How a happy little sea sponge soaked up our attention to create a $16 billion franchise. When SpongeBob SquarePants premiered on Nickelodeon in 1999, there was no indication it would become the global ...

March 26, 2010 -- Welcome inside the No. 1-rated children's show in all of television. If you're thinking the main character is yellow, you're right... but he's no Big Bird.