SpongeBob SquarePants , or simply just SpongeBob (スポンジ・ボブ, suponji bobu), created by Stephen Hillenburg (August 21, 1961-November 26, 2018), a cartoonist with a background as a marine biologist, is an animated family gag series that continues to be a national favorite in the United States.
The series started production in 1997. Two years later, after the 1999 Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards in the United States, the series premiered with the first three pilot episodes Help Wanted, Reef Blower, & Tea at the Treedome for the first time on Saturday the 1st of May 1999. After its success & popularity, it aired more episodes since Saturday the 17th of July 1999.
The plot writing & storyboarding is done at the Nickelodeon Animation Studios in Burbank, California, USA. And then finally animate overseas by Rough Draft Korea (the overseas subsidiary of Rough Draft Studios of Glendale, California, USA) in Seoul, South Korea.
In Japan, it was originally broadcast on the CS channel Nickelodeon under the title Sponge Bob.
After Nickelodeon's withdrawal from CS broadcasting in 2009 (and again in 2022) due to low viewership of young Japanese audience (unlike its rival Disney, which is very popular in Japan), it was broadcast on NHK BS2 from 2005 to 2011, and on NHK Educational TV (now E Tele) from 2007 to 2009. It was later broadcast on Animax and BS Fuji, and has been broadcast again on NHK Educational TV (now E Tele) since April 2015.
It has also been broadcast on NHK BS HD (a.k.a. BShi), now BS Premium in parallel with NHK Educational TV, now E Tele.
As a side note, in the NHK version, the live-action footage of a mushroom cloud used in the explosion punchline were voluntarily restricted because Japan is a country that has been exposed to radiation.
The series was made into a movie, The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie, which was released in the U.S. in 2004 and in Japan in 2006.
In Japan, it is thought to have been made famous by a McDonald's commercial, commonly known as the Insane Set.
Stephen Hillenburg, the original author of the cartoon, passed away on Monday, November 26, 2018 due to ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis), an incurable disease, and had been battling the disease. It was reported as early as March 2017. Many fans in Japan and abroad offered their condolences.
