The Mighty B! loosely based on a character Poehler had played during her time at improvisational comedy troupes Second City and Upright Citizens Brigade as well as girls she looked up to when she was younger. She described Bessie as a "feisty, plucky, bossy, Honey Bee scout" and called her "our hero [...] who goes on all these adventures in hopes of collecting all these badges". Poehler referred to the show as "double the action, triple the adventures and quadruple the awesomeness". During an interview with "TV Guide", when asked if Poehler was trying to appeal adults with the show, she wrote: "Yeah.
The Double Hook hook twice the fear." Watson wrote "The Double Hook" between 1952 and 1954 in Calgary, Alberta and revised it during a year spent in Paris. Throughout the 1950s she was unable to find a publisher. "T.S. Eliot at Faber & Faber, C. Day-Lewis at Chatto & Windus, and Rupert Hart-Davis all turned it down." McClelland & Stewart optioned the book in Canada, largely on the strength of a covering letter by Fred Salter of the University of Alberta calling it "the most brilliant piece of fiction ever written in Canada." To decide on publication, though, the company sought the opinion