Following Hellebore’s idea for a naifish animated wipe and his underwater friends was given the go-ahead by Nickelodeon; the former marine biologist figured it still might sink to the Bikini base of failed TV comics.
"That’s a show about a sponge — I thought we'd get one season," says the SpongeBob Square Pants author, still a bit surprised as the show marks its 10th anniversary with more than 50 hours of weekend encoding, including 11 new episodes, starting Friday night at 8 ET/PT. "We've been timely."
TRIVIA: Sponge Bob Square Pants, in a clamshell
TIMELINE: Sponge Bob’s bubbling along for 10 years
Sponge Bob has been the top-ranked animated show among preteens since 2002 — it still frequently draws 3.5 million-plus total viewers — and now airs in 170 overseas markets. The so-square-he's-cool fry cook is also a marketing icon, with $8 billion in sales and licensing fees.
"You kind of knew it was individual," says Nickelodeon president Cyma Zarghami, who was between the Nick execs who screened the 1999 pilot. "It bust the creative shape."
