SpongeBob SquarePants Has Officially Dethroned This Beloved 29 Year-Old Children’s Classic, But With Big Differences

SpongeBob SquarePants shows no signs of stopping soon, and thanks to that, it has now dethroned a beloved children’s TV show, but there are big differences in their respective reigns. Nickelodeon is home to many popular TV shows, both animated and live-action, but its biggest title to date is SpongeBob SquarePants. Created by Stephen Hillenburg, SpongeBob SquarePants premiered on Nickelodeon in 1999, quickly becoming the network’s highest-rated and most-viewed cartoon, receiving critical acclaim and consistently granting it new seasons.

SpongeBob SquarePants takes viewers to the underwater city of Bikini Bottom to meet the title character. The show follows SpongeBob’s daily adventures alongside his best friends Patrick Star and Sandy Cheeks, his perpetually annoyed neighbor Squidward, and his greedy boss Mr. Krabs. The adventures of SpongeBob SquarePants have gone beyond the TV screens as it has become a multimedia franchise that continues to expand to different branches. Now, SpongeBob SquarePants has gained a new title, through which it has dethroned a beloved children’s show, but there are big differences between them.

SpongeBob SquarePants Has Surpassed Arthur As The Longest-Running TV Show

Sorry, Arthur, SpongeBob Has The Throne Now

As mentioned above, the world watched SpongeBob SquarePants for the first time in 1999, and last year, it celebrated its 25th anniversary with a worldwide event appropriately named “SpongeBob 25.” Last year, the show welcomed its 15th season, and a 16th season is said to be in development. At the time of writing, SpongeBob SquarePants isn’t showing any signs of stopping soon and Nickelodeon hasn’t shared plans to end the TV show in the near future, even though the show’s quality hasn’t been the best for years.

SpongeBob SquarePants has changed a lot over the years, and the differences between its first seasons and the most recent ones are alarming. Despite the change of tone, the changes in the characters’ personalities, many inconsistencies in terms of narrative, and even changes in its animation style, SpongeBob SquarePants continues to be quite popular, and it has now become the longest-running children’s animated TV show, a title that used to belong to Arthur (via ComicBook, via ToonHive).

Based on the children’s book series of the same name, written and illustrated by Marc Brown, Arthur premiered in 1996 on PBS. Arthur took the audience to the fictional city of Elwood City to meet Arthur Read, an anthropomorphic aardvark, and his daily adventures alongside his family and friends. Arthur received a lot of praise from critics and general audiences for years, mostly due to the important issues it addressed and how it made them accessible to young children. After 25 seasons, Arthur ended in 2022.

It’s worth noting that SpongeBob SquarePants isn’t the longest-running animated TV show, as that honor belongs to The Simpsons.

Arthur lived on for 26 years, the same as SpongeBob this year, but with the latter still in production, it has officially taken the title of the longest-running children’s animated TV show. It’s worth noting that SpongeBob SquarePants isn’t the longest-running animated TV show, as that honor belongs to The Simpsons, with 36 seasons and counting.

Arthur Has More Seasons Than SpongeBob SquarePants (But Less Episodes)

Arthur Has A Total Of 25 Seasons & 253 Episodes

SpongeBob SquarePants will continue to entertain viewers of all ages until further notice, but when looking at the number of seasons of each show, Arthur is above SpongeBob and friends. Arthur ended with a total of 25 seasons, through which it addressed topics like dyslexia, grief, autism, cancer, different beliefs, and a lot more. However, despite having more seasons than SpongeBob SquarePants, Arthur has fewer episodes, with 253 and seven specials. SpongeBob SquarePants, on the other hand, has 15 seasons so far.

In total, SpongeBob SquarePants has 313 episodes to date, with different specials included in some seasons. Both SpongeBob SquarePants and Arthur are so popular that they became multimedia franchises, but even in that area, SpongeBob continues to reign over Arthur and his friends, as its franchise continues to be in constant expansion in its different branches.

The SpongeBob SquarePants Franchise Is Bigger Than Arthur’s

The World of SpongeBob SquarePants Continues To Expand

As mentioned above, Arthur is based on a book series, and the TV show was the first branch of this very peculiar and heartwarming world. The success of the show led to it spawning seven hour-long movies and a spin-off animated series titled Postcards from Buster, premiering in 2004 and ending in 2012. The Arthur official website has also received praise for the quality of its games, which teach kids different things. Another branch of the Arthur franchise is music, with three music albums with songs played in the show and the third album being all about original songs.

Some of Arthur’s characters were made into Microsoft ActiMates in the late 1990s, and the show also got various video games throughout the 1990s and 2000s. The SpongeBob SquarePants franchise, on the other hand, has gone a lot further than Arthur’s. On TV, SpongeBob SquarePants has had two spinoff shows so far: Kamp Koral: SpongeBob’s Under Years, which serves as a prequel to the main show, and The Patrick Star Show, a talk show starring Patrick.

The Spongebob SquarePants franchise also covers video games, comic books, music, and even a stage musical and different theme park rides.

The SpongeBob SquarePants franchise also has three movies with one more – The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants – scheduled for a 2025 release, along with the spinoff movies Saving Bikini Bottom: The Sandy Cheeks Movie and Plankton: The Movie, this one also set for a 2025 release. Of course, the franchise also covers video games, comic books, music, and even a stage musical and different theme park rides – and with more material from some of these branches in development, the franchise will keep expanding for the foreseeable future.

SpongeBob SquarePants Is Very Different To Arthur (But It’s More Popular)

SpongeBob SquarePants & Arthur Don’t Have The Same Target Audience

SpongeBob SquarePants has taken Arthur’s place as the longest-running children’s TV show, which would feel fitting if it wasn’t for how different they are. Despite both being aimed at a young audience, SpongeBob SquarePants and Arthur have a different target audience: Arthur was made for children aged four to eight, while SpongeBob SquarePants is for an audience from six to 12 years old. This is obvious in the type of humor, the overall style, and the topics addressed in both, with Arthur being a lot more educational than SpongeBob SquarePants will ever be.

SpongeBob SquarePants continues to be widely popular beyond its target audience.

SpongeBob SquarePants is more for entertaining purposes than educational ones, though one could say that, at least the first seasons, have a message of friendship and being one’s authentic self (unfortunately, I can’t say the same for the rest of the show). Despite how much its quality has decreased over the years, SpongeBob SquarePants continues to be widely popular beyond its target audience – maybe it’s nostalgia, maybe the sense of humor of younger generations has changed, or maybe it has had to adapt to the shorter attention span of kids nowadays.

Arthur no longer being the longest-running children’s animated TV show doesn’t take away its value and importance as one of the best and most beloved children’s shows of its time, in the same way that SpongeBob SquarePants isn’t suddenly high quality for now holding this title. It’s to be seen where SpongeBob SquarePants will go now on the main show and its other branches, as well as for how long it will continue.

Sources: ComicBook, ToonHive.