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Rocko's Modern Life

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Rocko's Modern Life
File:Rocko group.jpg
The Rocko's Modern Life cast.
Created byJoe Murray
StarringCarlos Alazraqui
Tom Kenny
Doug Lawrence
Linda Wallem
Charlie Alder
Joe Murray
Kevin Meany
Country of originUSA
No. of episodes52
Production
Running timeapprox. 0:22 (0:11 per episode)
Original release
NetworkNickelodeon Studios
ReleaseSeptember 18, 1993 –
November 24, 1996

Rocko's Modern Life was an animated series whose four seasons aired from 1993 to 1996. The show concentrated on the life of a wallaby named Rocko trying to survive everyday modern life in the city of O-Town. It was created by Joe Murray and based on his own childhood in Australia (hence the main character being an Australian animal).

The show was renowned by many as one of Nickelodeon's freshest, most offbeat offerings, as well as being laden with suggestive double entendres. It is also credited for being the precusor to SpongeBob SquarePants, and Camp Lazlo. Since SpongeBob's creator, Stephen Hillenburg, worked on Rocko's Modern Life, the show has been credited as being probably the first Nicktoon to be popular among adults (excluding Ren & Stimpy, whose popularity with adults only peaked after the show ended, Adult Party Cartoon season excluded), followed by The Angry Beavers, SpongeBob SquarePants, The Fairly OddParents (at least the first two seasons), and Invader Zim. The show, despite these claims, has not yet been released on DVD.

Characters

  • Rocko (voiced by Carlos Alazraqui): a wallaby who has emigrated to the United States from Australia (changed in the 3rd season to a native-born citizen with Australian heritage); works at "Kind of a Lot o' Comics" (although he had other jobs, including being a product tester at Conglom-O and being an underwear model). A running gag is that other characters assume that Rocko is another kind of animal (usually a beaver, kangaroo, rabbit, or a dog), and then he goes into a lengthy (and often unconvincing) explanation that he is a wallaby. He has unreasonable bad luck and treatment from others in most episodes. In episodes that show his file, his full name is actually Rocko James Wallaby.
  • Heffer Wolfe (voiced by Tom Kenny): Rocko's best friend, a happy-go-lucky and not-too-bright steer whom he met in high school. Heffer loves to eat and party. His favorite food is "Pasture Puffies." Though he is normally portrayed as being jobless, he has worked in a number of professions including a waiter at a coffee shop, a salesman at a tree farm, a mail carrier, a security guard at Conglom-O (which induced him to go insane), and he worked at his favorite restaurant, Chokey (later Chewey) Chicken. Strangely, even though Heffer is male, he has been shown on a number of occasions to have udders. As his last name suggests, he was raised by a family of wolves who decided not to eat him as a child.
  • Philbert Robert Norbert Wilbert Turtle III\Filburt Shellbach (voiced by Doug Lawrence): Rocko's other best friend, a neurotic turtle; started out as a background character and became a main character in the second season. His current age is 17 years old, lives in a trailer and has no job (he earns his money by collecting cans "here and there" and then sells it to the recycling factory). He also has a hobby of snatching the wigs of wild birds. Filburt has an extremely weak stomach and even the slightest wrong movements can give him indigestion. Filburt also seems to have an obsession with fishsticks. He was married to Dr. Hutchison in the third season, with whom he had four children: Gilburt, Shelburt, Norburt, and Missy. Among Filburt's catchphrases are "Oh fish sticks!" and "I'm nauseous... I'm nauseous... " Philbert changed his name to Filburt Shellbach, however he disliked the name and returned to his given name.
  • Spunky (voiced by Carlos Alazraqui): Rocko's dog; he looks similar to a whippet. He willingly eats almost anything he sees (this has repeatedly gotten him and Rocko in trouble).
  • Edward Bighead (voiced by Charles Adler): A grumpy old toad who is Rocko's neighbor. He hates Rocko (even though Rocko normally acts nice to him). Ed works at the large corporation Conglom-O (the company's motto is "We Own You"). His position with the company is usually in middle management, but it can be anything from assembly-line worker to an executive role, depending on the needs of the episode: according to his nameplate at Conglom-O, his job title is "Toad". Ed seems to have very bad luck wherever he goes and thus is very cynical. He hates his life.
  • Beverly "Bev" Bighead (voiced by Charles Adler): Ed's wife, a boisterous redhead (whose voices sounds close to that of Harvey Fierstein) who enjoys flirting with other men -- a blasphemy to their marriage. In the controversial episode "Leap Frogs", she unsuccessfully attempted to seduce Rocko.
  • Ralph Bighead (voiced by Joe Murray): Ed and Bev Bighead's estranged son. He was disowned by Ed when he revealed that he wished to move to Holl-o-Wood and become a cartoonist, rather than follow in his father's footsteps and work for Conglom-O. Ralph's career found success with the creation of his hit cartoon The Fatheads which starred a married couple that appeared to be a highly unflattering parody of his parents, depicting them as ugly, loudmouthed and brutally stupid. He and Ed finally reunited at Ed and Bev's anniversary party with the help of Rocko and his friends, ending the long-standing rift. Ralph eventually grows tired of working on cartoons, and attempts to bring a quick end to his career as a cartoonist by enlisting Rocko, Heffer and Filburt to create and develop a new series for him, certain that their mishandling would result in a show that would fail so badly that the studio would fire him. To Ralph's dismay, the show they create, dubbed Wacky Delly gets green lighted for production and ends up a runaway success, forcing Ralph to resort to increasingly drastic measures to get out of his contract.
  • Chuck & Leon (voiced by Carlos Alazraqui and Tom Kenny): Two chameleons who, like their species, adapt very well to many situations — usually to make a quick buck. They run a variety of businesses throughout the show. Both have Swedish accents but use American accents in their scams.
  • Paula Hutchenson-Shellbach: Dr. Hutchison is a cat. She married Filburt in the third season of the show, much to their respective families' annoyances. She soon gave birth to four children: three sons and one daughter. She has a variety of jobs, including being a dentist, a surgeon, and a canine nutritionist and has a hook for one of her hands, possibly from an accident that caused that hand to be amputated. Despite that handicap, Dr. Hutchinson is surprisingly level-headed and is prone to chuckling hysterically like Dr. Julius Hibbert from The Simpsons.
  • Gilbert, Shelbert, Norbert, and Missy: The four children of Filburt and Dr. Hutchison, who all came from the same egg. Gilburt and Shelburt look exactly like Filburt while Missy is a miniature version of Hutchison. Norburt, on the other hand, has Filburt's eyes but oddly resembles Heffer (most likely because Heffer had sat on the egg for a while before it hatched). He also believes that Rocko is his mother and constantly follows him around. For most of the series, the four are featured only as babies; however, they do appear once as teenagers in the episode "Future Schlock." In the episode, the four teens address their dad as "Father" and request him to tell them a story on their dad finding something in the driveway. Missy's hairstyle, when she is a teenager, is the exact hairstyle of Leia from Star Wars.
  • Mr. Smitty: Rocko's boss. He is a smouldering old toad who owns "Kind of a Lot o' Comics." He has fired Rocko several times, but once also made him Employee of the Month.
  • Wolfe Family: The Wolfe family adopted and raised Heffer. As their name suggests, they are all wolves, yet Heffer spent most of his life not realizing they weren't his real family. Virginia is the Mom, who always treats Heffer like a little kid (until the episode "Mama's Boy", in which she stopped). George is the father, who would like Heffer to "grow up and get out of the house". There is also Peter and Cindy (brother and sister), but not much is known about them, except that Cindy doesn't like when her parents fight and that Peter is, surprisingly, a cheerleader. They have a grandfather named Hiram (but called Willie on the main series), who hates Rocko to the point of obsession and frequently calls him a "beaver". His full name might be Hiram William Wolfe.Their grandmother is Winifred (possibly deceased)
  • Mr. Dupette: (voiced by Charlie Adler) The CEO of Conglom-O, he is the self-described "slimy boss" of Ed Bighead and enjoys picking his nose. He is almost never seen without his assistant, Noway Jose. He was also once the owner of the "Super Lot o' Comics" store where Rocko worked before moving to "Kind of a Lot o' Comics." In one episode, he decides that Ed should be on waste disposal after everyone in O-Town starts a rally to end the pollution in the whole city.
  • Bloaty the Tick and Squirmy the Ringworm: Two parasites who live on and in Spunky. Sometimes, entire episodes revolve around their odd couple relationship.
  • Really Really Big Man: an insectoid superhero who lives in O-Town. He is very big and depicted as a kind of political drawing.
  • Melba Toast: a female unseen character who Rocko has a crush on (a la The Little Red-Haired Girl from Peanuts.
  • Wallace: a large elephant who works at the Pizza Face restaurant. He once almost got into a brawl with Heffer but was stopped at the last moment by his boss. Seemingly aggressive, he has a meek voice.
  • Peaches: Works for Satan; he's in charge of "Heck." He has attempted to lure Heffer into "Heck" several times but has repeatedly failed to do so. Due to his failure at letting Heffer be released, he was punished by being forced to star in his own cartoon show: Peaches' Modern Life.
  • Gladys: (voiced by Charles Adler) a large female hippo. Rocko apparently has a bad habit of accidentally crashing into her at public places (upon which she screams "How dare you!" and proceeds to pound him, quite literally in fact).
  • The Hopping Hessian and Gordon The Talking Leg: a one-legged ghost from the Revolutionary War who lurks beyond the old Foto-Hut and a talking leg with a face on the foot who portrays his lost limb. They parody the Headless Horseman and his pumpkin.
  • Flecko: a fly with a glass eye who lives in Rocko's house.
  • Earl the Dog: a mutt, initially homeless, who enjoys mauling Rocko, Ed Bighead, the mailman, and basically anything else that is alive. He was adopted by Bev Bighead in the second season; Ed hates him.
  • Rocko's father: Rocko and his sister's father
  • Rocko's mother:'Rocko and his sister's mother
  • Rocko's sister:'Rocko's sister
  • Granny:' Rocko and his sister's grandmother

Episodes

All episodes are shown in correct production order.

Season 1 (1993)

1. No Pain, No Gain / Who Gives a Buck
2. Leap Frogs / Bedfellows
3. Jet Scream / Dirty Dog
4. Keeping Up With the Bigheads / Skid Marks
5. Power Trip / To Heck and Back
6. The Good, the Bad, and the Wallaby / Trash-O-Madness
7. Spitballs / Popcorn Pandemonium
8. A Sucker for the Suck-O-Matic / Canned
9. Carnival Knowledge / Sand In Your Navel
10. Cabin Fever / Rinse and Spit
11. Rocko's Happy Sack / Flu-In-U-Enza
12. Who's for Dinner? / Love Spanked
13. Clean Lovin' / Unbalanced Load

Season 2 (1994-1995)

14. I Have No Son!
15. Pipe Dreams / Tickled Pinky
16. The Lounge Singer / She's the Toad
17. Down the Hatch / Road Rash
18. Boob Tubed / Commuted Sentence
19. Rocko's Modern Christmas
20. Hut Sut Raw / Kiss Me, I'm Foreign
21. Cruisin'
22. Born to Spawn / Uniform Behavior
23. Hair Licked / Gutter Balls
24. Junk Junkies / Day of the Flecko
25. Snowballs / Frog's Best Friend
26. Short Story / Eyes Capades

Season 3 (1995-1996)

27. Bye, Bye Birdie / Belch of Destiny
28. The Emperor's New Joe / Schnit-Heads
29. Sugar-Frosted Frights / Ed Is Dead: A Thriller!
30. Fish-N-Chumps / Camera Shy
31. Nothing to Sneeze At / Old Fogey Froggy
32. Maniac Mechanic / Rocko's Happy Vermin
33. I See London, I See France / The Fatlands
34. Fortune Cookie / Dear John
35. Speaking Terms / Tooth and Nail
36. Wacky Delly
37. The Big Question / The Big Answer
38. An Elk for Heffer / Scrubbin' Down Under
39. Zanzibar! / Fatal Contraption

Season 4 (1996)

40. With Friends Like These / Sailing the 7 Zzzz's
41. Pranksters / From Here to Maternity
42. Ed Good, Rocko Bad / Teed Off
43. Wimp on the Barby / Yarnbenders
44. Mama's Boy / Feisty Geist
45. S.W.A.K. / Magic Meatball
46. Closet Clown / Seat to Stardom
47. The High-Five of Doom / Fly Burgers
48. Heff in a Handbasket / Wallaby on Wheels
49. Dumbells / Rug Birds
50. Hypno-Puppy Luv / Driving Mrs. Wolfe
51. Put out to Pasture / Future Schlock
52. Turkey Time / Floundering Fathers

Trivia

  • Heffer first appeared (with the MTV logo branded on his butt, no less) in a 1989 MTV station ID that Murray animated.
  • The episode "Leap Frogs" was eventually banned due to sexual innuendo (Bev Bighead tries to seduce Rocko) during the show's rerun cycle on Nick, replaced with "Wallaby on Wheels". It is, however, shown on Nicktoons TV.
  • The series' last episodes, "Turkey Time" and "Floundering Fathers," were not intended to be the last episodes. After they were aired, the show's status was put on hiatus—and cancelled a week after that.
  • One of the more well-known things about the show was that The B-52's did the opening theme song for seasons two and later.
  • The creator of the series, Murray, has since moved on and is now currently working on a new show, Camp Lazlo.
  • It is rumored that Rocko was originally supposed to have an older sister named Magdalene, but was discarded from the cast or turned into a younger sister Rose, however, evidence suggests Rocko did have a brother and sister in "Trash-o-Madness", originally intended to be the first episode, where Rocko looks at a picture of his family, and his mother has a baby wallaby in her pouch and there is an accidential identical copy of Rocko, suggesting that Rocko has a twin brother
  • Rocko made his first computer appearance on the Nickelodeon 3D Movie Maker CD Rom Game. Furthermore, he also has a combination platformer/puzzle game available for the SNES entitled Rocko's Modern Life: Spunky's Dangerous Day.

Association with SpongeBob SquarePants

Rocko's Modern Life is perhaps most famous with today's cartoon goers (and fans of the series) for being the main precursor and basically, the closest relative and ancestor of SpongeBob SquarePants. A good portion of the former cast members for Rocko's Modern Life now work on SpongeBob, including SpongeBob's creator, Stephen Hillenburg, who was a writer, director, and storyboard artist for Rocko. Others include Derek Drymon, Tim Hill, Sherm Cohen, Mark O'Hare and many more. This has sparked a new popularity in Rocko's Modern Life in younger SpongeBob fans who did not grow up with Rocko, and this show has helped spark SpongeBob's popularity, many of the adolescent fans of which (most of which are now between the ages of 12 to 20 years old) watched Rocko's Modern Life as young children. In fact, for a while there was a rumor that the main cast of Rocko's Modern Life would make a cameo appearence in the SpongeBob SquarePants movie.

While Rocko is "related" to many other Nick shows in one way or another (mostly through Derek Drymon), its second real "descendant", Camp Lazlo (created by Joe Murray himself) came out in 2005, this time airing on Cartoon Network instead of Nick, as Murray and many ex-Rocko crew members thought Nick was too conservative for their tastes. The show features many crew members from both Rocko and also related crew members from SpongeBob SquarePants, as well as many of the same voice actors.

Several Rocko cast members, including Tom Kenny and Dan Povenmire, now work on Family Guy for Fox. Carlos Alazraqui (who did the voice of Rocko) did the voice of Peter Griffin's boss, Mr. Weed in seasons 1-3 (as well as doing other voices, such as the famous Taco Bell chihuahua). Carlos is also a stand up comedian, and stars in the hit show Reno 911.

Personnel


Cast

Current Status

While Rocko's Modern Life has been cancelled for nearly 10 years now, it is still aired regularly on the NickToons Network. There are also several online petitions to bring the show out of cancellation and/or to release the series on DVD. According to Joe Murray, he is working on getting DVD box sets.

Wikiquote has quotations related to Rocko's Modern Life.
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