"SquarePants" was chosen as a family name after Kenny saw a picture of the character and remarked, "Boy, look at this sponge in square pants, thinking he can get a job in a fast food place." Hillenburg loved the phrase and felt it would reinforce the character's nerdiness.ĭerek Drymon, who served as creative director for the first three seasons, has said that Hillenburg wanted to surround himself with a "team of young and hungry people". In choosing a replacement name, Hillenburg felt he still had to use the word "Sponge", so that viewers would not mistake the character for a "Cheese Man", and settled on the name " SpongeBob".
#How old is spongebob series#
Initially, Hillenburg wanted to use the name SpongeBoy-with no last name-and the series was to have been called SpongeBoy Ahoy! However, the Nickelodeon legal department discovered-after voice acting had been completed for the original seven-minute pilot episode-that the name "SpongeBoy" was already in use for a mop product. Elements of Kenny's own personality were employed to develop the character further. To voice the series' central character, Hillenburg turned to Tom Kenny, whose career in animation had started alongside Hillenburg's on Rocko's Modern Life. Krabs, Pearl, and Squidward were the next characters Hillenburg created for the show. He then considered modeling the character after a kitchen sponge, which he realized would match the character's square personality perfectly. In determining the new character's behavior, Hillenburg drew inspiration from innocent, childlike figures that he enjoyed, such as Charlie Chaplin, Laurel and Hardy, Jerry Lewis, and Pee-wee Herman. The Intertidal Zone's Bob the Sponge resembled an actual sea sponge, and at first, Hillenburg continued to use this design. As a result, Hillenburg decided to focus on a single main character: the "weirdest" sea creature he could think of.
He wanted his series to stand out from most popular cartoons of the time, which he felt were exemplified by buddy comedies like The Ren & Stimpy Show. He began to develop some of the characters from The Intertidal Zone, including the comic's "announcer", Bob the Sponge. At that point, Hillenburg had not even considered creating his own series, but he realized that if he ever did, this would be the best approach. Martin Olson, one of the writers for Rocko's Modern Life, read The Intertidal Zone and encouraged Hillenburg to create a television series with a similar concept. Hillenburg joined the series as a director and later, during the fourth season, he took on the roles of producer and creative director. Impressed by the style of the film, Murray offered Hillenburg a job. It was screened at festivals, and at one of these, Hillenburg met Rocko's Modern Life creator Joe Murray. His thesis film, Wormholes, is about the theory of relativity. Instead of continuing his education with a traditional art program, Hillenburg chose to study experimental animation at the California Institute of the Arts. Before this could materialize, he attended an animation festival, which inspired him to make a slight change in course. While working as a staff artist at the Ocean Institute, Hillenburg entertained plans to return eventually to college for a master's degree in art. Hillenburg tried to get the comic professionally published, but none of the companies he sent it to were interested. The comic starred various anthropomorphic sea lifeforms, many of which would evolve into SpongeBob SquarePants characters. He created a comic book titled The Intertidal Zone, used by the institute to teach visiting students about the animal life of tide pools. Īt the institute, Hillenburg's love of the ocean began to influence his artistry. After graduating in 1984, he joined the Ocean Institute, an organization in Dana Point, California, dedicated to educating the public about marine science and maritime history. Although these interests would not overlap for some time-the idea of drawing fish seemed boring to him-Hillenburg pursued both during college, receiving a major in marine biology and a minor in art. The series' creator Stephen Hillenburg first became fascinated with the ocean as a child and began developing his artistic abilities at a young age. Production Development Early inspirations
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