

Hillenburg was very fond of the "way things worked out," as Nickelodeon's order brought in a whole new main character, "Mrs. Puff and her Boating School as a compromise, allowing SpongeBob to attend school as an adult. When Hillenburg pitched SpongeBob to Nickelodeon in 1997, the network gave him an order: they would only produce the show if SpongeBob was a kid who went to school, like "Arnold from Hey Arnold! under the sea." Hillenburg was prepared to "walkout" on Nickelodeon, as writing SpongeBob as a school-age child went against his creative vision. Upon finding this out, Hillenburg decided that the character's given name still had to contain "Sponge" so viewers would not mistake the character for a "Cheese Man," and decided to use the name "SpongeBob." He chose "SquarePants" as a family name as it referred to the character's square shape and it had a "nice ring to it." This was discovered after voice acting for the original seven-minute pilot was recorded in 1997. The character was originally going to be named " SpongeBoy," but the name was already in use by a mop product & copyrighted. SpongeBob was designed to be a kid-like character who was goofy and optimistic in a style similar to that made famous by Jerry Lewis. SpongeBob's look gradually progressed to brown pants that were used in the final design. As he drew a sea sponge character, he originally wanted to use the shape of a natural sponge, but later decided that a "squeaky-clean square" would better portray a nerdy personality.Īn early colored sketch portrayed SpongeBob as wearing a red hat with a green base and a white business shirt with a tie. "What's the weirdest animal? The sponge came to mind," he recalled in 2012. He wanted the title character to be an under-represented creature, with the rest of the main characters being iconic and easily recognizable sea animals: a crab, a whale, and a starfish.
#Spongebob squarepants song series#
Hillenburg revisited the concept of The Intertidal Zone in 1996 when he started sketching concepts for a cartoon series about undersea life. Bob the Sponge, a natural sea sponge with sunglasses, was the "host" of the book. The book was intended for children and taught about the behaviors of different sea creatures. While Stephen Hillenburg worked as a teacher of marine science at the Ocean Institute in California, he authored an educational book called The Intertidal Zone. SpongeBob with his real-life counterpart, as seen in the book Underwater Friends. In this promo art, he is shown with his scientific classification. SpongeBob is a poriferan, better known as a sea sponge.

SpongeBob or some other form of him appears or is mentioned in every episode of the series, beginning with the series' pilot episode " Help Wanted." He is voiced by Tom Kenny, who is married to Karen Plankton's voice actress, Jill Talley. In The SpongeBob Musical, SpongeBob's exact species of sea sponge is identified: Aplysina fistularis, a yellow sea sponge who's commonly found in open waters. SpongeBob is very good-natured and loves to hang out with his best friend Patrick.

Unfortunately, he tenses up whenever he has to drive a boatmobile, and he drives recklessly. Puff's Boating School, and his greatest dream in life is to receive his boating license. He works as a fry cook at the Krusty Krab, a job which he is exceptionally skilled at and enjoys thoroughly. SpongeBob is a childish, joyful, and clumsy sea sponge who lives in a pineapple with his pet snail Gary in the underwater city of Bikini Bottom. Hillenburg based SpongeBob on Bob the Sponge, a character he had created for his educational book " The Intertidal Zone" in the late 1980s. He was designed by the former marine biologist, Stephen Hillenburg. SpongeBob SquarePants (born J) is the one of the ten main characters of the animated franchise of the same name. Antonio Raul Corbo for his young self in The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run.Kate Micucci for the storyboard for the song " Teamwork" in The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water.

#Spongebob squarepants song movie#
