Help Wanted (SpongeBob SquarePants)

"Help Wanted" is the pilot episode of the American animated television series SpongeBob SquarePants. The pilot originally premiered on May 1, 1999 after the 1999 Kids Choice Awards.

The episode follows the titular character as he attempts to get a job at the Krusty Krab, only to be tricked into finding a "hydrodynamic spatula with portend starter attachments with a turbo-drive".

Upon release, the episode received positive reviews from media critics.

Development
Stephen Hillenburg initially conceived the show in 1994 while he was working on Rocko's Modern Life, and started working on it after the show's cancellation in 1996.

The original idea for the pitch was for SpongeBob and Squidward to go on a road trip, which was inspired by the 1989 film Powwow Highway. The concept was eventually scrapped but was revisited for "Pizza Delivery".

Originally, the character was meant to be "SpongeBoy" and the show was to be called SpongeBoy Ahoy!. However, the Nickelodeon legal team soon discovered that "SpongeBoy" was a trademarked name for a mop company.

As a result, Hillenburg renamed the character and show "SpongeBob SquarePants" due to "having a nice ring", and re-recorded all the audio.

Broadcast and Reception
"Help Wanted" drew 6.9 million viewers upon release, giving it a 6.3 Nielsen rating, 3.6 million of them being children aged 2-11.

"Help Wanted" received generally positive reviews from critics. Michael Cavna placed the episode as No. 3 on the The Top Five SpongeBob Episodes: We Pick 'Em for The Washington Post. As of March 25, 2020 the episode alongside "Reef Blower" and "Tea at the Treedome" have a 8.7/10 on the Internet Movie Database (IMDb).

Jason Bovberg of DVD Talk criticized the season 1 DVD set for not having "Help Wanted", saying "Where is it? This is perhaps the only disappointment of the set. I was a little aggravated by the loooong animated menus that introduce all the characters, one by one, but it's really that missing episode that has me upset."