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

It is Nickelodeon's most popular show. 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 sea. The show has gotten three spin-offs: Kamp Koral: SpongeBob's Under Years, The Patrick Star Show, and one with Squidward Tentacles.

Characters

The show 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 blue Krabby Patty burgers. The recipe for blue 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 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 Plankton's sentient computer.
 Sandy Cheeks is a brown squirrel from the U.S. 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 likes to do karate. 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 and the Bikini Bottom driving instructor. She is old, patient, and easily scared. She wears a blue collared shirt, a yellow string tie, a red skirt, black shoes, and a blue sailor's cap. 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.

Danish Voice Cast
 Jens Jacob Tychsen – Svampebob Firkant
 Søren Ulrichs – Patrick Søstjerne
 Peter Zhelder – Blækvard Tentakkel
 Nis Bank-Mikkelsen – Eugene Krabbe
 Annette Heick – Sandy Egern
 Torben Sekov – Plankton
 Vibeke Dueholm – Mrs. Puff/Karen

Additional Voices
 Lars Thiesgaard
 Peter Røschke
 Mads M. Nielsen
 Michael Elo
 Esper Hagen

Episodes list

Episodes

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 blue Krabby Patty (which is similar to a blue burger), 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 blue 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.
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.

References 

Notes

Other websites 

SpongeBob SquarePants
1990s American animated television series
American children's television series
1999 television series debuts
English-language television programs