On This Day in 1999: We First Met SpongeBob | Nickelodeon

On This Day in 1999: We First Met SpongeBob!



On this day 20 years ago, we first met SpongeBob!

Do you remember when you first met SpongeBob? 💛🍍
Since its launch in July 1999, SpongeBob SquarePants has emerged as a pop culture phenomenon. The series has been the most-watched animated program with kids 2-11 for more than 15 consecutive years, and over the past several years, it has averaged more than 100,000,000 total viewers every quarter across all Nickelodeon networks. SpongeBob SquarePants is the most widely distributed property in Viacom International Media Networks (VIMN) history, seen in more than 208 countries and territories and translated in 55+ languages. The character-driven cartoon chronicles the nautical and sometimes nonsensical adventures of SpongeBob, an incurably optimistic and earnest sea sponge, and his undersea friends in the fictional underwater city of Bikini Bottom. Among those friends are SpongeBob's best friend, a pink starfish named Patrick Star, his neighbor and co-worker octopus Squidward Tentacles, and Sandy Cheeks, a squirrel from Texas. Since its launch, the beloved series has generated a universe of beloved characters, pop culture catchphrases and memes, theatrical releases, consumer products, a Tony award-winning Broadway musical and a global fan base.

SpongeBob SquarePants is created by Stephen Hillenburg, who previously worked as a writer, director and creative director on Nickelodeon's animated series Rocko's Modern Life. Hillenburg graduated from the California Institute of the Arts with a master's degree in experimental animation and his undergraduate degree, from Humboldt State University, was in natural science with an emphasis in marine biology. Hillenburg executive produced the series until his untimely passing in November 2018. His first feature film, The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie, which debuted Nov. 19, 2004 and his second theatrical, The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water, hit theaters Feb. 6, 2015, landing at #1 opening weekend.

SpongeBob SquarePants has been renewed through to at least the show's twelfth season, will be celebrating its 20th anniversary in 2019, has its own critically acclaimed Broadway show, set to tour the U.S. from Fall 2019, and has a third upcoming movie, The SpongeBob Movie: It's a Wonderful Sponge, set to be released in Summer 2020. The series is produced at Nickelodeon in Burbank.

Nickelodeon is commemorating 20 years of SpongeBob SquarePants with the “Best Year Ever”—a year-long tribute to one of the most iconic TV series and characters ever created. The “Best Year Ever” kicks off Friday, July 12, with the premiere of “SpongeBob’s Big Birthday Blowout,” an original mixed live-action and animated special, and leads up to the Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon Movies theatrical, The SpongeBob Movie: It's a Wonderful Sponge, coming summer 2020.

Nickelodeon will also commemorate the series with: a new product line by master toy partner Alpha Group, featuring figures that showcase SpongeBob’s iconic meme moments; collaborations with lifestyle brand Cynthia Rowley for a SpongeBob wetsuit and international mixed-media artist Romero Britto; the launch of a dedicated YouTube channel and mobile game; a SpongeBob SuperFan game show; plenty of spin-offs; and more.

Check out Nickelodeon's On This Day and Remember When Facebook pages to find out awesome Nick moments from every era throughout Nickelodeon history!

From CNN:

SpongeBob and the 7 life lessons he taught a generation

It's been 20 years, and the little sponge who lives in a pineapple under the sea still resonates with people around the world.

The Nickelodeon cartoon "SpongeBob SquarePants," created by the late Stephen Hillenburg, features a nasally yellow sea sponge filled with bubbly optimism even in some of the most absurd situations.

Since its debut on May 1, 1999, the syndicated children's show has become a fixture in pop culture, especially among millennials.

From endless memes to giant parade balloons to the Super Bowl, the franchise, with more than 200 episodes and counting, has found a way to keep the spirit of SpongeBob SquarePants alive.

While the character's mass appeal has surprised some critics, SpongeBob's millennial fanbase, now grown-up adults, took away messages on friendship, honesty and finding the courage to be yourself.

Here are just seven life lessons that influenced a generation.

You can do whatever you set your mind to

Starting from the day he barges into the successful restaurant known as the Krusty Krab, SpongeBob is ready to take on any task — even if it involves flipping patties behind the fry cooker.

He chants over and over and over again, "I'm ready! I'm ready! I'm ready!"

And when orders start piling up and the job feels overwhelming, SpongeBob perseveres and saves the day.

His not-so-secret secret is not letting other people's doubts discourage him from what he wants to do.

SpongeBob believes in himself, and it shows every time we see him wake up loud and proud each morning.

Be kind to everyone but not to the point of death

SpongeBob always has people's best interests in mind. Perhaps, too much at times.

SpongeBob can admittedly be overly eager, including when he tries to help an elderly woman quickly cross the street. But he has the best intentions.

Some days, SpongeBob wakes up and sets a goal to complete a series of random acts of kindness just to be someone else's hero. On other days, our yellow friend wants to be the change he wanted to see in the world and inspire his friends to do the same.

But no matter how he's feeling on a given day, SpongeBob doesn't discriminate against who should be treated with kindness and respect.
Everyone is equal.

You can't spell 'fun' without friends

SpongeBob considers just about everyone in Bikini Bottom his friend. But there was never a doubt that Patrick, the pink starfish, has and will always be SpongeBob's best friend.

The two go on fun adventures, laughing at themselves as they make memories along the way.

And that's what friends are for: having fun.

SpongeBob is so adamant about this that he devotes an entire song to help people remember.

"'F' is for friends who do stuff together. 'U' is for you and me. 'N' is for anywhere and anytime at all down here in the deep blue sea."

Own your mistakes, no matter the consequences

People aren't perfect, and that includes SpongeBob.

He's accidentally splatted a drop of paint on Mr. Krabs' most prized possession. He's gotten orders at the Krusty Krab wrong.

Mistakes happen.

But every time SpongeBob realizes that he has made a mistake, he fesses up and apologizes.

Sure, people are upset in the beginning, but you know what happens in the end? People forgive him because he tells the truth.

And in some cases, our truth is the only value we have left that can give us a second chance at redemption.

Our identities shouldn't be made into jokes

As much as there is to learn from SpongeBob about what to do, there is an equal amount to learn about what not to do.

When his stand-up comedy gig begins tanking, SpongeBob stoops to a new low as he makes squirrel jokes to get the audience to laugh.

But his friend Sandy, a squirrel in the crowd, doesn't find these jokes funny but rather hurtful, especially hearing them from a friend she is there to support.

SpongeBob learns to value his friends' feelings and not use their pain to further his success.

Find positivity in everything you do

Not everyone SpongeBob meets is as jolly as he is.

His neighbor and co-worker, Squidward, is a persistent grouch. Plankton, the business rival of Mr. Krabs, is always plotting ways to take down the Krusty Krab.

But even faced with sour characters, SpongeBob stays true to himself and lets his spirit shine.

And eventually, SpongeBob's infectious positivity catches on.

Not being cool can actually be very cool

SpongeBob is not like everyone else.

He has a pet snail named Gary whom he talks to all the time. His red tie, brown shorts and black shoes with tube socks give him a quirky look. He encourages people to use their imagination as if it's some internal, cosmic experience.

When he tries to be someone he isn't -- a muscular beach volleyball player or a popular socialite -- his friends hardly recognize him. And that's usually when SpongeBob realizes pretending to be someone else isn't worth it.

Being your authentic self is easier, and the reward of having genuine friends who appreciate it is far greater.

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From Quartzy:

UGLY AND I'M PROUD
THE KEY TO THE ENDURING APPEAL OF SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS, ON HIS 20TH BIRTHDAY

Everyone’s favorite show about an optimistic yellow sponge who lives in a pineapple under the sea is celebrating its 20th birthday today.

Nickelodeon debuted SpongeBob SquarePants on May 1, 1999. Twelve TV seasons, two movie adaptations, and one Broadway musical later, that optimistic yellow sponge is an international superstar. By the time the show celebrated its 10th anniversary in 2009, it had been crowned the most widely distributed franchise in the history of Viacom (known then as MTV Networks). And as Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and Reddit have grown to be social media behemoths, those networks breathed new life into the series as internet memes. Dozens of dedicated SpongeBob fan communities and Twitter threads attest to the show’s enduring charm. When Stephen Hillenburg, the show’s beloved creator, died from ALS in November, there was an outpouring of grief and heartfelt tributes to the marine-biologist-turned-animator.

SpongeBob’s 20th year is already off to an impressive start. Super Bowl LIII’s halftime show featured a clip from season 2’s “Band Geeks” episode where SpongeBob and his motley crew performed at the “Bubble Bowl.” (It was arguably the best part of Maroon 5’s performance.) In February, Nickelodeon’s president announced the TV network’s plan to produce SpongeBob’s first-ever character spin-off shows. As of last week, you can have your very own SpongeBob Squarepants collectible meme toy, released by Nickelodeon just in time for the show’s birthday.

In case you live under a rock (which is also where SpongeBob’s best friend, the lovable starfish Patrick Star, lives), the 11-minute show takes place in a town on the ocean floor known as Bikini Bottom. It follows the infectiously cheery and disarmingly naive SpongeBob SquarePants to his job flipping crabby patties, chronicling his adventures with his BFF Patrick and his feisty, fiercely loyal Texan squirrel friend Sandy Cheeks, and his perpetually annoyed neighbor Squidward.

And the show’s humor holds up—both for millennials who grew up on it, and for parents of today’s children, beaten down by repeated viewings of “Baby Shark.” Unlike many dull or maddening cartoons meant for children, SpongeBob is riddled with adult humor and multidimensional jokes that parents can laugh at with their children, recalling other classics of the genre, including Nickelodeon’s Ren & Stimpy and Rocko’s Modern Life—the show Hillenburg wrote for before SpongeBob. Adult viewers are also rewarded with literary references ranging from Edgar Allen Poe’s The Tell Tale Heart, to William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, to Nosferatu.

Kyle Jarrow, the writer behind the 2017 Tony-nominated Broadway musical adaptation, attributes SpongeBob’s massive appeal to this cross-generational quality. “For kids, it works because they like stuff that’s wacky and sort of off,” Jarrow told me. “For adults, it feels like a breath of fresh air because it’s unharnessed from reality, and there’s something about surreal, absurd humor that feels like a break from the real world.”

Jarrow, now 39, didn’t grow up on the show himself. He was introduced to it as a college student and was immediately drawn to the unyielding naïveté and optimism of the show’s central character. “As a kid, you kind of have that in you, so I think you recognize it in yourself,” Jarrow said. “But as an adult, we kind of wish we had more—or at least I do.”

Here are some of the show’s greatest hits, including some that have taken on a new life on the internet or in pop culture: [continue on article at qz.com]

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From Geek.com:

20 Years Later, How ‘SpongeBob SquarePants’ Still Feels Fresh

Twenty years ago today, a cartoon series debuted that would have effects far beyond its humble beginnings. It would almost single-handedly keep a network afloat, inspire a feature film and a Broadway musical, sell over $13 billion in merchandise, and spawn countless number of memes. And it started with one of the most ludicrous premises ever: what if a sponge worked at a fast food restaurant?

How did SpongeBob SquarePants come to be, and what was behind its wild success? Let’s dive deep into the history of the cartoon and learn more.

The Dawn of Nickelodeon

The early days of cable programming had a lot of Wild West mentality. Networks were launched on shoestring budgets with made-up mandates, and Nickelodeon was no different. Seeing a void in programming exclusively targeted to kids, Warner Cable launched the channel in 1979 devoid of commercials as what’s called a “loss leader,” meaning that the benefit to gaining new subscribers was worth the cost of running the station. The majority of its initial programming came from Columbus, Ohio-based QUBE. Instead of commercials, the channel filled breaks with filmed footage of mime performances.

By 1984, Nickelodeon was unsurprisingly losing $10 million a year.

The company hired an advertising firm to rebrand the fledgling channel and began accepting whatever advertising they could sell. They also established a late-night block, Nick at Nite, showing retro shows from the 50s and 60s. A few years later, Nickelodeon was sold to Viacom (along with MTV and VH1).

It took the new network some time to find its footing, but the first tipping point came in 1991 with the premieres of three original animated series — Doug, Rugrats, and The Ren & Stimpy Show. The three initial “Nicktoons” helped the channel develop its own identity and stake out a place in the market beyond re-runs and slime drops. But two of those three series fell off the air, leaving Rugrats to do the heavy lifting. Nick needed a new series that would grab the zeitgeist, and they found it in a very unusual place.

Enter the Sponge

Stephen Hillenburg wasn’t your average cartoon creator. Born in Oklahoma, he had a love for marine animals as a child and after graduating from Humboldt State University he worked at the Orange County Marine Institute in Dana Point as a biology instructor, teaching visitors about the complex and fascinating ecology of the sea. While there, he also used his artistic talents to create an educational comic book for the Institute called The Intertidal Zone. After a few years, he realized that his true passion was for art, and enrolled in Cal Arts’ prestigious animation program.

After graduation, Hillenburg made a few experimental shorts before being hired as a director on Nickelodeon’s Rocko’s Modern Life. When that series went off the air, some of his co-workers started pressing him to put a pitch together for his own show. One of the characters from The Intertidal Zone, Bob the Sponge, would be the core. He put a presentation together complete with a underwater terrarium with character models in it and it impressed Nick executives enough for them to fund a pilot in 1997.

They had two weeks to put it together, and Hillenburg and creative director Derek Drymon were panicked that it wouldn’t go over. But that first 11 minute clip was so solid that the Nick brass immediately watched it again and then decided to make SpongeBob SquarePants the network’s first original Saturday morning cartoon.

The first episode aired after the Kids Choice Awards on May 1, 1999, and everybody knew they were watching something special. But could Nickelodeon break the broadcast networks’ stranglehold on Saturday morning programming?

Yes, and it didn’t take long. Within a month of its premiere, SpongeBob SquarePants toppled Pokemon as the highest-ranked Saturday morning cartoon on television. Even more interesting, it helped push Nickelodeon’s demographic in an unexpected direction. Of each episode’s 2.2 million average viewers, 40 percent were over the age of 18. Hillenburg had wanted to make a series that was accessible to kids but also nodded to adults that might be watching, much like Ren & Stimpy but with a warmer heart.

That cross-generational appeal would lead to some pretty unusual outings for the residents of Bikini Bottom, including airing late nights on MTV in the mid-2000s.

Trust the Process

Many aspects of SpongeBob SquarePants‘s production were unusual for the time. Most animated series were created script-first — a writer would put down all the jokes and dialogue in text format, and then it would be sent off to storyboard artists. But Hillenburg wanted to look back at the early days of animation, where the initial creative force was visual, not verbal. After a basic premise was generated for each story, it would be taken over by storyboard directors who would map out the whole thing in rough drawings. After that, writers would riff off the storyboards to write dialogue.

That let the show have breathing room to play with visual gags created by visual artists as well as dialogue by gifted comedy writers. It employed a wide variety of illustrative approaches, from painted Ren & Stimpy-esque gross-outs to surreal live-action, public domain footage and puppet sequences. That visual freedom was a major inspiration on the generation of animators that followed. That same freedom also extended to the voice actors, who folded in a good deal of improvisation when recording their lines. The sessions are always held as a group, more like an old radio serial than the modern one-at-a-time process. Unlike so many kids’ cartoons, which felt like they were focus grouped into oblivion, SpongeBob SquarePants felt loose, funky, and very personal.

Hillenburg left the day-to-day of SpongeBob after the show’s third season, moving to an executive producer role, and most dedicated fans agree that it started to slip in quality after that. Nickelodeon wasn’t about to let them stop at 60 episodes, though, and a new crew has continued to produce new episodes into the show’s eleventh season, which is currently airing. Although there have been flashes of brilliance, SBSP has fallen prey to the same curse that strikes most long-running series, repeating plot lines and running out of originality.

That didn’t slow the franchise down, though. SpongeBob and the rest of the Bikini Bottom dwellers still make bank for Nickelodeon across reruns, merchandise, and other odd tie-ins like a full-on Broadway musical. It’s easily the most successful franchise the network has ever created, and the character has become synonymous with the channel.

Staying Power

Despite losing some steam with creative turnover, those first three seasons of SpongeBob SquarePants still feel fresh and relevant over two decades later. There’s just something synergistic about the team Hillenburg put together on those early shows. One of the most vital elements has to do with the characters themselves. While most children’s cartoons feature kids as their main characters, SpongeBob and his undersea friends were all adults. Sure, the protagonist was naive and foolish, and his best friend wasn’t terribly smart, but they had to deal with grown-up problems like working an unrewarding job and navigating social spaces. Watching characters who were meant to be adults behave in surreal and hilarious manners gave those early SpongeBobs a unique feeling.

The loss of that feeling in the middle seasons, as characters sort of “flattened out” and became parodies of themselves, is something that’s very common in animation (The Simpsons has been doing it for decades). Interestingly enough, when Hillenburg came back to the show in 2015 after a hiatus to make short films and work on other projects, he brought that spirit back with him, and some of the more recent seasons have been more true to the original vision.

Finally, the staff assembled to work on the show was a unique one for Nickelodeon. In addition to veteran animators, SpongeBob brought in talent from many different mediums. Underground cartoonists Kaz and Sam Henderson both wrote and drew storyboards. Nickelodeon junior executive Merriwether Williams would make the jump to the creative side, becoming one of the show’s most dependable early episode writers. That diversity of perspective helped make the show feel different from anything else on the air.

Of course, that difference wouldn’t last. SpongeBob‘s success inspired a tidal wave of imitators working the same ground. Shows like Coconut Fred’s Fruit Salad Island tried to capture the mix of antic surrealism and clear, recognizable characters and mostly failed. Other, less-derivative programs like Gumball showed you could learn from Nickelodeon’s hit while still having your own identity, and it’s hard to find a show on kids’ TV now that doesn’t have some element you could trace back to SpongeBob.

Millions of Memes

It’s fair to say that SpongeBob SquarePants is second only to The Simpsons in sheer volume of Internet memes created. Hell, the New York Times even wrote an article about it. The show’s lasting appeal on the Internet is pretty simple: the kids who grew up with SpongeBob are the same ones creating content in mass quantities today, and the visual language of the show is both familiar and strange.

One of the earliest major SpongeBob memes involved a screenshot of Mr. Krabs from second-season episode “Patty Hype” surrounded by a spin-blurred background. That visual was first tweeted out in 2016 with the caption “When you just wake up from a nap and your parents already yelling at you,” and it swiftly became Twitter and Tumblr shorthand for being in a situation where things were spiraling out of control.

But there are more SpongeBob memes than we could ever list here. Dozens and dozens of them, from “Chicken Spongebob” used for repeating inane statements back in ThIs AnNoYiNg FoNt, to “handsome Squidward” and even the “time cards” used by the narrator to depict the passage of hours. The contributions to meme vocabulary from SpongeBob are legion, and new ones are still being created.

SpongeBob creator Stephen Hillenburg passed away last year from complications relating to ALS. He left behind a show that not only let Nickelodeon recapture their dominance over the animation world, but also became a cultural touchstone for a whole generation. Not too bad for a marine biologist.

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From USA Today:

Why, 20 years later, 'SpongeBob SquarePants' endures as one of the best kids' shows around

Twenty years later, that pineapple under the sea is still pretty fresh.

Hard as it is for the millennials who grew up watching to believe, "SpongeBob SquarePants" turns 20 on Wednesday. The beloved Nickelodeon show premiered May 1, 1999, and quickly became a pop-culture institution that shaped a generation of humor and remains relevant even into its original viewers' adulthood.

Although children's TV can be formative, few series have echoed the cultural footprint of "SpongeBob," which spawned a (short-lived) Broadway musical, two feature films (a third is due in 2020), comic books, video games, theme-park rides and even a wax figure at Madame Tussaud's.

Its anniversary will be celebrated this summer on Nick with "SpongeBob's Big Birthday Blowout," a new special mixing live action and animation and featuring the cartoon's voice cast playing human versions of SpongeBob, Patrick, Mr. Krabs, Sandy, Squidward and others.

But how, exactly, did an anthropomorphic sponge, a lazy starfish, a greedy fast-food restaurant-owning crab, a squirrel and a fastidious squid become cultural icons?

For folks in their late 20s and early thirties who were among the first "SpongeBob" viewers, the cartoon series earned a dedicated following by treating the kids who watched it as adults.

Nothing about "SpongeBob" is ever cutesy or condescending. Its characters are adults, if a little juvenile in their behavior. And "SpongeBob" makes adulthood seem fun and appealing. Its version is what kids themselves would dream up: Working at your favorite place, hanging out with your friends all the time and living in a cool pad with your pet. Even if it's underwater.

The series also gets in plenty of digs in at the worst part of growing up: Losing your sense of fun. Its main antagonist, Squidward, is a straight-laced rule follower who is always trying to bring SpongeBob's carefree attitude down.

SpongeBob's surrealist, odd sense of humor was far ahead of its time. Videos and screenshots from years-old episodes proliferate modern meme culture. It's harder to express your feelings better now than "SpongeBob" did then.

When you revisit famous episodes, it's easy to see the show's quiet brilliance (its running "my leg!" gag never gets old). The comedy ranges from fart jokes to dark capitalist satire.

"SpongeBob" finds nearly as much time for sophisticated parody as animated peers "The Simpsons" and "Family Guy" (which premiered four months before "SpongeBob"), even though it is aimed at a considerably younger audience. It boasts a brilliant superhero gag in recurring characters Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy, and makes endless allusions, from Edgar Allen Poe to "Kill Bill." Writers – including series creator Steven Hillenburg, who died last year – were never afraid to be strange, loud and daring.

A few years ago, Gen Xers had their heyday of nostalgia when childhood cartoons such as "Transformers" and "G.I. Joe" were rebooted as big-budget films. The "SpongeBob" anniversary comes as millennial nostalgia is starting to take over (just look at all those 2000s fashion trends coming back). Thankfully, the little sponge has never gotten a gritty, PG-13 reboot, and probably never will.

The brilliance of "SpongeBob" is that it appeals to both kids and adults just the way it is: Peppy, a little grating and totally bizarre.

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Also read:

- 20 photos to celebrate the 20th anniversary of 'SpongeBob SquarePants'

More Nick: Nickelodeon Marks 20 Years of "SpongeBob SquarePants" with the "Best Year Ever"!

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