SpongeBob SquarePants

For the character, see SpongeBob SquarePants (character).

Genre	Animation, Comedy, Fantasy, Family
Created by	Stephen Hillenburg
Developed by	Derek Drymon Tim Hill Nick Jennings
Creative director(s)	Derek Drymon (1999–2004) Vincent Waller (2005–2015)
Voices of	Tom Kenny Bill Fagerbakke Rodger Bumpass Clancy Brown Mr. Lawrence Jill Talley Carolyn Lawrence Mary Jo Catlett Lori Alan (Complete list)
Narrated by	Tom Kenny (various episodes)
Opening theme	"SpongeBob SquarePants Theme Song", performed by Patrick Pinney
Ending theme	"SpongeBob Closing Theme", composed by Steve Belfer
Composer(s)	Steve Belfer Nicolas Carr Sage Guyton Jeremy Wakefield Brad Carow (1999–2002) The Blue Hawaiians (1999–2002) Eban Schletter (2000–present) Barry Anthony Trop (2006–2013)
Country of origin	United States
Original language(s)	English
No. of episodes	268 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s)	Stephen Hillenburg (1999–2018) Paul Tibbitt (2008–2017) Co-executive producers: Paul Tibbitt (2006–2008) Marc Ceccarelli (2018–present) Vincent Waller (2018–present)
Producer(s)	Donna Castricone (1999–2002) Helen Kafatic (2002–2004) Anne Michaud (2001) Dina Buteyn (2005–2010) Jennie Monica Hammond (2010–present) Supervising producers: Derek Drymon (2002–2004) Paul Tibbitt (2005–2015) Marc Ceccarelli (2015–2018) Vincent Waller (2015–2018)
Running time	11 minutes (regular episodes only) 22 minutes (special episodes only)
Distributor	ViacomCBS Domestic Media Networks
Release
Picture format	NTSC (480i) (1999–2012) HDTV 1080i (2009, 2012–present)
Audio format	Stereo (1999–2012) Dolby Surround 5.1 (2009, 2012–present)
Original release	1 May 1999 (1999-05-01) – present
Chronology
Related shows	Rocko's Modern Life Kamp Koral: SpongeBob's Under Years
Other websites
Website

SpongeBob SquarePants is an American animated comedy TV show made by marine biologist and animator Stephen Hillenburg. It started on May 1, 1999 on Nickelodeon.

It is one of Nickelodeon's most popular shows. It has been made into two movies, a Broadway musical that was nominated for twelve Tony Awards, and many pieces of merchandise. The main character, SpongeBob is an adult sea sponge that acts a human child. He lives in a pineapple under the sea.

Theme Song

Main page: SpongeBob SquarePants Theme Song

The SpongeBob SquarePants Theme Song is the song sung at the beginning of every episodes. It is sung by Painty the Pirate and many children.

Characters

Main page: List of SpongeBob SquarePants characters

The show gets its name from its main character, SpongeBob SquarePants, a male sponge. He looks more like a kitchen sponge used for cleaning dishes. His best friend is a starfish named Patrick Star. His grumpy neighbor is an octopus named Squidward Tentacles.

SpongeBob and Squidward work as employees at a restaurant called the Krusty Krab in the underwater town of Bikini Bottom. The Krusty Krab, which is run by a greedy crab named Mr. Krabs, is famous for its Krabby Patty burgers. The recipe for Krabby Patties is top secret. The owners of a competing restaurant called the Chum Bucket, Plankton and Karen, often try to steal the recipe.

• SpongeBob SquarePants is the main character and a sea sponge that lives in a pineapple under the sea. He is a fry cook in the Krusty Krab. He is very jolly and sometimes annoys his selfish neighbor, Squidward. His favorite pastimes are jellyfishing and blowing bubbles.
• Patrick Star is a starfish and SpongeBob's best friend who lives under a rock. Patrick is goofy, but is a fun-loving character and eats a lot. He is unemployed, but has worked at several places before.
• Squidward Tentacles is an octopus and SpongeBob's next-door neighbor. He plays the clarinet and is not good at it, even though he thinks so. He works at the Krusty Krab as the cashier. He says does not like SpongeBob, but SpongeBob thinks they are friends. Squidward is not friendly and thinks that he is better than almost everyone. He is voiced by Rodger Bumpass.
• Mr. Krabs is a crab who is the owner of the Krusty Krab restaurant and SpongeBob and Squidward's boss. He is a single father with one daughter, a whale named Pearl. He and Pearl live in a big anchor. He is very greedy and loves money. He never wants to spend a lot of his money, and sometimes cheats to make more of it. He is voiced by Clancy Brown.
• Sheldon J. Plankton is an evil green plankton. He is an evil genius and Mr. Krabs' rival. His goal is to steal the secret recipe for Krabby Patties. He runs a restaurant called the Chum Bucket with the help of his talking computer wife named Karen. The Chum Bucket is very unpopular and they never get customers. He is voiced by Mr. Lawrence.
• Karen Plankton is a talking computer who is Plankton's helper, sidekick, and wife. She gives him his evil plans to steal the Krabby Patty recipe. She lives in the laboratory of the Chum Bucket which is labeled from the outside as the "kitchen." Karen does not have a face, but her screen shows a wavy green line that moves when she talks. She is voiced by Jill Talley.
• Sandy Cheeks is a squirrel from the state of Texas. She lives in a glass house called a Treedome that lets her breathe under water. When she is out of the dome, she wears a space suit and a fishbowl-like glass helmet around her head filled with fresh air. She is very athletic and works as a scientist. She is voiced by Carolyn Lawrence.
• Mrs. Puff is a pufferfish who is SpongeBob's teacher at the underwater driving school, Mrs. Puff's Boating School. She is old, patient, and easily scared. She wears a blue sailor hat and a yellow wig. SpongeBob really wants to pass Mrs. Puff's class, but he always fails his driving test. She is voiced by Mary Jo Catlett.
• Pearl Krabs is a big gray whale with blonde hair who is the daughter of Mr. Krabs. She is sixteen years old and has a job at the Bikini Bottom Mall. When she grows up, Mr. Krabs will give his restaurant and his money to her. She usually wears a pink cheerleading dress. She is voiced by Lori Alan.
• Gary the Snail is SpongeBob's pet snail who lives with him in their pineapple house. He meows and acts like a cat. He cannot talk, but SpongeBob can understand him. Gary is usually shown to be very smart. He is voiced by Tom Kenny.

Episodes list

Main page: list of SpongeBob SquarePants episodes

Season	Episodes	First episode	Last episode
1	20	May 1, 1999	March 3, 2001
2	20	October 26, 2000	July 26, 2003
3	20	October 6, 2001	October 11, 2004
4	20	May 6, 2005	July 24, 2007
5	20	February 19, 2007	July 19, 2009
6	26	March 3, 2008	July 5, 2010
7	26	July 19, 2009	June 11, 2011
8	26	March 26, 2011	December 6, 2012
9	26	July 21, 2012	February 20, 2017
10	11	October 15, 2016	December 2, 2012
11	26	July 24, 2017	November 25, 2018
12	26	November 11, 2018	TBA
13	13	October 22, 2020	TBA

Movies

Title	Director	Release Date
The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie	Stephen Hillenburg, Mark Osborne	November 19, 2004
The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water	Paul Tibbit	February 6, 2015
The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run	Tim Hill	2021

Main places

• The show takes place in a fictional city called Bikini Bottom, which is located in the floor of the Pacific Ocean beneath Bikini Atoll. The citizens are mostly fish who lives in ship funnels and boatmobiles.
• SpongeBob's pineapple house is SpongeBob's home. It has many big rooms even though on the outside it looks just like a small pineapple. It has a large library with many books.
• The Krusty Krab is a restaurant in the city of Bikini Bottom. It is run by a crab, Eugene H. Krabs. SpongeBob SquarePants works there as a fry cook, and Squidward Q. Tentacles works as the cashier. The fast food items that are sold include the popular Krabby Patty (which is similar to a hamburger), kelp fries, and drinks.
• The Chum Bucket is a restaurant across the street from the Krusty Krab. It is owned by Sheldon J. Plankton and Karen Plankton, but it is very unpopular because the food is very bad. Plankton and Karen are always trying to steal the secret recipe for the Krabby Patty, which only Mr. Krabs and SpongeBob know.
• Mrs. Puff's Boating School is the driving school where SpongeBob often goes to try to get his driver's license. SpongeBob is normally not good at driving and can never get his license without help from a friend. Whenever he gets his license, he soon loses it.
• Patrick's boulder is Patrick's home where Patrick lives and sleeps in. In some episodes, Patrick falls out of his boulder.
• Squidward's house, an Easter Island head owned by Squidward. In his house, Squidward practices his clarinet and paints pictures.
• Mr Krabs and Pearl's anchor house, a hollow anchor with lots of paintings on the walls. Mr. Krabs and Pearl live inside of it.
• Goo Lagoon is a popular beach. Even though the beach is under water, the water in the beach is called "goo." In some episodes it is just a lake but in some it is an entire ocean.
• Patchy's House is the residence of Patchy the Pirate and Potty the Parrot. It is located at 6248 Agnes Ave, Los Angeles, CA, 91606. It first appears in the episode Christmas Who?. It is located in Encino, California.

Controversies

In 2005, several groups, including the American Family Foundation, attacked SpongeBob for being a representative of homosexual people. The character had recently appeared on a music video with other kids characters to promote diversity and tolerance. However, the creator said in 2002 that SpongeBob is asexual, meaning that he does not seek sexual partners at all.

Decreasing quality

Many fans and critics believe that, after the first movie, the series started to decline in quality because many writers from the first three seasons seasons left (although Doug Lawrence, Aaron Springer, Erik Wiese and C.H. Greenblatt still stayed). Some of the later episodes were received poorly because the characters did not act the way they acted in the first three seasons.