 Murray attributes some of his most fond memories to days at summer camp; Murray said that he attended summer camp every summer for "4 or 5 years in a row" and that he "couldn't really get the scouting thing down".He also described cartoons with pastoral settings such as the Bugs Bunny cartoons of the "Looney Tunes" and "Merrie Melodies" series and "Yogi Bear" as having a "calming" effect due to the tree-filled backgrounds.At the time he believed that too many futuristic themes appeared in media and literature, so he wished to create a series that would "get back to nature."