Title: SpongeBob SquarePants Content: SpongeBob SquarePants is an Nickelodeon animated comedy television series. It is made by marine biologist and animator Stephen Hillenburg. The series began on July 1, 1999. It is by far, Nickelodeon's most popular program. It has been made into many pieces of merchandise. The main character, SpongeBob is an adult sea sponge that acts like a child. He lives in a pineapple under the ocean. The series has three spin-offs: Kamp Koral: SpongeBob's Under Years, The Patrick Star Show and one with Squidward Tentacles. ==Characters== The series gets its name from its main character, SpongeBob SquarePants, a male sponge. He looks more like a yellow kitchen sponge used for cleaning dishes than a sea sponge. 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 red 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 cheerful and sometimes annoys his selfish neighbor, Squidward. His favorite things to do are jellyfishing (catching jellyfish with a net) 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 he 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 red 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 a blue copepod. 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 always trying to steal the secret Krabby Patty Formula. 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 sperm 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, her dad will give his restaurant and his money to her. She usually wears a pink shirt with a dark pink letter P on the front, a purple skirt, and white boots. She is voiced by Lori Alan. * Gary the Snail is SpongeBob's pet sea snail. ==Episodes list== === Episodes === === Season 1 === # Help Wanted with SpongeBob, Squidward, and Mr. Krabs/Reef Blower with SpongeBob and Squidward/Tea at the Treedome with SpongeBob, Sandy, and Patrick # Bubblestand with SpongeBob, Patrick, and Squidward/Ripped Pants with SpongeBob and Sandy # Jellyfishing with SpongeBob, Patrick, and Squidward/Plankton! with SpongeBob and Plankton # Naughty Nautical Neighbors with SpongeBob, Patrick, and Squidward/Boating School with SpongeBob, Mrs. Puff, and Patrick # Pizza Delivery with SpongeBob and Squidward/Home Sweet Pineapple with SpongeBob, Patrick, and Squidward # Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy with SpongeBob, Patrick, Mermaid Man, and Barnacle Boy/Pickles with SpongeBob, Bubble Bass, Squidward, and Mr. Krabs # Hall Monitor with SpongeBob, Patrick, and Mrs. Puff/Jellyfish Jam with SpongeBob and Squidward # Nature Pants with SpongeBob/Opposite Day with SpongeBob, Patrick, and Squidward # Sandy's Rocket with SpongeBob, Patrick, Sandy, Larry, and Flats/Squeaky Boots with SpongeBob and Mr. Krabs # Culture Shock with SpongeBob, Squidward, and Mr. Krabs/F.U.N. with SpongeBob, Plankton, and Mr. Krabs # MuscleBob BuffPants with SpongeBob and Sandy/Squidward, the Unfriendly Ghost with SpongeBob, Patrick, and Squidward # Scaredy Pants with SpongeBob, Patrick, Squidward, and Flying Dutchman/I Was a Teenage Gary with SpongeBob, Squidward, and Gary # SB-129 with Squidward, SpongeBob, and Patrick/Karate Choppers with SpongeBob, Sandy, and Mr. Krabs # Sleepy Time with SpongeBob/Suds with SpongeBob, Patrick, and Sandy # Valentine's Day with SpongeBob, Patrick, and Sandy/The Paper with SpongeBob and Squidward # The Chaperone with SpongeBob and Pearl/Employee of the Month with SpongeBob and Squidward # Arrgh! with SpongeBob, Mr. Krabs, and Patrick/Rock Bottom with SpongeBob # Texas with SpongeBob, Patrick, and Sandy/Rock Bottom with SpongeBob and Plankton # Fools in April with SpongeBob and Squidward/Neptune's Spatula with SpongeBob, King Neptune, and Patrick # Hooky with SpongeBob, Patrick, and Mr. Krabs/Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy II with SpongeBob, Mermaid Man, and Barnacle Boy ===Season 2=== # Something Smells with SpongeBob and Patrick/Bossy Boots with SpongeBob, Mr. Krabs, and Pearl # Christmas Who? with SpongeBob, Squidward, Patchy, and Potty # Dying for Pie with SpongeBob and Squidward/Imitation Krabs with SpongeBob, Plankton, Mr. Krabs, and Robo-Krabs # Big Pink Loser with SpongeBob and Patrick/Bubble Buddy with Bubble Buddy and SpongeBob # Your Shoe's Untied with SpongeBob/Squid's Day Off with SpongeBob and Squidward # Wormy with SpongeBob, Patrick, and Wormy/Patty Hype with SpongeBob and Mr. Krabs # Shanghaied with SpongeBob, Patrick, and Flying Dutchman # Survival of the Idiots with SpongeBob, Patrick, and Sandy/Dumped with SpongeBob, Patrick, and Gary # No Free Rides with SpongeBob and Mrs. Puff/I'm Your Biggest Fanatic with SpongeBob, Kevin, King Jellyfish, and Queen Jellyfish # Grandma's Kisses with SpongeBob, Patrick, Squidward, and Grandma SquarePants/Squidville with Squidward, SpongeBob, and Patrick # Pre- Hibernation Week with SpongeBob and Sandy/Life of Crime with SpongeBob and Patrick # Pressure with SpongeBob, Patrick, Squidward, Mr. Krabs, and Sandy/The Smoking Peanut with SpongeBob, Patrick, and Mr. Krabs # The Secret Box with SpongeBob and Patrick/Band Geeks with Squidward and Squilliam ==Main places== * The show takes place in a fictional city called Bikini Bottom, which is 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 aburger), 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 how is made. * 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 for different reasons. * 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. * Sandy's Treedome is where Sandy cheeks live, she needs a helmet to breathe underwater. However, in her treedome she does not. All sea creatures need a helmet in her treedome to breathe. * 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 in Encino, California. ==Reception== ===Ratings and run-length achievements=== Within its first month on air, SpongeBob SquarePants overtook Pokémon as the highest rated Saturday- morning children's series on television. It held an average national Nielsen rating of 4.9 among children aged two through eleven, denoting 1.9 million viewers. Two years later, the series had firmly established itself as Nickelodeon's second highest-rated children's program, after Rugrats. SpongeBob SquarePants was credited with helping Nickelodeon take the "Saturday-morning ratings crown" for the fourth straight season in 2001. The series had gained a significant adult audience by that point—nearly 40 percent of its 2.2 million viewers were aged 18 to 34. In response to its weekend success, Nickelodeon gave SpongeBob SquarePants time slots at 6:00 PM and 8:00 PM, Monday through Thursday, to increase the series' exposure. By the end of 2001, SpongeBob SquarePants boasted the highest ratings for any children's series, on all of television. Weekly viewership of the series had reached around fifteen million, at least five million of whom were adults. === Controversies === In 2009, several groups, including the American Family Foundation, attacked SpongeBob for being homosexual. The character had recently appeared on a music video with other kids' show 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 season 11 and the first movie, the series started to decline in quality. This was 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 poorly received because the characters did not act the way they acted in the first three seasons. However, apparently, the show's quality improved once more after the second movie, when Stephen Hillenburg returned, until his death in 2018.