During production of The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius, much of DNA Animation were pitching new titles for development if the show were to end. From this, Keith Alcorn and Mike Gasaway developed "Red Acres", which would have been a CGI series about an adult astronaut who finds a planet filled with dimwitted aliens. They and Ben Gilberg pitched the idea to Nickelodeon in New York City, who loved it, but refused to greenlight it because of Nickelodeon's rules requiring the main character to be a child. They then pitched the concept to Kids WB, Cartoon Network, and Disney, yet got rejected each time. They then redeveloped their main character so that instead of focusing on an adult, they focus on Carl and Sheen from Jimmy Neutron. However, after presenting their idea, an executive for Nick said that the series shouldn't focus on Carl, just Sheen. Though it was hard for the team to fully accept, they reached a compromise by introducing an alien character who looked and acted just like Carl. After pitching the idea to Nickelodeon Animation in LA, they loved the show so much, that it was put into immediate development, with Steven Banks joining the crew to help develop the show even further.