Behind Closed Doors

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Behind Closed Doors (full title: Behind Closed Doors: Horrible, Filthy, Vile, Disgusting, Inappropriate, Off-Model Drawings by the Crew of a Popular Cartoon Show) was a book of SpongeBob SquarePants drawings created by the show's storyboard artists in 2001. The drawings were crude sketches that depicted the characters in inappropriate adult situations.

The book's drawings were described as "off-model," meaning they did not follow the design rules of the show's Main Model Pack. The book was compiled by Sam Henderson, a former writer and storyboard director for the series. The book was made as an in-joke and was not intended for public release.

History

Around 2001, several crew members made Post-It notes of SpongeBob characters depicted in vulgar and obscene situations solely for humorous purposes. One significant drawing was a storyboard panel for the "Chocolate Milk" commercial, released in 2001 as part of the Got Milk? campaign, where the milk is replaced with Patrick's semen. The series of drawings were adapted into a book that was also given to employees who worked in the original Nickelodeon Animation Studio.

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In 2007, an anonymous commenter on Vincent Waller's blog recalled an interview with Dan Povenmire (a former writer during the time frame the book was made) where he said that the crew "drew the characters in every sexual position around the studio, and subsequently took the drawings down when kids came in for a tour."

The book was described by Kent Osborne in a 2012 interview for the magazine Hogan's Alley. Osborne said:

"At the end of the season, all the storyboard artists would do these hilarious, crude drawings of SpongeBob on Post-It notes just to make everyone else laugh. And these drawings would go on the back of the door, because if the door was open no one would see them. Sam Henderson took all of these Post-Its and made them into a book and gave a copy to everybody. The name of the book was Behind Closed Doors. He didn't want to put everyone's names in case it fell into the wrong hands, so he made anagrams of everyone's name and put them on the back of the book. They were hilarious. The anagram for me was Tek Bonerson. To this day, when I see Tom Kenny, he lights up and says, 'Tek!'"

Trivia

• For many years, this book was not available for public viewing, with Osborne's interview being one of the only mentions of it online. Images from the book were published online for the first time on July 18, 2023, when YouTuber LSuperSonicQ made a video about it, revealing he had exchanged emails with someone who had been given the book at Nickelodeon Studios and had it in their possession.
• The title is a reference to Squidward's description upon tasting his first Krabby Patty in "Just One Bite."

External links

• Behind Closed Doors (book) on Wikipedia
• Behind Closed Doors at the Internet Archive.