Spongebob Squarepants is a well known show which first aired on May 1, 1999. It all started with the creator Stephen Hillenburg. Hillenburg was a marine biologist at the Orange County Marine Institute where he created a comic book which was about Bob the Sponge. Bob the Sponge lived in the Intertidal Zone and Bob the Sponge was used to educating kids about the differences of intertidal pools.
Before Hillenburg went into the Orange County Marine Institute, he worked as a fry cook and lobster boiler at a restaurant in Maine after graduating high school. He would use his real-life experiences as inspiration for the Krusty Krab in Bikini Bottom. Then, he began to work at the Orange County Marine Institute in 1986, and soon his boss supported him to use his artistic skills with an educational comic book.
Soon Hillenburg tried to sell his comic book to many publishers in 1989 which no one cared about. He then chose to go back to the California Institute of the Arts to experiment with animation. His skills led him to a job in Nickelodeon where Hillenburg would become a storyboard artist for the series “Rocko’s Modern Life”. He began to create a pitch for an animated show he would feature Spongeboy but was changed to Spongebob for copyright reasons. Hillenburg wanted a tiki vibe for the show and was inspired by a kitchen sponge for a character who would “transform the way the audience looks at things, helping them find the irony in even the dullest of life’s details.”
Hillenburg didn’t leave his mission though, which would educate people about ocean conservation. He stated in The Washington Post, “People have to come together and realize how important our oceans are. One thing I’m hoping will come out of the documentary is the realization that the show came from something that’s precious, and that we need to appreciate it. …Hopefully, if you watch ‘SpongeBob,’ you see the plankton and the crabs and starfish, and you’ll want to take care of our oceans.” Griffiths Student Jayleen Cortes was asked what her favorite character from Spongebob Squarepants and said “Patrick because he’s funny just like me.” Anna Canales said,”I like Patrick because he’s weird.”
