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[Richie]

Taking in account the Sponge-related chat that's taken place in a couple threads lately, I wanted to share something with you. 'Tis be no new article, my good GAFers. Online since September 21, 2012, I stumbled across this Tom Heintjes-penned piece last night. I've always been fascinated as hell by Behind The Scenes stuff, so this was nothing short of pornographic; an in-depth account of the show's history since its beginnings, with commentary by major players involved in the show's classic seasons. The creative process, ideas that didn't make it, how they conceived the ones that did. What it was like to work with Steven Hillenburg, his philosophy on the series, what everyone brought to the table.

It's no short read, I warn you, but it is a very rewarding one. Not just for those of us who loved the show at its prime, but also for anyone with the slightest hint of a creative mind, who wants some amazing insight of how these guys approached storytelling and brainstorming.

I'll leave ya with but a couple quotes.

Drymon: While we were trying to write the road trip storyboard, Steve came up with the idea of a starfish character. The original character was angry and had a huge chip on his shoulder because he was pink. He was the owner of a roadside bar that the guys went to on their trip and was a bully, but that didn’t last long.

Lender: There was a sequence in “Neptune’s Spatula” [season 1] where SpongeBob is competing against King Neptune to see who can make the best Krabby Patty—all my gags were about SpongeBob doing things carefully and precisely, and when we were punching up the show before the pitch, Steve sat down on the floor and drew the bit where SpongeBob draws ketchup faces on the pickles, tucks them in under a blanket of cheese, and reads them a bedtime story. I saw that and knew why he was the boss.
He wasn’t possessed by the spirit, and he wasn’t some out-of-control goofball genius. He was incredibly patient. He listened. He thought things over. He drew slowly. He knew the gags were worthless unless they were hung on a story that meant something starring characters you cared about. But sometimes you’d catch him off guard with a gag and he’d chuckle, and you could see a little of that SpongeBob nervous energy under the surface.

Williams: I like smaller stories, for two reasons. One, Steve really did want to keep the stories small. In certain ways, I didn’t really understand how to write small stories until I got to SpongeBob. We would write drafts, and Steve would say, “Smaller, smaller.” So I learned how to write these really tiny stories. The smaller they are, the more character moments you can have. The more time you can spend with their emotions. I think that is probably the most important thing in an outline: understanding what the character’s feeling and why. If the story doesn’t push the character to new places emotionally—and for a cartoon, to extreme places—I’m less interested. I think that’s where you get the greatest acting for the characters and the greatest gags, too. They all come from an emotional base.

I really think it’s tapping into how kids felt, and feel, really exploring it for 11 minutes, not just giving it a moment. I think a lot of cartoons gloss over that—it’s just action, action, action. And it doesn’t mean it can’t be visual. For instance, Paul Tibbitt came up with a gag that I thought was genius: SpongeBob is crying, which…in some ways, we always tried to get him to cry [laughter]. Every episode, we’d say, “How do we get SpongeBob to cry?” which is so different from any other show I’ve worked on, where it’s “our character has to be cool; he can’t cry!” I don’t remember what episode it was, but SpongeBob’s eyes were like a sprinkler, going tch tch tch [“Grandma’s Kisses,” season 2]. There were like seven sprinkler gags that Paul Tibbitt came up with, and they were all based on the fact that SpongeBob is crying and crying and crying. So it was taking the emotion and putting a silly gag on top of it. It totally works. That’s where I think this cartoon shines: when they took the little moments and milked them.

Lender: Steve gave you the opportunities to do things that would really be memorable, if you could sell him on it. I campaigned for the Nosferatu gag at the end of “Graveyard Shift” [season 2], and he let me run with it. I drove all over town looking for books with scannable pictures of Count Orlok; I searched what little there was of the Web back then. I all but looked over Nick Jennings’ shoulder while he Photoshopped the smile on him to make sure it matched my board drawing. It was my baby, and I held its hand until we shipped it overseas. Hours and hours of my life over four seconds of screen time because it made me laugh.

Drymon: Coming up with episode ideas was always tough. During the first season, we used up most of the story ideas that were in the bible, and so going into second season we had to figure out a way to generate new ones. One time we thought it would be a good idea to take the writers to the beach for inspiration, but when we got down there it was overcast and cold, so we had to stay in the car. We didn’t come up with too many ideas that day. Our story editor from the first season, Pete Burns, had left, and we brought on Merriwether Williams. I remember Steve told her it was her responsibility to get us to come up with new ideas, which is a tall order. She gave me a book called Zen and the Art of Writing, written by Ray Bradbury and was a collection of essays about the writing process. One of the ways he would inspire stories was to write nouns that interested him on a note card and hang them in his office. He felt just having the word in his eyesight would get his mind working. [Merriwether] took this idea and made it into a writing exercise. We would all write 10 nouns on small pieces of paper and put them in a hat. The hat would be passed around and you’d have a minute to scribble down an idea based on the noun you drew. It would almost always start a discussion, and we wound up getting a lot of episodes out of it. She really came up with a great addition to the process.

Greenblatt: When we were storyboarding “Band Geeks,” we knew that we had to have a big number at the end where everyone rallies together for Squidward. The story outline called for making it a really great marching band sequence, and it usually helps to have the music ahead of time to board to, so we started searching around. Luckily, Nickelodeon happened to have a large library of royalty-free music we were allowed to use. We sat there listening to marching tune after marching tune and they all sort of sound the same. And the more we heard, it didn’t seem terribly funny that the finale was just them playing marching band music well. But nestled in among the traditional marching band tunes was this over-the-top, ’80s-style rock song called “Sweet Victory.” It was different than what we were looking for, but it was so amazing that we knew we had to use it. So we boarded the sequence to the music, and it felt like such a better ending than any song we could have written on our own. We even got to give it an ’80s jump freeze-frame ending. I think my favorite part was Aaron Springer’s drawings of Patrick on the electric drums. That and SpongeBob saying, “It’s the thrill of one more kill.”

Lender: A lot of people suggested that SpongeBob was gay or gay-themed, but it’s not. SpongeBob’s just a kid—sex doesn’t exist for him. It’s completely outside his understanding and doesn’t motivate him in any way. So in “The Fry Cook Games” [season 2], when Pat and Sponge get buff, take off their shirts and wrestle—and strain against each other—it’s because their dumb kid-argument has finally erupted into physical conflict, not because they’re gay. And when they strip down to their underwear, it’s because underwear is just funny, not because they’re gay. And when they walk off into the sunset, mostly naked, hand in hand, it’s because they’re friends forever and love each other like friends should, not because they’re gay. That said, it’s pretty much the gayest episode ever.

Enjoy, GAF!

 

[Prompto]

I never heard about this article. Thanks. Will read through it.

 

[Mr. F]

Such a crazy smart show, love reading how much care and thought that went into the gags. Thanks for sharing, can't wait to dig in some more.

 

[SilentSoldier]

Do any of these people still work on Spongebob because the show is so stupid now.

 

[Verelios]

Haha, I love how self aware these guys are. Thanks OP, this helped me enjoy my Spongebob collection even more.,

 

[crimsondynamics]

Awesome, thanks for the read. Spongebob is one of my favorite cartoons of all time and it's always great to understand the thought process behind creative work.

Lender: A lot of people suggested that SpongeBob was gay or gay-themed, but it’s not. SpongeBob’s just a kid—sex doesn’t exist for him. It’s completely outside his understanding and doesn’t motivate him in any way. So in “The Fry Cook Games” [season 2], when Pat and Sponge get buff, take off their shirts and wrestle—and strain against each other—it’s because their dumb kid-argument has finally erupted into physical conflict, not because they’re gay. And when they strip down to their underwear, it’s because underwear is just funny, not because they’re gay. And when they walk off into the sunset, mostly naked, hand in hand, it’s because they’re friends forever and love each other like friends should, not because they’re gay. That said, it’s pretty much the gayest episode ever.

Haha, I laughed out loud at this insight.

 

[Nvzman]

Really good read, and honestly I wish Nickelodeon would have let Hillenburg just end the series with the movie.

 

[dripdripsplash]

Lender: There was a sequence in “Neptune’s Spatula” [season 1] where SpongeBob is competing against King Neptune to see who can make the best Krabby Patty—all my gags were about SpongeBob doing things carefully and precisely, and when we were punching up the show before the pitch, Steve sat down on the floor and drew the bit where SpongeBob draws ketchup faces on the pickles, tucks them in under a blanket of cheese, and reads them a bedtime story.

HAHHAHAHAHHAHA

These guys are awesome.

 

[Bo Knows GAF]

I buy my friend a new season of the older episodes of Spongebob every year for her birthday. We turn 22 this year. That show was the best

 

[DragonKnight]

I maintain that the first three and a half seasons of spongebob are gold. Gold beaming from your television straight into your eyes. This only heightens my already lofty appreciation for this once awesome show.

 

[EightBitNate]

Lender: Steve gave you the opportunities to do things that would really be memorable, if you could sell him on it. I campaigned for the Nosferatu gag at the end of “Graveyard Shift” [season 2], and he let me run with it. I drove all over town looking for books with scannable pictures of Count Orlok; I searched what little there was of the Web back then. I all but looked over Nick Jennings’ shoulder while he Photoshopped the smile on him to make sure it matched my board drawing. It was my baby, and I held its hand until we shipped it overseas. Hours and hours of my life over four seconds of screen time because it made me laugh.

This was the best thing I read all week.

 

[Kid Ska]

That said, it’s pretty much the gayest episode ever.

Hahahaahah holy shit
These guys all sound like fun, dedicated people. What a great bit of insight

 

[Mistle]

Thanks for this, really love reading this sort of thing

 

[zeemumu]

Awesome, thanks for the read. Spongebob is one of my favorite cartoons of all time and it's always great to understand the thought process behind creative work.



Haha, I laughed out loud at this insight.

To be fair, Spongebob reproduces asexually

 

[Lumination]

Thanks for the read. Spongebob is one of the greatest shows to have graced my eyeballs. Unfortunately, even as a kid, I could tell the difference in quality after Hillenburg left.

 

[Tal Shiar Agent]

Its easy to see why the show went to shit after Hillenburg left following the movie. They lost their creative genius and resorted to nasty physical comedy (Squidward's toenail anyone?) and an increasing use of one shot characters and pop culture references. Plus, the animation got too... smooth for me. I like the rough animation of the first few seasons.

 

[BigEvilTurtle]

I'll read this sometime today, but whose genius idea was it to pitch up Spongebob's voice? Fucking awful and half-ruined the show for me.

First three seasons are phenomenal though.

 

[adamsappel]

I love oral histories like this, thanks!

 

[DedValve]

I might rewatch the first few seasons of Spongebob after this. I remember them being so entertaining. When does the quality drop? S4?

I've seen a few new episodes of spongebob but it lacked the charm the beginning ones had, maybe it's nostalgia though.

My favorite is either bubble buddy (butt butty hurrr) or the colored patties.

 

[BigEvilTurtle]

I might rewatch the first few seasons of Spongebob after this. I remember them being so entertaining. When does the quality drop? S4?

I've seen a few new episodes of spongebob but it lacked the charm the beginning ones had, maybe it's nostalgia though.

My favorite is either bubble buddy (butt butty hurrr) or the colored patties.

Yeah, Season 4. It isn't too awful but that's the beginning of the end.

 

[Baron von Loathsome]

I'll read this sometime today, but whose genius idea was it to pitch up Spongebob's voice? Fucking awful and half-ruined the show for me.

I found this bit from Tom Kenny:

Many characters’ voices develop and mutate over time, like Homer Simpson, Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck or Popeye or whomever. Very few characters wind up with the voice they start out with, unless it’s an actor doing his own voice. If it’s a voice actor doing a character’s voice, I would say that 99 percent of the time, if you’re lucky enough to have your character last for a couple years, the voice changes. I would venture to guess that a lot of it is unconscious. You kind of find the sweet spot of the personality. Part of it, I think, is that the nature of the scripts and the stories you’re doing have a tendency to change a little bit, too, just like the Simpsons is a different show than it was 20 years ago. I was just watching season 1, and even the feel of the show and the stories is markedly different. Daffy and Bugs were much less nuanced characters in the beginning than they ended up.

I hear the change. I hear it. It’s mostly a question of pitch. I’ve read that the reason is because a new guy is doing the voice, because Tom Kenny has throat cancer, you know how the Web is. SpongeBob went from sort of a low-key character, reacting to things around him to being this super-exuberant character with all of his emotions on 11, and everything’s wild and over the top, and his personality got a little more extreme, and I guess I unconsciously mirrored that. It’s ironic, because the voice I’m doing now is harder on me, so I actually made my job a little more difficult.

It’s unconscious on my part. I don’t wake up and think, “Hmm, I’m going to change SpongeBob’s voice today, just for the hell of it.” It’s like erosion: a very slow process. As time goes on, you need to bring him to different places and more places, the more stories and scripts you do. The character’s psyche gets more defined, too, and you wind up going to many more different places within the character’s realm of experience. It’s such a gradual change that, not only do I not register it consciously, but nobody else on the show registers it, either. Nobody at Nickelodeon is going, “Hey, his voice is getting higher.” Steve Hillenburg isn’t saying, “Hey, his voice is changing pitch a little.” When you contrast season 1 shows with season 7 shows, there’s a bit of a change, but I don’t think it’s that extreme at all.

 

[spindashing]

Lender: A lot of people suggested that SpongeBob was gay or gay-themed, but it’s not. SpongeBob’s just a kid—sex doesn’t exist for him. It’s completely outside his understanding and doesn’t motivate him in any way. So in “The Fry Cook Games” [season 2], when Pat and Sponge get buff, take off their shirts and wrestle—and strain against each other—it’s because their dumb kid-argument has finally erupted into physical conflict, not because they’re gay. And when they strip down to their underwear, it’s because underwear is just funny, not because they’re gay. And when they walk off into the sunset, mostly naked, hand in hand, it’s because they’re friends forever and love each other like friends should, not because they’re gay. That said, it’s pretty much the gayest episode ever.

Hahaha, this is brilliant.

 

[leakey]

Looks fantastic. Will give it a read and pass it along.

 

[Richie]

Very glad you fellas are liking it, happy to share!

Do any of these people still work on Spongebob because the show is so stupid now.

Several creative forces from the classic seasons are no longer working on the show, among them the series creator, the original creative director, and more than a couple writers...I've taken a look at some of the new episodes and it's like, there are still good bits here and there, but the show no longer has all of its elements clicking together, many an episode emphasizes gross or even sadistic aspects that are against the original spirit, the list goes on.

I see many quoting the comment on the Definitely Not Gay wrestling scene...I just realized he omitted (likely on purpose) Patrick licking Spongebob's foot (after saying it's personal, even!) hahahaha.

 

[Axiology]

Wow, thanks for this article. It's is long, but I'm gonna read the whole thing.

Even considering how much of it I've read so far, it's clear that Spongebob's place on the pantheon of "greatest cartoons ever created" is well-deserved. Stephen Hillenburg is a genius. One of the most impressive things was seeing how close to the final characters his early sketches were. Like, this guy had one of the greatest cartoons ever in almost its final form in his head, that's nuts.

Spongeboy Ahoy is actually a pretty cool name. I don't know if I would have preferred it to Spongebob Squarepants, but it's not terrible like some of the other early names you hear.

 

[AlexMogil]

I can't wait to read this, thank you.

Can't wait for the Johnny Test retrospective in 15 years.

 

[Exotoro]

Tibbitt: I had taken a vacation to Europe. When I was there the first time, SpongeBob was nowhere. No one I met or talked to had ever heard of it. But when I wrapped up on the movie in 2003, I knew we had toys, and the ratings were good. But I was walking back to my hotel in Europe one night, and I was drinking a bottle of water. I went to throw it away, and right there on top of the trash can was a SpongeBob juice box. I thought, “Wow, I’m thousands of miles away from home, it’s the middle of the night, and I’m on some random street, and here’s a SpongeBob juice box.” That was when I realized it was everywhere.

Coleman: Realizing how huge SpongeBob had gotten was a slow progression because I was so immersed in every forward step. I was delighted when we made a pilot; I was delighted when the show premiered. I remember the first time I saw a bit of SpongeBob merchandise. It was a little plush hanging from someone’s rear-view mirror, and I remember feeling so happy because I knew someone had bought that with their own money because they liked the show, not because they were telling me a at a party how great SpongeBob is because they’re being polite. It was an instance where I knew someone really liked it. I remember getting excited when I saw the first T-shirts in stores. I was excited the first time I saw a bootleg piñata, because that was an indication that there was a greater demand for stuff. It would start to get referenced on the news and on other shows and in political cartoons. It was really exciting when it began moving beyond the confines of kids’ television.

one my favorite parts of this article is just them seeing what they worked on becoming this huge thing.

 

[adamsappel]

That was really fascinating.

 

[Tuck]

Do any of these people still work on Spongebob because the show is so stupid now.

As far as I'm concerned, Spongebob ended after season 3/the movie.

The first 3 seasons are universally incredible.

 

[Richie]

Stephen Hillenburg is a genius. One of the most impressive things was seeing how close to the final characters his early sketches were. Like, this guy had one of the greatest cartoons ever in almost its final form in his head, that's nuts

It really is mind blowing how he cooked up the entire concept by himself before mentioning a peep about it to anyone. As early as 1986! All of these elements that are rock solid fodder for stories, the straight man neighbor, the greedy boss, the land squirrel, the superheroes Bob's obsessed with, that he works in a fast food business and loves doing so ... it's really inspiring.

 

[Aaron Strife]

Yeah Spongebob is pretty incredible. Like with everything if dipped in quality but there have still been a few good ones (handsome Squidward is still one of my favorites).

Wish it was back on Netflix.

 

[Zeyphersan]

Yeah Spongebob is pretty incredible. Like with everything if dipped in quality but there have still been a few good ones (handsome Squidward is still one of my favorites).

Wish it was back on Netflix.

Amazon seems to have an exclusive deal with Nickelodeon, I think it's all on Prime?

 

[The Last Wizard]

Amazon seems to have an exclusive deal with Nickelodeon, I think it's all on Prime?

Save season 2

 

[Zeyphersan]

Save season 2

That's the one with Band Geeks.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

 

[Rhomega Beta]

It's also the one with Frankendoodle...fortunately, I have Season 2 on DVD.

 

[Richie]

What, American Netflix doesn't have Spongebob? That's a glaring omission, and I could swear I had read about it being available a couple years ago ... Mexican Netflix has the first four seasons plus the movie. Oddly, there's 1 episode missing in the first three seasons, dunno about the 4th; the pilot episode from S1, Shanghaied/Gary Takes A Bath from S2, and New Student Starfish/Clams from S3.

 

[Zeyphersan]

What, American Netflix doesn't have Spongebob? That's a glaring omission, and I could swear I had read about it being available a couple years ago ... Mexican Netflix has the first four seasons plus the movie. Oddly, there's 1 episode missing in the first three seasons, dunno about the 4th; the pilot episode from S1, Shanghaied/Gary Takes A Bath from S2, and New Student Starfish/Clams from S3.

Netflix used to have them. but Nickelodeon signed an exclusive deal with Amazon Prime since then, so they got pulled.

I know because I went straight to watching Band Geeks, and the episode was glitched to hell.

 

[Richie]

Netflix used to have them. but Nickelodeon signed an exclusive deal with Amazon Prime since then, so they got pulled.

I know because I went straight to watching Band Geeks, and the episode was glitched to hell.

Huh. They must have paid them up the wazoo to limit themselves to just one streaming service...and not the most popular at that. Admittedly, as a non-American I don't know for sure about this, but I'd have thought Netflix to have much more clients.

I just had the last of several Sponge-a-thons I've had with the bros for the past several weekends...Wotta show, I tell you, fun times. We'll be taking a break as to not ruin the episodes' magic via repetition, but damned if it isn't built to last.

 

[elektrixx]

I used to love the show. I'll read this whole thing.

 

[Richie]

With sponge-related nostalgia going on strongly right now, I thought those who missed this back in the day would like to take a look. It remains just as fascinating as it did back then, if not even more so, and it's insightful as fuck, even more considering how little is documented on Behind-The-Scenes stuff for TV animation in general.