SpongeBob SquarePants

Many of the series' ideas originated in The Intertidal Zone, an educational comic book about undersea life that Hillenburg created in the 1980s. After working on Nickelodeon's Rocko's Modern Life, he developed SpongeBob into a television series and pitched it to Nickelodeon in 1997. The network's executives wanted SpongeBob to be a child in school, but Hillenburg preferred SpongeBob to be an adult. He compromised by creating the character Mrs. Puff, SpongeBob's boat-driving teacher, which allowed SpongeBob to attend school as an adult. Hillenburg departed the series after the first three seasons and the production of The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie (2004), but returned in 2015 until his death in 2018.

SpongeBob has received widespread critical acclaim since its release, with praise given to its characters, surreal humor, writing, visuals, animation, and Hawaiian-influenced soundtrack. It quickly became Nickelodeon's highest-rated program and has earned a variety of awards, including six Annie Awards, eight Golden Reel Awards, four Emmy Awards, two BAFTA Children's Awards, and a record twenty-two Kids' Choice Awards. It is often considered to be one of the greatest animated series of all time. The show has been noted as a cultural touchstone for Millennials and Generation Z, and it has spawned numerous internet memes.

The series has run for sixteen seasons, with its seventeenth season premiering on June 12, 2026. On June 9, 2026, the series was renewed for a sixteenth production cycle, which would consist of the eighteenth and nineteenth seasons. SpongeBob is the fourth longest-running American animated series in history, and the longest-running American children's animated series as of 2026. Its popularity has made it a multimedia franchise and Nickelodeon's most profitable program, generating over $16 billion in merchandising revenue by 2024. The franchise now includes four theatrical feature films, two streaming feature films, a Broadway musical, a comic book series, numerous video games and two spin-off series: Kamp Koral: SpongeBob's Under Years (2021–2024) and The Patrick Star Show (2021–present).