Nickelodeon is going all out this year to celebrate the 25th anniversary of its main character, SpongeBob SquarePants. If nothing else, this year has proven that SpongeBob SquarePants is just as relevant and as relevant to the zeitgeist as ever. Last month, we had the chance to sit down and interview the cast and crew spongebob including voice actors Tom Kenny (SpongeBob SquarePants), Bill Fagerbakke (Patrick), caroline lawrence (sand), Roger Bumpass (Squidward), and Mr Lawrence (Plankton) and executive producer Mark Ceccarelli and Vincent Waller.
This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
Taimur Dar: There was a great documentary released a few months ago about Jim Henson. One of the things that stood out to me was how his character and creation sesame street Or maybe the Muppets could continue on after his death. Like Hanson, it’s great that you’re able to keep up this momentum spongebob Even after the death of Stephen Hillenburg in 2018, we continue.
Mark Ceccarelli: He planned and organized such a wonderful show from the beginning. It’s a joy to keep going. We have this great model.
Vincent Waller: All the sets and characters you need [are there]. I don’t think he was working on the Seven Deadly Sins, but we’re told he did.
[Laughter]
Roger Bumpass: [Squidward’s voice] I have a problem with this!
Mr. Lawrence: This is Gilligan’s Island connect. Indeed. we did talk about Gilligan’s Island At the beginning.
Vincent Waller: What Mark said, he left us such a wonderful place, is hard to mistake. While he was there, he would say decrees and you would never forget them. We can’t do that because we were told not to.
Caroline Lawrence: I also think it’s amazing that we don’t just have early original people, like writers and artists. But we also have fans from our youth. There is a strong desire to maintain the purity of the franchise.
Vincent Waller: Three-quarters of our team grew up watching Spongebob.
Mark Ceccarelli: They draw SpongeBob much better than I do!
[Laughter]
Tom Kenny: Three-quarters of the team grew up watching spongebob. A quarter of the team is getting older at work spongebob. Considering your analogy, unlike Jim Henson’s statement, Steve’s condition was progressive, so it wasn’t a case of being here today and gone tomorrow. It was a tragedy, but he was still able to continue working and being on the show and making his plans known.
Vincent Waller: He took a step back and we just sent the board and script for approval. But after watching the second movie, he remembered how much fun it was to work on the show. That’s when he started going back to the studio. It’s great to have him in the room
Tom Kenny: He just needs a little break from this thing you drew on a napkin that used to take over your life 24/7. You’d say, “I need a life. I’ve got a wife and kids. His senses are sharp. He never wanted to be a tycoon. But then you go back to school and see your friends. Steve always stepped in thing, but his own choices were different at the beginning and at the end.
Taimur Dar: I think this year is the 25thth anniversary spongeboba renewed love for the series starting in early 2024 Super Bowl 58 live broadcast TV broadcast. I don’t know about hard metrics, but between Spongebob and Taylor Swift, I think football’s popularity has skyrocketed. What is it like to attend the Super Bowl?
Mr. Lawrence: That’s crazy. I have to say, it’s one of the craziest things we’ve ever done.
Caroline Lawrence: It’s stressful, fun, and wonderful.
Mr. Lawrence: and Martha Stewart That’s what I said.
Caroline Lawrence: When I see Martha Stewart, it takes all my energy not to jump on her little golf cart.
Tom Kenny: Martha, what’s it like in the big house?
Bill Fagerbakke: Bringing these characters to life for four straight hours was a shocking tax on my brain. Essentially just for live improvisation [and] Join these two professional announcers who are excited to play in the Super Bowl. Here they had to work with a few fools.
Tom Kenny: They were also excited to work with SpongeBob and Patrick because one is a 20-something and the other has a kid. So they were involved in both aspects of the mission. Events like the Super Bowl and SpongeBob SquarePants have no real reason to coexist. So are Broadway musicals and SpongeBob SquarePants. Sometimes you ask, “Does it make sense for this to happen? Is this just pop culture eating itself? It’s an exciting feeling when it’s done in a way that makes sense and you pull it off successfully.” .I’m the king of self-doubt. When it works, it releases those endorphins like skydiving.
Mr. Lawrence: We can also be fun and keep fun traditions alive. We need to bring fun stuff to the table easily. Although stressful, it was a comfortable situation. It’s like being a surgeon. Half the time we’re waiting to continue and make sure we don’t miss our cue. I was walking across the room when one of my prompts came in.
Tom Kenny: I never worry about the characters. No matter what situation the characters are in, they always succeed because it’s the effort that Steve and these guys put into it. People tend to like them. This is a great way to resonate well with your potential audience. This is a magical situation that I think is very rare. It’s a security blanket for me.
Bill Fagerbakke: As a lifelong football fan, I see a certain redundancy in the world of sports broadcasting.
Tom Kenny Just like the blues. There are only three chords.
Bill Fagerbakke: The Manning brothers’ broadcast really shook the foundation of sports broadcasting. We’re engaging in a smart way and I think people like seeing products presented in different ways.
Mr. Lawrence: For my part, I felt safe because Bill and Roger were there and they both understood sports. I have no idea.
Tom Kenny: Bill has been watching football games since he was ten years old. The Super Bowl was the first football game I ever saw. Just because I put on the motion capture suit and couldn’t leave.
Roger Bumpass: No one watched the NFL until we had the Super Bowl.
[Laughter]
Tom Kenny: It really expands its reach to new audiences, which was our intention all along. Get families with kids to watch the Super Bowl together. That mission was completely accomplished. Spongebob is not supposed to know anything about football. My ignorance is a superpower.
Bill Fagerbakke: That’s fine when your job is silly.
Tom Kenny: Anyway, that’s how I live my life.
Mr. Lawrence: I remember asking Bill some football terms because I was writing jokes and I didn’t know anything about football. The other writers on our panel also know football. I have no idea.
Taimur Dar: This is the perfect entry point for my next question. I remember hearing Conan O’Brien describe his comedy as the intersection of smart and stupid. that is spongebob in short. Is this really the approach to franchising?
Tom Kenny This was always our intention. The words I used were very stupid. Its folly is no accident, and neither is its brilliance. The people who created it knew what they were doing.
Mr. Lawrence: Like Monty Python. We’re all fans of that. It’s so smart in one way and then goes in a completely other direction and does something so stupid.
Mark Ceccarelli: It’s always fun to find a new angle for a silly joke.
Taimur Dar: Bubble Bass character, voiced by the talented Dee Bradley Baker, who appears in the early spongebob Then it seemed to disappear. Over the past few years, however, he has certainly regained a more prominent position in the industry. spongebob Franchise.
Mr. Lawrence: And his mother! Yes, we rediscovered him. There have been a few characters over the past few years where we said, “Why don’t we use this guy?” He was a gold mine.
Vincent Waller: Once we paired him with Patrick in that episode, it was like, “Oh, yeah!”
Taimur Dar: You mentioned that Bubble Bass and Patrick are an interesting pairing. when patrick show When it was first revealed, I think the audience was a little surprised initially. But people seemed to really enjoy the episode “Bubble Bass Reviews,” in which you impersonate nostalgia critics and internet critics.
Mr. Lawrence: Half of them were reactions to what fans were saying online.
[Laughter]
Roger Bumpass: Bubbles Buzz fits in well with many of the other characters. He was a great plug for everyone.
Tom Kenny Squidward is as positive a guy as Bubble Bass.
Mark Ceccarelli: The recent episode where we put Squidward and Bubble Bass together was really fun.
Roger Bumpass: Their animosity combines well [they] There was a great chemical reaction.
Mr. Lawrence: This is another place where you sometimes find new chemicals on the show that you didn’t know existed.
Bill Fagerbakke: I’m still waiting for Mrs. Puff and Patrick!
Taimur Dar: Sandy Cheeks gets his own movie Save Bikini Bottom. I remember at San Diego Comic-Con, Caroline mentioned that she was flying to Texas for the premiere. So I wanted to ask, what was it like watching this movie on the big screen?
Caroline Lawrence: It was awesome and really fun. The event was held on the rooftop of a hotel and families were invited to attend. It’s cool to watch with kids and parents. It’s a very spectacular moment. I don’t know if I’ll ever experience such an exciting moment again. The people in Fort Worth are great. Everyone is so welcoming. It’s fun because my kids are with me. We went to see the Longhorns. marvelous.
Roger Bumpass: Football team or real animals?
[Laughter]
Caroline Lawrence: Both!
Taimur Dar: It seems like just yesterday we celebrated spongebob 20th anniversary. I have no doubt we will be talking about 30 soonth anniversary.
Vincent Waller: Literally, you’ll be here in five minutes [fast] Everything else disappears. No. 10th The anniversary seemed like a week ago.
Bill Fagerbakke: [Patrick voice] What an interesting time!
