Portal:Television

The Television Portal

Flat-screen television receivers on display for sale at a consumer electronics store in 2008

Television (TV) is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. Additionally, the term can refer to a physical television set rather than the medium of transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, entertainment, news, and sports. The medium is capable of more than "radio broadcasting," which refers to an audio signal sent to radio receivers.

Television became available in crude experimental forms in the 1920s, but only after several years of further development was the new technology marketed to consumers. After World War II, an improved form of black-and-white television broadcasting became popular in the United Kingdom and the United States, and television sets became commonplace in homes, businesses, and institutions. During the 1950s, television was the primary medium for influencing public opinion. In the mid-1960s, color broadcasting was introduced in the U.S. and most other developed countries.

In 2013, 79% of the world's households owned a television set. The replacement of earlier cathode-ray tube (CRT) screen displays with compact, energy-efficient, flat-panel alternative technologies such as LCDs (both fluorescent-backlit and LED), OLED displays, and plasma displays was a hardware revolution that began with computer monitors in the late 1990s. Most television sets sold in the 2000s were still CRT, it was only in early 2010s that flat-screen TVs decisively overtook CRT. Major manufacturers announced the discontinuation of CRT, Digital Light Processing (DLP), plasma, and even fluorescent-backlit LCDs by the mid-2010s. LEDs are being gradually replaced by OLEDs. Also, major manufacturers have started increasingly producing smart TVs in the mid-2010s. Smart TVs with integrated Internet and Web 2.0 functions became the dominant form of television by the late 2010s.^{[better source needed]} (Full article...)

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"North by North Quahog" is the first episode of season four of Family Guy, following the revival of the series three years after its cancellation in 2002. Directed by Peter Shin and written by series creator Seth MacFarlane (pictured), the episode was first broadcast on May 1, 2005, on FOX. In "North by North Quahog", the show's main characters Peter and Lois Griffin go on a second honeymoon to spice up their marriage, but are eventually chased by Mel Gibson after Peter steals the sequel to The Passion of the Christ from Gibson's private hotel room. Meanwhile, their anthropomorphic dog Brian and their infant son Stewie take care of their teenage kids Chris and Meg. Family Guy had been canceled in 2002 due to low ratings, but was revived by FOX after reruns on Adult Swim became the network's most watched program, and more than three million DVDs of the show were sold. Much of the plot and many of the technical aspects of the episode, as well as the title, are direct parodies of the 1959 Alfred Hitchcock movie North by Northwest. The episode was watched by 12 million viewers and received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Animated Program (for Programming Less Than One Hour).

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Credit: Loavesofbread

A teleprompter (also known as an autocue) is a display device that prompts the person speaking with an electronic visual text of a speech or script. Using a teleprompter is similar to the practice of using cue cards.

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... that for television, James Mustapic set his mother up on a date with David Seymour, who will soon be the New Zealand deputy prime minister?
... that a television station spent so little on programming that a media columnist called it the "IOUs of Cincinnati"?
... that the radio station at Western Washington University interfered with telephone and television services in a campus dormitory?
... that Angelle's debut single was promoted with an entire television channel – and still only reached number 43 on the UK Singles Chart?
... that Toshiki Seto was cast in the television adaptation of Senpai, This Can't Be Love! because, according to the creator, he could express emotion through his stare?
... that CBS executive Laurence Tisch found out on a tennis court in the U.S. Virgin Islands that rival network NBC had bought his company's affiliate station in Miami?

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When I got my first television set, I stopped caring so much about close personal relationships.

— Andy Warhol

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...that copies of the 1982 biopic Will: G. Gordon Liddy, about a Watergate co-conspirator, are stored in the Nixon Presidential Materials collection at the U.S. National Archives?

...that popular 1950s game show Down You Go is one of the only U.S. television series to air on all four networks of television's Golden Age: ABC, NBC, CBS and DuMont?

...that the ABC television network created controversy when they licensed and produced a doll based on fictional rapist Todd Manning?

..that the time traveling premise featured in the Chrono series of video games was inspired by such television programs as The Time Tunnel?

...that Russian television implied that Filipp Kirkorov won the Eurovision Song Contest 1995 with "Kolibelnaya Dlya Vulkana" when he in fact only came 17th?

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Skelton in 1960

Richard Bernard Skelton (July 18, 1913 – September 17, 1997) was an American entertainer best known for his national radio and television shows between 1937 and 1971, especially as host of the television program The Red Skelton Show. He has stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his work in radio and television, and also appeared in burlesque, vaudeville, films, nightclubs, and casinos, all while he pursued an entirely separate career as an artist.

Skelton began developing his comedic and pantomime skills from the age of 10, when he became part of a traveling medicine show. He then spent time on a showboat, worked the burlesque circuit, and then entered into vaudeville in 1934. The "Doughnut Dunkers" pantomime sketch, which he wrote together with his wife, launched a career for him in vaudeville, radio, and films. His radio career began in 1937 with a guest appearance on The Fleischmann's Yeast Hour, which led to his becoming the host of Avalon Time in 1938. He became the host of The Raleigh Cigarette Program in 1941, on which many of his comedy characters were created, and he had a regularly scheduled radio program until 1957. Skelton made his film debut in 1938 alongside Ginger Rogers and Douglas Fairbanks Jr. in Alfred Santell's Having Wonderful Time, and would appear in numerous musical and comedy films throughout the 1940s and 1950s, with starring roles in 19 films, including Ship Ahoy (1941), I Dood It (1943), Ziegfeld Follies (1946), and The Clown (1953). (Full article...)

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James T. Aubrey Kroger Babb Rudolph Cartier Sydney Newman Eric Bana Kylie Minogue Peter Jennings KaDee Strickland Austin Nichols Aaron Sorkin Jake Gyllenhaal Dan Rather Brad Pitt Walter Cronkite Tom Brokaw John Le Mesurier George Formby Dan Castellaneta Perry Como Rose Catherine Pinkney

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The following are images from various television-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1The Philco Predicta, 1958. In the collection of The Children's Museum of Indianapolis (from History of television)
Image 2RCA 630-TS, the first mass-produced television set, which sold in 1946–1947 (from History of television)
Image 3Tihanyi' Radioskop patent (1926) was recognized as Document of Universal Significance by the UNESCO (from History of television)
Image 4Comparison of image quality between ISDB-T (1080i broadcast, top) and NTSC (480i transmission, bottom) (from Digital television)
Image 5The Nipkow disk. This schematic shows the circular paths traced by the holes, which may also be square for greater precision. The area of the disk outlined in black shows the region scanned. (from History of television)
Image 6Philo Farnsworth in 1924 (from History of television)
Image 7Ad for the beginning of experimental television broadcasting in New York City by RCA in 1939 (from History of television)
Image 8LG Electronics smart TV from 2011 (from Smart TV)
Image 9RCA CT-100 at the SPARK Museum of Electrical Invention playing Superman. The RCA CT-100 was the first mass-produced color TV set. (from Color television)
Image 10An RCA Victor Color TV ad featuring milliner Lilly Daché in 1959. (from Color television)
Image 11The earliest photograph of a television picture, showing the face of Oliver Hutchinson in June 1926. The television picture was projected using Baird's television camera. (from History of television)
Image 12This live image of actress Paddy Naismith was used to demonstrate Telechrome, John Logie Baird's first all-electronic color television system, which used two projection CRTs. The two-color image would be similar to the basic Telechrome system. (from Color television)
Image 13First television test broadcast transmitted by the NHK Broadcasting Technology Research Institute in May 1939 (from History of television)
Image 14Ferdinand Braun (from History of television)
Image 15Hovannes Adamian c. 1900s (from Color television)
Image 16DBS satellite dishes (from History of television)
Image 17Baird in 1925 with his televisor equipment and dummies "James" and "Stooky Bill" (right) (from History of television)
Image 18Family watching TV, 1958 (from History of television)
Image 19Smart TVs on display (from Smart TV)
Image 20Color bars used in a test pattern, sometimes used when no program material is available (from History of television)
Image 21LG smart TV using the Web browser (from Smart TV)
Image 22Manfred von Ardenne in 1933 (from History of television)
Image 23A map depicting digital terrestrial television standards (from Digital television)
Image 24An early Smart TV from 2012 running the discontinued Orsay platform (from History of television)
Image 25Samsung's discontinued Orsay platform (from Smart TV)
Image 26The first mass-produced Czechoslovak TV-set Tesla 4001A (1953–57) (from History of television)

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Featured lists have been determined by the Wikipedia community to be the best lists on English Wikipedia.

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The third season of 30 Rock, an American television comedy series, consists of 22 episodes and began airing on October 30, 2008, on the NBC network in the United States. The season was produced by Broadway Video, Little Stranger, and NBC Universal; the executive producers were series creator Tina Fey, Lorne Michaels, Marci Klein, David Miner, and Robert Carlock.

In this season, Liz focuses heavily on her personal life, trying to adopt a child and find a new romantic partner. Meanwhile, Jack Donaghy pursues a new relationship, Jenna Maroney undertakes a new Janis Joplin-based film project, and Tracy Jordan enjoys the success of his video game developed at the end of the previous season. (Full article...)
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Roddenberry's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame

Eugene Wesley "Gene" Roddenberry (August 19, 1921 – October 24, 1991) was an American screenwriter and producer of several television series, best known for his work in creating the Star Trek franchise. He began a writing career while he was a Sergeant in the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) and his first work to be bought by a network was The Secret Defense of 117, although it took four years to be broadcast. During that time, he wrote four episodes of the police procedural Highway Patrol under the pseudonym "Robert Wesley", as the LAPD required employees to seek formal permission to work a second job. After leaving the force, he wrote for several series, such as Have Gun – Will Travel but wanted to become a producer.

He wrote pilots for a series of his own, but these were turned down by the studios until he began work on The Lieutenant. This ran for a single season on NBC on Saturday nights. While involved in that series, he began working on a science fiction premise that became Star Trek. He oversaw the production of the series for the first two seasons, but following budget cuts and the move to an unfavorable timeslot for the third season, he stepped back from working on Star Trek but remained credited as an executive producer. Following the cancellation of the series, he wrote and produced his first feature film, Pretty Maids All in a Row. He also produced several new science fiction pilots: Genesis II (also re-worked into a second pilot, called Planet Earth), The Questor Tapes and Spectre. Of these, Questor was approved to go to a full season, but following disagreements between Roddenberry and the studio over suggested changes, it was canceled. (Full article...)
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The Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Younger Actress in a Drama Series was an award presented annually by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) and the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (ATAS). It was given annually from 1985 to 2019 to honor a young actress below the age of 25, who had delivered an outstanding performance in a role while working within the daytime drama industry.

At the 12th Daytime Emmy Awards held in 1985, Tracey E. Bregman was the first winner of this award, for her role of Lauren Fenmore on The Young and the Restless. The awards ceremony had not been aired on television for the prior two years, having been criticized for voting integrity. The award was originally called Outstanding Ingenue in a Drama Series, the criteria of the new category were deemed confusing, performers of differing ages were nominated, and critics argued some were of supporting or lead actress standards. Adding to the confusion, the first winner, Bregman, and the Outstanding Supporting Actress winner that year, Beth Maitland, played characters near to the same age. The category was renamed Outstanding Juvenile Female in a Drama Series in 1989, and began using its current title in 1991. The criteria were later altered, requiring that the actress be aged 25 or below. (Full article...)
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The tenth season of the American animated sitcom The Simpsons aired on Fox between August 23, 1998 and May 16, 1999. It contains 23 episodes, starting with "Lard of the Dance". The Simpsons is a satire of a middle-class American lifestyle epitomized by its family of the same name, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie. Set in the fictional city of Springfield, the show lampoons American culture, society, television, and many aspects of the human condition.

The showrunner for the tenth season was Mike Scully. Before production began, a salary dispute between the main cast members of The Simpsons and Fox arose. However, it was soon settled and the actors' salaries were raised to $125,000 per episode. In addition to the large Simpsons cast, many guest stars appeared in season ten, including Phil Hartman in his last appearance due to his death months earlier in May 1998. (Full article...)
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Kashimashi: Girl Meets Girl (かしまし〜ガール·ミーツ·ガール〜, Kashimashi ~Gāru Mītsu Gāru~) is a Japanese animated television series. The episodes were directed by Nobuaki Nakanishi, and animated by the Japanese animation studio Studio Hibari. The series was based on the manga version of the same name, and followed the original story from the first two manga volumes closely for the first nine episodes, though with many differences. In episode ten, the anime starts to deviate from the manga and after that, the storyline in the anime has no connection with the manga. The main plot in the anime is the drama that relates from the three female main characters of Hazumu Osaragi, Yasuna Kamiizumi, and Tomari Kurusu, and their romantic struggles in a love triangle. Yasuna and Tomari vie for Hazumu's affections while Hazumu is initially unable to choose between them.

The televised series aired on the TV Tokyo Japanese television network between January 11, 2006, and March 29, 2006, comprising twelve main episodes. Four pieces of theme music were used in the anime, one opening theme, two ending themes, and one insert song used in episode twelve. The opening theme is "Koisuru Kokoro" (恋するココロ, lit. "The Heart in Love") by Eufonius, the main ending theme is "Michishirube" (みちしるべ, lit. "Route Marker") by Yūmao, the second ending theme only used in the twelfth episode is "Kimi no Tame ni Dekiru Koto" (キミのためにできること, lit. "Something I Can Do For You"), also by Yūmao, and the insert song is "Hanbun" (半分, lit. "Half") by Yukari Tamura. The episodes were released on seven DVD compilations released between April 26, 2006, and October 27, 2006, each containing two episodes. The seventh DVD also contained an original video animation episode "A Girl Falls in Love with a Girl" (少女は少女に恋をした, Shōjo wa Shōjo ni Koi o Shita). The staff that produced the television series also produced the OVA. This episode is set four months after the events of the anime series during the Christmas season. (Full article...)
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Survivor is an American reality television show, based on the Swedish program Expedition Robinson. Contestants are referred to as "castaways", and they compete against one another to become the "Sole Survivor" and win one million U.S. dollars. First airing in 2000, there currently have been a total of 47 seasons aired; the 48th season is currently airing. The program itself has been filmed on five continents.

Contestants usually apply to be on the show, but the series has been known to recruit contestants for various seasons. For Survivor: Fiji, the producers had hoped to have a more racially diverse cast, and hoped that a more diverse group would apply after the success of the racially segregated Survivor: Cook Islands. When this did not happen, the producers turned to recruiting and in the end, only one contestant had actually submitted an application to be on the show. For the most part, contestants are virtually unknown prior to their Survivor appearance, but occasionally some well-known people are cast. (Full article...)
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Formby entertaining British troops during the Second World War

The English comic, singer and actor George Formby (1904–1961) performed in many mediums of light entertainment, including film, radio and theatre. His career spanned from 1915 until December 1960. During that time he became synonymous with playing "a shy, innocent, gauche, accident-prone Lancashire lad".

Formby began his working life as a jockey but always held an ambition to become a performer. In 1915, against the wishes of his father, Formby made his screen debut in the film By the Shortest of Heads. Upon his father's death in 1921, he began to build a full-time performing career, and worked predominantly on the variety circuit. In 1926 he began his music career, singing light, comical songs, and playing the ukulele or banjolele. From 1934 he increasingly worked in film, and had become a major star by the 1930s and '40s. He appeared on television for the first time in 1938 in the festive special Christmas Greetings. He became the UK's highest-paid entertainer during those decades. The film historian Brian McFarlane writes that Formby portrayed "essentially gormless incompetents, aspiring to various kinds of professional success ... and even more improbably to a middle-class girlfriend, usually in the clutches of some caddish type with a moustache. Invariably he scored on both counts". (Full article...)
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Treehouse of Horror, also known as The Simpsons Halloween Specials, is a series of Halloween-themed episodes of the animated sitcom The Simpsons, each consisting of three separate, self-contained segments. These segments usually involve the family in some horror, science fiction, or supernatural setting and always take place outside the normal continuity of the show. Therefore, they are considered non-canon.

The original "Treehouse of Horror" episode aired on October 25, 1990, and was inspired by EC Comics Horror tales. From "Treehouse of Horror" (1990) to "X" (1999), every episode has aired in the week preceding or on October 31; "II" and "X" are the only two episodes to air on Halloween. Between "XI" (2000) to "XIX" (2008) and "XXI" (2010), due to Fox's contract with Major League Baseball's World Series, episodes had originally aired in November. "XX" (2009) and each Treehouse of Horror episode since "XXII" (2011) has aired in October, with the exception of season 32's "XXXI" (2020), which was originally scheduled for October 18, but was postponed to November 1 due to the 2020 NLCS reaching game 7. This was the first time since "XXI" that a Treehouse of Horror episode aired in November. The same thing happened with season 35's "XXXIV" (2023) and season 36's "XXXV" (2024), which aired on November 5, 2023, and November 3, 2024, respectively. (Full article...)
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The ninth season of the American animated sitcom The Simpsons aired on Fox between September 21, 1997 and May 17, 1998. It began with "The City of New York vs. Homer Simpson". Mike Scully served as showrunner for the ninth production season. The ninth broadcast season contained three episodes with 4F-series production codes, indicating that they were hold-over episodes from production season eight, and two episodes with 3G-series production codes, which are not explicitly confirmed to be part of any production season but are speculated to be relabeled 3F-series (seventh production season) episodes. This makes it the first broadcast season to include holdover episodes from two previous production seasons.

Season nine won three Emmy Awards: "Trash of the Titans" for Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Animated Program (for Programming Less Than One Hour) in 1998, Hank Azaria won "Outstanding Voice-Over Performance" for the voice of Apu Nahasapeemapetilon, and Alf Clausen and Ken Keeler won the "Outstanding Music and Lyrics" award. Clausen was also nominated for "Outstanding Music Direction" and "Outstanding Music Composition for a Series (Dramatic Underscore)" for "Treehouse of Horror VIII". Season nine was also nominated for a "Best Network Television Series" award by the Saturn Awards and "Best Sound Editing" for a Golden Reel Award. (Full article...)
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Timberlake at the 2016 San Diego Comic Con

American entertainer Justin Timberlake has released four video albums and has been featured in thirty-seven music videos, seventeen films, fifteen television shows, and six commercials. He achieved early fame when he appeared in the Disney Channel television series The All-New Mickey Mouse Club, alongside singers Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera and actor Ryan Gosling. Timberlake rose to fame in the late 1990s as the lead singer of the boy band NSYNC. In 2002, he launched his solo career and released his solo debut single "Like I Love You", the music video for which was directed by Bucky Chrome. Francis Lawrence directed the video for "Cry Me a River". The video features Timberlake's character as he spies on a former lover, who according to the director portrays his former romantic interest Spears. At the 2003 MTV Video Music Awards, the video won the accolades for Best Male Video and Best Pop Video.

In 2005, Timberlake starred in the thriller Edison alongside Morgan Freeman and Kevin Spacey. The film received negative reviews from film critics and was a box office bomb. He then portrayed Frankie Ballenbacher in the crime drama Alpha Dog (2006); it received mixed responses from critics and attained box office success. The same year, Timberlake released his second studio album FutureSex/LoveSounds—four music videos for singles from the album were shot. Samuel Bayer directed the music video for "What Goes Around... Comes Around" (2007) in which American actress Scarlett Johansson plays Timberlake's love interest. From 2007 until 2009, he appeared in the music videos for his collaborations with other artists including 50 Cent ("Ayo Technology"), Madonna ("4 Minutes") and T.I. ("Dead and Gone"). (Full article...)
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Numbers is an American television series created by Nicolas Falacci and Cheryl Heuton. It premiered on CBS on Sunday, January 23, 2005, at 10:00 pm with its pilot episode then moved to its Friday slot five days later. It remained in that slot for the rest of its run. The series is set in Los Angeles, California, and follows the stories of a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) team and a mathematics professor, focusing on relationships between FBI Special Agent in Charge Don Eppes (Rob Morrow), his brother Professor Charlie Eppes (David Krumholtz) and their father, Alan Eppes (Judd Hirsch), and on the brothers' efforts to fight crime. A typical episode begins with a crime, which is subsequently investigated by Don's team and mathematically described by Charlie. The insights provided by Charlie's mathematics are almost always crucial to solving the crime.

In total, six complete seasons consisting of 118 episodes were broadcast. The first season, a mid-season replacement for Dr. Vegas, was the shortest of the six, and spanned 13 episodes from January to May 2005. Seasons two and three aired from September to May of the 2005–2006 and 2006–2007 seasons respectively, but season four was cut short by the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike. Twelve episodes were originally produced and aired from September 2007 to January 2008. Six more episodes were aired in April and May 2008 after the strike ended. Season 5 began airing on October 3, 2008, and continued through to May 2009. Season six began in late September 2009 and concluded in March 2010. (Full article...)
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The Best Fighter ESPY Award was an annual award honoring the achievements of an individual from the world of combat sports. The Best Fighter ESPY Award trophy was presented to the professional or amateur boxer or mixed martial artist adjudged to be the best in a given calendar year at the annual ESPY Awards ceremony in Los Angeles. It was first awarded as part of the ESPY Awards in 2007, subsuming the Best Boxer ESPY Award until 2019, when the Best MMA Fighter ESPY Award was established, and the ESPY Awards began awarding boxers and mixed martial arts fighters separately. Balloting for the award was undertaken by fans over the Internet from between three and five choices selected by the ESPN Select Nominating Committee, which is composed of a panel of experts. It was conferred in July to reflect performance and achievement over the preceding twelve months.

The inaugural winner of the Best Fighter ESPY Award was American welterweight champion Floyd Mayweather Jr., who defeated the incumbent category title holder Oscar De La Hoya two months prior. He is one of two people to have been presented with the award more than once, winning the accolade a total of six times; Mayweather was also nominated in 2015. Filipino boxer Manny Pacquiao has the second most awards won with victories in 2009 and 2011. It has been presented to one woman in its history, American bantamweight mixed martial arts fighter Ronda Rousey in 2015. Between 2007 and 2018, boxers were most successful at the ESPY Awards with nine victories and twenty-four nominations, followed by mixed martial arts with three wins and nineteen nominations. (Full article...)
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Rihanna at the Cannes Film Festival in 2017

Rihanna has released four video albums and appeared in 62 music videos, 12 films, 13 television programs, and several television commercials. In 2005, Rihanna signed a recording contract with Def Jam Recordings and released her debut single "Pon de Replay", taken from her first studio album Music of the Sun (2005). Like its lyrical theme, the music video for the song was inspired by disco and dance; it was directed by Little X. Three separate videos were released for "SOS", the lead single from her second studio album A Girl like Me (2006), all of which contained various dance sequences. The same year, American director Anthony Mandler directed the accompanying music video for the second single "Unfaithful", which featured Rihanna in a dangerous love triangle with her lover and her husband. "Unfaithful" was Rihanna's first collaboration with Mandler; they later worked together regularly. Also in 2006, Rihanna played herself in the third installment of the Bring It On film series, entitled Bring It On: All or Nothing.

The music video for "Umbrella", the lead single from her third studio album Good Girl Gone Bad (2007), was directed by Chris Applebaum and featured scenes of Rihanna naked and covered in silver paint. It won the Video of the Year accolade at the 2007 MTV Video Music Awards. Seven more singles, accompanied with separate music videos directed by Mandler, were released from the album. Rihanna flew to Europe to shoot the music videos for the 2007 singles "Shut Up and Drive" and "Don't Stop the Music" in Prague. "Russian Roulette", the lead single from Rihanna's fourth studio album Rated R (2009), featured a cameo appearance by American actor and model Jesse Williams. The music video for the second single, "Hard", was directed by Melina Matsoukas, who also directed the videos for Rihanna's 2010 singles, "Rude Boy" and "Rockstar 101". The same year, Rihanna provided vocals for Eminem's "Love the Way You Lie". The song's accompanying music video features actors Dominic Monaghan and Megan Fox in a love-hate relationship while Eminem and Rihanna perform in front of a burning house. In 2010, Rihanna also filmed the scenes for her second film appearance in Battleship, which was released in April 2012. (Full article...)
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Stephen Hillenburg, shown here in 2011, created SpongeBob SquarePants, which premiered on May 1, 1999.

SpongeBob SquarePants is an American animated television series created by marine biologist and animator Stephen Hillenburg that premiered on Nickelodeon on May 1, 1999. The series is set in the fictional underwater city of Bikini Bottom, and centers on the adventures and endeavors of SpongeBob SquarePants, an enthusiastic and optimistic sea sponge. Many of the ideas for the show originated in an unpublished, educational comic book titled The Intertidal Zone, which Hillenburg created in the mid-1980s. He began developing SpongeBob SquarePants into a television series in 1996 after the cancellation of Rocko's Modern Life, another Nickelodeon television series that Hillenburg previously directed.
As of March 14, 2025,^[update] 316 episodes of SpongeBob SquarePants have aired, currently in its fifteenth season. The fifteenth season consists of 20 episodes. The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie, a feature-length film, was released in theaters on November 19, 2004, and grossed over US$140 million worldwide. Atlantis SquarePantis, a television film guest starring David Bowie, debuted as part of the fifth season. In 2009, Nickelodeon celebrated the show's tenth anniversary with Square Roots: The Story of SpongeBob SquarePants and SpongeBob's Truth or Square. The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water, a stand-alone sequel, was released in theaters on February 6, 2015, and grossed over US$324 million worldwide. In 2019, Nickelodeon celebrated the show's twentieth anniversary with SpongeBob's Big Birthday Blowout, a television film. (Full article...)
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The West Wing is an American political drama television series created by Aaron Sorkin and produced by John Wells Productions and Warner Bros. Television. It originally aired on NBC from September 22, 1999, to May 14, 2006, broadcasting 156 episodes over seven seasons. A special episode was also released on October 15, 2020, on HBO Max.

The show follows the lives of White House staffers during the fictional Democratic presidential administration of Josiah Bartlet. The show originally starred Rob Lowe as Sam Seaborn, Moira Kelly as Mandy Hampton, Allison Janney as C. J. Cregg, Richard Schiff as Toby Ziegler, John Spencer as Leo McGarry, Bradley Whitford as Josh Lyman, and Martin Sheen as Bartlet. Over the course of the show's run, the main cast added Dulé Hill as Charlie Young, Janel Moloney as Donna Moss, Stockard Channing as Abbey Bartlet, Joshua Malina as Will Bailey, Mary McCormack as Kate Harper, Jimmy Smits as Matt Santos, Alan Alda as Arnold Vinick, and Kristin Chenoweth as Annabeth Schott. (Full article...)

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