Awards and nominations

Year	Association	Award Category	Notes	Result
2000	Golden Reel Award	Best Sound Editing in Television Animation — Music	Episodes: "Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy" and "Pickles"	Won
2000	Golden Reel Award	Best Sound Editing in Television Animation — Sound	Episode: "Karate Choppers"	Won
2001	Annie Awards	Outstanding Individual Achievement for Voice Acting by a Female Performer in an Animated Television Production	Mary Jo Catlett as Mrs. Puff in "No Free Rides"	Nominated
2001	Annie Awards	Outstanding Individual Achievement for Voice Acting by a Male Performer in an Animated Television Production	Tom Kenny as SpongeBob in "Wormy"	Nominated
2001	Annie Awards	Outstanding Individual Achievement for a Song in an Animated Production	Peter Straus and Paul Tibbitt for the song "The Very First Christmas"	Nominated
2001	Golden Reel Award	Best Sound Editing in Television Animation — Sound	Episodes: "Rock Bottom" and "Arrgh"	Won
2001	Golden Reel Award	Best Sound Editing in Television Animation — Music	Episodes: "Fools In April" and "Neptune's Spatula"	Nominated
2002	Emmy Awards	Outstanding Animated Program (For Programming Less Than One Hour)		Nominated
2002	Golden Reel Award	Best Sound Editing in Television – Animation	Episodes: "Secret Box" and "Band Geeks"	Won
2002	Golden Reel Award	Best Sound Editing in Television Animation — Music	Episodes: "Jellyfish Hunter" and "The Fry Cook Games"	Nominated
2002	Television Critics Association Awards	Outstanding Achievement in Children's Programming		Won
2003	Emmy Awards	Outstanding Animated Program (For Programming Less Than One Hour)	Episodes: "New Student Starfish" and "Clams"	Nominated
2003	Golden Reel Award	Best Sound Editing in Television Animation — Music	Episodes: "Wet Painters" and "Krusty Krab Training Video"	Won
2003	Golden Reel Award	Best Sound Editing in Television Animation	Episodes: "Nasty Patty" and "Idiot Box"	Won
2003	Kids' Choice Awards	Favorite Cartoon		Won
2004	Emmy Awards	Outstanding Animated Program (For Programming Less Than One Hour)	Episode: "SpongeBob B.C. (Before Comedy)"	Nominated
2004	Golden Reel Award	Best Sound Editing in Television Animation — Music	Episodes: "The Great Snail Race" and "Mid-Life Crustacean".	Won
2004	Golden Reel Award	Best Sound Editing in Television Animation — Music	Episode: "Mid-Life Crustacean".	Nominated
2004	Kids' Choice Awards	Favorite Cartoon		Won
2005	Annie Awards	Best Animated Television Production		Won
2005	Emmy Awards	Outstanding Animated Program (For Programming Less Than One Hour)	Episodes: "Fear of a Krabby Patty" and "Shell of a Man"	Nominated
2005	Golden Reel Award	Best Sound Editing in Television: Animated	Episodes: "Pranks A Lot" and "SpongeBob Meets the Strangler"	Nominated
2005	Kids' Choice Awards	Favorite Cartoon		Won
2005	Satellite Awards	Best Youth DVD	Complete Second Season DVD	Nominated
2005	Television Critics Association Awards	Outstanding Achievement in Children's Programming		Nominated
2006	Annie Awards	Best Writing in an Animated Television Production	C.H. Greenblatt, Paul Tibbitt, Mike Bell, and Tim Hill in "Fear of a Krabby Patty"	Won
2006	Golden Reel Award	Best Sound Editing in Television: Animated	Episode: "Have You Seen This Snail?"	Nominated
2006	Kids' Choice Awards	Favorite Cartoon		Won
2007	Emmy Awards	Outstanding Animated Program (For Programming Less Than One Hour)	Episodes: "Bummer Vacation" and "Wigstruck"	Nominated
2007	Kids' Choice Awards	Favorite Cartoon		Won
2007	Television Critics Association Awards	Outstanding Achievement in Children's Programming		Nominated[43]
2008	Annie Awards	Best Voice Acting in an Animated Television Production	Tom Kenny in "Spy Buddies"	Nominated
2008	Golden Reel Award	Best Sound Editing in Television: Animated	Episode: "SpongeHenge"	Nominated
2008	Kids' Choice Awards	Favorite Cartoon		Nominated
2008	Emmy Awards	Outstanding Animated Program (For Programming Less Than One Hour)	Episodes: "The Inmates of Summer" and "The Two Faces of Squidward"	Nominated
2008	Philippines Kids' Choice Awards	Favorite Cartoon		Won
2009	Kids' Choice Awards	Favorite Cartoon		Won
2009	Annie Awards	Direction in an Animated Television Production	Episode: "Penny Foolish"	Nominated
2009	Golden Reel Awards	Best Sound Editing: Television Animation	Episode: "Suction Cup Symphony"	Nominated
2009	Teen Choice Awards	Choice TV Animated Show		Won
2009	Emmy Awards	Special Class Animated Program	Episode: "Dear Vikings"	Nominated
2010	Golden Reel Awards	Best Sound Editing: Television Animation	Episode: "SpongeBob vs. The Big One"	TBA
2010	Annie Awards	Best Home Entertainment Production	"SpongeBob vs. The Big One" DVD	TBA
2010	Annie Awards	Best Animated Television Production for Children		TBA
2010	Annie Awards	Best Voice Acting in a Television Production	Tom Kenny in "SpongeBob's Truth or Square"	TBA

History

Creation

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 this period, Hillenburg became fascinated with 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, including "Bob the Sponge", who was the co-host of the comic and resembled an actual sea sponge as opposed to SpongeBob.In 1987, Hillenburg left the institute to pursue his dream of becoming an animator, and began to envision the possible concept of a project involving anthropomorphic sea life, drawing several rough sketches. In 1992, Hillenburg began to attend the California Institute of the Arts to study animation, having been accepted into the institute by Jules Engel, who was impressed with Hillenburg's previous work.

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.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, and future SpongeBob SquarePants collaborators Doug Lawrence, Paul Tibbitt and others. Hillenburg then joined the Nickelodeon

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.

Season one

SpongeBob SquarePants aired its first episode, "Help Wanted/Reef Blower/Tea at the Treedome," on May 1, 1999, following the Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards. The series later made its "official" debut on July 17, 1999 with the second episode "Bubblestand/Ripped Pants."

The series initially suffered in the ratings, and failed to attract a steady audience. Creator Hillenburg was confident that due to the low ratings, the Nickelodeon executives would cancel the series after its first season.Sumatra and noticed a schoolgirl carrying a bootleg SpongeBob SquarePants bookbag, convincing him of the series' cult following. However, he continued to believe that the series would be canceled after its first season, and was surprised when Nickelodeon renewed the series for a second season. However, during this period, Hillenburg visited

Season two through three

The second season began on October 26, 2000 with the episode "Your Shoe's Untied/Squid's Day Off," and during this time, the show propelled into stardom, with the help of a huge merchandising campaign that continues to this day. The growing popularity of SpongeBob led to Nickelodeon immediately ordering a third season, which began on October 5, 2001 with the episode "Just One Bite/The Bully."

In 2002, as the show's success continued to grow, production on a feature film spin-off began. The announcement of the movie led some fans to fear that the series was being cancelled and rumors of such were spread. Nickelodeon, having aired half of the third season by then, decided to spread the remaining episodes out over two years and the final episode, "SpongeBob Meets The Strangler/Pranks A Lot," aired on October 11, 2004.

Released in the U.S. on November 19, 2004, The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie received generally positive reviews from critics and successfully grossed over $140,000,000 worldwide. The film was intended to be the series finale, and creator Hillenburg announced that he would resign. However, in 2005, it was announced that SpongeBobexecutive producer. The job now belongs to Derek Drymon, with Paul Tibbitt taking over Drymon's job as creative director. would be continuing with a fourth season due in May. Stephen Hillenburg was rumoured to have left the series; however, he did not actually leave the show but resigned from his position as the show's

Deleted scenes

"Just One Bite" was edited from subsequent airings compared to its original airing in 7 October 2001 because of a scene near the end of the episode. In the scene, Squidward opens a trap burglar alarm containing gas, a robot hand drops a match on the gas, causing Squidward and the room to go on fire. Squidward goes into the fry-cook room in panic, and the same process happens again. This scene was removed from later airings and DVD prints (including the "Complete Third Season" DVD) and in this case was replaced with another scene where the camera zooms into the Patty Vault without Squidward saying his censored lines, and Squidward enters the vault without getting burned by the traps. Nickelodeon did not explain the cause and reason of this, although similarities between 9/11 may have been why.

Another deleted scene was in the episode "Procrastination", where SpongeBob looks out the window and see everyone having fun, imagines a live-action racecar crashing to the side (most likely the reason why this scene was cut), and when he does calisthenics.

Season four through seven

The new episodes began airing on May 6, 2005. The first new episode 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 September 23; its companion episode, "Funny Pants," premiered the following week. The Star Online eCentral reported in December 2005 that Nickelodeon had ordered 20 more episodes, bringing the show’s total to 100.

In December 2006, SpongeBob was approved for a fifth season which began on February 19, 2007 with the episode "Rise and Shine"/"Waiting"/"Fungus Among Us." On July 23, 2007 Nickelodeon aired a special event, called the "SpongeBob New-New-New-New-New Week" in which from Monday to Friday, a new episode would air. This continued until the end of the second week. Later on November 12, 2007 a TV movie aired titled Atlantis SquarePantis, guest staring David Bowie as the voice of Lord Royal Highness. On March 13, 2008, it was announced that SpongeBob will have an additional thirty-nine episodes, which includes the remaining episodes of the sixth season, and a seventh season. The last remaining episode from the fifth season, "Goo Goo Gas", finally aired on July 19, 2009, completing the fifth season of the series.

Tenth anniversary

On July 14, 2009, a primetime SpongeBob tenth anniversary documentary titled Square Roots: The Story of SpongeBob SquarePants, aired on VH1, discussing the history of the show, and its impact on popular culture. Starting on July 17, 2009 at 8:00 PM EST, Nickelodeon aired a 50½-hour marathon titled "The Ultimate SpongeBob Sponge Bash." The marathon included the premiere of 11 new episodes, countdowns of celebrities' and viewer-chosen top 10 episodes, and more. On November 6, 2009, a second TV movie debuted on Nickelodeon, titled Truth or Square, in which SpongeBob, Patrick, Squidward, and Mr. Krabs are accidentally locked inside the Krusty Krab freezer on the night of the restaurant's eleventy-seventh anniversary celebration. While trapped inside, the friends look back on their shared memories with "shocking" reveals. Several celebrities made live-action cameo appearances on Truth or Square, including Rosario Dawson, LeBron James, Tina Fey, Will Ferrell, Craig Ferguson, Robin Williams and Pink, while Ricky Gervais provided opening and closing naration for the special. Also Victoria Beckham was set to lend her voice as Queen Amphitrite, a Brit-accented goddess of the sea in an upcoming episode most likely to air during an hour-long special this summer.

Voice cast

• Tom Kenny: SpongeBob SquarePants, Gary the Snail, Mr. SquarePants, French Narrator, Patchy the Pirate (live-action performance), miscellaneous characters
• Bill Fagerbakke: Patrick Star
• Rodger Bumpass: Squidward Tentacles, Dr. Gill Gilliam
• Clancy Brown: Mr. Krabs
• Carolyn Lawrence: Sandy Cheeks
• Mr. Lawrence: Plankton, Larry the Lobster, miscellaneous characters
• Jill Talley: Karen
• Lori Alan: Pearl Krabs
• Mary Jo Catlett: Mrs. Puff
• Brian Doyle-Murray: The Flying Dutchman
• Ernest Borgnine: Mermaid Man
• Tim Conway: Barnacle Boy
• Sirena Irwin: Mrs. SquarePants, Mama Krabs ("Enemy-in-Law," "Friend or Foe," "Spongicus")
• Dee Bradley Baker: Squilliam Fancyson, miscellaneous characters
• Frank Welker: Talking Gorilla ("I Had an Accident"), animal vocal effects
• Paul Tibbitt: Mama Krabs ("Sailor Mouth," "Mid-Life Crustacean"), Potty the Parrot (2007-present)
• Stephen Hillenburg: Potty the Parrot (2000-2004)

Setting

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.

Characters

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 close friend of SpongeBob is Sandy Cheeks, a red squirrel from Texas, who was sent there to do scientific research for her chimpanzee bosses. She lives 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, who is the owner 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 to obtain success, though all of his schemes usually end in failure.

SpongeBob SquarePants

SpongeBob SquarePants is an American animated television series, created by marine biologist and animator Stephen Hillenburg. 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.

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 of the series was released in theaters on November 19, 2004. The series is currently in its seventh season and celebrated its tenth anniversary on July 17, 2009. SpongeBob has recently been renewed for an eighth season, which will make it the longest running show in Nickelodeon's history, surpassing Rugrats upon the completion of the 26th episode that season.