On May 1st, 1999, the first episode of the Nickelodeon children's show, "SpongeBob SquarePants" premiered. Created by marine science educator Stephen Hillenburg, the show first aired as a sneak peak after the 1999 Kids' Choice Awards, and officially premiered on July 17th, 1999. In only a month after its premiere, "SpongeBob SquarePants" became the highest-rated and most-viewed animated Saturday morning program that year, beating "Pokemon". Today, the series has run a total of fourteen seasons, and was renewed for a fifteenth season in September 2023. As of 2019, it is the fifth-longest-running American animated series.
