Nickelodeon debuted Baby Shark’s Big Show! in December with a special holiday episode. Now the official series premiere of the fun family musical comedy series is this Friday March 26th at 12:30pm. Co-executive producer Whitney Ralls takes me behind the sea-nes.

Jackson Murphy: I want to tell you a quick story: The first time I heard about the “Baby Shark” phenomenon, I was visiting some family in San Marcos, CA in Jan. 2019, and they kept saying, “Have you heard about this Baby Shark song?” And I said, “What are you talking about?” And they said, “It’s this craze.” I’m from NY, so they said, “It’s gonna come to the east coast. It’s all over the Internet. It’s gonna be crazy.” When did you first hear about the “Baby Shark” phenomenon?

Whitney Ralls: Oh gosh. That’s a familiar story. I think I know a lot of people who have a similar story. I think I first came across Baby Shark probably on Instagram. I don’t have kids of my own or nieces or nephews yet. But I started seeing all these different celebrities posting the Baby Shark song and doing the Baby Shark dance, and I was like, “What is this?” It was so funny to see these people sort of humiliating themselves in a way doing this song. It just caught fire, and I thought it was really funny and cute. I was really excited when I got the opportunity to work on this project.

JM: What was the process of getting the rights to the song? Were you directly involved in that – and building a concept around this really popular song?

WR: I definitely was not at all involved in getting the rights. Pinkfong, the Korean company that made the original Baby Shark video, worked out a deal with Nickelodeon far before I came on board. That being said, when I did come on board, Pinkfong were really terrific collaborators. They really trusted me to take the really fun, bright, poppy world that they had created and use that as a foundation to really springboard off and dive deeper and really explore what could be the world of Baby Shark.

JM: It is so fun, and I think kids and parents will really get into it. You started off with this first episode “All I Want for Fishmas”, which debuted in December to big ratings for Nickelodeon. Why did you decide you wanted to kick things off… like The Simpsons… with a holiday episode?

WR: Yeah, we definitely weren’t the first. But I think with the timeline and the schedule, it just ended-up making sense. Baby Shark is obviously a very musical show and the holidays are such a musical time of year. And we thought, once we realized we would be premiering around that time of year, it just made sense to make it a big Fishmas special. It was a lot of fun to riff on what those holiday traditions might look like in our fishy world.

JM: I also checked out some of the mini-shorts you also did. Were you in production on those little two and three-minute episodes at the same time you were making 11 and 22-minute episodes?

WR: Most definitely. I feel like there’s a branch of production on Baby Shark at all times in every arena, from digital to series. We were producing the… Fishmas special, which is 22 minutes. It’s larger than our usual 11-minute episodes. We were producing that at the same time as the shorts and then eventually at the same time as the series when we got into production on that. It’s been a very busy lockdown.

JM: But you’ve been transported during this lockdown under the sea with all these creatures. And what’s so fun about it is that you’ve got the story, you’ve got the songs, you’ve got the movement and the action of these characters, but also legitimate comedic timing. How did you approach balancing all of that?

WR: It’s been really fun. There’s so much comedic opportunity with Baby Shark because everybody knows what Baby Shark is, but they don’t necessarily know who he is. We’ve gotten to really explore that character and those relationships and at the same time incorporate music and make sure that our humor and our tone translate to that music. So all the music is really funny and silly, and I have two really great collaborators who are the EPs on the show, Gary “Doodles” DiRaffaele and Tommy Sica, who both handle the art and the music element of it. It’s a very musical show, so everything’s timed to a beat. All the jokes are timed to a beat. We just really wanted to give everybody the Baby Shark no one saw coming.

JM: And one of the things that’s fun for me because I’ve known his voice for so long is listening to Patrick Warburton as Grandpa Shark. How has it been working with him? He’s been a voice acting staple for decades in animation.

WR: Patrick is terrific. I was so excited when he came on board because it’s literally been a dream of mine to work with him. We were so excited to have him come on board and voice Grandpa Shark. He has a really great sense of humor. His voice is really so iconic, so it just makes sense to have him involved with Baby Shark because Baby Shark’s an icon too.

JM: Yes. It’s great that that dream was able to come true for you. And the first episode involves The Tooth Fish Fairy. I have had my fair share of tooth stories throughout my life and how I lost certain baby teeth – some in more extreme ways than others. What was the Tooth Fairy like when you were younger? Do you have any tooth stories you can relate to when it comes to this episode?

WR: (laughs) Yeah. I definitely do. I think I was one of those kids who always got really scared when my tooth was finally coming out. And then of course… the moment I was least expecting it, it would just fall out. The one that comes to mind is… Tony Roma’s. It’s a fun family chain restaurant, and I used to be addicted to their sourdough bread rolls that they would serve fresh. When I was a little kid, that was one of my favorite things. And I remember biting into one of those and just seeing red because my tooth had fallen out. I didn’t get a sand dollar like Baby Shark, but I did get a little quarter.

JM: Nice. I had teeth fall out at school. I slipped on ice once or twice [and] they had to pull some teeth out.

WR: Oh my gosh! Oh no!

JM: I know. Those were quite interesting times. But got through it and those memories came rushing back as I was watching this. And of course the Baby Shark song has basically been in everyone’s heads for so long and I’m sure yours as well. Is that song embedded at this point – for you and everyone else working on this show every day?

WR: You know Jackson, we like to talk about it as a sort of white noise at this point. You just assume that the Baby Shark song is playing at a low decibel in your head at all times. And if you just don’t fight it, it just takes over and it’s smooth sailing. You just can’t fight it.

JM: 26 half-hour episodes were greenlit. How in-depth are you in terms of that number, and how have you wanted to approach building out these relationships with Baby Shark and William and flushing out these characters?

WR: At least from a script standpoint, we’re pretty well into the season. We’re coming up on the last third of our episodes. What was really important to me was to try and tell stories that kids could relate to but also could learn things from that maybe we don’t always… they’re the sort of stories we don’t always see. When I started thinking about Baby Shark, I really started thinking about him as this really really lovable pitbull puppy. He’s super strong and super sweet and… he’s a shark. People might think he’s scary on the outside, but he’s actually a big, lovable, sweetheart, like a sweet little boy who loves to sing and dance. I wanted to tell stories that reflected that.

We deal with him learning how to control his own strengths, which I think is a thing kids really deal with. We also really lean into his adventures with William and their friendship, which is so completely pure. There’s nothing they love better than singing and dancing together. Baby Shark is pure Id. He loves William so much, and William is a little bit more self conscious but he’s always getting pushed out of his comfort zone by Baby Shark. Together they go everywhere from the Kelp Woods to the depths of Mariana’s trench to hydrospace. Ultimately, it’s a show about two kids exploring their backyard. Their backyard just happens to be the whole entire ocean. Even though it’s a fantastical world, we’re always coming back to these stories that have so much heart because that ultimately is what Baby Shark is about.

JM: Heart and relatability. And the characters are so bright. How did you and your team choose the specific colors and some of the design?

WR: We have a really great leader in Gary DiRaffaele. He is sort of the cornerstone of our visual style. He’s great at creating these really cute, super bright, iconic forms. They’re obviously based on the Pinkfong version of Baby Shark but we were able to expand on that and take them to a new, hyper-cute level that hopefully kids will love and give Baby Shark lots of friends that are also super cute to play with and have adventures with – and really create a really visually lush world. It was really important to Gary and to all of us – that the world felt as beautiful and mystical as it really feels underwater in our oceans.

JM: You’re in the Nickelodeon family with Baby Shark. What are the possibilities of a Baby Shark/SpongeBob Bikini Bottom/undersea crossover kind of event?

WR: (laughs) It’s a good question, Jackson. I don’t know if the world could handle it, but… it is certainly fun to be in the underwater world of Nickelodeon.

JM: I think the world can handle it! I think we’re ready for it! Even if it’s on Paramount+ as a one-off. I think a Baby Shark/SpongeBob combo will blow people’s minds.

WR: (laughs) I love it!