The first episode aired (Bubble Stand/Ripped Pants) was, in fact, the second episode made. The pilot episode was "Help Wanted/Reef Blower/Tea at the Treedome" in which Spongebob gets his job at the Krusty Krab and meets his friend Sandy.
Mr. Krab's date of birth is 30 November 1942. Spongebob's is 14 July 1986 as revealed on each characters driving license in dream sequences in the Season 1 episode "Sleepy Time".
The episodes "SB-129" and "Krusty Krab Training Video" feature the credits on a space and a black background, respectively, instead of the traditional underwater background.
In Korea Sponge Bob is referred to as "Square Square Sponge" or, quite often, "Square Square Sponge Song" (in the title song they needed four words to match the music and most children refer to him the second way).
The signal flags hanging on the front of The Krusty Krab do not spell a word. In fact, the third signal flag (from left to right as you face the front door) does not exist in international nautical code. The first, second, fourth and fifth are R, I, U, and K respectively, although the U is only "right-side-up" if you read the flags from right-to-left. Inside Mr. Krab's office is _, I, R, and M. The _ has no letter associated with the flag
Stephen Hillenburg, the creator, stopped making new episodes in 2002 to work on the feature length film, The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie. Because of this Nickelodeon had eight unaired episodes which they air at the rate of two or three a year.
Stephen Hillenburg, the creator of the show is a marine biologist, and presented his idea for the show to Nickelodeon in a bizarre way: He brought in a fish tank into the board room and explained what was living inside. He then placed a cartoon drawing of SpongeBob into the tank and said "This is SpongeBob, the star of your new show."
SpikeTV approached Stephen Hillenburg to do an "Adult" version of the show for their adult animation block. The show was to be similar in concept to Ren & Stimpy 'Adult Party Cartoon', Hillenburg refused to do it and Nick refused to sell the rights to SpikeTV.
While Stephen Hillenburg was a director for Rocko's Modern Life, he showed the show's writer 'Martin Olson' a comic book called "The Intertidal Zone" that Hillenburg drew in college. Olson loved it and suggested that Stephen rewrite it as an undersea cartoon series, which became Spongebob Squarepants.
Frequently, a French accented-voice comes onto to note a passage of time. This is an homage to Jacques-Yves Cousteau, who was a leading influence on creator Stephen Hillenburg and his interest in marine biology.