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SpongeBob SquarePants is an American animated television series. Much of the series centers on the exploits and adventures of the title character and his various friends in the underwater city "Bikini Bottom." The series' popularity has prompted the release of a media franchise, contributing to its position as Nickelodeon's highest rated show, the most distributed property of MTV Networks, and among Nicktoons Network's most-watched shows.

Creator Stephen Hillenburg initially conceived SpongeBob SquarePants in 1984, while he was teaching and studying marine biology at what is now the Orange County Ocean Institute. During his period, Hillenburg became fascinated in animation, and wrote a comic book entitled The Intertidal Zone starring various anthropomorphic forms of sea life, many of which would evolve into SpongBob SquarePants characters. In 1987, Hillenburg left the institute to pursue his dream of becoming an animator. Later on in 1992, Hillenburg began to attend the California Institute of the Arts to study animation, where he made his thesis film entitled Wormholes. In 1993, Hillenburg graduated from the institute, earning a Master of Fine Arts in experimental animation. In 1995, Joe Murray, creator of Rocko's Modern Life, met Hillenburg at one of said animation festivals, and offered him a job as a director of the series. Hillenburg then joined the Nickelodeon animated series as a writer, producer, and storyboard artist during the series' third season, continuing his position for much of the fourth season. While working on Rocko's Modern Life, Hillenburg became friends with several future SpongeBob SquarePants collaborators. Following Rocko's Modern Life's cancellation in 1996, Hillenburg began working on SpongeBob SquarePants, teaming up with several Nickelodeon veterans and Rocko colleagues, including SpongeBob's voice actor Tom Kenny. Hillenburg then pitched the series to Nickelodeon, and was accepted.

The pilot episode of SpongeBob SquarePants first aired in the United States on Nickelodeon on May 1, 1999, following the Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards. The "official" series premiere followed on July 17, 1999, with the second episode, "Bubblestand/Ripped Pants." The show reached popularity shortly after the beginning of its second season and has remained popular since. A feature film was released in 2004, and was originally intended to be the series finale; however, petitions and support from the Nickelodeon executives prompted Hillenburg to continue production with a fourth season in 2005, with Derek Drymon becoming the new creative director as opposed to Hillenburg. In 2007, Time magazine named the series one of the greatest television shows of all time. The series is currently in its seventh season and celebrated its tenth anniversary on July 17, 2009. The series has been renewed for its eighth season, which will make it the longest running show in Nick's history, surpassing Rugrats upon the completion of the 26th episode that season.

SpongeBob SquarePants is an extremely energetic and optimistic sea sponge (although his appearance more closely resembles a kitchen sponge) who lives in a pineapple under the sea with his pet snail Gary, who meows like a cat. Although Gary only speaks in a few episodes, the characters have shown an ability to understand him. Living two houses down from SpongeBob is his best friend Patrick Star, a dim-witted yet friendly starfish who lives under a rock. Living between the two is Squidward Tentacles, an arrogant and egotistical squid who lives in a moai and dislikes his neighbors (especially SpongeBob) for their child-like behavior. He enjoys playing the clarinet and painting self-portraits.

Another friend of SpongeBob is Sandy Cheeks, a red squirrel from Texas, who was sent there to do scientific research for her chimpanzee bosses. She resides in an underwater tree dome in Bikini Bottom. Sandy is an expert at karate. When not inside her tree dome, she wears an astronaut-like suit because she cannot breathe in water. SpongeBob and Squidward's employer is former officer cadet for the Bikini Bottom Navy force and war veteran Eugene Krabs, a miserly crab obsessed with money and the founder of the Krusty Krab restaurant. Mr. Krabs’ archenemy is Sheldon Plankton, a small green copepod who owns a low-rank fast-food restaurant called the Chum Bucket across the street from the Krusty Krab. Plankton spends most of his time plotting to steal the recipe for Mr. Krabs's popular Krabby Patty burgers in order to obtain success, though all of his schemes usually end in failure. Plankton's wife, K.A.R.E.N., is a "Mark II Surplus Univac with 256 gigs of RAM " computer.

Much of the series' events take place in Bikini Bottom, an underwater city located a mile off the coast of Pensacola, Florida, beneath the real life tropical isle of Bikini Atoll.Stephen Hillenburg has stated that much of Bikini Bottom was based on the real life city of Seattle.Much of this is supported within the context of the episodes themselves; however, despite implications of the city's location as well as anologies to real life, Hillenburg has stated that he wishes to leave the city isolated from the real world, explaining the Baywatch parody scene from The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie as simply a reference to his favorite show of all time.

Being located underwater, much of the city's populace, like that of the rest of the series, consists mostly of various sea life; however, in many episodes, the laws of physics are violated for comedic value. The citizens of Bikini Bottom live in mostly aquatic-themed buildings, and use "boatmobiles", an amalgamation of cars and boats, as a mode of transportation.

While attending animation school, Hillenburg received a job on the children's TV series Mother Goose & Grimm, and worked on the series from 1991 to 1993. When attending the California Institute of the Arts, he made his thesis film entitled Wormholes, which was funded by the Princess Grace Foundation and was later displayed at various animation festivals. In 1993, Hillenburg graduated from the institute, earning a Master of Fine Arts in experimental animation. In 1995, Joe Murray, creator of Rocko's Modern Life, met Hillenburg at one of said animation festivals, and offered him a job as a director of the series. Hillenburg then joined the Nickelodeon animated series as a writer, producer, and storyboard artist during the series' third season, continuing his position for much of the fourth season.The third season episode "Fish-N-Chumps" (November 12, 1995) was directed by Hillenburg, and involved Rocko, Heffer, and Filburt going on a fishing trip, oblivious to the fact that a pair anthropomorphic fish are attempting to catch them from underwater. While working on Rocko's Modern Life, Hillenburg became friends with Tom Kenny, who was later approached by Hillenburg to become the voice of SpongeBob SquarePants,[16] and future SpongeBob SquarePants collaborators Doug Lawrence, Paul Tibbitt and others.




Rocko's Modern Life ended in 1996.Shortly following this, Hillenburg began working on SpongeBob SquarePants, teaming up with several Nickelodeon veterans and Rocko crew members. To voice the character of SpongeBob, Hillenburg approached Tom Kenny, who had worked with him on Rocko's Modern Life. Originally SpongeBob was to be named SpongeBoy but this name was already in use.This was discovered after voice acting for the original seven minute pilot was recorded in 1997. The Nickelodeon legal department discovered that the name was already in use for a mop product.Upon finding this out, Hillenburg decided that the character's given name still had to contain "Sponge" so viewers would not mistake the character for a "Cheese Man." Hillenburg decided to use the name "SpongeBob." He chose "SquarePants" as a family name as it referred to the character's square shape and it had a "nice ring to it".



Whilst pitching the cartoon to Nickelodeon executives, Hillenburg donned a Hawaiian shirt, brought along an “underwater terrarium with models of the characters”, and Hawaiian music to set the theme. The setup was described by Nick executive Eric Coleman as "pretty amazing".When given money and two weeks to write the pilot episode (“Help Wanted”),Derek Drymon, Stephen Hillenberg, and Nick Jennings returned with, described by Nickelodeon official Albie Hecht, “a performance (I) wish (I) had on tape”. Although described as stressful by executive producer Derek Drymon,the pitch went “very well”; Kevin Kay and Hecht had to step outside because they were “exhausted from laughing”, making the cartoonists worried.