which has relatively adult content.
• In the "She Used to Be My Girl" episode of The Simpsons, Lisa, needing a god to pray to, tells a newscaster she is praying to Jesus, Buddha, and SpongeBob. Then the camera shows heaven, where Jesus, Buddha, and crudely drawn SpongeBob are. Buddha asks Jesus, "Perhaps we should help." and SpongeBob interrupts, saying "Screw her!', then laughs insanely, while Jesus shakes his head.
• In the "Fat Man and Little Boy" episode of The Simpsons, Krusty the Clown talks about a character called ScratchBob ItchPants while talking abut character shirts.
• In the opening credits of the episode "Pray Anything" of The Simpsons, SpongeBob is mentioned in Bart's blackboard gag.
• In the The Fairly OddParents episode "Wish Fixers", Timmy wishes to have running pants made of cheese, and then Cosmo calls Timmy "CheeseBoy SquarePants".
• In the Six Feet Under episode "You Never Know", Federico's son, Julio, was watching the SpongeBob SquarePants episode, "No Weenies Allowed".
• In Just Like Heaven, the main character's sister is cooking dinner when she yells "Who put SpongeBob in the pasta!?"
• In 2005, Sesame Street ran a spoof show called TriangleBob TrianglePants, on the Triangle-odeon network, starring the show's own Bob McGrath with his face stuck in a triangle-shaped cutout body vaguely reminiscent of SpongeBob's.
• In the Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide short Guide to: School Photos, Ned said "Look like yourself, not someone you saw on TV". Then a kid in a SpongeBob suit (similar to the one shown in "SpongeGuard on Duty") was shown.
• In "Be A-Fred, Be Very A-Fred" of The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy, there was a blue monster that looked like SpongeBob.
• In Final Destination 3, the character Kevin Fischer brings up "SpongeBob" as a carnival prize when he and Wendy Christensen are trying to piece together the clues to another person's death.
• On the X Factor site you can see the contestant Ashley Mackenzie is wearing a SpongeBob t-shirt.
• In The Weather Man, a SpongeBob balloon can be seen in the parade.
• A SpongeBob SquarePants stuffed toy can be seen in the background in some episodes of The Andy Milonakis Show.
• In the Unfabulous episode "The Little Sister", SpongeBob was one of the nominees for class president.
• In the book Company Man by Joseph Finder, the main character's daughter, Julia, watches SpongeBob on TV several times.
• In the movie Firewall, you can hear the SpongeBob SquarePants episode, "Squirrel Jokes" on the TV that the daughter is watching.
• In the TV series Hey Joel, Joel is seen talking to Alicia Keys and in the background is a SpongeBob SquarePants poster.
• The character Wooldoor Sockbat from the series Drawn Together is partially a parody of SpongeBob.
• In the movie, Daddy Day Care, a kid was wearing SpongeBob slippers.
• In the movie, Seeing Double from S Club, Hannah Spearritt was wearing SpongeBob slippers on the hands in a scene.
• In Robot Chicken, a kitchen sponge and starfish were animated using stop motion animation into danding around giggling and snorting around similar to SpongeBob and Patrick.
• In the film Are We There Yet?, when Nick names off the things he doesn't have, one of them was SpongeBob.
• In the preview of Deck the Halls, a child says his codename is SpongeBob.
• In the Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode "Life Serial," Tara tells Buffy that she had once "spaced out" while watching SpongeBob SquarePants with Willow.
• In the popular MTV show, Yo Momma, in the best of LA Chuck from the Valley jokes about Jordan's tight pants by stating: "Lets all have a round of applause for SpongeBob Tightpants"
• Another Nicktoon reference can be found in the Fairly Oddparents episode, "Something's Fishy", where the king of Atlantis, Greg, states that their diets consist of "crabs, starfish, and the occasional undersea squirrel", as a joke to their fellow Nick animators.
• SpongeBob's "house" is visible in the Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius episode Operation: Jet Fusion. When Jimmy, Carl and Sheen go to the Pacific Ocean, one can see a pineapple.
• in the Prick Up Your Ears episode of Family Guy,Stewie is seen playing with a SpongeBob doll.

International following

SpongeBob SquarePants has earned an international following. It is also shown in Canada, United Kingdom, Middle East, South America, Latin America, Europe, Asia, Australia, Sweden, New Zealand, and Africa.

Miscellaneous

• The painting of Painty the Pirate, which 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.
• According to the book SpongeBob Exposed, series creator Stephen Hillenburg said that the policy of the show is to not do jokes about or make reference to pop culture and current events. In order for the cartoon to be timeless, he even says that Bikini Bottom is isolated from the real world, being under the Pacific Ocean.
• 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.
• In April of 2003, the satirical website Landover Baptist Church wrote an article "exposing" the artists of SpongeBob SquarePants for making SpongeBob's eyes and nose, when turned upside-down, look like male genitalia.
• 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. Ironically, one of Spence's more famous songs for the NFL Films library of music is an orchestral version of "Drunken Sailor", first suggested by Steve Sabol because he liked the song at summer camp.
• SpongeBob SquarePants is the very first American cartoon to be broadcasted in Iraq and Afghanistan after their US-led invasions.
• TNN (now SpikeTV) offered once to Stephen Hillenburg to make a mature version of the cartoon for it's block of Adult cartoons like Ren and Stimpy Adult Party Cartoon. However, Stephen refused and Nick refused to sell its rights to them.
• SpongeBob is the only character to appear in every episode.

Notes

1. http://www.star-ecentral.com/news/story.asp? file=/2005/12/27/tvnradio/12578379&sec=tvnradio
2. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YG-3TfJJvyA
3. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-NOk-X2HNU
4. http://www.stopglobalwarming.org/sgw_feature.asp?id=8
5. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-ovQ4D7M0M

External links

• SpongeBob SquarePants Official Website at Nick.com
• SpongeBob SquarePants at the Big Cartoon DataBase
• SpongeBob SquarePants at YTV.com

• 1990s TV shows in the United States
• 2000s TV shows in the United States
• Television programs featuring anthropomorphic characters
• Kids' Choice Awards winners
• Nicktoons
• YTV shows
• SpongeBob SquarePants
• Media franchises
• Animated television series
• 1999 television program debuts
• American children's comedy series