SpongeBob SquarePants is an American animated television series created by marine biologist and animator Stephen Hillenburg for Nickelodeon.
In the show, we follow the adventures and problems of the title character and his various friends in the fictional underwater city of Bikini Bottom. The series' popularity has made it a phenomenon, as well as Nickelodeon network's highest rated show. It is the most distributed property of MTV Networks. The media franchise has generated $8 billion in merchandising revenue for Nickelodeon.
The series has been nominated for a variety of different awards, including 17 Annie Awards (with six wins), 17 Golden Reel Awards (with eight wins), 15 Emmy Awards (with one win), 13 Kids' Choice Awards (with 12 wins), and four BAFTA Children's Awards (with two wins). In 2011, a newly described species of mushroom, Spongiforma squarepantsii, was named after the cartoon's title character.
The voice actors for the SpongeBob SquarePants characters are: Tom Kenny, Bill Fagerbakke, Rodger Bumpass, Clancy Brown, Carolyn Lawrence, and Mr. Lawrence.
SpongeBob SquarePants has been produced domestically at the Nickelodeon Animation Studios in Burbank, California, and animated overseas at Rough Draft Studios in South Korea. The theme music was composed by Hank Smith Music, which consisted of Derek Drymon, Mark Harrison, Stephen Hillenburg and Blaise Smith.
The series airs on Nickelodeon in Australia and New Zealand, Canada, India, and the United Kingdom and Ireland. It airs on TG4 in Ireland, YTV and Teletoon in Canada and on Eleven in Australia.
SpongeBob SquarePants is one of the longest-running shows on Nickelodeon. During the eighth season, the show became the Nickelodeon series with the most episodes, surpassing the 172 episodes of Rugrats with 178. In its ninth season, a total of 26 episodes are in order, which would push the series over the 200th episode mark.
In a statement, Brown Johnson, animation president for Nickelodeon, said, "SpongeBob's success in reaching over 200 episodes is a testament to creator Stephen Hillenburg's vision, comedic sensibility and his dynamic, lovable characters. The series now joins the club of contemporary classic Nicktoons that have hit this benchmark, so we're incredibly proud"
On June 4, 2013, Viacom announced a multi-year licensing agreement that would move its programs, such as SpongeBob and Dora the Explorer, to Amazon, Netflix's top competitor, where it now airs.
2021