Spongebob Squarepants is an American animated TV series produced by marine biologist and animator Stephen Hillenburg for Nickelodeon. This series records the adventures and efforts of the protagonist and his friends in the fictional underwater city bikini bottom. The popularity of the series has made it a media franchise, the most watched series broadcast on Nickelodeon, and the most widely distributed asset of MTV networks. By the end of 2017, media franchising had generated $13 billion in merchandise sales revenue for Nickelodeon.

Many of the ideas in the series originated in Hillenburg's unpublished educational comic book, the intertidal zone, in 1989. After canceling Rocko's "modern life" in 1996, he began to develop SpongeBob squarepant into a TV series and turned to Tom Kenny for help. He worked with him to produce the series to express the voice of the protagonist. SpongeBob will initially be named spongeboy and the series will be called spongeboy Ahoy!, but both names have been changed because the names have been trademarked.

After Nickelodeon broadcast the 1999 children's Choice Awards on television, a trailer for the series was held in the United States on May 1, 1999. The series premiered on July 17, 1999. Since its premiere, it has been widely acclaimed around the world, and in the second season, it was very popular. The blockbuster "the Spongebob Squarepants movie" was released on November 19, 2004, and its sequel was released on February 6, 2015. In 2017, the series began airing its 11th season and updated to 12th season.