Nick Hosts Special SpongeBob Anniversary Weekend

SpongeBob SquarePants is about to celebrate the 10th anniversary of his TV premiere ‘ and Nickelodeon isn’t about to let the occasion pass without a big party.

To celebrate the July 17, 1999, debut of the character, Nick will host an Ultimate SpongeBob SpongeBash Weekend.

The event airs July 17-19 and includes 50 hours of programming, including 11 SpongeBob premieres, all hosted by Patchy the Pirate. It also will include a top-10 countdown of celebrities’ favorite SpongeBob episodes, and the top-10 episodes chosen by fans at Nick.com.

Leading up the event will be an hourlong documentary titled Square Roots: The Story of SpongeBob SquarePants. Produced by Creadon O’Malley, the original documentary will air on Nick sister channel VH1 on July 14 at 9 p.m. ET/PT.

Online events include 10 new games at SpongeBob.com, an iTunes celebrity playlist of 25 favorite episodes chosen by Tom Kenny, and SpongeBob’s debut on Facebook at www.facebook.com/spongebob and Twitter at www.twitter.com/happysquared.