Stephen Hillenburg, man who foisted SpongeBob SquarePants upon the world, dies at 57
A former aspiring marine biologist, Hillenburg found his way into animation during a boom in the genre in the 1990s, working under Joe Murray to create the surrealist Nickelodeon cartoon
Rocko's Modern Life.
In the late 1990s, Nickelodeon eventually found out about Hillenburg's unpublished comic book
The Intertidal Zone, from his days as a marine biologist, and suggested he create a marine-themed cartoon for the network. The end result,
SpongeBob SquarePants, became Nickelodeon's biggest hit and its longest-running series, still producing new episodes 19 years after its debut, the second-longest continuously running American animated series of all time behind only
The Simpsons if my math is right.
Hillenburg died less than two years after a diagnosis of amyotropic lateral sclerosis.
Obituary from VarietyWikipediaIMDB
