Series creators Dan Mandel and Chris Pearson conceived the personalities of the main characters Dan and Chris by loosely basing them off of their own negative qualities.[1] Mandel's original idea was for the show to be a live-action sitcom, but new possibilities opened up once they started development for an animated series. Pearson once stated that he thought of the Dan character as "Calvin as a grownup, if his life had gone horribly wrong somewhere." (from Calvin and Hobbes)[1]