Back to Crew Interviews
I am Vincent Waller, around here they call me Vince. I'm Creative Director (well I endeavor to be creative. Some may argue about how successful I am at this task.) on SpongeBob SquarePants. I've been in that position for almost five years. I landed my first animation job in 1988. That's, let's see...Counts on fingers, takes out an abacus, 6 over the one and carry the...Oh my gosh 21 years. I started doing Storyboard revision on The Real Ghost busters. Then I moved on to doing storyboards on various other productions. Some where around 1990 this I was asked to join the crew on The Ren and Stimpy show. They had done a pilot for Nickelodeon and been picked up to do, if memory serves, 6 half hours. I started writing and boarding on the show, then moved into layout. You can spot my layouts on shows first season, because I had not drawn on any cartoony shows previously. So to say my renderings of the characters were pretty odd looking is being kind. If you see drawings in the show that look like Ren's skull is on sideways, they're probably mine. I really was surprised that they let me stay on. After a while they moved me up to Co-Directing then to Director. R&S and SpongeBob have a lot in common in that they are both Storyboard driven shows. Meaning you give the artists outlines, and then let their imaginations run wild. Unlike many other shows that work only from full scripts, nothing changes once it's written. After Ren and Stimpy, I storyboarded on many, many shows for Saturday morning cartoons, including Captain Planet, Slimmer, What a Mess, The Adventures of Sonic The Hedgehog, Earthworm Jim, The Tick, and Baby Huey. Then I came over to Nickelodeon to do a few shorts for Fred Siebert on Oh Yeah Cartoons. Doing those were a ton of fun. Which lead me upstairs at Nickelodeon to SpongeBob SquarePants, where I was partnered with the über-talented Sherm Cohen as a Storyboard writer. Of the shows that Sherm and I did, I think Hooky and Argh were my favorites. At the end of SpongeBob's second season, I left Nickelodeon to Direct on The Oblongs. Then to Redsky Studios to be Supervising Director on the first season of Harvey Birdman Attorney at Law, then to Warner Bros. to Direct on a Daffy Duck short, and then back to Ren and Stimpy for Spike TV, followed by a few episodes of The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy. Then I was luckily enough to be asked back to SpongeBob for more Storyboard writing on Season four. At some point they kicked me up to Creative Director.
We were looking for an idea that would involve the whole cast going on an adventure and be exciting enough to be a special when Paul and Steve ran in excitedly with an outline in hand shouting "We've got it! We’ve got it! We all looked up and yelled back "Go put your pants on!" When they returned in proper attire we realized they did indeed have it, and the rest is history.
Do I surf? When I first moved to California a friend asked if I wanted to go body surfing. I jumped at the chance. Being from Texas, I was excited to go see some big waves that weren't caused by a hurricane. We arrived at ocean side and he explained that all you had to do is swim out past the breaks. Then when you see a wave coming you start swimming for all your worth toward shore and the wave would do the rest. Well he was right. I started swimming and the wave scooped me up and held me out in front of it like a kid running with a toy airplane. I was superman! I was flying! Then the wave must have grown tired pretending I was an airplane, and suddenly thought I'd make an even better submarine. At which time it drove my happy smiling face directly to the bottom of the ocean, and then tried its level best to sand my face off. Then the wave thought it would be great fun to show my what my jeans feel like when they are in my washer during the spin cycle. Then thankfully the wave vomited me onto the shore. After four more tries, and four more bashings my friend thought it was now a good time to tell that once you catch your wave, you should use you arm as an oar and veer right or left before the wave actually breaks. I thanked him for the timely explanation of what to do once you actually catch a wave, and staggered to shore, where I collapsed in a heap on the warm California sand. The experience did do wonders to prepare me to work on SpongeBob, as I am intimately familiar with the floor of the ocean.
Yes, Alan Smart in particular. You see, this story was originally about a chuck wagon following a wagon train through the desert. But Mr. Smart kept sneaking in at night, changing storyboard panels. It started slow with just a surf board added to the back of a wagon in this panel, a surfer dude added to the back of that panel, and before we knew what happened, we had a show about surfing. It kind of worked out, I don't miss the wagons...much.
The process of making a special is exactly the same as making any other episode, except that the episode needs to be Special. It's important to feel Special when you're making a Special, so the crew wears our "Special" pants. They're very low cut with giant bell bottoms, made of vinyl with a sparkly blue color not unlike you'd find on a fancy bicycle seat. When everyone on the other productions sees that the SpongeBob crew is in their "Special" pants, they know to give us extra room. It gets us VIP access to the water cooler. We get to go to the head of the line, and such. Oh and first dibs on the good muffins in the morning. People understand the pressure we're under when we wear our "Special" pants.
Let's see...did I mentioned I get paid to be silly, make funny drawings, and hang out with funny talented people all day? That's pretty cool.
Well this was an Aaron Springer board, which means it was chocked full of these beautiful, little, strange and hilarious human moments. He has a very special way of seeing, and then expressing the human condition. The moments ring so true that they are universally funny. If we could make the shows longer, we would leave them all in the show.
Well, I miss the talking cash register scene in the beginning of the show:
Squidward: (Suffering from the heat, looks at his steaming tentacles) “I always new my name would be in Print..(Sags)...just not on a menu.” Register: “Don't worry, calamari is really unpopular these days. Especially among pregnant females. Makes sense I suppose...I mean you don't see many pregnant males around!” Register (Cont.): (thinks) “...Although I did see this funny looking seahorse once...” Squidward (Interrupts): “No one asked you to say anything.” (Shoves the register shut.) Krabs: “Were you talking to me Squidward?” Squidward: “No, just hallucinating.”It's a bit that was both funny and educational.
Also Squidward's dream sequence when he gets hit in the face with a surfboard. In the dream he tries to become JKL’s friend, only to be usurped once again by Patrick and SpongeBob. Even in his dreams Squidward has his dreams crushed.
The first time we did a press off he won. But the second time, I took him down like a three legged gazelle. He said it wasn't fair that I tickled him as he was trying to lift, but that's just whiny baby talk as far as I'm concerned. I wouldn't have had to step it up to that level, but he proved to be impervious to me passing gas next to his head. I don't think he has a sense of smell.
It stands right over there. On top of that chair and next to the bookshelf that holds my Emmy Nomination certificate. Oh, you mean in comparison to the other episodes? Well this is a tough one to beat. It has our regular multi-talented cast. Five people with the voice of thousands. It has Patrick at his one toothed dumbest. It has really, really, REALLY long surfboards. It has man-eating waves. It has The Flying Dutchman. It has frightening storms. It has enlightened beings. Plus Johnny "The Sore Loser " D, a very Special look into Davy Jones' Locker, as well as the introduction of two of my favorite new characters, Twitch and Cough. I think they should have there own show. I want to know more about them. Hey...where are you going? Come back here! I have lots more to ...say.......I...I...sigh.
Vince Waller, Creative Director on SpongeBob SquarePants
