Stephen Hillenburg was fascinated with the ocean as a child, leading him to create Spongebob Squarepants.
 The network's executives wanted SpongeBob to be a child in school, but Hillenburg preferred SpongeBob to be an adult character
 He created a precursor to SpongeBob SquarePants: a comic book titled The Intertidal Zone used by the institute to teach visiting students about the animal life of tide pools

