On the Air: SpongeBob Squarepants (1999)

To paraphrase the tag line in the promotion of 1978's "Superman: The Movie", you can believe a sponge can talk, walk, and do just about anything.

SpongeBob Squarepants is Nickelodeon's longest-running in-production Nicktoon. Even though the series has been on the air for 13 years, only 9 seasons have been produced, with season 10 announced----to air in 2015. Does it really take three years to put together a season's worth of episodes? Well, this is a Viacom network program we're talking about here, so you can figure it out.

SpongeBob (Tom Kenny) and his best friend-sidekick Patrick Star (Bill Fagerbakke, ex-Coach, Gargoyles) live in the fictional undersea city of Bikini Bottom. Patrick's not exactly the sharpest tool in the shed, but then again, neither was Fagerbakke's character of Dauber on Coach, but he is loyal, cheerful, and always positive. He & SpongeBob are employed by the Krusty Krabs restaurant, and, because of the eatery's popular menu, they have to deal with jealous rival Plankton, who's always looking to get the secret recipe. No one's tried to pilfer KFC's formula lately, which would explain Plankton's eternal failure.

Despite the fact that there are just 9 seasons over 13 years, you wouldn't know that by the way Nickelodeon plays the show into the ground, with blocks of episodes virtually on a daily basis. Then again, the MTV Networks family will play anything into the ground, so convinced are they that their viewers are about as smart as Patrick. You'd think they would finally get a clue.

Edit: Episodes previously posted here have been deleted, so we'll play it safe and post the intro everyone knows. Tom Kenny is also the pirate.



SpongeBob is so popular, Nickelodeon decided to make a movie based on the show, mixing in some live action as an excuse to fit in a cameo by 80's TV icon David Hasselhoff, in total Baywatch mode. Rumors have circulated, at least from what I've read, that a 2nd movie was being discussed at the very least.

Rating: B-.