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SpongeBob SquarePants

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This article is about the series. For the character named SpongeBob SquarePants, see SpongeBob SquarePants (character). For SpongeBob, see SpongeBob SquarePants (disambiguation).
SpongeBob SquarePants
File:SpongeBob SquarePants.gif
Clockwise from top left: Sandy Cheeks, SpongeBob SquarePants, Patrick Star, Mr. Krabs, Nickelodeon Fish, Squidward Tentacles, and Plankton
Created byStephen Hillenburg
StarringTom Kenny
Bill Fagerbakke
Rodger Bumpass
Carolyn Lawrence
Clancy Brown
Lori Alan
Mary Jo Catlett
Doug Lawrence
Dee Bradley Baker
Tim Conway
Ernest Borgnine
Sirena Irwin
Jill Talley
Marion Ross
Country of originUnited States
No. of episodes74½ as of November 10, 2006
Production
Running time30 minutes approx.
Original release
NetworkNickelodeon
ReleaseMay 1, 1999 –
present

Template:Infobox TV ratings SpongeBob SquarePants is an American animated television series and media franchise. Although its original network is Nickelodeon, it is broadcast across the world (see International Following for more details). It was created by marine biologist and animator Stephen Hillenburg, and is produced through his production company, United Plankton Pictures Inc. Most episodes of the comedy, set in the Pacific Ocean, take place in the city of Bikini Bottom or the surrounding lagoon floor. The pilot episode first aired in the United States on Nickelodeon after the Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards on May 1, 1999. The "official" series premiere followed on July 24, 1999 with the second episode, "Bubblestand/Ripped Pants.

Setting

The main character, SpongeBob, lives in a pineapple and is best friends with Patrick under the sea, while his octopussy neighbor Squidward lives in [Easter Island] head. His other neighbor (on the other side of Squidward) and best friend, Patrick, lives under a rock. SpongeBob's house-pet is a snail named Gary, who sounds like a cat. Although Gary never talks. Characters have shown an ability to understand him. In addition to this, underwater worms bark exactly like dogs, and are kept on chains. Jellyfish are the equivalent of bees; buzzing, stinging, and producing delicious "jelly", mocking the name "jellyfish", while still referencing a bee's honey. The jellyfish are also collected and appreciated like butterflies. "Jellyfishing" (using a net to catch jellyfish) is one of SpongeBob's favorite hobbies.

SpongeBob works at the Krusty Krab, a fast-food restaurant, with Squidward Tentacles. The Krusty Krab is owned by Mr. Eugene H. Krabs, commonly referred to as "Mr. Krabs".

Sheldon J. Plankton (commonly referred to as "Plankton") is Mr. Krabs's arch rival who owns a low-rank fast-food restaurant called The Chum Bucket, and he spends most of his time plotting to steal the recipe for Krabs's popular Krabby Patty. Plankton's computer "wife", Karen, alternately helps him in his schemes or bickers.

Sandy Cheeks is another friend of Spongebob and is a squirrel that lives in an underwater dome in Bikini Bottom. Sandy has a Texas accent and is from Grand Prairie, Texas.

Perch Perkins is the news reporter of Bikini Bottom.He is 35 years old as of Once Bitten. He is fond of ice cream and news stories.

Popularity

SpongeBob is the only cartoon to consistently make the Top 10 list in the Nielsen ratings, and is the first "low budget" Nickelodeon cartoon, according to the network, to become extremely popular. Low-budget cartoons had not garnered as much esteem as higher-rated (and higher-budgeted) shows, such as Rugrats, although when SpongeBob aired in 1999, it had gained a significant enough number of viewers in the ratings to be considered popular, eventually becoming more popular than Rugrats had ever been. SpongeBob follows some other Nickelodeon shows that have attracted "older" followers: The Ren & Stimpy Show, Rocko's Modern Life, the Kablam! skits, Action League Now! and The Angry Beavers. Other shows have followed in this trend as well: Invader Zim and The Fairly OddParents won a similar fan base when they aired in 2001, and the latter is now second only to SpongeBob in popularity[1], while the former attracted a cult following. At the time of writing, SpongeBob is the most popular cartoon on television, and it is considered the flagship cartoon for Generation Y.[citation needed] The show debuted in 1999, and during that time, Pokémon was still the biggest craze. SpongeBob did not gain its popularity until around 2000, and it has remained popular since then. SpongeBob SquarePants is the top TV series on PBS And Nickelodeon.[citation needed]

Broad appeal

The cartoon is designed to appeal to children as well as adults. This has a lot to do with the absurd way underwater life and situations are represented, and with the situations, references, and words used, which many younger viewers might not understand. For example, SpongeBob tried to show his grandma that he was a rebellious teenager by wearing a black melon, similar to Alex and his gang from A Clockwork Orange and listening to 'free form jazz', jokes most children would not understand.

Instead of cars, the residents of Bikini Bottom drive boats. Once, while out in the wilderness, Patrick questions how they could have a camp fire on the lagoon bottom; the fire is immediately extinguished with a sizzle. Continuity is not consistent between episodes, however, as one episode shows that fire can be made underwater. A flurry of bubbles accompanies many actions in many of the episodes, just to remind the viewer that everything is underwater.

SpongeBob is one cartoon in a long line of shows to put in more "adult" references, and has become so popular with teenagers and adults that it has been broadcasted on MTV and featured on Spike TV. A quote by Patrick ("It's gonna rock!") has been used as a promotional tag-line for rock stations. Ren and Stimpy, among others, had followed a similar path. The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie, released on November 19 2004, features a cameo appearance by actor David Hasselhoff, in a parody of his role from the Baywatch TV series.

Part of the show's appeal has to do with the childlike nature of SpongeBob and his best friend, Patrick Star, both of whom are adults but display an innocence typical of human children. However, the characters are not immune from more adult avocations, including rock musicianship in a stadium performance reminiscent of a hard rock concert.

While many newer cartoons revolve around pre-adolescents with strange lives and feature many pop-culture references (e.g. Fairly Oddparents), SpongeBob chooses to go for a more teen/adult friendly formula that was used in highly successful older Nick cartoons such as Ren and Stimpy and Rocko's Modern Life, non-human young adults in crazy, unrealistic situations, with minimal pop culture references.

Unlike the Nickelodeon network, SpongeBob features many well-known independent musicians who contribute to its soundtrack. Alternative rock bands such as Wilco, The Shins, The Flaming Lips and Ween (who have contributed two original songs to the show and their 1997 song "Ocean Man" to the movie soundtrack), as well as metal bands Pantera, Motörhead and Twisted Sister have made appearances on the show and movies soundtracks, and thrash metal group Metallica even released a T-shirt featuring cartoon versions of themselves playing live with the characters SpongeBob and Patrick. British rock singer legend David Bowie recently announced that he will be a special guest on a future episode of SpongeBob SquarePants in 2007. [2]

Merchandising and marketing

File:Charlie-Murphy.jpg
Charlie Murphy plays the voice of Spongebob.

Merchandise based on the show ranges from Kraft Macaroni & Cheese and Kraft SuperMac & Cheese, Kellogg's cereal, and video games to boxer shorts, thongs, pyjamas and t-shirts. A line of SpongeBob SquarePants whisks was even produced. The show also spawned a large and popular merchandise line at Hot Topic, Claire's, RadioShack, Target, Wal-Mart and Toys "R" Us stores. There have been kids meal tie-ins at Wendy's for SpongeBob's House Party Special in 2002 and at Burger King restaurants in 2001, 2003, and for the movie in 2004. In 2004, thieves stole nine-foot-high by nine-foot-wide SpongeBob inflatables from the Burger King restaurant franchises, demanding Krabby Patties as ransom. The ransom note was signed by someone in Minneapolis, Minnesota claiming to be Sheldon J. Plankton, a character from the show. In 2006, another kids meal tie-in for Burger King was introduced for the Lost in Time special. SpongeBob was also featured on VH1's I Love the 90s: Part Deux: 1999 as part of a commentary by Michael Ian Black. A tie-in beverage for 7-Eleven convenience stores has been created, a pineapple-flavored Slurpee. Events in the past with the SpongeBob SquarePants theme include an exhibit at Underwater Adventures Aquarium in the Mall of America called SeaCrits of Bikini Bottom during the summer of 2003. In October 2004, a NASCAR Busch Series race was named The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie 300, presented by Lowe's and broadcast on TNT featuring Jimmie Johnson's #48 Lowe's stock car and Kyle Busch's #5 stock car painted for the race with the SpongeBob Movie paint schemes. There were contests tied in with the movie where fans could win SpongeBob-related items or a trip to the Cayman Islands. The motion simulator/interactive movie ride "Escape from Dino-Island 3D" at Six Flags Over Texas was turned into "SpongeBob SquarePants 4-D", with water squirts, real bubbles, and other sensory enhancements. LEGO received license to produce SpongeBob SquarePants building sets, beginning to sell them in May 2006. Other items featuring SpongeBob include a special edition Monopoly board game and Life board game as well as a SpongeBob SquarePants edition of Ants in the Pants and Yahtzee. SEGA Corporation introduced a ticket redemption game based on the show that has become popular with most video arcades. [3]

History

Development (1993–1999)

SpongeBob's history can be traced back to 1993 when Rocko's Modern Life first aired. One of the producers was Stephen Hillenburg, a cartoon worker/marine biologist who loved both his careers. When Rocko's Modern Life was cancelled in 1996, Hillenburg began working on SpongeBob (although some sketches trace back to 1987). He teamed up with creative director Derek Drymon, who had worked on shows such as Doug, Action League Now!, and Hey Arnold!. Drymon had worked with Hillenburg on Rocko's Modern Life as well, as did many SpongeBob crew members, including writer Tim Hill and voice actors Tom Kenny and Doug Lawrence. Another crew member with previous Nickelodeon cartoon experience was former Angry Beavers story editor Merriwether Williams, who worked on that show for its first few seasons and switched to SpongeBob in July 1999.

File:Squidward in SB-129.jpg
Squidward finds himself in an alternate universe (SB-129)

During production of the show, bobson provided a concept of short comics with the same style of the show, but the characters looked different. SpongeBob used to be named SpongeBoy [citation needed], and used to wear a red hat with a green base and a white business shirt with a tie. The name "SpongeBoy" did not make it into the show since the name was already officially trademarked by Bob Burden, creator of Flaming Carrot. Hillenburg later chose the alternative name "SpongeBob". The original name was once referenced in the show by Mr. Krabs' line, "SpongeBoy, me Bob!." The Krusty Krab was originally spelled with the letter C rather than K, but Stephen Hillenburg thought K's were funnier and it would fit his Ukrainian heritage.

Debut (1999–2000)

File:Reef Blower.jpg
SpongeBob blowing sand off of Squidward (Reef Blower)

On May 1, 1999, SpongeBob aired its first episode, "Help Wanted/Reef Blower/Tea at the Treedome", after the 1999 Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards. At this time, Rugrats was at the height of its popularity and had already outlived dozens of other lower-budget cartoons. SpongeBob, with its generally lower-class animation and humor style more rooted in clever word-play and culture-references unlike the 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)

File:Squidbandgeeks.JPG
Squidward conducting the Bikini Bottom Super Band (Band Geeks)

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 many 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)

File:Spongebob Squarepants Movie poster.jpg
The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie poster

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 many fans,[citation needed] while the SpongeBob movie was actually generally well received by fans who saw it.[citation needed]

It was announced late in 2004 that SpongeBob would be continuing with a new season due in 2005. Hillenburg, despite many 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)

File:Fear of a Krabby Patty.jpg
Fear of a Krabby Patty DVD

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 23 September; its companion episode, "Funny Pants," premiered the following week.

The Star Online eCentral [4] 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 any 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 all-new episodes including "New Leaf", "Once Bitten". Also brand new October episodes airing October 6th with "Squidtastic Voyage", airing October 13th 'Bummer Vacation", and airing October 20th "Wigstruck". November episodes will include "The Best Day Ever", airing November 10th,which features a 24-hour marathon before its premiere (November 9th). Bummer Vacation also suffered many title changes. First, it was Bummer Summer, and then they were thinking to name the episodeBummer Vacation, the same title as an old childrens book. Despite this, the official name was revealed as Bummer Vacation.

In the United Kingdom, new episodes started airing on 13th November, 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:

Cast and characters

Main article: List of SpongeBob SquarePants characters
File:Spongebob.jpg
SpongeBob SquarePants

Guest voices or bodies


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:

Main article: List of SpongeBob SquarePants episodes

Film:

Shorts:

  1. Once the snowman comes to life, the kids scream, "It's alive" and chase him. The end. [5]
  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.

Spin-offs:

  • 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 some relatively adult content. [8]
  • 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 all 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.

International following

File:Spongebob im moviepark.png
SpongeBob at a movie park in Germany.
Main article: International following of SpongeBob SquarePants

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.
  • 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. [1]
  • SpongeBob SquarePants is the very first American cartoon to be broadcasted in Iraq and Afghanistan after their US-led invasions.

Notes

  1. ^ http://www.allgame.com/cg/agg.dll?p=agg&sql=1:43935
  2. ^ www.stltoday.com/stltoday/entertainment/stories.nsf/peopleinthenews/story...
  3. ^ http://www.segaarcade.com/pr/SpongeBob.asp
  4. ^ http://www.star-ecentral.com/news/story.asp?file=/2005/12/27/tvnradio/12578379&sec=tvnradio
  5. ^ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YG-3TfJJvyA
  6. ^ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-NOk-X2HNU
  7. ^ http://www.stopglobalwarming.org/sgw_feature.asp?id=8
  8. ^ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-ovQ4D7M0M
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