SpongeBob SquarePants is an animated comedy TV series produced by United Plankton Pictures and distributed by Viacom Media Networks. It was created by the late Stephen Hillenburg, who even worked on Rocko's Modern Life. It stars Tom Kenny from Wander Over Yander and The Powerpuff Girls, Bill Fagerbakke from The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Batman: The Brave and the Bold, Carolyn Lawrence from Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius, Rodger Bumpass from A Bug's Life, Clancy Brown from Flubber, and Doug Lawrence from Camp Lazlo. It premiered on May 1st, 1999, but it officially begun on July 17, 1999.
Plot[]
The show is about an anthropomorphic optimistic and happy-go-lucky sea sponge named SpongeBob SquarePants who lives in a two-story tall pineapple and enjoys his job as fry cook at the Krusty Krab. During time off, he hangs out with his best friend Patrick Star, a dimwitted but still friendly starfish, and together they go jellyfishing, and a squirrel named Sandy Cheeks who does karate. Whether he does work as fry cook or hang out with his friends, SpongeBob's good intentions and overzealous approach to life usually cause chaos in his aquatic world.
Cast[]
- Tom Kenny as SpongeBob, Gary the Snail, Patchy the Pirate, Additional Voices
- Bill Fagerbakke as Patrick Star, Additional Voices
- Carolyn Lawrence as Sandy Cheeks
- Rodger Bumpass as Squidward Tentacles
- Clancy Brown as Eugene H. Krabs
- Doug Lawrence as Sheldon J. Plankton
- Jill Talley as Karen Plankton
- Mary Jo Catlett as Mrs. Puff
- Lori Alan as Pearl Krabs
- Dee Bradley Baker as Additional Voices
- Sirena Irwin as Additional Voices
- Bob Joles as Additional Voices
- Mark Fite as Additional Voices
- Tom Wilson as Additional Voices
List of Episodes[]
Season 1[]
| Image | # | Episode | Airdate | Production code | Broadcast order | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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01 | "Help Wanted " | May 1, 1999 | 1 | 101a | |
| SpongeBob applies for a job at The Krusty Krab, and then gets hired as their newest fry cook! | ||||||
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02 | "Reef Blower" | May 1, 1999 | 2 | 101b | |
| SpongeBob attempts to get a shell off his backyard. | ||||||
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03 | "Tea at the Treedome" | May 1, 1999 | 3 | 101c | |
| SpongeBob meets Sandy Cheeks for the very first time. | ||||||
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04 | "Bubblestand" | July 17, 1999 | 4 | 102a | |
| SpongeBob and his best friend Patrick start a bubblestand. | ||||||
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05 | "Ripped Pants" | July 17, 1999 | 5 | 102b | |
| SpongeBob attempts to impress Sandy, but ends up ripping his pants in front of everyone! | ||||||
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06 | "Jellyfishing" | July 31, 1999 | 6 | 103a | |
| SpongeBob and Patrick try to get Squidward to go jellyfishing with them, while he is recovering from a bike accident. | ||||||
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07 | "Plankton!" | July 31, 1999 | 7 | 103b | |
| Plankton, Krabs' archenemy, tries to steal the secret Krabby Patty formula using the ability to control SpongeBob's brain. | ||||||
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08 | "Naughty Nautical Neighbors" | August 7, 1999 | 8 | 104a | |
| Squidward demolishes SpongeBob and Patrick's friendship. | ||||||
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09 | "Boating School" | August 7, 1999 | 9 | 104b | |
| SpongeBob attempts to pass his boating school exam with help from Patrick. | ||||||
| 10 | "Pizza Delivery" | August 14, 1999 | 10 | 105a | ||
| SpongeBob and Squidward make their first pizza delivery in the history of the Krusty Krab. | ||||||
| 11 | "Home Sweet Pineapple" | 11 | 105b | |||
| SpongeBob loses his pineapple house to nematodes, and he is forced to move back with his parents. | ||||||
| 12 | "Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy" | 12 | 106a | |||
| SpongeBob and Patrick are excited to meet their heroes, only to find out they are retired, so the two try to come up with a plan and get them out of retirement. | ||||||
| 13 | "Pickles!" | 13 | 106b | |||
| After an arrogant jerk customer lies to SpongeBob that he forgot his pickles, SpongeBob has his spirit to cooking Krabby Patties broken. | ||||||
| 14 | "Hall Monitor" | 14 | ||||
| 15 | "Jellyfish Jam" | 110 | 107b | |||
| When SpongeBob finds a wild jellyfish, he takes it home to make it his own. | ||||||
| 16 | "Sandy's Rocket" | 108a | ||||
| SpongeBob and Patrick | ||||||
| 17 | "Squeaky Boots" | 102 | 108b | |||
| Mr. Krabs tricks SpongeBob into wearing a pair of squeaky boots, which drive the heck out of everyone crazy. | ||||||
| 18 | "Nature Pants" | 120 | 109a | |||
| 19 | "Opposite Day" | 109b | ||||
| Fed up with his neighbors agitating him each and every day, Squidward decides to sell his house and move away. Concerned that nobody will even buy it if they find out what their neighbors are really like, he tricks them into thinking it's "opposite day", the only day of the year where everyone can act completely different. Unfortunately for Squidward, with his neighbors around, the opposite of crazy is still crazy. | ||||||
| 20 | "Culture Shock" | 110a | ||||
| 21 | "F.U.N." | 110b | ||||
| SpongeBob, believing Plankton is all alone, decides to befriend him. However, it is up to Mr. Krabs to show SpongeBob Plankton's true nature. | ||||||
| 22 | "MuscleBob BuffPants" | |||||
| SpongeBob buys fake arms with blow-up muscles in order to make Sandy proud. | ||||||
| 23 | "Squidward, the Unfriendly Ghost" | |||||
| 24 | "The Chaperone" | |||||
| 25 | "Employee of the Month" | |||||
| 26 | "Scaredy Pants" | |||||
| 27 | "I Was a Teenage Gary" | |||||
| 28 | "SB-129" | |||||
| 29 | "Karate Choppers" | |||||
| 30 | "Sleepy Time" | |||||
| 31 | "Suds" | |||||
| 32 | "Valentine's Day" | |||||
| 33 | "The Paper" | |||||
| 34 | "Arrgh!" | |||||
| 35 | "Rock Bottom" | |||||
| 36 | "Texas" | |||||
| 37 | "Walking Small" | |||||
| 38 | "Fools in April" | April 1, 2000 | ||||
| 39 | "Neptune's Spatula" | April 1, 2000 | ||||
| 40 | "Hooky" | April 8, 2000 | ||||
| 41 | "Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy II" | April 8, 2000 | ||||
Season 2[]
Critical reception[]
The series received critical acclaim, with praise towards its appeal towards different age groups, the characters' unique personalities, humor, and animation. However, upon its downfall, the post-movie seasons were badly-received, although season 4 received very good reviews, while season 5 received decent reviews.
Why I Love It[]
- Great animation, and Nickelodeon at its purest form.
- A lot of memorable and fun episodes.
- Has spawned plenty of memes.
- Excellent voice acting.
- Wonderful and unique characters.
- Great songs.
- The characters have charming personalities: SpongeBob is the happy go lucky protagonist, Patrick is his dimwitted but good-natured friend, Squidward is his grouchy neighbor, Mr. Krabs is his money-loving employer, Plankton is the self-tempered antagonist and Sandy as the intelligent and tough newcomer).
- Beside SpongeBob himself who first appeared in Help Wanted in season 1 and other characters like Patrick, Squidward, and Mr. Krabs, many other characters made their debuts including Sandy and Plankton in later episodes.
- The two movies it spawned were great, and a third one is coming.
- So much merchandise since its popularity!
- Much of the time cards and title cards are creative.
- Spawned a lot of really good 22 minute and 11 minute episodes and specials like "Christmas Who?", "SpongeBob's Last Stand", "Dunces and Dragons", "Goodbye Krabby Patty?", "It Came from Goo Lagoon", "Hello Bikini Bottom", "Legends of Boo-kini Bottom", "Shanghaied" (original 22 minute "voting" version; later pushed to 15 minutes after its first airing in 2001), "Have You Seen This Snail?", "Evil Spatula", "Feral Friends", "Fun-Sized Friends", "Mimic Madness", "Back to the Past", "A SquarePants Family Vacation", "Pest of the West", "Valentine's Day", "Frozen Face Off", "Scaredy Pants", "Ghoul Fools", "My Leg", etc.
- Ever since the second half of Season 9 and most of the first half, the show has greatly improved and there have been a lot of original episode plots that haven't been done before.
- It is so good it’s humor and characters are just as good as Phineas and Ferb.
- The idea of a show with an underwater city is very interesting.
- The two Christmas specials were pretty good.
Cons[]
- Some episodes have reused plot lines. So much for a show that has plenty of ideas.
- After The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie, later seasons quickly went downhill until Season 9.
- Several terrible or just plain old mediocre episodes, even in the good and bad seasons:
- "I Was A Teenage Gary" (the most terrifying pre-movie SpongeBob episode).
- "Squid Baby"
- "Cuddle E. Hugs"
- "Ink Lemonade" (the single-most despised post-sequel SpongeBob episode; some fans (especially me) consider it the absolute worst SpongeBob episode yet)
- "Sportz?" (depending on my opinion)
- "Little Yellow Book"
- "SpongeBob You're Fired!"
- "Shuffleboarding"
- "Rule Of Dumb"
- Atlantis SquarePantis and Truth or Square weren't received very well, the former due to the execs making the crew turn it a TV movie, resulting in unnecessary songs and six character arcs, and the latter due to blatant bait-and-switches. In fact, Nickelodeon was not the best at making TV movies for SpongeBob, so due to bad reviews of these two movies, Nickelodeon made no more SpongeBob TV movies after Truth or Square. Until 2019, that is, with SpongeBob's Big Birthday Blowout, which aired for the series' 20th anniversary in July and was well received, with some calling it a perfect apology for Truth or Square.
- After the creator's temporary resignation, a lot of the characters suffered from having multiple traits to having just one (ex. SpongeBob went from being charmingly optimistic to later just being annoying and happy all the time.)
- While the animation in the current seasons is still great, the comedy has gotten stale due to the lack of a balance between slapstick and visual comedy and verbal comedy.
- Some jokes that only adults know are inappropriate such as "SpongeBob watches Sea Anemone". Which is so idiotic and weird, because SpongeBob is supposed to be a kids' show!
- Season 6 and 8, while pretty good and not exactly terrible, are considered the weakest of the good seasons.