“Unmasking the Undersea Phenomenon: The Surprising Secrets Behind SpongeBob SquarePants’ Creation!”
“In the show, the whole point of the fast-food – the fact that SpongeBob loves being part of the fast-food chain, and that being a manager is his ultimate dream: it’s ironic… we didn’t want to suddenly become the people serving up food that’s not good for you – especially kids,” Hillenburg told The New York Times in 2004.
Stephen Hillenburg Wasn’t A Fan Of The Merchandise
It’s no question that SpongeBob SquarePants was a hit, which is why there is tons of merchandise that bears his face.
Storyboard artist Sherm Cohen told The New York Times that Hillenburg had his doubts when merchandise started coming out: “He said, ‘My biggest nightmare is that I’m going to be at the beach one day, and one of these dolls is going to wash up on the shore like garbage.’ Being a marine biologist who also surfs, he doesn’t want to be responsible for bringing a glut of garbage into the world.”
Mr. Krabs Is Based On An Actual Restaurant Owner
It was only in recent years that people realized the Krusty Krab is actually shaped like a lobster trap. Stephen Hillenburg reportedly based Mr. Krabs off someone that he actually knew.
As a teen, Hillenburg had a summer job working at a lobster restaurant in Maine. His boss at the establishment reminded him of a pirate who had a strong Maine accent. Hillenburg used the experience to create the avaricious Mr. Krabs. “I added the cheap part (to Mr. Krabs) to give him more personality,” Hillenburg told The Mini Page.
All About Plankton
Plankton is one of the most integral characters in Bikini Bottom and in most episodes, you can see him just fine. But if you look back at the earliest episodes, the characters only see Plankton if they have a magnifying glass.
Doug Lawrence, who voices Plankton, explained in an interview that over time Plankton needed to be enlarged so that he could interact with the other characters better. Lawrence also explained that his inspirations for Plankton’s voice are Tony the Tiger, Gregory Peck, and Thurl Ravenscroft, who sang “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch.”
Hillenburg Didn’t Want Anything To Do With Justin Timberlake
The Spongebob Squarepants Movie in 2004 has an epic soundtrack that features a lot of artists who are far from the mainstream and Hillenburg wanted to keep it that way.
When Wayne Coyne of The Flaming Lips recommended Justin Timberlake for a collaboration, Hillenburg wasn’t having it. “I actually suggested that maybe I could try to get Justin Timberlake to do a duet with us, as an off-the-cuff idea. But [Hillenburg] said, ‘I don’t want any of those sort of commercial weirdos on there. I don’t like those commercial people,'” reports Coyne.
SpongeBob Made Certain People Very Angry
For as innocent as SpongeBob SquarePants is meant to be, it was not without its fair share of controversy. When the show first started gaining traction in the early 2000s, kids loved it. Meanwhile, conservative adults were livid, oddly labeling the show “homosexual propaganda.”
This reached its height when SpongeBob and Patrick were featured in a video that taught people about tolerance and diversity. Ironically, the conservative organization Focus on Family wanted to ban it. For his part, Hillenburg has said he considers his characters to be “asexual,” if they were to have a sexual orientation at all.
Hillenburg Didn’t Believe SpongeBob Would Take Off
When Stephen Hillenburg pitched the idea for SpongeBob to Nickelodeon executives, he had no idea how huge it would become. After ten years of it being on the air in 2009, Hillenburg told The Washington Post, “I never imagined working on the show to this date and this long. It never was possible to conceive that… I really figured we might get a season and a cult following, and that might be it.”
Little did he know at the time, SpongeBob SquarePants would gain a cult following and then some.
SpongeBob SquarePants’ Nickelodeon Legacy
Since its premiere on May 1, 1999, SpongeBob SquarePants has become the longest-running original Nickelodeon cartoon to date, beating its predecessor Rugrats by a long shot. In its twelfth season as of 2018, there are a total of 242 episodes and counting.
Additionally, the success of SpongeBob has spawned two feature-length movies, The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie (2004) and its sequel The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water (2015). There have also been two made-for-TV movies including SpongeBob’s Atlantis SquarePants (2007) and SpongeBob’s Truth or Square (2009).
