{"id":22311,"date":"2018-12-04T12:12:14","date_gmt":"2018-12-04T17:12:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/?p=22311"},"modified":"2018-12-03T14:28:16","modified_gmt":"2018-12-03T19:28:16","slug":"stephen-hillenburg-passes-away-at-57","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/tartan-news\/2018\/12\/04\/stephen-hillenburg-passes-away-at-57\/","title":{"rendered":"Stephen Hillenburg Passes Away at 57"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0Stephen Hillenburg, the creator of \u201cSpongeBob SquarePants\u201d died on Monday, Nov. 26 at the age of 57 from Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). He is survived by his wife Karen Umland and son Clay.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0From a young age, Hillenburg had a love for the sea as well as a talent and passion for art. He would go to tide pools and interact with animals during his upbringing in Orange County, California. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0In a 2012 interview with Nerdist, he described the first time he realized he had a talent in art. He showed off a drawing of army men hugging and kissing each other, rather than fighting to his third grade teacher. This was in 1970, during the Vietnam War and it earned praise from the teacher. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0In high school, Hillenburg further developed his interest in the ocean by going on several snorkeling trips in Laguna Beach, Calif. While some of his teachers advised him to focus on drawing, he decided to pursue a career in marine biology. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0A fun fact: Hillenburg held a summer job of being a fry cook, which directly inspired the job SpongeBob holds in the show.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0Hillenburg attended Humboldt State University and earned a degree in marine science and minored in art in 1984. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0He taught marine biology at the Orange County Marine Institute for three years, before coming to the conclusion that he enjoyed working with art more than his chosen profession. <\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"\u00a0 \u00a0In 1987, he created a comic called \u201cThe Intertidal Zone\u201d designed to educate his students about the creatures that lived under the sea. Several characters in the comic would later become \u201cSpongeBob SquarePants\u201d characters, including the host of the book, Bob the Sponge.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0In 1992, Hillenburg followed his dream and earned a Master of Fine Arts in experimental animation at the California Institute of the Arts. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0His two short films, \u201cGreen Beret\u201d and \u201cWormhole\u201d earned critical acclaim at animation festivals and caught the attention of Joe Murray, a fellow animator who was looking for directors for his show, \u201cRocko\u2019s Modern Life.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0He offered Hillenburg a directing job on the show and it became his first job in the animation business. Murray and Hillenburg clicked immediately and he took on a larger role. In addition to directing episodes, he then wrote, produced and storyboarded some episodes, before being promoted to creative director during the show\u2019s fourth season. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0Fun fact #2: \u201cRocko\u2019s Modern Life\u201d was not just the beginning of Hillenburg\u2019s animation career. Tom Kenny, the voice of countless cartoon icons, started on this show as Heffer the cow.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0Working on the show allowed him to pay off his student loans. He owes much of his success surrounding SpongeBob to the lessons he learned working on \u201cRocko\u2019s Modern Life.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"
From Hillenburg’s first short film, “Green Beret.”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0After \u201cRocko\u201d ended, Hillenburg was encouraged by his peers to create his own show based off \u201cThe Intertidal Zone\u201d comic. He grappled with the decision, being hesitant after seeing the level of involvement and stress heading a show can create. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0Ultimately, during a drive to the beach, he made his decision:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0“For all those years it seemed like I was doing these two totally separate things,\u201d Hillenburg said in a 2002 interview. \u201cI wondered what it all meant. I didn’t see a synthesis. It was great when [my two interests] all came together in [a show]. I felt relieved that I hadn’t wasted a lot of time doing something that I then abandoned to do something else. It has been pretty rewarding.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0Another fun fact: Hillenburg pitched the show to Nickelodeon in 1997 wearing a Hawaiian shirt, displaying a terrarium of the show\u2019s characters and played Hawaiian music to set the mood of the show for executives. Eric Coleman, one of those executives, described the setup as \u201cpretty amazing.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0However, there were doubts about the show\u2019s success. In a 2009 interview with NPR, Brown Johnson, the then vice president of animation for Nickelodeon spoke of the early concerns SpongeBob faced:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0“Certain parts of the business at Nickelodeon were like, ‘Oh no. It’ll never be successful. It’s about a sponge. What’s that? It’s yellow. That’s a bad color,'” she said.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0The show was picked up and started airing in summer 1999. It was an immediate hit, earning incredibly high ratings. By 2001 \u201cSpongeBob SquarePants\u201d was the highest rated children\u2019s show on television.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"\u00a0 \u00a0At its height, the show reached 61 million viewers, 20 million of which were aged 18 to 49. The show succeeded far beyond Hillenburg\u2019s expectations:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0“I never imagined that it would get to this point,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen you set out to do a show about a sponge, you can’t anticipate this kind of craze. We just try to make ourselves laugh, then ask if it’s appropriate for children. I can tell you that we hoped it would be liked by adults. But we really thought the best we could hope for was a college audience.”<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0It is the most successful and longest running show in Nickelodeon history, earning $12 billion in merchandising revenue as of 2015.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0After the third season completed production, Hillenburg put all the team\u2019s effort into the first theatrical movie. He originally intended for \u201cThe SpongeBob SquarePants Movie\u201d to be the series finale, not wanting the show to jump the shark. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0Nickelodeon kept the show in production, and Hillenburg stepped down as the showrunner in 2004. Paul Tibbet took over his job, and Hillenburg remained as an executive producer for several years, giving the crew guidance when they needed it. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0For the following years, Hillenburg worked on independent products and enjoyed life in the California sun.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0He returned to SpongeBob in 2013, helping Tibbet write the second SpongeBob film, \u201cSponge Out of Water.\u201d It was a critical and commercial success and led to him taking a more involved role in later seasons of the show in 2015, until his death. <\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"\u00a0 \u00a0In March 2017, Hillenburg revealed his diagnosis of ALS. He asked for privacy and noted that he would continue to work on SpongeBob for as long as he was able. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0An outpouring of support has come for Hillenburg and family following the news of his passing, with collaborator Joe Murray stating in an interview with Variety:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0\u201cSteve was a great friend, and wonderful husband and father,\u201d Murray said. \u201cHe was generous, honest, and funny. Upon meeting him, nobody would ever sense any air of ego, despite being in the presence of a legend, a game changer.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0Murray continued: \u201cHis mark on entertainment will endure, and his contribution to this world will always be felt. I feel honored to have worked side by side with him, and anyone who knew him or was entertained by his work should be forever grateful.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0Nickelodeon released a statement on Hillenburg\u2019s passing earlier this week: <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0“Steve imbued SpongeBob SquarePants with a unique sense of humor and innocence that has brought joy to generations of kids and families everywhere,” it said. “His utterly original characters and the world of Bikini Bottom will long stand as a reminder of the value of optimism, friendship and the limitless power of imagination.”<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0The legacy of Hillenburg\u2019s creation will endure, as 2019 marks the 20th anniversary of \u201cSpongeBob SquarePants,\u201d and the show\u2019s run doesn\u2019t seem to have an end in sight. It is currently in its 12th season and has aired 242 episodes. A third theatrical film is also planned for a 2020 release.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"Henry Wolski<\/strong>
\n<\/span>Executive Editor<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0Stephen Hillenburg, the creator of \u201cSpongeBob SquarePants\u201d died on Monday, Nov. 26 at the age of 57 from Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). He is survived by his wife Karen Umland and son Clay. \u00a0 \u00a0From a young age, Hillenburg had a love for the sea as well as a talent and passion for art. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10416,"featured_media":22324,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2104,2111,3],"tags":[2572,2000,1811,2141,2840,2839,2841,1329,2727],"class_list":["post-22311","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","category-shows","category-tartan-news","tag-cartoons","tag-henry-wolski","tag-nickelodeon","tag-online-exclusive","tag-spongebob-squarepants","tag-stephen-hillenburg","tag-stephen-hillenburg-passes-away-at-57","tag-tv","tag-tv-shows"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":false,"source_text":false,"source_url":false},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/Screen-Shot-2018-11-29-at-4.00.30-PM.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5s3vR-5NR","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22311","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10416"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22311"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22311\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22339,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22311\/revisions\/22339"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22324"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}