Spongebob SquarePants

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Revision as of 12:58, 3 March 2007

SpongeBob SquarePants is an American animated television series. It is one of Nickelodeon's "Nicktoons." Although its original network is Nickelodeon, it is broadcast across the world. It was created by marine biologist and animator Stephen Hillenburg and is produced through his production company, United Plankton Pictures Inc. The series is set in the Pacific Ocean in the city of Bikini Bottom and 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 17, 1999 with the second episode, "Bubblestand/Ripped Pants."

Setting

SpongeBob SquarePants is a sponge who lives in a pineapple (under the sea/SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS! etc.), while his octopus neighbor Squidward Tentacles lives in a moai head. SpongeBob's other neighbor and best friend (on the other side of Squidward), is a pink starfish named Patrick Star, who lives under a rock. Squidward often gets annoyed when SpongeBob and Patrick bother him.

SpongeBob's house-pet is a snail named Gary, whose "meow" is similar to a housecat. Although Gary only speaks in a few episodes, the 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. Fish act as the citizens of the community but, as a rule, are not important characters.

SpongeBob works at the Krusty Krab, a hamburger fast-food restaurant, as a fry chef with Squidward Tentacles who is a cashier. The Krusty Krab is owned by Mr. Eugene H. Krabs, commonly referred to as "Mr. Krabs". At the Krusty Krab, Spongebob makes Krabby Patties.

Sheldon J. Plankton (commonly referred to as "Plankton") is Mr. Krabs' archrival who owns a low-rank fast-food restaurant called The Chum Bucket across the street, 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 with him.

Sandy Cheeks is another friend of SpongeBob. She is a squirrel that lives in an underwater dome in Bikini Bottom. She was sent there by her bosses, who are chimpanzees. Sandy has a Texan accent and is from the state itself. When not inside her tree-dome, she wears a diving suit with a globe helmet to allow her to breathe gaseous oxygen rather than drowning in the water.

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 the creators seem to have forgotten the show takes place underwater in some episodes. A flurry of bubbles accompanies actions in many of the episodes, just to remind the viewer that everything is underwater. Ironically, when there is a body of water underwater a non-car boat must be used to cross it, because both SpongeBob and Patrick cannot swim.

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 viewers in the ratings to be considered popular, eventually becoming more popular than Rugrats had ever been. SpongeBob follows 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, while the former attracted a cult following. At the time of writing, SpongeBob is the most popular cartoon on American television, extremely popular in the UK, and it was considered to be the flagship cartoon for Generation Y. 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 is not only popular among small children, but adults also enjoy the "low budget" cartoon. However, SpongeBob SquarePants is the top TV series on Nickelodeon.

Broad appeal

The cartoon is designed to appeal to adults as well as children. 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 younger viewers might not understand. Certain innuendos which crop up, also are intended to go over younger viewers' heads. For example, SpongeBob tried to show his grandma that he was a mature adult by wearing sideburns and a Bowler hat, and listening to 'free form jazz', jokes most children would not understand.

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 the series was broadcasted on MTV and featured on Spike TV. A quote by Patrick ("It's gonna rock!" from the episode Mid-Life Crustacean) 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. In the episode Krab Borg, SpongeBob makes notice of Mr. Krabs calling his radio player his "little buddy", with an accent similar to that of Tony Montana, the main character of the movie Scarface. Also, in the episode Bummer Vacation, Squidward calls for a "shell on a shingle", referencing a shit on a shingle.

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 newer cartoons revolve around pre-adolescents with strange lives and feature many pop-culture references (e.g. The 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 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 heavy 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 announced that he will be a special guest on a future episode of SpongeBob SquarePants in 2009.

Controversy

Controversy surrounds the animated television series SpongeBob SquarePants and its characters. This is not new for Nickelodeon — many of its cartoons, including Ren & Stimpy and Rocko's Modern Life, have sparked criticisms in other manners. However, SpongeBob's popularity has magnified the intensity of the controversy.

The show's biggest concern from parents include its sexual innuendo. Stephen Hillenburg has claimed publicly that SpongeBob is not gay, and is in fact, almost asexual, as he is a sponge.

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 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-directors Sherm Cohen and Dan Povenmire, writer Tim Hill, voice actors Tom Kenny and Doug Lawrence (aka "Mr. Lawrence"), actor-writer Martin Olson and animation director Alan Smart. 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.

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, 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 Ks were funnier and it would fit his Ukrainian heritage.

Debut (1999–2000)

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 the most popular show on Nickelodeon 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)

The show began airing 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 of 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 2004. It was also released on DVD at the end of 2003. Following this, the movie was released in November of that year.

The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie poster.

Hiatus and movie era (2003–2005)

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 fans, while the SpongeBob movie was actually generally well received by fans who saw it.

It was announced late in 2004 that SpongeBob would be continuing with a new session due in 2005. Hillenburg, despite the 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 (2005–2007)

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 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.

Spongebob SquarePants has been approved for a sixth season, which consists of thirteen episodes.

In November 2005, Nickelodeon aired the special "Have You Seen This Snail?" and did not air new episodes until February 2006, when they showed the special "Dunces and Dragons". 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 new episodes, which included "New Leaf", "Once Bitten" in September. SpongeBob also aired 2 October episodes and the November episodes include "The Best Day Ever", which featured a 24-hour marathon before its premiere. This drew 6.7 million viewers on November 9 along with "Wigstruck" (Originally October 20) and "That's No Lady," which aired late the same month. The new episodes in 2007 started airing on January 15 and, one of the first times in SpongeBob history, is airing three new episodes back to back on February 19, 2007. It's announced in February 2007 that KISS rocker Gene Simmons will be voicing the Sea Monster in a new episode called "20,000 Patties Under The Sea", schedule to air in 2007.

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)

Music

• 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.
• The SpongeBob SquarePants theme song is primarily based on the sea shanty, "Blow the Man Down". It is sung by Painty the Pirate, voiced by Pat Pinney, and can be found on the soundtrack SpongeBob SquarePants: Original Theme Highlights. This song is popularly misattributed to "Weird Al" Yankovic. A cover of the song by Avril Lavigne can be found on The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie (soundtrack). Another cover by the Violent Femmes, which aired as a commercial on Nickelodeon to promote Season 2, can be viewed in the special features of the Nautical Nonsense/Sponge Buddies DVD. A choral version was recorded for the SpongeBob Christmas special where the last repetition of "SpongeBob SquarePants" was replaced by, "It's the SpongeBob Christmas special." The theme song is occasionally utilized as marching cadence.
• Traditional sea shanties are used for the musical themes in the show. Most commonly used is that of "Drunken Sailor". In the episode "Krusty Krab Training Video," a young Eugene Krabs is shown walking to a soda vending machine, la-laing the shanty "Blow the Man Down." Various songs used in SpongeBob SquarePants come from the Associated Production Music library, some of which have also been used in shows such as Ren & Stimpy, Rocko's Modern Life, The X Factor, Camp Lazlo, and My Gym Partner's a Monkey. For competition-based episodes, some of Sam Spence's NFL Films music is used (such as "A Golden Boy Again" used in episodes such as The Fry Cook Games and "Ramblin' Man from Gramblin" is used in Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy V.) Ironically, one of Spence's more famous songs for the NFL Films library of music is an orchestral version of "Drunken Sailor" called "Up She Rises", first suggested by Steven Sabol to his father Ed because he liked the song at summer camp.

Magazine

In the UK, a Spongebob Squarepants magazine is currently being published by Titan Magazines every four weeks. It was first published on February 3 2005. The magazine contains comic strips, fan letters, competitions and several features.

Trivia

• According to the book SpongeBob Exposed, series creator Stephen Hillenburg said that the policy of the show is to avoid referencing pop culture or 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.
• SpongeBob SquarePants was the first American cartoon to be broadcast in Iraq and Afghanistan after their US-led invasions.

External links

• Official site (UK)