List of Places in Bikini Bottom - Production - Development

Development

Creator Stephen Hillenburg initially conceived SpongeBob SquarePants in 1984, while he was teaching and studying marine biology at what is now the Orange County Ocean Institute. During this period, Hillenburg became fascinated with animation, and wrote a comic book entitled The Intertidal Zone starring various anthropomorphic forms of sea life, many of which would evolve into SpongeBob SquarePants characters, including "Bob the Sponge", who was the co-host of the comic and resembled an actual sea sponge, as opposed to SpongeBob who resembles a kitchen sponge. In 1987, Hillenburg left the institute to pursue his dream of becoming an animator, and began to envision the possible concept of a project involving anthropomorphic sea life, drawing several rough sketches. In 1992, Hillenburg began to attend the California Institute of the Arts to study animation, having been accepted into the institute by Jules Engel, who was impressed with Hillenburg's previous work.

While attending animation school, Hillenburg received a job on the children's TV series Mother Goose & Grimm, and worked on the series from 1991 to 1993. When attending the California Institute of the Arts, he made his thesis film entitled Wormholes, which was funded by the Princess Grace Foundation and was later displayed at various animation festivals. In 1993, Hillenburg graduated from the institute, earning a Master of Fine Arts in experimental animation. In 1995, Joe Murray, creator of Rocko's Modern Life, met Hillenburg at an animation festival, and offered him a job as a director of the series. Hillenburg then joined the Nickelodeon animated series as a writer, producer, and storyboard artist during the series' third season, continuing his position for much of the fourth season. The third season episode "Fish-N-Chumps" (November 12, 1995) was directed by Hillenburg, and involved Rocko, Heffer, and Filburt going on a fishing trip, oblivious to the fact that a pair anthropomorphic fish are attempting to catch them from underwater. While working on Rocko's Modern Life, Hillenburg became friends with Tom Kenny, who was later approached by Hillenburg to become the voice of SpongeBob SquarePants, and future SpongeBob SquarePants collaborators Mr. Lawrence, Paul Tibbitt and others.

Rocko's Modern Life ended in 1996. Shortly following this, Hillenburg began working on SpongeBob SquarePants, teaming up with several Nickelodeon veterans and Rocko crew members. To voice the character of SpongeBob, Hillenburg approached Tom Kenny, who had worked with him on Rocko's Modern Life. Originally, SpongeBob was to be named SpongeBoy, but this name was already in use. This was discovered after voice acting for the original seven minute pilot was recorded in 1997. The Nickelodeon legal department discovered that the name was already in use for a mop product. Upon finding this out, Hillenburg decided that the character's given name still had to contain "Sponge" so viewers would not mistake the character for a "Cheese Man." Hillenburg decided to use the name "SpongeBob." He chose "SquarePants" as a family name as it referred to the character's square shape and "had a nice ring to it".

While pitching the cartoon to Nickelodeon executives, Hillenburg donned a Hawaiian shirt, brought along an "underwater terrarium with models of the characters", and Hawaiian music to set the theme. The setup was described by Nick executive Eric Coleman as "pretty amazing". When given money and two weeks to write the pilot episode ("Help Wanted"), Derek Drymon, Stephen Hillenberg, and Nick Jennings returned with, described by Nickelodeon official Albie Hecht, "a performance he wished he had on tape". Although described as stressful by executive producer Derek Drymon, the pitch went "very well"; Kevin Kay and Hecht had to step outside because they were "exhausted from laughing", making the cartoonists worried.

SpongeBob's first season was only a modest success during its initial run after the series' debut in 1999, but the show still garnered enough popularity that Nickelodeon quietly renewed it for a second season. Beginning with this season, production of the series switched from traditional cel animation to digital ink and paint. During the second season's run, the show quickly achieved enormous and world wide popularity, leading to an immediate third season pick-up. The show's continued success eventually led to the creation of a feature film called The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie, which was intended to be the end of the series. However, shortly after the film's release, Nickelodeon renewed the series for a fourth season. Also following the film's release, Stephen Hillenburg resigned as show runner, causing a shift in the series' production crew, as well as several of the series' writers.

The series' fourth season began in May 2005, and was ordered a fifth season in December 2005, bringing the show’s total episode count to 100. In December 2006, SpongeBob was approved for a sixth season. The fifth season began in February 2007. On July 23, 2007, Nickelodeon began airing a special event, called the "SpongeBob New–New–New–New–New–Week" in which from Monday to Friday, a new episode would air. This continued until the end of the second week. Later on November 12, 2007, a TV movie aired titled Atlantis SquarePantis, guest starring David Bowie as the voice of Lord Royal Highness. In March 2008, it was announced that SpongeBob would have an additional thirty-nine episodes, which includes the remaining episodes of the sixth season, and a seventh season.

On July 14, 2009, a primetime SpongeBob tenth anniversary documentary titled Square Roots: The Story of SpongeBob SquarePants, aired on VH1, discussing the history of the show, and its impact on popular culture. Starting on July 17, 2009 at 8:00 PM EDT, Nickelodeon aired a 50½-hour marathon titled "The Ultimate SpongeBob Sponge Bash." The marathon included the premiere of 11 new episodes, countdowns of celebrities' and viewer-chosen top 10 episodes, and more. On November 6, 2009, a second TV movie debuted on Nickelodeon, titled Truth or Square, in which SpongeBob, Patrick, Squidward, and Mr. Krabs are accidentally locked inside the Krusty Krab freezer on the night of the restaurant's eleventy-seventh anniversary celebration. While trapped inside, the friends look back on their shared memories with "shocking" reveals. Several celebrities made live-action cameo appearances on Truth or Square, including Rosario Dawson, LeBron James, Tina Fey, Will Ferrell, Craig Ferguson, Robin Williams and Pink, while Ricky Gervais provided opening and closing naration for the special. Also Victoria Beckham lent her voice as Queen Amphitrite, a Brit-accented goddess of the sea in an episode titled "The Clash of Triton," a half-hour special that aired on July 5, 2010.

SpongeBob SquarePants surpassed Rugrats as the longest running Nicktoon in number of episodes on April 12, 2012 and in length of time on air eight days later. Rugrats aired 172 episodes in its run; SpongeBob has gone over 178. The series was further extended to a ninth season in January 2011, bringing its total to 204 episodes. It has become the first Nicktoon to reach 200 episodes. It will also be the second Nicktoon (after Rugrats) to have made it to its ninth season.

The eighth season started on March 26, 2011, when "Oral Report" and "A Friendly Game" aired. "Sentimental Sponge" aired the next weekend, on April 2, 2011. The next episode did not air until June 4, 2011, when a SpongeBob SquarePants new episode marathon started, that aired one new episode every Saturday, for the month of June.

The ninth season started airing on July 21, 2012 with the premiere of "Extreme Spots" and "Squirrel Records", and is the first season to be regularly produced in widescreen.