Liberty City

Kappa Mikey and Rocko's Modern Life: Difference between pages From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (Difference between pages) Jump to navigationJump to search Revision as of 04:07, 18 August 2007 (edit) 72.227.153.203 (talk) (→‎Characters) Revision as of 18:39, 16 August 2007 (edit) 207.255.132.18 (talk) (Undid revision 151642387 by 72.75.141.116 (talk)) Line 1:	Line 1:

−	Kappa Mikey is an American animated television series created by Larry Schwarz, which premiered on the Nicktoons Network on February 25, 2006, and premiered on Nickelodeon on August 20, 2006. It is MTV's first global acquisition. In April of 2006, it was picked up for a second season, which is nearing completion, and which is already airing its run as of June 9th. In Canada, the show used to air on the Teletoon channel before being replaced by Cybersix, since they had already shown all of the first season episodes a few times. According to the Teletoon website, the show will return with new episodes in September. +	Rocko's Modern Life is an American animated television series whose four seasons aired from 1993 to 1996. The show was based around the surreal, parodistic adventures of an anthropomorphic wallaby named Rocko, and his life in the city of O-Town. It is revealed in the episode "Skid Marks" that Rocko lives at 1172 Boogie Road. The series was created by Joe Murray. One of Nickelodeon's Nicktoons, it was the fourth series released in the Nicktoons group, and the first to be introduced since the original three were introduced in August 1991. The program was produced by Joe Murray Productions and Nickelodeon Studios, and occasionally by Games Productions. −	Kappa Mikey is marketed as "the first anime to be produced entirely in the United States" (without any overseas animation), according to press releases from MTV, Nicktoons Network, and various other sources, as the term anime in English is generally reserved for animation originally produced for the Japanese market. It uses Japanese animation and culture as inspiration for its concept, rather than being "true" anime. It is produced by Animation Collective in New York City with voiceovers recorded at NYAV Post (sometimes by 4Kids Entertainment in random episodes, mostly like Dan Green), and animated using Adobe Flash, with some moments of CGI rendered in Maya. +	The show is laden with suggestive double entendres, innuendo, and social commentary. It has become a prominent cult classic. There are two separate versions of the Rocko's Modern Life theme song (the new version performed by the B-52's), as well as a "remaster" of the first theme which added a high-pitched chorus line to the "Rocko's Modern Liiiiiifffe!" line. −

Plot
+

Episodes
−	The series centers around Mikey Simon, a teenage actor from Cleveland, Ohio, who embarks to Japan after winning a scratch-off card contest to star in the country's formerly popular anime series, LilyMu, and in doing this, rockets the show back to the top of the ratings, and becomes Japan's biggest anime star. Segments of LilyMu are seen at the beginning and end of each episode, but the show focuses primarily on the actors' and producers' lives off-set and Mikey's adjustments to the new world he has entered (similar in concept to The Famous Jett Jackson). The humor comes from the fact that because Mikey is an American, he actually stands out visually from the other cast members. While most characters on the show are drawn in an anime-inspired style (thin outlines, big, detailed eyes, small mouths, and all ten fingers), Mikey (and all other American characters) is drawn in a retro-inspired American cartoon manner (thicker outlines, single black dot pupil eyes, a larger mouth, and only eight fingers). +

+

Places and locations
−	Each episode starts with the cast filming a LilyMu segment, but the take is ruined (with the exception of the Christmas special), sometimes revealing the conflict that they deal with through the rest of the episode, with a minor subplot running beneath the main plot. After the problem is resolved, the LilyMu segment will be shot again and successfully completed the second time, often changed to incorporate whatever lesson was learned during the main story. +	Many of the locations in the television show Rocko's Modern Life have the letter "O" for example O-Town and Conglom-O. When asked about the use of "O" in his show Murray said, +	"I always got a big kick out of the businesses that were 'House-O-Paint', or 'Ton-O-Noodles', because their names seemed to homogenize what they sold, and strip the products of true individuality and stress volume ... and we all know, the American dream is volume!! So what better company to create volume than 'Conglom-O', and since a majority of the town worked at Conglom-O, it should be called 'O' Town. I also wanted the town to be 'anytown' USA, and I used to love sports players with a big ZERO on their back. It was funny to me."

+

List of places in the television show
−	The show has a large comedic overuse of face faults, such as a character's face and/or body turning into an exaggerated general appearance, or becoming much smaller. The show uses clichés common to anime, including the sweat drop, lines over the eyes or no eyes at all, big heads, flaming eyes, bodies becoming smaller (or super deformed). Sometimes Mikey will try to do these things, which are one of the show's running gags, but cannot, due to being drawn in an American style. The show is fast-paced, irreverent, and contains a fair amount of gross-out humor, which are signature elements of Western children's entertainment. +	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+
 * Chameleon Bros. Video is an artsy video shop run by the Chameleon Brothers.
 * Chokey/Chewy Chicken is a favorite restaurant/hang-out place for Rocko, Heffer, and Filburt. Through the first part of the fourth season it was called 'Chokey Chicken.' However, it had to be changed to 'Chewy Chicken' because 'Chokey Chicken' was a clear reference to "choking the chicken," a slang term for masturbation.
 * Conglom-O Corporation is the biggest company in town, it even runs City Hall. It is run by Mr. Dupette, who has very peculiar ways to see if the employees are fit to work there. It doesn't seem to have a specific purpose or product - it's just a giant company that manufactures every product. Conglom-O's slogan is always shown beneath its name. The slogan is "We own you," revealing in a later musical episode that they own everything in O-Town. When Ed Bighead was shown to work at Conglom-O in 1961, the slogan stated "We Will Own You" (alluding to the future of mega-corporations). The illustration that appears with the logo and on top of the official Conglom-O Corp. skyscraper is a martini glass with the earth in place of an olive.
 * Buff-Pooch is a health spa and weight loss clinic for dogs.
 * Flambe le Flab is a health spa.
 * Heck is where "bad people" go when they die. Run by Peaches, it is where Heffer is doomed to eternal suffering. The TVs in Heck don't have remotes.
 * Holl-o-Wood is a town that resembles Hollywood.
 * Kerplop-it-goes Island Filburt's birthplace(named after the Galápagos Islands).
 * Kind of a Lot O' Comics is a comic book store where Rocko works.
 * The Lazy I Ranch is Uncle Gib Hootsen's ranch.
 * O-Town is the town in which Rocko lives. Presumably, it is located somewhere in Ohio or somewhere in the Midwest.
 * Paris is in an episode where Rocko met his "pen pal"
 * Scratch & Sniff Cafe
 * SuperLot-O-Comics is a large comic book store.

List of places in the comic book
+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+
 * Bet Your Life Race-Ways - A horse racetrack featured in Issue #4's first story, "Remote Controlled"
 * Cafe Low-Cal - A health food restaurant featured in Issue #3's story, "Eat This! It's Good for You!"
 * Club Seals - A nightclub and concert hall featured in Issue #4's second story, "Beaten by a Club."
 * The Grease Pit - A fast food restaurant featured in Issue #4's first story, "Remote Controlled"
 * Hardening of the Arteries Eatery - A fast food restaurant featured in Issue #3's story, "Eat This! It's Good for You!"
 * Humongo Comicon - Rocko works as a comic book dealer at the 1994 convention in Issue #7's first story, "Conned Again"
 * O-Town is the town in which Rocko lives. Presumably, it is located somewhere in Ohio or somewhere in the Midwest.
 * Pet Paradise Pet Supplies - A pet supply store that Rocko arrives at in Issue #6's second story, "Lice on the Loose"
 * St. Nick O'Time Hospital - A hospital appearing in Issue #1's first story, "Dental Hijinks."

Characters
−

+

+

Main voice cast
+	 	+	−

Theme Song
+

Cast and crew
+	 	+
 * Cast
 * Carlos Alazraqui as Rocko/Spunky/Leon/Granny Rocko

+
 * Tom Kenny as Heffer Wolfe/Chuck/Mr. Smitty/Really Really Big Man/Peaches/Various males

+
 * Mr. Lawrence as Filburt/Peter Wolf

+
 * Linda Wallem as Dr. Hutchison/Mrs. Virginia Wolf/Grandma Wolf/Cindy Wolf/Tammy the Pig/Various females

+
 * Charlie Adler as Ed Bighead/Gladys/Mr. George Wolf/Grandpa Wolf/Bev Bighead/Mr. Dupette/Mr. and Mrs. Fathead/Various males

+
 * Joe Murray as Ralph Bighead

+
 * Kevin Meaney as Mother Hutchison (appeared in two episodes)

+	−	The Kappa Mikey theme song is called "Hey (x2) Look (x2)" by Beat Crusaders. +	−
 * Some of the voice actors in Rocko's Modern Life currently do voices for other popular Nickelodeon shows. On Spongebob Squarepants, Tom Kenny (voice of Heffer on Rocko's Modern Life) does the voices of SpongeBob, Gary the Snail, Patchy the Pirate, and others, while Doug "Mr." Lawrence (voice of Filburt on Rocko's Modern Life) does the voices of Plankton, Larry the Lobster and others. On Fairly OddParents, Carlos Alazraqui (voice of Rocko) does the voice of Mr. Denzel Crocker
 * In 2005, voice actors Carlos Alazraqui, Tom Kenny, and Mr. Lawrence, and writer Martin Olson, reunited with creator Joe Murray for the Cartoon Network show, Camp Lazlo.

List of episodes
+	−
 * Crew

+
 * Joe Murray: Creator, Executive Producer

+
 * Andy Houts: Project Coordinator

+
 * Stephen Hillenburg: Producer, Storyboard Director, Writer

+
 * Derek Drymon: Storyboard Artist, Writer

+
 * Mr. Lawrence: Storyboard Director, Writer

+
 * Dan Povenmire: Storyboard Director, Writer

+
 * Jeff "Swampy" Marsh: Storyboard Director, Writer

+
 * Timothy Berglund (aka Timothy Björklund): Storyboard Director, Writer

+
 * Martin Olson: Writer

+
 * George Maestri: Writer

+
 * Vince Calandra: Writer

+
 * Tim Hill: Story Editor (Last Season)

+
 * Mark O'Hare: Storyboard Artist

+
 * Robert Hughes: Animation Director

+
 * Antoine Guilbaud: Storyboard Artist

+
 * Sherm Cohen: Storyboard Artist, Storyboard Director

+
 * Tom Yasumi: Animation Timer

−

Comic book series
+	−

+	Marvel Comics produced a seven-issue comic book series based on the television series. −

References to American Popular Culture
−	−	−	−	−	−	−	−	−	−	−	−	−	−	−	−	−	−	−	 	+	The comics contain stories not seen in the television show. In addition, some television show characters and places are absent from the comic book series, while some original places and characters appear in the comics. −
 * In Easy Come, Easy Gonard, the countdown clock shown is from the American television series 24.
 * In the episode Sumo of all Fears, the Lilymu episode is almost identical to the climax to the first Spider-Man film.
 * In the episode Lost in Transportation, when Mikey is in the coffee shop with the bikers, he tries to "dance his way out", so he jumps up on the counter and does a dance very similar to the Pee Wee Herman dance. The scene is a reference to "Pee Wee's Big Adventure".
 * Many of the "Kappa Mikey" episodes are parodies of famous movies, books, & more.
 * In the episode Ship of Fools The Videogame has graphics straight from Donkey Kong.
 * Lily's Punchbug's name comes from the children's game "slug-bug" or "punch-buggy", in which one child yells out "slug-bug!" and hits another in the shoulder or arm when they spot a VW Beetle. This is usually played as a car game (that is, played in a vehicle driven by an adult).
 * During the theme song, there is a scene where it shows Mikey dancing in a white, button-up shirt, his underwear, socks, and sunglasses accompanied by a pair of Dobermanns. This is likely a reference to Tom Cruise in Risky Business. The parody is in Mikey Impossible, the title of which is a parody of Mission Impossible, also starring Tom Cruise.
 * The instructor in The Lost Pilot greatly resembles Simon Cowell. Also in the episode, the audition LilyMu has for a new actor is reminiscent to the Idol series. (Pop Idol, American Idol, Australian Idol, etc.)
 * In the episode Big Brozu, Brozu says that he has to "Trump" his younger brother and fire him. This is reference to the reality show The Apprentice in which Donald Trump uses the catchphrase "You're fired" to eliminate contestants on the show.
 * Mikey's Orb in LilyMu appears to be based on the sentinel sphere from the Phantasm movies. It can fly around with no explainable means of propulsion other than having been thrown into the air (although it is possible that its saw blades act as lifting rotors of some sort). It also appears to have a limited intelligence, allowing it to do things like hover, navigate itself to cut multiple targets, and return to Mikey after it has served its purpose.
 * In the episode "Uh oh, Guano" Mikey's horse is named Sea Cookie which is a spoof off of "Seabiscuit" an American movie.
 * In A Christmas Mikey:
 * The title is a parody of the movie "A Christmas Story" (or A Christmas Carol). The story parodies both It's a Wonderful Life and A Christmas Carol.
 * Mitsuki's performance in the mansion scene is a parody of Gloria Swanson's role as Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard. Also in A Christmas Mikey, Mitsuki has a monkey named Professor Bobo, likely a reference to the Mystery Science Theater 3000 character of that name.
 * Lily's career doing voice-over work (to Mikey's and a passerby's disgust) is a meta-reference on the show itself.
 * Guano as a chimney sweep with a British accent may be a reference to the chimney sweeps in Mary Poppins - he is in fact whistling "Chim Chim Cherrie" when he first appears in this role.
 * When Mikey is upset over Ozu not giving him a new contract, Gonard says, "Don't worry, we'll get you that monkey assistant," and he puts on a yellow hat, which is a reference to Curious George.
 * In The Good, The Bad, & The Mikey, at the beginning of the staged fight sequence between Kappa Mikey and Captin Impressive, the beginning to Beat It, a song by Michael Jackson can be heard.
 * In Mikey Likes It(Garbage), when Lily is looking around in the resturant, there are two familiar couples: One is the pirate from Ship of Fools and Vito's wife (with blonde hair), and the other is the balif from The Fugi-Kid with the old lady that sometimes makes a cameo appearance.

References to Japanese Popular culture
+	John "Lewie" Lewandowski wrote all of the stories except for one; the second story of Issue #4 was written by Joey Cavalieri. −	−	−	−	−	−	−	−	−	−	−	 	+	Tom DeFalco served as Editor-in-Chief for the project, and Martin Olson, a writer on the series, served as Consulting Story Editor. −
 * The show features secondary characters and extras, mostly in crowd scenes, whose designs are directly inspired off of famous anime characters, but who are different enough to avoid copyright infringements. Sometimes this is done to spoof the films and television programs intentionally, such as the character Masaka Masako, whose appearance spoofs Yubaba's from the film Spirited Away.   Other times, it is done to continue the show's original concept, without any intention behind it.
 * The LilyMu show seems to be based on the classic Japanese Rubber Suit shows such as Super Sentai(the original version of Power Rangers), Kamen Rider(Masked Rider in the US), and Ultraman.
 * The show's title is a variation on the word kappamaki, a type of sushi. It is suggested that it was the inspiration for naming the title character Mikey, and uses the prefix kappa. Like Mikey, who is a 'fish out of water' in Japan, the kappa creature itself is a water demon who can live on land.    The kappas first appeared on this show in the episode Mikey, Kappa, on August 5th.
 * Some of the settings in the show are real locations in Japan, including Ginza, and Yoyogi Park.
 * Sean Schemmel (Gonard) is one of the many English voices of Goku and miscellaneous characters from Dragon Ball, which Gonard's [off-set] design is deliberately spoofing. His character's appearance on the "LilyMu" show is also a spoof of the typical demon-like characters Goku and his friends constantly fight against in Dragon Ball. Gonard's love of food may also be a spoof of Goku's large appetite.
 * The phrase "Oh, Mikey!", which is said several times in the show, seems to be a nod towards the Japanese television show Oh! Mikey, which also has the premise of Americans moving to Japan.
 * In the episode "Battle of the Bands" mostly all the guitars are blue rickenbacker Model 4003 basses, similar to Haruko's bass guitar in FLCL.
 * In the episode "Battle of the Bands" there is a band and cartoon show that obviously reference Japanese band and cartoon stars Ami and Yumi from the band Puffy AmiYumi.
 * In the episode Sumo of all Fears, Mikey wishes to become the greatest yokozuna to get respect from everyone. This is a reference to Naruto, where the main character Naruto Uzumaki wishes to become Hokage for the same purpose as Mikey did.
 * In the episode "Free Squiddy", there is a scene in which the cast, trapped in a giant sticky ball of objects, roll through Tokyo and stick many people into the ball along the way. This scene is based upon Katamari Damacy, and even features a cameo character resembling the Prince of All Cosmos, who is rolling a Katamari ball of his own.  Sadly, he also gets stuck to the original ball.
 * In the episode "Saving Face", Mikey goes to the doctor to get his pimple removed. The doctor that preforms the surgery is named Doctor Katashi, which is a reference to the Naruto character Kakashi. This is clear because of the name and the headband over the eye, just like Kakashi's headband.

Cultural errors
+	−	 	+	Rocko, the main character, was in a previously-created and never-released comic book. In the comic, he has the name "Travis". +	 	+
 * In the episode Ship of Fools, the video game boxes for the Lily-Mu video game have a rating of "E for Everyone" from North America's Entertainment Software Rating Board rating system rather than a rating from Japan's Computer Entertainment Rating Organization rating system.

DVD Collection
+	Fans have requested that Nickelodeon produce a DVD collection of the Rocko series for years. Nickelodeon has not produced any DVD collection of Rocko, even though they have released DVDs of series such as SpongeBob SquarePants or Invader Zim. According to TVShowsOnDVD.com, it is in the top 40 most requested unreleased shows. The show remains without an official DVD release. +	 	+

Animals featured
+

Television show and comic
+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+
 * Wallaby (Rocko)
 * Steer - (Heffer)
 * Turtle - (Filburt)
 * American Toad - (Ed and Bev Bigheads)
 * Jack Russell Terrier - (Spunky)
 * Bulldog - (Earl)
 * Hippopotamus - (Gladys Hippo)
 * Common Chameleon - (Chuck and Leon)
 * Green Lizard - (Mr. Dupette)

Television show
+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+
 * Gray Wolf - (Wolfe family)
 * Cat - (Paula Hutchison)
 * Edible Frog - (Mister Smitty)
 * House Fly - (Flecko)

History
−	Kappa Mikey is marketed as "the first anime to be produced entirely in the United States", according to press releases from MTV, Nicktoons Network, and various other sources, as the term anime in English is generally reserved for animation originally produced for the Japanese market. It uses Japanese animation and culture as inspiration for its concept, rather than being "true" anime. +	Originally, the character Rocko appeared in an unpublished comic book titled Travis. Murray tried selling the comic book in the late 1980s, between illustrating jobs, and did not find success in getting it in production. Many other characters appeared in various sketchbooks. +	Murray described the early 1990s animation atmosphere as "ripe for this kind of project. We took some chances that would be hard to do in these current times," with the "current times" being the 2000s. −	On February 16, 2008, during their "Music Week", Nicktoons Network aired their first original television movie: an hour-long Kappa Mikey musical entitled "Kappa Karaoke". Officially, the episode's title is "The Karaoke Episode". +	Murray wanted funding for his independent film "My Dog Zero," so he wanted Nickelodeon to pre-buy television rights for the series. Murray presented a pencil test to Nickelodeon Studios, which afterwards became interested in buying and airing the show. Linda Simensky, then in charge of animation development in Nickelodeon, informed Murray about the Nicktoons lineup and concept. Murray originally felt skepticism towards the concept of creating a Nicktoon as he disliked television cartoons. Simensky told Murray that Nicktoons differed from other cartoons. Murray told her that he believed that "My Dog Zero" would not work as a cartoon. He then researched Nickelodeon at the library and found that Nickelodeon's "attitude was different than regular TV." Murray combed through his sketchbooks, developed the Rocko's Modern Life concept, and submitted it to Nickelodeon, believing that the concept would likely be rejected. According to Murray, around three or four months later he had "forgotten about" the concept and was working on "My Dog Zero" when Simensky informed Murray that Nickelodeon wanted a pilot episode. Murray said that he was glad that he would get funding for "My Dog Zero." On his website Murray describes "My Dog Zero" was "that film that Linda Simensky saw which led me to Rocko." −

Title
−	The show's title is a variation on the word kappamaki, a type of sushi. It is suggested that it was the inspiration for naming the title character Mikey, and uses the prefix kappa. Like Mikey, who is a 'fish out of water' in Japan, the kappa creature itself is a water demon who can live on land. The kappas first appeared on this show in the episode Mikey, Kappa, on August 5th, where the origin of the title was explained. Mikey also shares his name with the actor who supplies his voice. +	Murray originally wrote "Sucker for the Suck-O-Matic" as the pilot; the executives decided that Heffer Wolfe, one of the characters, would be "a little too wierd for test audiences." [sic] Murray, instead of removing Heffer from "Sucker for the Suck-O-Matic," decided to write "Trash-O-Madness" as the pilot episode. −

Overview
−	The series centers around Mikey Simon, a 19-year-old actor who just graduated from high school and is from Cleveland, Ohio. He embarks to Japan after winning a scratch-off card contest to star in the country's formerly popular anime series, LilyMu. In doing this, he rockets the show back to the top of the ratings, and becomes Japan's biggest anime star. +	When the series was in development prior to the release of the first episode, the series had the title The Rocko Show. −	Segments of LilyMu are seen at the beginning and end of each episode, but the show focuses primarily on the actors' and producers' lives off-set and Mikey's adjustments to the new world he has entered (similar in concept to The Famous Jett Jackson). The humor comes from the fact that because Mikey is an American, he actually stands out visually from the other cast members, similar to the mix of styles in Who Framed Roger Rabbit. While most characters on the show are drawn in an anime-inspired style (thin outlines, big, detailed eyes, small mouths, and all ten fingers), Mikey (and all other American characters) is drawn in a retro-inspired American cartoon manner (thicker outlines, single black dot pupil eyes, a larger mouth, and only eight fingers). The humor is delivered in a rapid pace, and also consists of light satire, non-sequential cut-aways, slapstick, character quirks, and a fair amount of gross-out humor. +	 	+	In 1992, two months prior to the production of season 1 of Rocko's Modern Life, Murray's first wife committed suicide. Murray said that he felt that he had emotional and physical "unresolved issues" when he moved to Los Angeles. He describes the experience as like participating in "marathon with my pants around my ankles." Murray initially believed that he would create one season, move back to the San Francisco Bay Area, and "clean up the loose ends I had left hanging." Murray said that he felt surprised when Nickelodeon approved new seasons; Nickelodeon renewed the series for its second season in December 1993. +	 	+	After season 3 he decided to hand the project to Stephen Hillenburg, who performed most work for season 4; Murray continued to manage the cartoon. Murray said that he would completely leave the production after season 4. Murray said also that he encouraged the network to continue production, but Nickelodeon eventually decided to cancel the series. Murray described all fifty-two episodes as "top notch", and in his view the quality of a television show may decline as production continues "when you are dealing with volume." +	 	+	On his website Murray said that, "In some ways it succeeded and in some ways failed. All I know it developed it’s own flavor and an equally original legion of fans." [sic] +	 	+	In a 1997 interview Murray said that he at times wondered if he could re-start the series; he feels the task would be difficult.

Production
+	Murray's Joe Murray Productions and Games Animation rented office space on Ventura Boulevard in the Studio City neighborhood of the San Fernando Valley region of Los Angeles, California. The production moved to a different office building on Vineland Avenue in the San Fernando Valley area of Los Angeles. Executives did not share space with the creative team. Rough Draft Studios assembled the animation. +	According to Murray, as Rocko's Modern Life was Murray's first television series, he did not know about the atmosphere of typical animation studios. Murray said that he opted to operate his studio in a similar manner to the operation of his Saratoga, California studio, which he describes as "Very relaxed." Murray's cadre included many veterans who, according to him, described the experience as "the most fun they had ever had!" Murray, saying that the atmosphere was "not my doing," credited his team members for collectively contributing. −	Kappa Mikey is different from other cartoons produced in the past few years in that the property is owned by the studio instead of an agency, the animation is not out-sourced, and the episodes are written by a full-time staff. After producing Internet-based projects and television spots, this is Animation Collective's first ever television series, and is produced in New York City starting from the summer of 2005. Production officially wrapped in September 2007, in order to start production on Speed Racer: The Next Generation and Three Delivery at the same time. +	Murray described the daily atmosphere at the studio as "very loose," adding that the rules permitted all staff members to use the paging system to make announcements. Murray stated that one visitor compared the environment of the production studio to "preschool without supervision." Murray stated that 70 people in the United States and over 200 people in South Korea animated the series. −	An early test pilot was made for a pitch to MTV Networks, where the character designs and backgrounds resembled more like those found in Perfect Hair Forever. Much of the current cast was voicing their characters even this early in production. When the deal didn't go through, Nickelodeon eventually picked up the project, and the show was tweaked heavily in order to be aimed at a younger audience. +	Murray produced the pilot episode, "Trash-O-Madness," at his studio in Saratoga; Murray animated half of the episode, and the production occurred entirely in the United States, with animation in Saratoga and processing in San Francisco. While directing during recording sessions, Murray preferred to be on the stage with the actors instead of "behind glass" in a control room, which Murray describes as "the norm" while making animated series. −	Voice talents are usually local, and for the most part, the show is recorded at Manhattan-based NYAV Post, which Michael Sinterniklaas owns. Larry Schwarz, along with the other executive producers, oversees all phases of production, but only has writing credits on the pilot episode, "Mikey Impossible", and "A Christmas Mikey". All the episodes are directed by Sergei Aniskov. The instrumental score is composed by John Angier, who also wrote the lyrics to "The Recycling Song", Ori and Yori's hits, "Living With Mikey", and the songs in the Karaoke episodes. +	Murray believes that, due to his lack of experience with children, Rocko's Modern Life "skewed kind of older." When he began producing Rocko, he says that his experience in independent films initially led him to attempt to micromanage many details in the production. Murray said that the approach, when used for production of television shows, was "driving me crazy." This led Murray to allow for other team members to manage aspects of the Rocko's Modern Life production. −	It is animated in Adobe Flash, with some moments of CGI rendered in Maya. To further emphasize the contrast in animation styles, one group of animators is assigned to the anime characters, and another group is in charge of Mikey and the other American characters. The vehicles on LilyMu and around Tokyo, as well as the weapons, the Gonard balloon, Pirate King's ship, the Karaoke Genie Machine, etc..., are created in Maya and exported into Flash using the Toon Filter. The backgrounds are modeled in Maya, and texture, details, and clouds are added in Photoshop. Some of the backgrounds are inspired by actual locations in Tokyo. Final effects and sound editing and added in AfterEffects and Final Cut Pro. The studio produces several episodes at once- it takes about 4 to 6 months for an episode to develop from script to delivery. +

Writing style
−	The show's anime-style characters perform with large comedic overuses of face faults, such as a face and/or body turning into an exaggerated general appearance, or becoming much smaller. This allows animators to have more control over how a character looks and acts than on many other Flash shows, and they don't always have to be on-model. The show uses clichés common to anime, including the sweat drop, lines over the eyes or no eyes at all, big heads, flaming eyes, bodies becoming smaller (or super deformed). Sometimes Mikey will try to do these things, which are one of the show's running gags, but cannot, due to being drawn in an American style. +	The writers aimed to create stories that they describe as "strong" and "funny." The writers, including George Maestri and Martin Olson, often presented ideas to Murray while eating hamburgers at Rocky's, a restaurant formerly located on Lankershim in the North Hollywood section of the San Fernando Valley. Murray took his team members on "writing trips" to places such as Rocky's, the LaBrea Tar Pits, and the wilderness. If Murray liked the story premises, the writers produced full outlines from the premises. Outlines approved by Murray and Nickelodeon became Rocko's Modern Life episodes. Maestri describes some stories as originating from "real life" and some originating from "thin air." Murray stated that each episode of Rocko's Modern Life stemmed from a personal experiences of himself and/or one or more of the directors or writers. Murray said that he did not intend to use formulaic writing seen in other cartoons; he desired content that "broke new ground" and "Did things that rode the edge," and that could be described as "Unexpected." He did not hire writers who had previous experience with writing cartoons. Murray instead hired writers who worked outside of animation, including improv actors and comic artists. He said that story concepts that "ever smacked close to some formula idea that we had all seen before" received rejection. +	 	+	Jeff "Swampy" Marsh, a storyboard writer, says that writers of Rocko's Modern Life targeted children and adults. Marsh cites Rocky and Bullwinkle as an example of another series that contains references undecipherable by children and understood by adults. Aiming for a similar goal, Marsh described the process as "a hard job." According to Marsh, when censors questioned proposed material, sometimes the team disagreed with the opinions of the censors and sometimes the team agreed with the rationale of the censors. Marsh says that "many people" told him that the team "succeded in this endevour" [sic] and that "many parents I know really enjoyed watching the show with their kids for just this reason." John Pacenti said the series "seems very much aimed at adults" "for a children's' cartoon." +	 	+	Marsh believes that the material written by Doug Lawrence stands as an example of a "unique sense of humor." For instance, Marsh credits Lawrence with the "pineapple references" adding that Lawrence believed that pineapples seemed humorous. +	 	+

Animation style
+	Murray's animation lacked parallel lines and featured many crooked doors. In an interview Murray stated that his design style contributed to the show's "Wonky bent feel." Jean Prescott of The Sun Herald described the series as "squash-and-stretch." A 1993 Houston Chronicle article described the series's setting as having a "reality is "squashed and stretched" into a twisted version of real life." +	 	+	The background staff hand-painted backgrounds with Dr. Martin dyes. +	 	+	Each episode title card consisted of an original painting. +	 	+	Linda Simensky said that she asked the creators of Rocko's Modern Life about why the women in the series were drawn to be "top-heavy," the creators told her that they believed that drawing women "the traditional way" was easier. Simensky described the creators as "talented guys" who formed "a boy's club" and added that "we pushed them to be funny, but a lot of their women are stereotypical." +	 	+

Episodes and comic book chapters
+

+	 	+

Places and locations
+	Many of the locations in the television show Rocko's Modern Life have the letter "O" for example O-Town and Conglom-O. When asked about the use of "O" in his show Murray said, +	I always got a big kick out of the businesses that were 'House-O-Paint', or 'Ton-O-Noodles', because their names seemed to homogenize what they sold, and strip the products of true individuality and stress volume ... and we all know, the American dream is volume!! So what better company to create volume than 'Conglom-O', and since a majority of the town worked at Conglom-O, it should be called 'O' Town. I also wanted the town to be 'anytown' USA, and I used to love sports players with a big ZERO on their back. It was funny to me. +	 	+

List of places in the television show
+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+
 * O-Town is the town in which Rocko lives.
 * Chokey/Chewy Chicken is a favorite restaurant/hang-out place for Rocko, Heffer, and Filburt. Through the first part of the fourth season it was called 'Chokey Chicken.' The name became 'Chewy Chicken' in later episodes because 'Chokey Chicken' was a clear reference to choking the chicken, a slang term for masturbation.
 * Conglom-O Corporation is the biggest company in town; it even runs City Hall. Mr. Dupette, who has very peculiar ways to see if the employees are fit to work there, manages Conglom-O. Conglom-O does not seem to have a specific purpose or product - it is a giant company that manufactures many products. Conglom-O's slogan is always shown beneath its name. The slogan is "We own you," revealing in a later musical episode that they own everything in O-Town. When Ed Bighead was shown to work at Conglom-O in 1961, the slogan stated "We Will Own You" (alluding to the future of megacorporations). The illustration that appears with the logo and on top of the official Conglom-O Corp. skyscraper is a martini glass with the earth in place of an olive.
 * Heck is where "bad people" go when they die. Run by Peaches, it is where Heffer is doomed to eternal suffering. The televisions in Heck do not have remotes.
 * Holl-o-Wood is a town that resembles the Hollywood section of Los Angeles, California.
 * Kind of a Lot O' Comics is a comic book store where Rocko works.

List of places in the comic book
+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+
 * Bet Your Life Race-Ways - A horse racetrack featured in Issue #4's first story, "Remote Controlled"
 * Cafe Low-Cal - A health food restaurant featured in Issue #3's story, "Eat This! It's Good for You!"
 * Club Seals - A nightclub and concert hall featured in Issue #4's second story, "Beaten by a Club."
 * The Grease Pit - A fast food restaurant featured in Issue #4's first story, "Remote Controlled"
 * Hardening of the Arteries Eatery - A fast food restaurant featured in Issue #3's story, "Eat This! It's Good for You!"
 * Humongo Comicon - Rocko works as a comic book dealer at the 1994 convention in Issue #7's first story, "Conned Again"
 * O-Town is the town in which Rocko lives. In the second story of the first issue of the comic book, a news station van bears "WBUK." The "W" call sign, generally found east of the Mississippi River, implies that O-Town is east of the Mississippi.
 * Pet Paradise Pet Supplies - A pet supply store that Rocko arrives at in Issue #6's second story, "Lice on the Loose"
 * St. Nick O'Time Hospital - A hospital appearing in Issue #1's first story, "Dental Hijinks."

Characters
−

+

+	Murray said that, in Rocko's Modern Life, he matched personalities of his characters to various animals, forming a "social caricature." −	 	+

Cast and crew
−	These characters are modeled on cartoon stereotypes, to varying extents. The show also features secondary characters and extras, mostly in crowd scenes, whose designs are directly inspired by famous anime characters, but who are different enough to avoid copyright infringements. Sometimes this is done to spoof the films and television programs intentionally, such as the character Masaka Masako, whose appearance spoofs Yubaba(or her twin, Zeneba) from the film Spirited Away, or Takashi Katashi, who shares a similar appearance and name with Kakashi Hatake from the anime Naruto. On another episode there is an anime version of Ami and Yumi from the TV series, Puffy AmiYumi. Other times, it is done to continue the show's original concept, without any intention behind it. +	 	+
 * Cast
 * Carlos Alazraqui as Rocko/Spunky/Leon/Granny Rocko

+
 * Tom Kenny as Heffer Wolfe/Chuck/Mr. Smitty/Really Really Big Man/Peaches/Various males

+
 * Mr. Lawrence as Filburt/Peter Wolfe

+
 * Linda Wallem as Dr. Hutchison/Mrs. Virginia Wolfe/Grandma Wolfe/Cindy Wolfe/Tammy the Pig/Various females

+
 * Charlie Adler as Ed Bighead/Gladys/Mr. George Wolfe/Grandpa Wolfe/Bev Bighead/Mr. Dupette/Mr. and Mrs. Fathead/Various males

+	 	+
 * Crew
 * Joe Murray: Creator, Executive Producer, Writer, Story Editor (Season 1 - 3)

+
 * Andy Houts: Project Coordinator

+
 * Stephen Hillenburg: Producer, Storyboard Director, Writer, Creative Director

+
 * Derek Drymon: Storyboard Artist, Writer

+
 * Mr. Lawrence: Storyboard Director, Writer

+
 * Dan Povenmire: Storyboard Director, Writer

+
 * Swampy Marsh: Storyboard Director, Writer

+
 * Timothy Berglund (aka Timothy Björklund): Storyboard Director, Writer

+
 * Martin Olson: Writer

+
 * George Maestri: Writer

+
 * Vince Calandra: Writer

+
 * Tim Hill: Story Editor (on Season 4 only)

+
 * Mark O'Hare: Storyboard Artist

+
 * Robert Hughes: Animation Director

+
 * Antoine Guilbaud: Storyboard Artist

+
 * Tom Yasumi: Animation Timer

+
 * Danny Antonucci: Storyboard artist

+
 * Jeff Myers: Storyboard Director

+
 * Kevin O' Brien: Storyboard artist

+
 * Alan Smart: animation director

+
 * George Chilatas: animation director

+
 * Nick Jennings: storyboard artist

+
 * Pete Michels: animation director

+
 * Chris Savino: animation artist

+
 * Tom Yasumi:   animation director

+
 * Howy Parkins: animation director

+
 * Roger Chiassen: writer/storyboard director

+
 * Robert McNally Scull writer/storyboard artist

−

List of episodes
+

Music
+	Kate Pierson and Fred Schneider from The B-52's performed the Rocko's Modern Life theme song from Season 2 onwards. −

+	At first Murray wanted Paul Sumares to perform the theme song since Sumares created most of the music found in My Dog Zero. Murray wanted the same style in My Dog Zero exhibited in Rocko's Modern Life. Nickelodeon wanted a person with more experience. According to Sumares, believing for the request to be a long shot, Murray asked for Danny Elfman and felt stunned when Nickelodeon decided to honor his request by asking Elfman to perform. According to Murray, Elfman, his first choice, was booked. Therefore he chose the B-52's, his second choice. According to Sumares Murray decided to use the B-52's instead of Elfman. Murray states that the difference between the stories "could just be a recollection conflict, because Paul is a brilliant amazing guy." −	 	+	Murray also sought Alan Silvestri; according to Murray, Silvestri did not wish to perform the theme song as "wasn't into doing television." According to Sumares Viacom did not want to use Silvestri as the organization wanted a band "slightly older kids could identify with." −

DVD Release
−	A Kappa Mikey DVD was released on September 18, 2007 under Starz Home Entertainment. It includes the episodes Lost in Transportation, Easy Come, Easy Gonard, and The Man Who Would Be Mikey, all from the first season, as well as bonus material, including a music video of 'I'm Alright' from Battle of the Bands, wallpaper, an interactive game parodying Hollywood Squares, and a How-To-Draw-Mikey tutorial. +	On his website Murray said that Linda Simensky introduced him to Pat Irwin, who became the musical director for Rocko's Modern Life. Murray describes Irwin's music as "pure Pat Irwin genius" and that the amount of time allotted to complete the music "makes his music even more astonishing." Marsh said that he was "not happy" with Irwin's music derived from the songs that the team wrote for the series. The team used another arranger to create the music for the episode "Zanzibar." Marsh believes that Irwin lacked "a good ear for musical parody." Marsh describes Irwin's background music as "pretty cool." −	According to the Animation Collective site, a 2nd DVD will be released sometime later in 2008. It will include Season One in its entirety, with DVD extras, and will be considered more of an "official" volume than the last one. −

Cultural Errors
+

DVD collection
+	Fans have requested that Nickelodeon produce a DVD collection of the series for years. So far, Nickelodeon has not produced any DVD collection of Rocko's Modern Life. It released DVDs of its other series such as SpongeBob SquarePants and Invader Zim. ] --> As of 2008 the show remains without an official DVD release. −	−	−	 	+	Murray states that he has not heard of any plans for a DVD release and that there are several illegal DVD releases of the series sold on eBay. He comments, "But at least someone is trying to give Rocko fans what they want. Because Nickelodeon sure isn't doing it." Murray has been working with his legal team to regain the rights, so that an official DVD can be released. −
 * In the episode Ship of Fools, the video game boxes for the Lily-Mu video game have a rating of "E for Everyone" from North America's Entertainment Software Rating Board rating system rather than an "A for All Ages" rating from Japan's Computer Entertainment Rating Organization rating system.
 * Raccoons, which appear in the show now and then, specifically in The Phantom of the Soundstage and The Man Who Would Be Mikey, are not found in Japan. They instead have raccoon dogs.
 * Although Halloween is not observed as part of Japanese culture, many Japanese (Especially in the younger generation) celebrate Halloween. This could be the reason for a Halloween special, including a part where children trick-or-treat.

Dancing Sushi Spin-off Series
+	The official home video release of the series in the United States was in 1995, when selected episodes were released on VHS by Sony Wonder. Paramount Home Entertainment later re-released the episodes in 1997 and 1998. −	Sometime in 2008, a spin-off mini-series of Kappa Mikey will premiere on Nicktoons Network, called Dancing Sushi, and will focus on the antics of the three main sushi beings that originally appear in the bumpers of the show. . They are given names, and a fourth female sushi will be added to balance out the cast. Twenty-six 1-minute episodes are made, with 3 web-exclusive episodes currently out now. Dancing Sushi Wiki Page +	Select episodes from the first season of the show have been released on iTunes as part of the Nick Rewind releases. iTunes has a "Best of Vol. 1" collection of 12 Rocko episodes. −

Kappa Karaoke songs
−	These are the songs that were sang by the characters from Nicktoons Network's first original TV movie, The Karaoke Episode. +

Reception of the television show
−	{| class="wikitable" +	On September 19, 1993, the series's first night of airing, it received a 3.0 in ratings. By January 31, 1994 the series's audience grew by 65%. −	 	+	−	! Number +	Ted Drozdowski of The Boston Phoenix stated in the "Eye pleasers" article that he enjoyed Rocko's Modern Life because of "jovial excitement," "good-hearted outrage," "humanity," and "pushy animated characterizations." −	! Title +	−	! Sung By 	+

Awards and award nominations
−	 	+	Timothy J. Borquez, Patrick Foley, Michael Giesler, Michael A. Gollorn, William B. Griggs, Tom Jeager, Gregory LaPlante, Timothy Mertens, and Kenneth Young of Rocko's Modern Life received a 1993 Daytime Emmy Award for "Outstanding Achievement in Film Sound Editing." −	 	+	−	 	+	George Maestri was nominated for a CableACE Award for his Rocko's Modern Life writing. −	 	+	−	 	+	The series won an award as part of the Environmental Media Awards in 1996. −	 	+	−	 	+
 * 1
 * It's In Your Heart
 * Mikey, Gonard, Guano, Lily, Mitsuki
 * 2
 * I Feel Super

Reviews of the television show
−	 	+	Ken Tucker of Entertainment Weekly described the series as "a witless rip-off of Ren & Stimpy: mucus jokes without the redeeming surrealism or contempt for authority." Tucker rated the series "D." −	 	+	−	 	+	Common Sense Media reviewer Andrea Graham, whose review is posted on Go.com, describes Rocko's Modern Life as "somewhat edgy" and gave the series four out of five stars. Graham tells parents to watch for "sexual innuendos." −	 	+	−	 	+
 * Mikey
 * 3
 * My Life Is Rulin' [AKA Looking Back at Days Gone By]
 * Mikey, Gonard, Guano, Lily, Mitsuki

Broadcast of the television show on other channels in North America
−	 	+	In 1994 the series aired on MTV. −	 	+	−	 	+	It aired on Nicktoons TV on several occasions. −	 	+	−	 	+
 * 4
 * When Life Gives You Lunch Meat [AKA Sandwich-eees]
 * Gonard

Broadcast of the television show outside of North America
−	 	+	In the early 2000s Nickelodeon Japan marketed the show along with The Ren and Stimpy Show. −	 	+	In Australia, it was shown on Nickelodeon Australia and ABC Kids in 1998 (on ABC Kids, it went −	 	+	on for a few years until 2002 except for Nickelodeon). In the UK, it was shown on Nicktoons UK until 2008. −	 	+	−	 	+
 * 5
 * I Pull the Strings
 * Ozu
 * 6

Marvel Comics series
−	 	+	−	 	+	Marvel Comics produced a seven-issue comic book series based on the television series. Marvel published the series from June 1994 to December 1994 with monthly releases. −	 	+	−	 	+	Nickelodeon approached Marvel, asking the company to produce comic book series for Rocko's Modern Life and Ren and Stimpy. Marvel purchased the license for Rocko from Nickelodeon. The staff created the comics, and Susan Luposniak, a Nickelodeon employee, examined the comics before they were released. −	 	+	−	 	+	The comics contain stories not seen in the television show. In addition, the comic book series omits some television show characters and places, while some original places and characters appear in the comics. −	 	+	−	 	+	John "Lewie" Lewandowski wrote all of the stories except for one; Joey Cavalieri wrote "Beaten by a Club," the second story of Issue #4. −	 	+	−	 	+	Tom DeFalco served as Editor-in-Chief for the project. −	 	+	−	 	+	Troy Little, a resident of Monroe, Oregon, wrote to Marvel requesting that the title for the "Letters to the Editor" section of the comic should be "That's Life." In Issue 3, published in August 1994, the editors decided to use the title for the comic's "Letters to the Editor" section. In Issue 5, published in October 1994, the editors stated that they still received suggestions for the title for the comic even though the editors had decided on using "That's Life" by Issue 3. −	 	+	−	 	+
 * Power Ballad Beat the Hero
 * Ozu, Guano
 * 7
 * Nothing Rhymes With Purple
 * Guano
 * 8
 * Hail Mighty Diva [AKA Popstar Power]
 * Lily
 * 9
 * Our Paths (Will They Cross? Will It Matter?)
 * Mitsuki

Merchandise
−	 	+	By January 31, 1994 Nickelodeon received ten "licensing partners" for merchandise for the series. −	 	+	−	 	+	Hardee's distributed Rocko toys. −	 	+	−	 	+
 * 10
 * Do the Bounce [AKA Follow the Bouncing Ball]
 * Mikey, Gonard, Guano, Lily, Mitsuki

Video games and software
−	 	+	−	 	+	Viacom New Media released one game based on the show, Rocko's Modern Life: Spunky's Dangerous Day, in the United States for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. In addition, Nickelodeon 3-D Movie Maker features various characters from the show. Rocko also appeared in the game Nicktoons: Attack of the Toybots. −	 	+	−	 	+	Nick.com created two online games featuring Rocko: "Match Master" and "Slider." −	 	+	 	+
 * 11
 * It's In Your Heart (Reprise)
 * Mikey, Gonard, Guano, Lily, Mitsuki, Ozu (at end)
 * }

Nickelodeon's website safety guide: "A Byte-Size Online Safety Guide"
+	In the late 1990s and early-to-mid 2000s Nickelodeon used Rocko's Modern Life characters in several short comics collected under the title "A Byte-Size Online Safety Guide" explaining netiquette, internet security, and internet safety to readers of Nick.com. +	 	+

History
−	Kappa Mikey is an American animated/Anime sitcom geared toward families and is created by Larry Schwarz. 4Kids Entertainment is the worldwide licensing, marketing and official promotional agent. The show is Nicktoons Network's first original half-hour series, to be followed by other Animation Collective shows like Three Delivery, as well as Edgar and Ellen and The Secret Show. It premiered on February 25, 2006, and Nickelodeon aired several reruns and premieres as a promotional movement from August 20, 2006 to January, 2007. It is MTV's first global acquisition. The entire show is currently available on iTunes. +	Originally, the character Rocko appeared in an unpublished comic book titled Travis. Murray tried selling the comic book in the late 1980s, between illustrating jobs, and did not find success in getting it in production. Many other characters appeared in various sketchbooks. He described the early 1990s animation atmosphere as "ripe for this kind of project. We took some chances that would be hard to do in these current times (the 1990s)". Murray wanted funding for his independent film "My Dog Zero," so he wanted Nickelodeon to pre-buy television rights for the series. He presented a pencil test to Nickelodeon Studios, which afterward became interested in buying and airing the show. −	Kappa Mikey is marketed as "the first anime to be produced entirely in the United States", according to press releases from MTV, Nicktoons Network, and various other sources, as the term anime in English is generally reserved for animation originally produced for the Japanese market. It uses Japanese animation and culture as inspiration for its concept, rather than being "true" anime. As a matter of fact, the series is a homage/parody of the Japanese anime genre. +	Linda Simensky, then in charge of animation development in Nickelodeon, described the Nicktoons lineup and concept to Murray. He originally felt skepticism towards the concept of creating a Nicktoon as he disliked television cartoons. Simensky told him that Nicktoons differed from other cartoons. He told her that he believed that "My Dog Zero" would not work as a cartoon. He then researched Nickelodeon at the library and found that Nickelodeon's "attitude was different than regular TV." Murray combed through his sketchbooks, developed the Rocko's Modern Life concept, and submitted it to Nickelodeon, believing that the concept would likely be rejected. According to Murray, around three or four months later he had "forgotten about" the concept and was working on "My Dog Zero" when Simensky informed him that Nickelodeon wanted a pilot episode. Murray said that he was glad that he would get funding for "My Dog Zero." On his website he describes "My Dog Zero" was "that film that Linda Simensky saw which led me to Rocko." "Sucker for the Suck-O-Matic" was originally written as the pilot; the executives decided that Heffer Wolfe, one of the characters, would be "a little too weird for test audiences." Murray, instead of removing Heffer from "Sucker for the Suck-O-Matic," decided to write "Trash-O-Madness" as the pilot episode. −	On February 16, 2008, during their "Music Week", Nicktoons Network aired their first original television movie: an hour-long Kappa Mikey musical entitled "Kappa Karaoke". Officially, the episode's title is The Karaoke Episode. +	When the series was in development prior to the release of the first episode, the series had the title The Rocko Show. Murray initially believed that he would create one season, move back to the San Francisco Bay Area, and "clean up the loose ends I had left hanging." Murray said that he felt surprised when Nickelodeon approved new seasons; Nickelodeon renewed the series for its second season in December 1993. −	The last three episodes have aired after the show was stuck on a hiatus. These episodes were aired in September 2008, and declared the season (series) finale after the 20th of September. +	After season 3 he decided to hand the project to Stephen Hillenburg, who performed most work for season 4; Murray continued to manage the cartoon. He said that he would completely leave the production after season 4. He said also that he encouraged the network to continue production, but Nickelodeon eventually decided to cancel the series. He described all fifty-two episodes as "top notch", and in his view the quality of a television show may decline as production continues "when you are dealing with volume." On his website he said that, "In some ways it succeeded and in some ways failed. All I know it developed its own flavor and an equally original legion of fans." In a 1997 interview Murray said that he at times wondered if he could re-start the series; he feels the task would be difficult. −

Title
−	The show's title is a variation on the word kappamaki, a type of sushi. It is suggested that it was the inspiration for naming the title character Mikey, and uses the prefix kappa. Like Mikey, who is a 'fish out of water' in Japan, the kappa creature itself is a water demon who can live on land. The kappas first appeared on this show in the episode Mikey, Kappa, on August 5th, where the origin of the title was explained. Mikey also shares his name with the actor who supplies his voice. −

Overview
+

Production
−	The series centers around Mikey Simon, a 19-year-old actor who just graduated from high school and is from Cleveland, Ohio. He embarks to Japan after winning a scratch-off card contest to star in the country's formerly popular anime series, LilyMu. In doing this, he rockets the show back to the top of the ratings, and becomes Japan's biggest anime star. +	Murray's Joe Murray Productions and Games Animation rented office space on Ventura Boulevard in the Studio City neighborhood of the San Fernando Valley region of Los Angeles, California. The production moved to a different office building on Vineland Avenue in Studio City. Executives did not share space with the creative team. Rough Draft Studios assembled the animation. According to Murray, as Rocko's Modern Life was his first television series, he did not know about the atmosphere of typical animation studios. Murray said that he opted to operate his studio in a similar manner to the operation of his Saratoga, California studio, which he describes as "Very relaxed." His cadre included many veterans who, according to him, described the experience as "the most fun they had ever had!" He, saying that the atmosphere was "not my doing," credited his team members for collectively contributing. Murray described the daily atmosphere at the studio as "very loose," adding that the rules permitted all staff members to use the paging system to make announcements. He stated that one visitor compared the environment of the production studio to "preschool without supervision." Murray stated that 70 people in the United States and over 200 people in South Korea animated the series. −	Segments of LilyMu are seen at the beginning and end of each episode, but the show focuses primarily on the actors' and producers' lives off-set and Mikey's adjustments to the new world he has entered (similar in concept to The Famous Jett Jackson). The humor comes from the fact that because Mikey is an American, he actually stands out visually from the other cast members, similar to the mix of styles in Who Framed Roger Rabbit. While most characters on the show are drawn in an anime-inspired style (thin outlines, big, detailed eyes, small mouths, and all ten fingers), Mikey (and all other American characters) is drawn in a retro-inspired American cartoon manner (thicker outlines, single black dot pupil eyes, a larger mouth, and only eight fingers). The humor is delivered in a rapid pace, and also consists of light satire, incongruity, slapstick, character quirks, and a fair amount of gross-out humor. +	Murray produced the pilot episode, "Trash-O-Madness," at his studio in Saratoga; he animated half of the episode, and the production occurred entirely in the United States, with animation in Saratoga and processing in San Francisco. While directing during recording sessions, Murray preferred to be on the stage with the actors instead of "behind glass" in a control room, which he describes as "the norm" while making animated series. He believes that, due to his lack of experience with children, Rocko's Modern Life "skewed kind of older." Murray noted, "There's a lot of big kids out there. People went to see 'Roger Rabbit' and saw all these characters they'd grown up with and said, 'Yeah, why don't they have something like that anymore?'" When he began producing Rocko, he says that his experience in independent films initially led him to attempt to micromanage many details in the production. He said that the approach, when used for production of television shows, was "driving me crazy." This led him to allow for other team members to manage aspects of the Rocko's Modern Life production. −

Production
+	Several members of the Rocko crew would later join Hillenburg in production of another Nicktoon, SpongeBob SquarePants, including SpongeBob voice Tom Kenny, who voiced Heffer Wolfe and other characters on Rocko's Modern Life. −	Kappa Mikey is different from other cartoons produced at the turn of the century, in that the property was owned by the studio instead of an agency, the animation was not out-sourced, and the episodes were written by a full-time staff. After producing Internet-based projects and television spots, this was Animation Collective's first ever television series, and was produced in New York City starting from the summer of 2005. +

Writing style
−	An early test pilot was made for a pitch to MTV Networks, where the character designs and backgrounds resembled more like those found in Perfect Hair Forever and the humor was also more adult. Much of the current cast was voicing their characters even this early in production. When the deal didn't go through, Nickelodeon eventually picked up the project, and the show was tweaked heavily in order to be aimed at a younger audience. +	The writers aimed to create stories that they describe as "strong" and "funny." The writers, including George Maestri and Martin Olson, often presented ideas to Murray while eating hamburgers at Rocky's, a restaurant formerly located on Lankershim in the North Hollywood section of the San Fernando Valley. He took his team members on "writing trips" to places such as Rocky's, the LaBrea Tar Pits, and the wilderness. If he liked the story premises, the writers produced full outlines from the premises. Outlines approved by both him and Nickelodeon became Rocko's Modern Life episodes. Maestri describes some stories as originating from "real life" and some originating from "thin air." Murray stated that each episode of Rocko's Modern Life stemmed from the personal experiences of himself and/or one or more of the directors or writers. He said that he did not intend to use formulaic writing seen in other cartoons; he desired content that "broke new ground" and "did things that rode the edge," and that could be described as "unexpected." He did not hire writers who had previous experience with writing cartoons, instead hiring writers who worked outside of animation, including improv actors and comic artists. He said that story concepts that "ever smacked close to some formula idea that we had all seen before" received rejection. −	Voice talents were usually local, and for the most part, the show was recorded at Manhattan-based NYAV Post, which Michael Sinterniklaas owns. Larry Schwarz, along with the other executive producers, oversaw all phases of production, but only had writing credits on the pilot episode, Mikey Impossible, and A Christmas Mikey. All the episodes were directed by Sergei Aniskov. The instrumental score was composed by John Angier, who also wrote the lyrics to The Recycling Song, Ori and Yori's hits, Living With Mikey, How Did We Get Here?, and the songs in The Karaoke Episode. +	Jeff "Swampy" Marsh, a storyboard writer, says that writers of Rocko's Modern Life targeted children and adults. He cites Rocky and Bullwinkle as an example of another series that contains references undecipherable by children and understood by adults. Aiming for a similar goal, Marsh described the process as "a hard job." According to him, when censors questioned proposed material, sometimes the team disagreed with the opinions of the censors and sometimes the team agreed with the rationale of the censors. He says that "many people" told him that the team "succeeded in this endevour" [sic] and that "many parents I know really enjoyed watching the show with their kids for just this reason." John Pacenti said the series "seems very much aimed at adults" "for a children's' cartoon." Marsh believes that the material written by Doug Lawrence stands as an example of a "unique sense of humor." For instance, Marsh credits Lawrence with the "pineapple references" adding that Lawrence believed that pineapples seemed humorous. −	It was animated in Adobe Flash, with some moments of CGI rendered in Maya. To further emphasize the contrast in animation styles, one group of animators was assigned to the anime characters, and another group was in charge of Mikey and the other American characters. The vehicles on LilyMu and around Tokyo, as well as the weapons, the Gonard balloon, Pirate King's ship, the Karaoke Genie Machine, etc..., were created in Maya and exported into Flash using the Toon Filter. The backgrounds were modeled in Maya, and texture, details, and clouds were added in Photoshop. Some of the backgrounds were inspired by actual locations in Tokyo. +

Animation style
−	The show's anime-style characters perform with large comedic overuses of face faults, such as a face and/or body turning into an exaggerated general appearance, or becoming much smaller. This allowed animators to have more control over how a character looks and acts than on many other Flash shows, and they didn't always have to be on-model. The show uses clichés common to anime, including the sweat drop, lines over the eyes or no eyes at all, big heads, flaming eyes, bodies becoming smaller (or super deformed). Sometimes Mikey will try to do these things, which was one of the show's running gags, but cannot due to being drawn in an American style. +	Murray's animation lacked parallel lines and featured many crooked doors. In an interview he stated that his design style contributed to the show's "Wonky bent feel." Jean Prescott of The Sun Herald described the series as "squash-and-stretch." A 1993 Houston Chronicle article described the series's setting as having a "reality that is "squashed and stretched" into a twisted version of real life." The background staff hand-painted backgrounds with Dr. Martin Dyes, while each episode title card consisted of an original painting. Linda Simensky said that she asked the creators of Rocko's Modern Life about why the women in the series were drawn to be "top-heavy," the creators told her that they believed that drawing women "the traditional way" was easier. Simensky described the creators as "talented guys" who formed "a boy's club" and added that "we pushed them to be funny, but a lot of their women are stereotypical." −

Characters
−

+

Music
−	 	+	There are 3 versions of the Rocko's Modern Life theme song. The first and original version can be heard playing throughout season one and was composed by Pat Irwin, who also composed the series' background music. The second version of the theme song was a slightly remixed version of the first and was only used during episodes 8 and 9 of season one. One of the changes included high pitched voices added to the chorus. The third version of the theme song was performed by Kate Pierson and Fred Schneider from The B-52's. They performed the Rocko's Modern Life theme song from Season 2 onwards. −	These characters are modeled on cartoon stereotypes, to varying extents. The show also features secondary characters and extras, mostly in crowd scenes, whose designs are directly inspired by famous anime characters, but who are different enough to avoid copyright infringements. Sometimes this is done to spoof the films and television programs intentionally, such as the character Masaka Masako, whose appearance spoofs Yubaba (or her twin, Zeneba) from the film Spirited Away, or Takashi Katashi, who shares a similar appearance and name with Kakashi Hatake from the anime Naruto (the person standing next to him could be a character that's supposed to resemble Sakura Haruno, also from Naruto, note the clothing). On another episode there is an anime version of Ami and Yumi from the TV series, Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi (which was running on Cartoon Network at the time). Also in the final scene of the episode entitled 'Reality Bites' there is a person in the crowd that looks like a persocom from the anime Chobits. Other times, it is done to continue the show's original concept, without any intention behind it. +	At first Murray wanted Paul Sumares to perform the theme song since Sumares created most of the music found in My Dog Zero. Murray wanted the same style in My Dog Zero exhibited in Rocko's Modern Life. Nickelodeon wanted a person with more experience. According to Sumares, believing for the request to be a long shot, Murray asked for Danny Elfman and felt stunned when Nickelodeon decided to honor his request by asking Elfman to perform. According to Murray, Elfman, his first choice, was booked. Therefore he chose the B-52's, his second choice. According to Sumares Murray decided to use the B-52's instead of Elfman. Murray states that the difference between the stories "could just be a recollection conflict, because Paul is a brilliant amazing guy." Murray also sought Alan Silvestri. According to Sumares Viacom did not want to use Silvestri as the organization wanted a band "slightly older kids could identify with." −

List of episodes
+	−

+

Plot
+

+	The plot follows life of a wallaby, Rocko, who has emigrated to America from Australia. In America, he is faced with various problems and challenges involving his pals who try to teach him what it means to be a good friend. There are sexual innuendos such as references to body parts including nipples, breasts, testicles and others. +	Many of the locations in the television show Rocko's Modern Life have the letter "O" for example O-Town and Conglom-O. When asked about the use of "O" in his show Murray said, +	"I always got a big kick out of the businesses that were 'House-O-Paint', or 'Ton-O-Noodles', because their names seemed to homogenize what they sold, and strip the products of true individuality and stress volume ... and we all know, the American dream is volume! So what better company to create volume than 'Conglom-O', and since a majority of the town worked at Conglom-O, it should be called 'O' Town. I also wanted the town to be 'anytown' USA, and I used to love sports players with a big ZERO on their back. It was funny to me."

+	 	+	The plot locations included the following: +	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+
 * O-Town is the town in which Rocko lives.
 * Chokey Chicken is a favorite restaurant/hang-out place for Rocko, Heffer, and Filburt. Through the first part of the fourth season it was called 'Chewy Chicken,' due to the former name's reference to masturbation. It's a parody of KFC.
 * Conglom-O Corporation is the biggest company in town; it even runs City Hall. Mr. Dupette, who has very peculiar ways to see if the employees are fit to work there, manages Conglom-O. Conglom-O does not seem to have a specific purpose or product—it is a giant company that manufactures many products. Conglom-O's slogan is always shown beneath its name. The slogan is "We own you," revealing in a later musical episode that they own everything in O-Town. When Ed Bighead was shown to work at Conglom-O in 1961, the slogan stated "We Will Own You" (alluding to the future of megacorporations). The illustration that appears with the logo and on top of the official Conglom-O Corp. skyscraper is a martini glass with the earth in place of an olive.
 * Heck is where "bad people" go when they die. Run by Peaches, it is where Heffer is doomed to eternal suffering.
 * Holl-o-Wood is a town that resembles the Hollywood section of Los Angeles, California.
 * Kind of a Lot O' Comics is a comic book store where Rocko works.

Characters
+

+	All the characters in the Rocko's Modern Life series are animals and there are a multitude. Murray said that he matched personalities of his characters to the various animals in the series to form a "social caricature". Rocko, the protagonist, is a wallaby who encounters various dilemmas and situations regarding otherwise mundane aspects of life. His best friend Heffer Wolfe is fat and enthusiastic while Filburt often feels uncomfortable or disturbed. +	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+
 * Carlos Alazraqui as the voice of Rocko,  Spunky, Leon and Granny Rocko
 * Tom Kenny as the voice of Heffer Wolfe, Chuck, Mr. Smitty, Really Really Big Man, Peaches and various males
 * Mr. Lawrence as the voice of Filburt and Peter Wolfe
 * Linda Wallem as the voice of Dr. Hutchison, Mrs. Virginia Wolfe, Grandma Wolfe, Cindy Wolfe, Tammy the Pig, and various females
 * Charlie Adler as the voice of Ed Bighead, Gladys, Mr. George Wolfe, Grandpa Wolfe, Bev Bighead, Mr. Dupette, Mr. and Mrs. Fathead and various males

Crew
+	 	+	 	+	−

DVD Release
−	A Kappa Mikey DVD was released on September 18, 2007 under Starz Home Entertainment. It includes the episodes Lost in Transportation, Easy Come, Easy Gonard, and The Man Who Would Be Mikey, all from the first season, as well as bonus material, including a music video of 'I'm Alright' from Battle of the Bands, wallpaper, an interactive game parodying Hollywood Squares, and a How-To-Draw-Mikey tutorial. +

Reception
−	In 2008, the Animation Collective site advertised a 2nd DVD that was scheduled be released sometime later that year. However, that announcement has been erased, leaving the exact release date to be unknown. It would've included Season One in its entirety, with DVD extras, and would've been considered more of an "official" volume than the last one. No further announcement has been made as the status of this DVD. +	Murray said that the cartoon "resonated" with people because the scenarios depicted in the cartoon involving "the neurosis, the daily chores of everyday life" were based on Murray's own experiences "breaking out into the world" after leaving school. On September 19, 1993, the series's first night of airing, Rocko's Modern Life received a 3.0 in ratings. By January 31, 1994 the series's audience grew by 65%. +	Ted Drozdowski of The Boston Phoenix stated in the "Eye pleasers" article that he enjoyed Rocko's Modern Life because of "jovial excitement," "good-hearted outrage," "humanity," and "pushy animated characterizations." −

Cultural Errors
−	−	−	−	 	+	A music video, called "Well, I'm Just a Wallaby" by Lloyd Cole was made for Nickelodeon. −
 * Being made in, and for, the United States, every character speaks English, and most do not have Japanese accents except for Ozu and Yes Man.
 * Americanized creative liberties with Japan abound in generally every minor detail, even though Japanese characters are used in signage, and the Tokyo cityscape looks accurate.
 * The top, or near-top, of Mt. Fuji is not covered in snow or ice, and no characters are clothed in winter outerwear while climbing it in the episode The Bracemaster.
 * Raccoons, which appear in the show now and then, specifically in The Phantom of the Soundstage and The Man Who Would Be Mikey, are not found in Japan. However, Japanese raccoon dogs, or tanukis, do exist in Japan and may instead be the creatures depicted, which would be consistent with the mischievous nature of these creatures in Japanese folklore.  In The Masked Tanuki, Guano's costume resembles a raccoon, even though it is named after the former.

Dancing Sushi Spin-off Series
+

Awards
−	A spin-off mini-series of Kappa Mikey was made for Nicktoons Network, called Dancing Sushi, and focused on the antics of the three main sushi beings that originally appeared in the bumpers of the show. . They are given names, and a fourth female sushi named Meep was added to balance out the cast. Twenty-six 1-minute episodes were made, with 3 web-exclusive episodes currently out now. The series is currently running on networks outside the United States, with no announcement for when this series will run in the United States. +	 	+	Timothy J. Borquez, Patrick Foley, Michael Giesler, Michael A. Gollorn, William B. Griggs, Tom Jeager, Gregory LaPlante, Timothy Mertens, and Kenneth Young of Rocko's Modern Life received a 1993 Daytime Emmy Award for "Outstanding Achievement in Film Sound Editing." +	George Maestri was nominated for a CableACE Award for his Rocko's Modern Life writing. −

The Karaoke Episode songs
−	These are the songs that were sang by the characters from Nicktoons Network's first original TV movie, The Karaoke Episode. They were all written by John Angier. +	The series won an award as part of the Environmental Media Awards in 1996. This was rewarded because of the episode "Zanzibar!" and was accepted by the writers of the episode, Dan Povenmire and Jeff "Swampy" Marsh. −	{| class="wikitable" +	 	+

Reviews
+	 	+	Ken Tucker of Entertainment Weekly described the series as "a witless rip-off of Ren & Stimpy: mucus jokes without the redeeming surrealism or contempt for authority." +	 	+	Common Sense Media reviewer Andrea Graham, whose review is posted on Go.com, describes Rocko's Modern Life as "somewhat edgy" and gave the series four out of five stars. Graham tells parents to watch for "sexual innuendos." +	 	+

Other broadcasts
+	 	+	In 1994 the series aired on MTV. In Malaysia Rocko's Modern Life aired in MetroVision around 1996. +	In the early 2000s Nickelodeon Japan marketed the show along with The Ren and Stimpy Show. In Australia, it was shown on ABC Kids. +	 	+

Rocko's DVD
+	 	+	Fans have requested that Nickelodeon produce a DVD collection of the series for years. In 2008 Nickelodeon partnered with Amazon.com to allow new and old programming to be made available on DVD through CreateSpace. As part of the deal Amazon.com is responsible for producing the discs (on one time burnable media) on-demand as well as cover and disc art. Two DVDs were released on September 16, 2008. +	 	+	Prior to the official DVD releases, Murray stated that he has not heard of any plans for a DVD release and that there are several illegal DVD releases of the series sold on eBay. He commented, "But at least someone is trying to give Rocko fans what they want. Because Nickelodeon sure isn't doing it." Murray worked with his legal team to regain the rights, so that an official DVD can be released. +	 	+	The official home video release of the series in the United States was in 1995, when selected episodes were released on VHS by Sony Wonder. Paramount Home Entertainment later re-released the episodes in 1997 and 1998. +	 	+	Select episodes from the first season of the show have been released on iTunes as part of the Nick Rewind releases. iTunes has a "Best of Vol. 1" collection of 6 Rocko episodes +	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	−
 * }

Marvel Comics series
−	 	+	−	 	+
 * The Official Kappa Mikey Website
 * Kappa Mikey Nicktoons Network Page

Episodes and comic book chapters
−	 	+
 * |templates/show.php|/tv/kappaMikey/kappaMikey_en.xml&xVar= Kappa Mikey Teletoon Page

−	 	+	−	 	+	−	 	+	−	 	+	During Tom DeFalco's Editor-in-Chief career, Marvel Comics produced a seven-issue comic book series based on the television series. Marvel published the series from June 1994 to December 1994 with monthly releases. +	 	+	Nickelodeon approached Marvel, asking the company to produce comic book series for Rocko's Modern Life and Ren and Stimpy. Marvel purchased the license for Rocko from Nickelodeon. The staff created the comics, and Susan Luposniak, a Nickelodeon employee, examined the comics before they were released. Joe Murray said in a December 2, 2008 blog entry that he drew some of the pages in the comic book series. +	 	+	The comics contain stories not seen in the television show. In addition, the comic book series omits some television show characters and places, while some original places and characters appear in the comics. John "Lewie" Lewandowski wrote all of the stories except for one; Joey Cavalieri wrote "Beaten by a Club," the second story of Issue #4. +	 	+	Troy Little, a resident of Monroe, Oregon, wrote to Marvel requesting that the title for the comic's letters column should be "That's Life." In Issue 3, published in August 1994, the editors decided to use the title for the comic's "Letters to the Editor" section. In Issue 5, published in October 1994, the editors stated that they still received suggestions for the title for the comic even though the editors had decided on using "That's Life" by Issue 3. +	 	+
 * Animation Collective
 * Dancing Sushi Official Site

Merchandise
+	 	+	 	+	 	+	By January 31, 1994 Nickelodeon received ten "licensing partners" for merchandise for the series. Hardee's distributed Rocko toys. Viacom New Media released one game based on the show, Rocko's Modern Life: Spunky's Dangerous Day, in the United States for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. In addition, Nickelodeon 3-D Movie Maker features various characters from the show. Rocko also appeared in the game Nicktoons: Attack of the Toybots. Nick.com created two free online games featuring Rocko, using Shockwave Flash (which requires the Shockwave plugin). +	 	+

Nickelodeon's website safety guide
+	 	+	In the late 1990s and early-to-mid 2000s Nickelodeon used Rocko's Modern Life characters in several short comics collected under the title "A Byte-Size Online Safety Guide" explaining netiquette, internet security, and internet safety to readers of Nick.com. +	 	+

History
−	On February 16, 2008, during their "Music Week", Nicktoons Network aired their first original television movie: an hour-long Kappa Mikey musical entitled "Kappa Karaoke". Officially, the episode's title is The Karaoke Episode. +	Originally, the character Rocko appeared in an unpublished comic book titled Travis. Murray tried selling the comic book in the late 1980s, between illustrating jobs, and did not find success in getting it in production. Many other characters appeared in various sketchbooks. He described the early 1990s animation atmosphere as "ripe for this kind of project. We took some chances that would be hard to do in these current times (the 1990s)". Murray wanted funding for his independent film "My Dog Zero," so he wanted Nickelodeon to pre-buy television rights for the series. He presented a pencil test to Nickelodeon Studios, which afterward became interested in buying and airing the show. −	The last three episodes have aired after the show was stuck on a hiatus. These episodes were aired in September 2008, and declared the season (series) finale after the 20th of September. +	Linda Simensky, then in charge of animation development in Nickelodeon, described the Nicktoons lineup and concept to Murray. He originally felt skepticism towards the concept of creating a Nicktoon as he disliked television cartoons. Simensky told him that Nicktoons differed from other cartoons. He told her that he believed that "My Dog Zero" would not work as a cartoon. He then researched Nickelodeon at the library and found that Nickelodeon's "attitude was different than regular TV." Murray combed through his sketchbooks, developed the Rocko's Modern Life concept, and submitted it to Nickelodeon, believing that the concept would likely be rejected. According to Murray, around three or four months later he had "forgotten about" the concept and was working on "My Dog Zero" when Simensky informed him that Nickelodeon wanted a pilot episode. Murray said that he was glad that he would get funding for "My Dog Zero." On his website he describes "My Dog Zero" was "that film that Linda Simensky saw which led me to Rocko." "Sucker for the Suck-O-Matic" was originally written as the pilot; the executives decided that Heffer Wolfe, one of the characters, would be "a little too weird for test audiences." Murray, instead of removing Heffer from "Sucker for the Suck-O-Matic," decided to write "Trash-O-Madness" as the pilot episode. −

Title
−	The show's title is a variation on the word kappamaki, a type of sushi. It is suggested that it was the inspiration for naming the title character Mikey, and uses the prefix kappa. Like Mikey, who is a 'fish out of water' in Japan, the kappa creature itself is a water demon who can live on land. The kappas first appeared on this show in the episode Mikey, Kappa, on August 5th, where the origin of the title was explained. Mikey also shares his name with the actor who supplies his voice. +	When the series was in development prior to the release of the first episode, the series had the title The Rocko Show. Murray initially believed that he would create one season, move back to the San Francisco Bay Area, and "clean up the loose ends I had left hanging." Murray said that he felt surprised when Nickelodeon approved new seasons; Nickelodeon renewed the series for its second season in December 1993. −

Overview
−	The series centers around Mikey Simon, a 19-year-old actor who just graduated from high school and is from Cleveland, Ohio. He embarks to Japan after winning a scratch-off card contest to star in the country's formerly popular anime series, LilyMu. In doing this, he rockets the show back to the top of the ratings, and becomes Japan's biggest anime star. +	After season 3 he decided to hand the project to Stephen Hillenburg, who performed most work for season 4; Murray continued to manage the cartoon. He said that he would completely leave the production after season 4. He said also that he encouraged the network to continue production, but Nickelodeon eventually decided to cancel the series. He described all fifty-two episodes as "top notch", and in his view the quality of a television show may decline as production continues "when you are dealing with volume." On his website he said that, "In some ways it succeeded and in some ways failed. All I know it developed its own flavor and an equally original legion of fans." In a 1997 interview Murray said that he at times wondered if he could re-start the series; he feels the task would be difficult. −	Segments of LilyMu are seen at the beginning and end of each episode, but the show focuses primarily on the actors' and producers' lives off-set and Mikey's adjustments to the new world he has entered (similar in concept to The Famous Jett Jackson). The humor comes from the fact that because Mikey is an American, he actually stands out visually from the other cast members, similar to the mix of styles in Who Framed Roger Rabbit. While most characters on the show are drawn in an anime-inspired style (thin outlines, big, detailed eyes, small mouths, and all ten fingers), Mikey (and all other American characters) is drawn in a retro-inspired American cartoon manner (thicker outlines, single black dot pupil eyes, a larger mouth, and only eight fingers). The humor is delivered in a rapid pace, and also consists of light satire, incongruity, slapstick, character quirks, and a fair amount of gross-out humor. −

Production
+

Production
+	Murray's Joe Murray Productions and Games Animation rented office space on Ventura Boulevard in the Studio City neighborhood of the San Fernando Valley region of Los Angeles, California. The production moved to a different office building on Vineland Avenue in Studio City. Executives did not share space with the creative team. Rough Draft Studios assembled the animation. According to Murray, as Rocko's Modern Life was his first television series, he did not know about the atmosphere of typical animation studios. Murray said that he opted to operate his studio in a similar manner to the operation of his Saratoga, California studio, which he describes as "Very relaxed." His cadre included many veterans who, according to him, described the experience as "the most fun they had ever had!" He, saying that the atmosphere was "not my doing," credited his team members for collectively contributing. Murray described the daily atmosphere at the studio as "very loose," adding that the rules permitted all staff members to use the paging system to make announcements. He stated that one visitor compared the environment of the production studio to "preschool without supervision." Murray stated that 70 people in the United States and over 200 people in South Korea animated the series. −	Kappa Mikey is different from other cartoons produced at the turn of the century, in that the property was owned by the studio instead of an agency, the animation was not out-sourced, and the episodes were written by a full-time staff. After producing Internet-based projects and television spots, this was Animation Collective's first ever television series, and was produced in New York City starting from the summer of 2005. +	Murray produced the pilot episode, "Trash-O-Madness," at his studio in Saratoga; he animated half of the episode, and the production occurred entirely in the United States, with animation in Saratoga and processing in San Francisco. While directing during recording sessions, Murray preferred to be on the stage with the actors instead of "behind glass" in a control room, which he describes as "the norm" while making animated series. He believes that, due to his lack of experience with children, Rocko's Modern Life "skewed kind of older." Murray noted, "There's a lot of big kids out there. People went to see 'Roger Rabbit' and saw all these characters they'd grown up with and said, 'Yeah, why don't they have something like that anymore?'" When he began producing Rocko, he says that his experience in independent films initially led him to attempt to micromanage many details in the production. He said that the approach, when used for production of television shows, was "driving me crazy." This led him to allow for other team members to manage aspects of the Rocko's Modern Life production. −	An early test pilot was made for a pitch to MTV Networks, where the character designs and backgrounds resembled more like those found in Perfect Hair Forever and the humor was also more adult. Much of the current cast was voicing their characters even this early in production. When the deal didn't go through, Nickelodeon eventually picked up the project, and the show was tweaked heavily in order to be aimed at a younger audience. +	Several members of the Rocko crew would later join Hillenburg in production of another Nicktoon, SpongeBob SquarePants, including SpongeBob voice Tom Kenny, who voiced Heffer Wolfe and other characters on Rocko's Modern Life. −	Voice talents were usually local, and for the most part, the show was recorded at Manhattan-based NYAV Post, which Michael Sinterniklaas owns. Larry Schwarz, along with the other executive producers, oversaw all phases of production, but only had writing credits on the pilot episode, Mikey Impossible, and A Christmas Mikey. All the episodes were directed by Sergei Aniskov. The instrumental score was composed by John Angier, who also wrote the lyrics to The Recycling Song, Ori and Yori's hits, Living With Mikey, How Did We Get Here?, and the songs in The Karaoke Episode. +

Writing style
−	It was animated in Adobe Flash, with some moments of CGI rendered in Maya. To further emphasize the contrast in animation styles, one group of animators was assigned to the anime characters, and another group was in charge of Mikey and the other American characters. The vehicles on LilyMu and around Tokyo, as well as the weapons, the Gonard balloon, Pirate King's ship, the Karaoke Genie Machine, etc..., were created in Maya and exported into Flash using the Toon Filter. The backgrounds were modeled in Maya, and texture, details, and clouds were added in Photoshop. Some of the backgrounds were inspired by actual locations in Tokyo. +	The writers aimed to create stories that they describe as "strong" and "funny." The writers, including George Maestri and Martin Olson, often presented ideas to Murray while eating hamburgers at Rocky's, a restaurant formerly located on Lankershim in the North Hollywood section of the San Fernando Valley. He took his team members on "writing trips" to places such as Rocky's, the LaBrea Tar Pits, and the wilderness. If he liked the story premises, the writers produced full outlines from the premises. Outlines approved by both him and Nickelodeon became Rocko's Modern Life episodes. Maestri describes some stories as originating from "real life" and some originating from "thin air." Murray stated that each episode of Rocko's Modern Life stemmed from the personal experiences of himself and/or one or more of the directors or writers. He said that he did not intend to use formulaic writing seen in other cartoons; he desired content that "broke new ground" and "did things that rode the edge," and that could be described as "unexpected." He did not hire writers who had previous experience with writing cartoons, instead hiring writers who worked outside of animation, including improv actors and comic artists. He said that story concepts that "ever smacked close to some formula idea that we had all seen before" received rejection. −	The show's anime-style characters perform with large comedic overuses of face faults, such as a face and/or body turning into an exaggerated general appearance, or becoming much smaller. This allowed animators to have more control over how a character looks and acts than on many other Flash shows, and they didn't always have to be on-model. The show uses clichés common to anime, including the sweat drop, lines over the eyes or no eyes at all, big heads, flaming eyes, bodies becoming smaller (or super deformed). Sometimes Mikey will try to do these things, which was one of the show's running gags, but cannot due to being drawn in an American style. +	Jeff "Swampy" Marsh, a storyboard writer, says that writers of Rocko's Modern Life targeted children and adults. He cites Rocky and Bullwinkle as an example of another series that contains references undecipherable by children and understood by adults. Aiming for a similar goal, Marsh described the process as "a hard job." According to him, when censors questioned proposed material, sometimes the team disagreed with the opinions of the censors and sometimes the team agreed with the rationale of the censors. He says that "many people" told him that the team "succeeded in this endevour" [sic] and that "many parents I know really enjoyed watching the show with their kids for just this reason." John Pacenti said the series "seems very much aimed at adults" "for a children's' cartoon." Marsh believes that the material written by Doug Lawrence stands as an example of a "unique sense of humor." For instance, Marsh credits Lawrence with the "pineapple references" adding that Lawrence believed that pineapples seemed humorous. −

Characters
−

+

Animation style
−	 	+	Murray's animation lacked parallel lines and featured many crooked doors. In an interview he stated that his design style contributed to the show's "Wonky bent feel." Jean Prescott of The Sun Herald described the series as "squash-and-stretch." A 1993 Houston Chronicle article described the series's setting as having a "reality that is "squashed and stretched" into a twisted version of real life." The background staff hand-painted backgrounds with Dr. Martin Dyes, while each episode title card consisted of an original painting. Linda Simensky said that she asked the creators of Rocko's Modern Life about why the women in the series were drawn to be "top-heavy," the creators told her that they believed that drawing women "the traditional way" was easier. Simensky described the creators as "talented guys" who formed "a boy's club" and added that "we pushed them to be funny, but a lot of their women are stereotypical." −	These characters are modeled on cartoon stereotypes, to varying extents. The show also features secondary characters and extras, mostly in crowd scenes, whose designs are directly inspired by famous anime characters, but who are different enough to avoid copyright infringements. Sometimes this is done to spoof the films and television programs intentionally, such as the character Masaka Masako, whose appearance spoofs Yubaba (or her twin, Zeneba) from the film Spirited Away, or Takashi Katashi, who shares a similar appearance and name with Kakashi Hatake from the anime Naruto (the person standing next to him could be a character that's supposed to resemble Sakura Haruno, also from Naruto, note the clothing). On another episode there is an anime version of Ami and Yumi from the TV series, Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi (which was running on Cartoon Network at the time). Also in the final scene of the episode entitled 'Reality Bites' there is a person in the crowd that looks like a persocom from the anime Chobits. Other times, it is done to continue the show's original concept, without any intention behind it. −

List of episodes
+

Music
+	−

+	There are 3 versions of the Rocko's Modern Life theme song. The first and original version can be heard playing throughout season one and was composed by Pat Irwin, who also composed the series' background music. The second version of the theme song was a slightly remixed version of the first and was only used during episodes 8 and 9 of season one. One of the changes included high pitched voices added to the chorus. The third version of the theme song was performed by Kate Pierson and Fred Schneider from The B-52's. They performed the Rocko's Modern Life theme song from Season 2 onwards. +	 	+	At first Murray wanted Paul Sumares to perform the theme song since Sumares created most of the music found in My Dog Zero. Murray wanted the same style in My Dog Zero exhibited in Rocko's Modern Life. Nickelodeon wanted a person with more experience. According to Sumares, believing for the request to be a long shot, Murray asked for Danny Elfman and felt stunned when Nickelodeon decided to honor his request by asking Elfman to perform. According to Murray, Elfman, his first choice, was booked. Therefore he chose the B-52's, his second choice. According to Sumares Murray decided to use the B-52's instead of Elfman. Murray states that the difference between the stories "could just be a recollection conflict, because Paul is a brilliant amazing guy." Murray also sought Alan Silvestri. According to Sumares Viacom did not want to use Silvestri as the organization wanted a band "slightly older kids could identify with." +	 	+

Plot
+

+	The plot follows life of a wallaby, Rocko, who has emigrated to America from Australia. In America, he is faced with various problems and challenges involving his pals who try to teach him what it means to be a good friend. +	Many of the locations in the television show Rocko's Modern Life have the letter "O" for example O-Town and Conglom-O. When asked about the use of "O" in his show Murray said, +	"I always got a big kick out of the businesses that were 'House-O-Paint', or 'Ton-O-Noodles', because their names seemed to homogenize what they sold, and strip the products of true individuality and stress volume ... and we all know, the American dream is volume! So what better company to create volume than 'Conglom-O', and since a majority of the town worked at Conglom-O, it should be called 'O' Town. I also wanted the town to be 'anytown' USA, and I used to love sports players with a big ZERO on their back. It was funny to me."

+	 	+	The plot locations included the following: +	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+
 * O-Town is the town in which Rocko lives.
 * Chokey Chicken is a favorite restaurant/hang-out place for Rocko, Heffer, and Filburt. Through the first part of the fourth season it was called 'Chewy Chicken,' due to the former name's reference to masturbation. It's a parody of KFC.
 * Conglom-O Corporation is the biggest company in town; it even runs City Hall. Mr. Dupette, who has very peculiar ways to see if the employees are fit to work there, manages Conglom-O. Conglom-O does not seem to have a specific purpose or product—it is a giant company that manufactures many products. Conglom-O's slogan is always shown beneath its name. The slogan is "We own you," revealing in a later musical episode that they own everything in O-Town. When Ed Bighead was shown to work at Conglom-O in 1961, the slogan stated "We Will Own You" (alluding to the future of megacorporations). The illustration that appears with the logo and on top of the official Conglom-O Corp. skyscraper is a martini glass with the earth in place of an olive.
 * Heck is where "bad people" go when they die. Run by Peaches, it is where Heffer is doomed to eternal suffering.
 * Holl-o-Wood is a town that resembles the Hollywood section of Los Angeles, California.
 * Kind of a Lot O' Comics is a comic book store where Rocko works.

Characters
+

+	All the characters in the Rocko's Modern Life series are animals and there are a multitude. Murray said that he matched personalities of his characters to the various animals in the series to form a "social caricature". Rocko, the protagonist, is a wallaby who encounters various dilemmas and situations regarding otherwise mundane aspects of life. His best friend Heffer Wolfe is fat and enthusiastic while Filburt often feels uncomfortable or disturbed. +	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	Kind of a lot O' of comics is a comic store where Rocko works, his boss, is a cruel toad who only concentrates on selling comics. Rocko however is very nice and giving. For example, when a customer sneezed all over a comic, Rocko gave him a fresh copy and did not charge him for the previous comic. +	 	+
 * Carlos Alazraqui as the voice of Rocko,  Spunky, Leon and Granny Rocko
 * Tom Kenny as the voice of Heffer Wolfe, Chuck, Mr. Smitty, Really Really Big Man, Peaches and various males
 * Mr. Lawrence as the voice of Filburt and Peter Wolfe
 * Linda Wallem as the voice of Dr. Hutchison, Mrs. Virginia Wolfe, Grandma Wolfe, Cindy Wolfe, Tammy the Pig, and various females
 * Charlie Adler as the voice of Ed Bighead, Gladys, Mr. George Wolfe, Grandpa Wolfe, Bev Bighead, Mr. Dupette, Mr. and Mrs. Fathead and various males

Crew
+	 	+	 	+	−

DVD Release
−	A Kappa Mikey DVD was released on September 18, 2007 under Starz Home Entertainment. It includes the episodes Lost in Transportation, Easy Come, Easy Gonard, and The Man Who Would Be Mikey, all from the first season, as well as bonus material, including a music video of 'I'm Alright' from Battle of the Bands, wallpaper, an interactive game parodying Hollywood Squares, and a How-To-Draw-Mikey tutorial. +

Reception
−	In 2008, the Animation Collective site advertised a 2nd DVD that was scheduled be released sometime later that year. However, that announcement has been erased, leaving the exact release date to be unknown. It would've included Season One in its entirety, with DVD extras, and would've been considered more of an "official" volume than the last one. No further announcement has been made as the status of this DVD. It is presumingly cancelled as of 2009. +	Murray said that the cartoon "resonated" with people because the scenarios depicted in the cartoon involving "the neurosis, the daily chores of everyday life" were based on Murray's own experiences "breaking out into the world" after leaving school. On September 19, 1993, the series's first night of airing, Rocko's Modern Life received a 3.0 in ratings. By January 31, 1994 the series's audience grew by 65%. +	Ted Drozdowski of The Boston Phoenix stated in the "Eye pleasers" article that he enjoyed Rocko's Modern Life because of "jovial excitement," "good-hearted outrage," "humanity," and "pushy animated characterizations." −

Cultural Errors
−	−	−	−	 	+	A music video, called "Well, I'm Just a Wallaby" by Lloyd Cole was made for Nickelodeon. −
 * Being made in, and for, the United States, every character speaks English, and most do not have Japanese accents except for Ozu and Yes Man.
 * Americanized creative liberties with Japan abound in generally every minor detail, even though Japanese characters are used in signage, and the Tokyo cityscape looks accurate.
 * The top, or near-top, of Mt. Fuji is not covered in snow or ice, and no characters are clothed in winter outerwear while climbing it in the episode The Bracemaster.
 * Raccoons, which appear in the show now and then, specifically in The Phantom of the Soundstage and The Man Who Would Be Mikey, are not found in Japan. However, Japanese raccoon dogs, or tanukis, do exist in Japan and may instead be the creatures depicted, which would be consistent with the mischievous nature of these creatures in Japanese folklore.  In The Masked Tanuki, Guano's costume resembles a raccoon, even though it is named after the former.

Awards
−

Dancing Sushi Spin-off Series
+	 	+	Timothy J. Borquez, Patrick Foley, Michael Giesler, Michael A. Gollorn, William B. Griggs, Tom Jeager, Gregory LaPlante, Timothy Mertens, and Kenneth Young of Rocko's Modern Life received a 1993 Daytime Emmy Award for "Outstanding Achievement in Film Sound Editing." +	George Maestri was nominated for a CableACE Award for his Rocko's Modern Life writing. −	A spin-off mini-series of Kappa Mikey was made for Nicktoons Network, called Dancing Sushi, and focused on the antics of the three main sushi beings that originally appeared in the bumpers of the show. . They are given names, and a fourth female sushi named Meep was added to balance out the cast. Twenty-six 1-minute episodes were made, with 3 web-exclusive episodes currently out now. The series is currently running on networks outside the United States, with no announcement for when this series will run in the United States. +	The series won an Environmental Media Award in 1996  for the episode "Zanzibar!". The award was accepted by the episode's writers, Dan Povenmire and Jeff "Swampy" Marsh. −

The Karaoke Episode songs
−	These are the songs that were sang by the characters from Nicktoons Network's first original TV movie, The Karaoke Episode. They were all written by John Angier. +

Reviews
−	{| class="wikitable" +	 	+	Ken Tucker of Entertainment Weekly described the series as "a witless rip-off of Ren & Stimpy: mucus jokes without the redeeming surrealism or contempt for authority." +	 	+	Common Sense Media reviewer Andrea Graham, whose review is posted on Go.com, describes Rocko's Modern Life as "somewhat edgy" and gave the series four out of five stars. Graham tells parents to watch for "sexual innuendos." +	 	+

Other broadcasts
+	 	+	In 1994 the series aired on MTV. In Malaysia Rocko's Modern Life aired in MetroVision around 1996. +	In the early 2000s Nickelodeon Japan marketed the show along with The Ren and Stimpy Show. In Australia, it was shown on ABC Kids. +	 	+

Rocko's DVD
+	 	+	Fans have requested that Nickelodeon produce a DVD collection of the series for years. In 2008 Nickelodeon partnered with Amazon.com to allow new and old programming to be made available on DVD through CreateSpace. As part of the deal Amazon.com is responsible for producing the discs (on one time burnable media) on-demand as well as cover and disc art. Two DVDs were released on September 16, 2008. +	 	+	Prior to the official DVD releases, Murray stated that he has not heard of any plans for a DVD release and that there are several illegal DVD releases of the series sold on eBay. He commented, "But at least someone is trying to give Rocko fans what they want. Because Nickelodeon sure isn't doing it." Murray worked with his legal team to regain the rights, so that an official DVD can be released. +	 	+	The official home video release of the series in the United States was in 1995, when selected episodes were released on VHS by Sony Wonder. Paramount Home Entertainment later re-released the episodes in 1997 and 1998. +	 	+	Select episodes from the first season of the show have been released on iTunes as part of the Nick Rewind releases. iTunes has a "Best of Vol. 1" collection of 6 Rocko episodes +	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	−
 * }

Marvel Comics series
−

+	 	+

Episodes and comic book chapters
+

+	 	+	 	+	 	+	During Tom DeFalco's Editor-in-Chief career, Marvel Comics produced a seven-issue comic book series based on the television series. Marvel published the series from June 1994 to December 1994 with monthly releases. +	 	+	Nickelodeon approached Marvel, asking the company to produce comic book series for Rocko's Modern Life and Ren and Stimpy. Marvel purchased the license for Rocko from Nickelodeon. The staff created the comics, and Susan Luposniak, a Nickelodeon employee, examined the comics before they were released. Joe Murray said in a December 2, 2008 blog entry that he drew some of the pages in the comic book series. +	 	+	The comics contain stories not seen in the television show. In addition, the comic book series omits some television show characters and places, while some original places and characters appear in the comics. John "Lewie" Lewandowski wrote all of the stories except for one; Joey Cavalieri wrote "Beaten by a Club," the second story of Issue #4. +	 	+	Troy Little, a resident of Monroe, Oregon, wrote to Marvel requesting that the title for the comic's letters column should be "That's Life." In Issue 3, published in August 1994, the editors decided to use the title for the comic's "Letters to the Editor" section. In Issue 5, published in October 1994, the editors stated that they still received suggestions for the title for the comic even though the editors had decided on using "That's Life" by Issue 3. +	 	+

Merchandise
+	 	+	 	+	 	+	By January 31, 1994 Nickelodeon received ten "licensing partners" for merchandise for the series. Hardee's distributed Rocko toys. Viacom New Media released one game based on the show, Rocko's Modern Life: Spunky's Dangerous Day, in the United States for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. In addition, Nickelodeon 3-D Movie Maker features various characters from the show. Rocko also appeared in the game Nicktoons: Attack of the Toybots. Nick.com created two free online games featuring Rocko, using Shockwave Flash (which requires the Shockwave plugin). +	 	+

Nickelodeon's website safety guide
+	 	+	In the late 1990s and early-to-mid 2000s Nickelodeon used Rocko's Modern Life characters in several short comics collected under the title "A Byte-Size Online Safety Guide" explaining netiquette, internet security, and internet safety to readers of Nick.com. +	 	+

History
− On February 16, 2008, during their "Music Week", Nicktoons Network aired their first original television movie: an hour-long Kappa Mikey musical entitled "Kappa Karaoke". Officially, the episode's title is The Karaoke Episode. + Originally, the character Rocko appeared in an unpublished comic book titled Travis. Murray tried selling the comic book in the late 1980s, between illustrating jobs, and did not find success in getting it into production. Many other characters appeared in various sketchbooks. He described the early 1990s animation atmosphere as "ripe for this kind of project. We took some chances that would be hard to do in these current times (the 1990s)". Murray wanted funding for his independent film My Dog Zero, so he wanted Nickelodeon to pre-buy television rights for the series. He presented a pencil test to Nickelodeon Studios, which afterward became interested in buying and airing the show. + Linda Simensky, then in charge of animation development in Nickelodeon, described the Nicktoons lineup and concept to Murray. He originally felt skepticism towards the concept of creating a Nicktoon as he disliked television cartoons. Simensky told him that Nicktoons differed from other cartoons. He told her that he believed that My Dog Zero would not work as a cartoon. He then researched Nickelodeon at the library and found that Nickelodeon's "attitude was different than regular TV." Murray combed through his sketchbooks, developed the Rocko's Modern Life concept, and submitted it to Nickelodeon, believing that the concept would likely be rejected. According to Murray, around three or four months later he had "forgotten about" the concept and was working on My Dog Zero when Simensky informed him that Nickelodeon wanted a pilot episode. Murray said that he was glad that he would get funding for My Dog Zero. On his website he describes My Dog Zero as "that film that Linda Simensky saw which led me to Rocko." "Sucker for the Suck-O-Matic" was originally written as the pilot; the executives decided that Heffer Wolfe, one of the characters, would be "a little too weird for test audiences." Murray, instead of removing Heffer from "Sucker for the Suck-O-Matic," decided to write "Trash-O-Madness" as the pilot episode. + When the series was in development prior to the release of the first episode, the series had the title The Rocko Show. −

Title
+ "A Bit of Trivia From Paul Sumares," The Rocko's Modern Life FAQ − The show's title is a variation on the word kappamaki, a type of sushi. It is suggested that it was the inspiration for naming the title character Mikey, and uses the prefix kappa. Like Mikey, who is a 'fish out of water' in Japan, the kappa creature itself is a water demon who can live on land. The kappas first appeared on this show in the episode Mikey, Kappa, on August 5th, where the origin of the title was explained. Mikey also shares his name with the actor who supplies his voice. + 	+ In 1992, two months prior to the production of season 1 of Rocko's Modern Life, Murray's first wife committed suicide. −

Overview
+ http://web.archive.org/web/20080629041444/http://joemurraystudio.com/blog/?p=135 June 16, 2008]." Joe Murray Studio. − The series centers around Mikey Simon, a 19-year-old actor who just graduated from high school and is from Cleveland, Ohio. He embarks to Japan after winning a scratch-off card contest to star in the country's formerly popular anime series, LilyMu.  In doing this, he rockets the show back to the top of the ratings, and becomes Japan's biggest anime star.  	+ Murray felt that he had emotional and physical "unresolved issues" when he moved to Los Angeles. He describes the experience as like participating in "marathon with my pants around my ankles." Murray initially believed that he would create one season, move back to the San Francisco Bay Area, and "clean up the loose ends I had left hanging." Murray said that he felt surprised when Nickelodeon approved new seasons; Nickelodeon renewed the series for its second season in December 1993. + After season 3 he decided to hand the project to Stephen Hillenburg, who performed most work for season 4; Murray continued to manage the cartoon. He said that he would completely leave the production after season 4. He said also that he encouraged the network to continue production, but Nickelodeon eventually decided to cancel the series. He described all fifty-two episodes as "top notch", and in his view the quality of a television show may decline as production continues "when you are dealing with volume." On his website he said that, "In some ways it succeeded and in some ways failed. All I know it developed its own flavor and an equally original legion of fans." In a 1997 interview Murray said that he at times wondered if he could re-start the series; he feels the task would be difficult. − Segments of LilyMu are seen at the beginning and end of each episode, but the show focuses primarily on the actors' and producers' lives off-set and Mikey's adjustments to the new world he has entered (similar in concept to The Famous Jett Jackson). The humor comes from the fact that because Mikey is an American, he actually stands out visually from the other cast members, similar to the mix of styles in Who Framed Roger Rabbit. While most characters on the show are drawn in an anime-inspired style (thin outlines, big, detailed eyes, small mouths, and all ten fingers), Mikey (and all other American characters) is drawn in a retro-inspired American cartoon manner (thicker outlines, single black dot pupil eyes, a larger mouth, and only eight fingers). The humor is delivered in a rapid pace, and also consists of light satire, incongruity, slapstick, character quirks, and a fair amount of gross-out humor. −

Production
+

Production
+ Murray's Joe Murray Productions and Games Animation rented office space on Ventura Boulevard in the Studio City neighborhood of the San Fernando Valley region of Los Angeles, California. . Production for the two seasons wrapped in September of 2007. + "Animators Feel Free With `Rocko'." The Palm Beach Post + The production moved to a different office building on Vineland Avenue in Studio City. Executives did not share space with the creative team. Rough Draft Studios assembled the animation. According to Murray, as Rocko's Modern Life was his first television series, he did not know about the atmosphere of typical animation studios. Murray said that he opted to operate his studio in a similar manner to the operation of his Saratoga, California studio, which he describes as "Very relaxed." His cadre included many veterans who, according to him, described the experience as "the most fun they had ever had!" He, saying that the atmosphere was "not my doing," credited his team members for collectively contributing. Murray described the daily atmosphere at the studio as "very loose," adding that the rules permitted all staff members to use the paging system to make announcements. He stated that one visitor compared the environment of the production studio to "preschool without supervision." Murray stated that 70 people in the United States and over 200 people in South Korea animated the series. + Murray produced the pilot episode, "Trash-O-Madness," at his studio in Saratoga; he animated half of the episode, and the production occurred entirely in the United States, with animation in Saratoga and processing in San Francisco. While directing during recording sessions, Murray preferred to be on the stage with the actors instead of "behind glass" in a control room, which he describes as "the norm" while making animated series. He believes that, due to his lack of experience with children, Rocko's Modern Life "skewed kind of older." Murray noted, "There's a lot of big kids out there. People went to see 'Roger Rabbit' and saw all these characters they'd grown up with and said, 'Yeah, why don't they have something like that anymore?'" When he began producing Rocko, he says that his experience in independent films initially led him to attempt to micromanage many details in the production. He said that the approach, when used for production of television shows, was "driving me crazy." This led him to allow for other team members to manage aspects of the Rocko's Modern Life production. + Several members of the Rocko crew would later join Hillenburg in production of another Nicktoon, SpongeBob SquarePants, including SpongeBob voice Tom Kenny, who voiced Heffer Wolfe and other characters on Rocko's Modern Life. − Voice talents were usually local, and for the most part, the show was recorded at Manhattan-based NYAV Post, which Michael Sinterniklaas owns. Larry Schwarz, along with the other executive producers, oversaw all phases of production, but only had writing credits on the pilot episode, Mikey Impossible, and A Christmas Mikey. All the episodes were directed by Sergei Aniskov. The instrumental score was composed by John Angier, who also wrote the lyrics to The Recycling Song, Ori and Yori's hits, Living With Mikey, How Did We Get Here?, and the songs in The Karaoke Episode. + Pat Irwin later went on to work on Pepper Ann & JetCat from KaBlam! − It was animated in Adobe Flash, with some moments of CGI rendered in Maya. To further emphasize the contrast in animation styles, one group of animators was assigned to the anime characters, and another group was in charge of Mikey and the other American characters. The vehicles on LilyMu and around Tokyo, as well as the weapons, the Gonard balloon, Pirate King's ship, the Karaoke Genie Machine, etc..., were created in Maya and exported into Flash using the Toon Filter. The backgrounds were modeled in Maya, and texture, details, and clouds were added in Photoshop. Some of the backgrounds were inspired by actual locations in Tokyo. +

Writing style
− The show's anime-style characters perform with large comedic overuses of face faults, such as a face and/or body turning into an exaggerated general appearance, or becoming much smaller. This allowed animators to have more control over how a character looks and acts than on many other Flash shows, and they didn't always have to be on-model. The show uses clichés common to anime, including the sweat drop, lines over the eyes or no eyes at all, big heads, flaming eyes, bodies becoming smaller (or super deformed). Sometimes Mikey will try to do these things, which was one of the show's running gags, but cannot due to being drawn in an American style. + The writers aimed to create stories that they describe as "strong" and "funny." The writers, including George Maestri and Martin Olson, often presented ideas to Murray while eating hamburgers at Rocky's, a restaurant formerly located on Lankershim in the North Hollywood section of the San Fernando Valley. He took his team members on "writing trips" to places such as Rocky's, the LaBrea Tar Pits, and the wilderness. If he liked the story premises, the writers produced full outlines from the premises. Outlines approved by both him and Nickelodeon became Rocko's Modern Life episodes. Maestri describes some stories as originating from "real life" and some originating from "thin air." Murray stated that each episode of Rocko's Modern Life stemmed from the personal experiences of himself and/or one or more of the directors or writers. He said that he did not intend to use formulaic writing seen in other cartoons; he desired content that "broke new ground" and "did things that rode the edge," and that could be described as "unexpected." He did not hire writers who had previous experience with writing cartoons, instead hiring writers who worked outside of animation, including improv actors and comic artists. He said that story concepts that "ever smacked close to some formula idea that we had all seen before" received rejection. + Jeff "Swampy" Marsh, a storyboard writer, says that writers of Rocko's Modern Life targeted children and adults. He cites Rocky and Bullwinkle as an example of another series that contains references undecipherable by children and understood by adults. Aiming for a similar goal, Marsh described the process as "a hard job." According to him, when censors questioned proposed material, sometimes the team disagreed with the opinions of the censors and sometimes the team agreed with the rationale of the censors. He says that "many people" told him that the team "succeeded in this endevour" [sic] and that "many parents I know really enjoyed watching the show with their kids for just this reason." −

Characters
+ "Dan Abrams' interview with Jeff "Swampy" Marsh," The Rocko's Modern Life FAQ −

+ John Pacenti said the series "seems very much aimed at adults" "for a children's' cartoon." Marsh believes that the material written by Doug Lawrence stands as an example of a "unique sense of humor." For instance, Marsh credits Lawrence with the "pineapple references" adding that Lawrence believed that pineapples seemed humorous. +

Animation style
− 	+

Music
− These characters are modeled on cartoon stereotypes, to varying extents. The show also features secondary characters and extras, mostly in crowd scenes, whose designs are directly inspired by famous anime characters, but who are different enough to avoid copyright infringements. Sometimes this is done to spoof the films and television programs intentionally, such as the character Masaka Masako, whose appearance spoofs Yubaba (or her twin, Zeneba) from the film Spirited Away, or Takashi Katashi, who shares a similar appearance and name with Kakashi Hatake from the anime Naruto (the person standing next to him could be a character that's supposed to resemble Sakura Haruno, also from Naruto, note the clothing). On another episode there is an anime version of Ami and Yumi from the TV series, Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi (which was running on Cartoon Network at the time). Also in the final scene of the episode entitled 'Reality Bites' there is a person in the crowd that looks like a persocom from the anime Chobits. Other times, it is done to continue the show's original concept, without any intention behind it. + There are 3 versions of the Rocko's Modern Life theme song. The first and original version can be heard playing throughout season one and was composed by Pat Irwin, who also composed the series' background music. The second version of the theme song was a slightly remixed version of the first and was only used during episodes 8 and 9 of season one. One of the changes included high pitched voices added to the chorus. The third version of the theme song was performed by Kate Pierson and Fred Schneider from The B-52's. They performed the Rocko's Modern Life theme song from Season 2 onwards. + At first Murray wanted Paul Sumares to perform the theme song since Sumares created most of the music found in My Dog Zero. Murray wanted the same style in My Dog Zero exhibited in Rocko's Modern Life. Nickelodeon wanted a person with more experience. According to Sumares, believing for the request to be a long shot, Murray asked for Danny Elfman and felt stunned when Nickelodeon decided to honor his request by asking Elfman to perform. According to Murray, Elfman, his first choice, was booked. Therefore he chose the B-52's, his second choice. According to Sumares Murray decided to use the B-52's instead of Elfman. Murray states that the difference between the stories "could just be a recollection conflict, because Paul is a brilliant amazing guy." Murray also sought Alan Silvestri. According to Sumares Viacom did not want to use Silvestri as the organization wanted a band "slightly older kids could identify with." −

List of episodes
−

+

Plot
− 	+ The plot locations included the following: −

Home media
− A Kappa Mikey DVD was released on September 18, 2007 under Starz Home Entertainment. It includes the episodes Lost in Transportation, Easy Come, Easy Gonard, and The Man Who Would Be Mikey, all from the first season, as well as bonus material, including a music video of 'I'm Alright' from Battle of the Bands, wallpaper, an interactive game parodying Hollywood Squares, and a How-To-Draw-Mikey tutorial. + − In 2008, the Animation Collective site advertised a 2nd DVD that was scheduled be released sometime later that year. However, that announcement has been erased, leaving the exact release date to be unknown. It would've included Season One in its entirety, with DVD extras, and would've been considered more of an "official" volume than the last one. No further announcement has been made as the status of this DVD. It is presumingly cancelled as of 2009. + 	+ 	+ 	+ 	+ −
 * O-Town is the town in which Rocko lives.
 * Chokey Chicken is a favorite restaurant/hang-out place for Rocko, Heffer, and Filburt. Through the first part of the fourth season it was called 'Chewy Chicken,' due to the former name's reference to masturbation. It's a parody of KFC.
 * Conglom-O Corporation is the biggest company in town; it even runs City Hall. Mr. Dupette, who has very peculiar ways to see if the employees are fit to work there, manages Conglom-O. Conglom-O does not seem to have a specific purpose or product—it is a giant company that manufactures many products. Conglom-O's slogan is always shown beneath its name. The slogan is "We own you," revealing in a later musical episode that they own everything in O-Town. When Ed Bighead was shown to work at Conglom-O in 1961, the slogan stated "We Will Own You" (alluding to the future of megacorporations). The illustration that appears with the logo and on top of the official Conglom-O Corp. skyscraper is a martini glass with the earth in place of an olive.
 * Heck is where "bad people" go when they die. Run by Peaches, it is where Heffer is doomed to eternal suffering.
 * Holl-o-Wood is a town that resembles the Hollywood section of Los Angeles, California.
 * Kind of a Lot O' Comics is a comic book store where Rocko works.

Cultural errors
+

Episodes
+ Main article: −

− − − − − 	+
 * Being made in, and for, the United States, every character speaks English, and most do not have Japanese accents except for Ozu and Yes Man.
 * Americanized creative liberties with Japan abound in generally every minor detail, even though Japanese characters are used in signage, and the Tokyo cityscape looks accurate.
 * The top, or near-top, of Mt. Fuji is not covered in snow or ice, and no characters are clothed in winter outerwear while climbing it in the episode The Bracemaster.
 * Raccoons, which appear in the show now and then, specifically in The Phantom of the Soundstage and The Man Who Would Be Mikey, are not found in Japan. However, Japanese raccoon dogs, or tanukis, do exist in Japan and may instead be the creatures depicted, which would be consistent with the mischievous nature of these creatures in Japanese folklore.  In The Masked Tanuki, Guano's costume resembles a raccoon, even though it is named after the former.
 * The show can't seem to decide whether Mikey can read Japanese or not. In The Switch, Mikey sews a few pages of Mitsuki's diary into a quilt. This means that either they write in English, or Mikey learned to read kanji, which is highly unlikely, since the episode The Lost Pilot states that he can't read kanji when he looks at the menu.

Characters
−

Dancing Sushi
+

− A spin-off mini-series of Kappa Mikey was made for Nicktoons Network, called Dancing Sushi, and focused on the antics of the three main sushi beings that originally appeared in the bumpers of the show. . They are given names, and a fourth female sushi named Meep was added to balance out the cast. Twenty-six 1-minute episodes were made, with 3 web-exclusive episodes currently out now. The series is currently running on networks outside the United States, with no announcement for when this series will run in the United States. + All the characters in the Rocko's Modern Life series are animals and there are a multitude. The vast majority of them are also mentally unstable. Murray said that he matched personalities of his characters to the various animals in the series to form a "social caricature". Rocko, the protagonist, is a wallaby who encounters various dilemmas and situations regarding otherwise mundane aspects of life. His best friend Heffer Wolfe is fat and enthusiastic while Filburt often feels uncomfortable or disturbed. + −
 * Carlos Alazraqui as the voice of Rocko, Spunky, Leon and Granny Rocko

The Karaoke Episode songs
+ − These are the songs that were sang by the characters from Nicktoons Network's first original TV movie, The Karaoke Episode. They were all written by John Angier. + 	+ 	+ 	+ Kind of a lot O' of comics is a comic store where Rocko works, his boss, is a cruel toad who only concentrates on selling comics. Rocko however is very nice and giving. For example, when a customer sneezed all over a comic, Rocko gave him a fresh copy and did not charge him for the previous comic. − {| class="wikitable" + − 	+
 * Tom Kenny as the voice of Heffer Wolfe, Chuck, Mr. Smitty, Really Really Big Man, Peaches and various males
 * Mr. Lawrence as the voice of Filburt and Peter Wolfe
 * Linda Wallem as the voice of Dr. Hutchison, Mrs. Virginia Wolfe, Grandma Wolfe, Cindy Wolfe, Tammy the Pig, and various females
 * Charles Adler as the voice of Ed Bighead, Gladys, Mr. George Wolfe, Grandpa Wolfe, Bev Bighead, Mr. Dupette, Mr. and Mrs. Fathead and various males

Crew
− ! Number + − ! Title + − ! Sung By 	+ + 	+ 	+ 	+ 	+ 	+ 	+ 	+ 	+ 	+ 	+ 	+ 	+ 	+ 	+ 	+ 	+ 	+ 	+ 	+ 	+ 	+ 	+ 	+ 	+ 	+ 	+ 	+ 	+ 	+ 	+ 	+ 	+
 * Joe Murray: Creator, Executive Producer, Writer, Story Editor (Season 1–3)
 * Andy Houts: Project Coordinator
 * Stephen Hillenburg: Producer, Storyboard Director, Writer, Creative Director
 * Derek Drymon: Storyboard Artist, Writer
 * Doug Lawrence: Storyboard Director, Writer
 * Dan Povenmire: Storyboard Director, Writer
 * Swampy Marsh: Storyboard Director, Writer
 * Timothy Berglund (aka Timothy Björklund): Storyboard Director, Writer
 * Martin Olson: Writer
 * George Maestri: Writer
 * Peter Burns: Writer
 * Gary Conrad and Merriwether Williams: Writer
 * Vince Calandra: Writer
 * Tim Hill: Story Editor (on Season 4 only)
 * Mark O'Hare: Storyboard Artist
 * Steven E. Gordon: Storyboard Artist
 * Robert Hughes: Animation Director
 * Antoine Guilbaud: Storyboard Artist
 * Tom Yasumi: Animation Timer, animation director
 * Danny Antonucci: Storyboard artist
 * Jeff Myers: Storyboard Director
 * Kevin O' Brien: Storyboard artist
 * Joe Suggs: Storyboard Artist
 * Conrad Vernon: Storyboard Artist
 * Bert Ring: Storyboard Artist
 * Alan Smart: animation director
 * George Chilatas: animation director
 * Nick Jennings: storyboard artist
 * Pete Michels: animation director
 * Chris Savino: animation artist
 * Howy Parkins: animation director
 * Roger Chiassen: writer/storyboard director
 * Robert McNally Scull writer/storyboard artist
 * Pat Irwin: Music composer

Reception
+ Murray said that the cartoon "resonated" with people because the scenarios depicted in the cartoon involving "the neurosis, the daily chores of everyday life" were based on Murray's own experiences "breaking out into the world" after leaving school. On September 19, 1993, the series's first night of airing, Rocko's Modern Life received a 3.0 in ratings. By January 31, 1994 the series's audience grew by 65%. + 	+ Ted Drozdowski of The Boston Phoenix stated in the "Eye pleasers" article that he enjoyed Rocko's Modern Life because of "jovial excitement," "good-hearted outrage," "humanity," and "pushy animated characterizations." + 	+ A music video, called "Well, I'm Just a Wallaby" by Lloyd Cole was made for Nickelodeon. + 	+

Awards
+

+ Timothy J. Borquez, Patrick Foley, Michael Giesler, Michael A. Gollorn, William B. Griggs, Tom Jeager, Gregory LaPlante, Timothy Mertens, and Kenneth Young of Rocko's Modern Life received a 1993 Daytime Emmy Award for "Outstanding Achievement in Film Sound Editing." + 	+ George Maestri was nominated for a CableACE Award for his Rocko's Modern Life writing. + 	+ The series won an Environmental Media Award in 1996 for the episode "Zanzibar!". The award was accepted by the episode's writers, Dan Povenmire and Jeff "Swampy" Marsh. + 	+

Reviews
+ Ken Tucker of Entertainment Weekly described the series as "a witless rip-off of Ren & Stimpy: mucus jokes without the redeeming surrealism or contempt for authority." + 	+ Common Sense Media reviewer Andrea Graham, whose review is posted on Go.com, describes Rocko's Modern Life as "somewhat edgy" and gave the series four out of five stars. Graham tells parents to watch for "sexual innuendos." + 	+

Other broadcasts
+ In 1994 the series aired on MTV. In Malaysia Rocko's Modern Life aired in MetroVision around 1996. + In the early 2000s Nickelodeon Japan marketed the show along with The Ren and Stimpy Show. In Australia, it was shown on ABC Kids. + 	+

Rocko's DVD
+ Fans have requested that Nickelodeon produce a DVD collection of the series for years. In 2008 Nickelodeon partnered with Amazon.com to allow new and old programming to be made available on DVD through CreateSpace. As part of the deal Amazon.com is responsible for producing the discs (on one time burnable media) on-demand as well as cover and disc art. Two DVDs were released on September 16, 2008. + 	+ Prior to the official DVD releases, Murray stated that he has not heard of any plans for a DVD release and that there are several illegal DVD releases of the series sold on eBay. He commented, "But at least someone is trying to give Rocko fans what they want. Because Nickelodeon sure isn't doing it." Murray worked with his legal team to regain the rights, so that an official DVD can be released. + 	+ The official home video release of the series in the United States was in 1995, when selected episodes were released on VHS by Sony Wonder. Paramount Home Entertainment later re-released the episodes in 1997 and 1998. + 	+ Select episodes from the first season of the show have been released on Zune and iTunes as part of the Nick Rewind releases. iTunes and zune has a "Best of Vol. 1" collection of 6 Rocko episodes + 	+ 	+
 * }

Marvel Comics series
−

Episodes and comic book chapters
−

+

+ During Tom DeFalco's Editor-in-Chief career, Marvel Comics produced a seven-issue comic book series based on the television series. −

Merchandise
+ By January 31, 1994 Nickelodeon received ten "licensing partners" for merchandise for the series. Hardee's distributed Rocko toys. Viacom New Media released one game based on the show, Rocko's Modern Life: Spunky's Dangerous Day, in the United States for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. In addition, Nickelodeon 3-D Movie Maker features various characters from the show. Rocko also appeared in the game Nicktoons: Attack of the Toybots. Nick.com created two free online games featuring Rocko, using Shockwave Flash (which requires the Shockwave plugin). + 	+

Nickelodeon's website safety guide
+ In the late 1990s and early-to-mid 2000s Nickelodeon used Rocko's Modern Life characters in several short comics collected under the title "A Byte-Size Online Safety Guide" explaining netiquette, internet security, and internet safety to readers of Nick.com. + 	+

History
−	The last three episodes aired after the show was stuck on a hiatus. These episodes were aired in September 2008, and declared the season (series) finale after September 20. As of July 2010, the show airs at 5:30 AM ET on weekends. +	Originally, the character Rocko appeared in an unpublished comic book titled Travis. Murray tried selling the comic book in the late 1980s, between illustrating jobs, and did not find success in getting it into production. Many other characters appeared in various sketchbooks. He described the early 1990s animation atmosphere as "ripe for this kind of project. We took some chances that would be hard to do in these current times (the 1990s)". Murray wanted funding for his independent film My Dog Zero, so he wanted Nickelodeon to pre-buy television rights for the series. He presented a pencil test to Nickelodeon Studios, which afterward became interested in buying and airing the show. +	Linda Simensky, then in charge of animation development in Nickelodeon, described the Nicktoons lineup and concept to Murray. He originally felt skepticism towards the concept of creating a Nicktoon as he disliked television cartoons. Simensky told him that Nicktoons differed from other cartoons. He told her that he believed that My Dog Zero would not work as a cartoon. He then researched Nickelodeon at the library and found that Nickelodeon's "attitude was different than regular TV." Murray combed through his sketchbooks, developed the Rocko's Modern Life concept, and submitted it to Nickelodeon, believing that the concept would likely be rejected. According to Murray, around three or four months later he had "forgotten about" the concept and was working on My Dog Zero when Simensky informed him that Nickelodeon wanted a pilot episode. Murray said that he was glad that he would get funding for My Dog Zero. −

Plot
+	"Lisa (Kiczuk) Trainor interviews Joe Murray, creator of Rocko's Modern Life," The Rocko's Modern Life FAQ −	The series centers around Mikey Simon, a 19-year-old actor who just graduated from high school and is from Cleveland, Ohio. He embarks to Japan after winning a scratch-off card contest to star in the country's formerly popular live-action series, LilyMu, which is presented as an "anime". In doing this, he rockets the show back to the top of the ratings, and becomes Japan's biggest star in anime history. +	 On his website he describes My Dog Zero as "that film that Linda Simensky saw which led me to Rocko." "Sucker for the Suck-O-Matic" was originally written as the pilot; the executives decided that Heffer Wolfe, one of the characters, would be "a little too weird for test audiences." Murray, instead of removing Heffer from "Sucker for the Suck-O-Matic," decided to write "Trash-O-Madness" as the pilot episode. +	 	+	When the series was in development prior to the release of the first episode, the series had the title The Rocko Show. +	 	+	In 1992, two months prior to the production of season 1 of Rocko's Modern Life, Murray's first wife committed suicide. Murray felt that he had emotional and physical "unresolved issues" when he moved to Los Angeles. He describes the experience as like participating in "marathon with my pants around my ankles." Murray initially believed that he would create one season, move back to the San Francisco Bay Area, and "clean up the loose ends I had left hanging." Murray said that he felt surprised when Nickelodeon approved new seasons; Nickelodeon renewed the series for its second season in December 1993. +	After season 3 he decided to hand the project to Stephen Hillenburg, who performed most work for season 4; Murray continued to manage the cartoon. He said that he would completely leave the production after season 4. He said also that he encouraged the network to continue production, but Nickelodeon eventually decided to cancel the series. He described all fifty-two episodes as "top notch", and in his view the quality of a television show may decline as production continues "when you are dealing with volume." On his website he said that, "In some ways it succeeded and in some ways failed. All I know it developed its own flavor and an equally original legion of fans." In a 1997 interview Murray said that he at times wondered if he could re-start the series; he feels the task would be difficult. −	Segments of LilyMu are seen at the beginning and end of each episode, but the show focuses primarily on the actors' and producers' lives off-set and Mikey's adjustments to the new world he has entered, similar in concept to The Famous Jett Jackson. The humor comes from the fact that because Mikey is an American, he actually stands out visually from the other cast members, similar to the mix of styles in Who Framed Roger Rabbit. While most characters on the show are drawn in an anime-inspired style (thin outlines, big, detailed eyes, small mouths, and all ten fingers), Mikey (and all other American characters) is drawn in a retro-inspired American cartoon manner (thicker outlines, single black dot pupil eyes, a larger mouth, and only eight fingers). The humor is delivered in a rapid pace, and also consists of light satire, incongruity, slapstick, character quirks, and a fair amount of gross-out humor.

Production
+	Murray's Joe Murray Productions and Games Animation rented office space on Ventura Boulevard in the Studio City neighborhood of the San Fernando Valley region of Los Angeles, California. The production moved to a different office building on Vineland Avenue in Studio City. Executives did not share space with the creative team. Rough Draft Studios assembled the animation. According to Murray, as Rocko's Modern Life was his first television series, he did not know about the atmosphere of typical animation studios. Murray said that he opted to operate his studio in a similar manner to the operation of his Saratoga, California studio, which he describes as "Very relaxed." His cadre included many veterans who, according to him, described the experience as "the most fun they had ever had!" He, saying that the atmosphere was "not my doing," credited his team members for collectively contributing. Murray described the daily atmosphere at the studio as "very loose," adding that the rules permitted all staff members to use the paging system to make announcements. He stated that one visitor compared the environment of the production studio to "preschool without supervision." Murray stated that 70 people in the United States and over 200 people in South Korea animated the series. +	Murray produced the pilot episode, "Trash-O-Madness," at his studio in Saratoga; he animated half of the episode, and the production occurred entirely in the United States, with animation in Saratoga and processing in San Francisco. . Production for the two seasons wrapped in September 2007. +	"How the Pilot was produced," Joe Murray Studio +	 While directing during recording sessions, Murray preferred to be on the stage with the actors instead of "behind glass" in a control room, which he describes as "the norm" while making animated series. He believes that, due to his lack of experience with children, Rocko's Modern Life "skewed kind of older." Murray noted, "There's a lot of big kids out there. People went to see 'Roger Rabbit' and saw all these characters they'd grown up with and said, 'Yeah, why don't they have something like that anymore?'" When he began producing Rocko, he says that his experience in independent films initially led him to attempt to micromanage many details in the production. He said that the approach, when used for production of television shows, was "driving me crazy." This led him to allow for other team members to manage aspects of the Rocko's Modern Life production. +	Several members of the Rocko crew would later join Stephen Hillenburg in production of another Nicktoon, SpongeBob SquarePants, including SpongeBob voice Tom Kenny, who voiced Heffer Wolfe and other characters on Rocko's Modern Life. −	Schwarz conceived the series in 2000, when he was running Rumpus toys, a toy design company in New York City, but they folded before any storyboarding could commence. They resurfaced years later as Animation Collective, and produced an early test pilot for a pitch to MTV Networks, where the character designs and backgrounds resembled more like those found in Adult Swim series Perfect Hair Forever, and the humor was also more adult-oriented. Much of the current cast was voicing their characters even this early in production. MTV declined the deal, and Nickelodeon eventually picked up the project. The series was tweaked heavily in order to be aimed at a younger audience. Voice talents were usually local, and its audio was recorded at Manhattan-based NYAV Post, which Michael Sinterniklaas owns. Larry Schwarz, along with the other executive producers, oversaw all phases of production, but only had writing credits on the pilot episode, "Mikey Impossible", and "A Christmas Mikey". All the episodes were directed by Sergei Aniskov. The instrumental score was composed by John Angier, who also wrote the lyrics to "The Recycling Song", "Ori and Yori's Hits", "Living With Mikey", "How Did We Get Here?", and the songs in "The Karaoke Episode". +	Pat Irwin later went on to work on Pepper Ann & JetCat from KaBlam! −	The series was animated in Adobe Flash, with some moments of CGI rendered in Maya. To further emphasize the contrast in animation styles, one group of animators was assigned to the anime characters, and another group was in charge of Mikey and the other American characters. The vehicles on LilyMu and around Tokyo, as well as the weapons, the Gonard balloon, Pirate King's ship, the Karaoke Genie Machine, etc., were created in Maya and exported into Flash using the Toon Filter. The backgrounds were modeled in Maya, and texture, details, and clouds were added in Photoshop. Some of the backgrounds were inspired by actual locations in Tokyo. The show's anime-style characters perform with large comedic overuses of face faults, such as a face and/or body turning into an exaggerated general appearance, or becoming much smaller. This allowed animators to have more control over how a character looks and acts than on many other Flash shows, and they didn't always have to be on-model. The show uses clichés common to anime, including the sweat drop, lines over the eyes or no eyes at all, big heads, flaming eyes, bodies becoming smaller. Sometimes Mikey will try to do these things, which was one of the show's running gags, but cannot due to being drawn in an American style. +	 	+	Jeff "Swampy" Marsh and Dan Povenmire later went on to create the hit Disney Channel animated series, Phineas and Ferb. +	 	+

Writing style
+	The writers aimed to create stories that they describe as "strong" and "funny." The writers, including George Maestri and Martin Olson, often presented ideas to Murray while eating hamburgers at Rocky's, a restaurant formerly located on Lankershim in the North Hollywood section of the San Fernando Valley. He took his team members on "writing trips" to places such as Rocky's, the LaBrea Tar Pits, and the wilderness. If he liked the story premises, the writers produced full outlines from the premises. Outlines approved by both him and Nickelodeon became Rocko's Modern Life episodes. Maestri describes some stories as originating from "real life" and some originating from "thin air." Murray stated that each episode of Rocko's Modern Life stemmed from the personal experiences of himself and/or one or more of the directors or writers. He said that he did not intend to use formulaic writing seen in other cartoons; he desired content that "broke new ground" and "did things that rode the edge," and that could be described as "unexpected." He did not hire writers who had previous experience with writing cartoons, instead hiring writers who worked outside of animation, including improv actors and comic artists. He said that story concepts that "ever smacked close to some formula idea that we had all seen before" received rejection. +	 	+	Jeff "Swampy" Marsh, a storyboard writer, says that writers of Rocko's Modern Life targeted children and adults. He cites Rocky and Bullwinkle as an example of another series that contains references undecipherable by children and understood by adults. Aiming for a similar goal, Marsh described the process as "a hard job." According to him, when censors questioned proposed material, sometimes the team disagreed with the opinions of the censors and sometimes the team agreed with the rationale of the censors. He says that "many people" told him that the team "succeeded in this endevour" [sic] and that "many parents I know really enjoyed watching the show with their kids for just this reason." John Pacenti said the series "seems very much aimed at adults" "for a children's' cartoon." Marsh believes that the material written by Doug Lawrence stands as an example of a "unique sense of humor." For instance, Marsh credits Lawrence with the "pineapple references" adding that Lawrence believed that pineapples seemed humorous. +	 	+

Animation style
+	Murray's animation lacked parallel lines and featured crooked architecture. In an interview he stated that his design style contributed to the show's "Wonky bent feel." Jean Prescott of The Sun Herald described the series as "squash-and-stretch." A 1993 Houston Chronicle article described the series' setting as having a "reality that is "squashed and stretched" into a twisted version of real life." The background staff hand-painted backgrounds with Dr. Martin Dyes, while each episode title card consisted of an original painting. Linda Simensky said that she asked the creators of Rocko's Modern Life about why the women in the series were drawn to be "top-heavy," the creators told her that they believed that drawing women "the traditional way" was easier. Simensky described the creators as "talented guys" who formed "a boy's club" and added that "we pushed them to be funny, but a lot of their women are stereotypical." +	 	+

Music
+	There are 3 versions of the Rocko's Modern Life theme song. The first and original version can be heard playing throughout season one and was composed by Pat Irwin, who also composed the series' background music. The second version of the theme song was a slightly remixed version of the first and was only used during episodes 8 and 9 of season one. One of the changes included high pitched voices added to the chorus. The third version of the theme song was performed by Kate Pierson and Fred Schneider from The B-52's. They performed the Rocko's Modern Life theme song from Season 2 onwards. +	At first Murray wanted Paul Sumares to perform the theme song since Sumares created most of the music found in My Dog Zero. Murray wanted the same style in My Dog Zero exhibited in Rocko's Modern Life. Nickelodeon wanted a person with more experience. According to Sumares, believing for the request to be a long shot, Murray asked for Danny Elfman and felt stunned when Nickelodeon decided to honor his request by asking Elfman to perform. According to Murray, Elfman, his first choice, was booked. Therefore he chose the B-52's, his second choice. According to Sumares Murray decided to use the B-52's instead of Elfman. Murray states that the difference between the stories "could just be a recollection conflict, because Paul is a brilliant amazing guy." Murray also sought Alan Silvestri. According to Sumares Viacom did not want to use Silvestri as the organization wanted a band "slightly older kids could identify with." +	 	+

Plot
+

+	The plot follows the life of a wallaby, Rocko, who has immigrated to America from Australia. In America, he is faced with various problems and challenges involving his pals who try to teach him what it means to be a good friend. +	Many of the locations in the television show Rocko's Modern Life have the letter "O" for example O-Town and Conglom-O. When asked about the use of "O" in his show Murray said, +	"I always got a big kick out of the businesses that were 'House-O-Paint', or 'Ton-O-Noodles', because their names seemed to homogenize what they sold, and strip the products of true individuality and stress volume ... and we all know, the American dream is volume! So what better company to create volume than 'Conglom-O', and since a majority of the town worked at Conglom-O, it should be called 'O' Town. I also wanted the town to be 'anytown' USA, and I used to love sports players with a big ZERO on their back. It was funny to me."

+	 	+	The plot locations included the following: +	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+
 * O-Town is the town in which Rocko lives.
 * Chokey Chicken is a favorite restaurant/hang-out place for Rocko, Heffer, and Filburt. At some point during the fourth season the restaurant was renamed "Chewy Chicken" due to the former name referring to a euphemism for masturbation (i.e., "choking the chicken"), though earlier episodes continued to air with the "Chokey Chicken" name. It's a parody of KFC.
 * Conglom-O Corporation is the biggest company in town; it even runs City Hall. Mr. Dupette, who has very peculiar ways to see if the employees are fit to work there, manages Conglom-O. Conglom-O does not seem to have a specific purpose or product—it is a giant company that manufactures many products. Conglom-O's slogan is always shown beneath its name. The slogan is "We own you," revealing in a later musical episode that they own everything in O-Town. When Ed Bighead was shown to work at Conglom-O in 1961, the slogan stated "We Will Own You" (alluding to the future of megacorporations). The illustration that appears with the logo and on top of the official Conglom-O Corp. skyscraper is a martini glass with the earth in place of an olive.
 * Heck is where "bad people" go when they die. Run by Peaches, it is where Heffer is doomed to eternal suffering.
 * Holl-o-Wood is a town that resembles the Hollywood section of Los Angeles, California.
 * Kind of a Lot O' Comics is a comic book store where Rocko works. His boss, Mr. Smitty, is a cruel toad who only concentrates on selling comics. Rocko, however, is very nice and giving. For example, when a customer sneezed all over a comic, Rocko gave him a fresh copy and did not charge him for the previous comic.

Episodes
+	Main article:

Characters
−

+

+	All the characters in the Rocko's Modern Life series are animals and there are a multitude. The vast majority of them are also mentally unstable. Murray said that he matched personalities of his characters to the various animals in the series to form a "social caricature". Rocko, the protagonist, is a wallaby who encounters various dilemmas and situations regarding otherwise mundane aspects of life. His best friend Heffer Wolfe is fat and enthusiastic while Filburt often feels uncomfortable or disturbed. −	{| class="wikitable" +	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+
 * Carlos Alazraqui as the voice of Rocko, Spunky, Leon and Granny Rocko
 * Tom Kenny as the voice of Heffer Wolfe, Chuck, Mr. Smitty, Really Really Big Man, Peaches and various males
 * Mr. Lawrence as the voice of Filburt Shellbach and Peter Wolfe
 * Linda Wallem as the voice of Dr. Paula Hutchison, Mrs. Virginia Wolfe, Grandma Wolfe, Cindy Wolfe, Tammy the Pig, and various females
 * Charlie Adler as the voice of Ed Bighead, Gladys, Mr. George Wolfe, Grandpa Wolfe, Bev Bighead, Mr. Dupette, Mr. and Mrs. Fathead and various males
 * Charlie Wilson as the voice of Broadmont

Crew
+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+
 * Joe Murray: Creator, Executive Producer, Writer, Story Editor (Season 1–3)
 * Andy Houts: Project Coordinator
 * Stephen Hillenburg: Producer, Storyboard Director, Writer, Creative Director
 * Derek Drymon: Storyboard Artist, Writer
 * Doug Lawrence: Storyboard Director, Writer
 * Dan Povenmire: Storyboard Director, Writer
 * Swampy Marsh: Storyboard Director, Writer
 * Timothy Berglund (aka Timothy Björklund): Storyboard Director, Writer
 * Martin Olson: Writer
 * George Maestri: Writer
 * Peter Burns: Writer
 * Gary Conrad and Merriwether Williams: Writer
 * Vince Calandra: Writer
 * Tim Hill: Story Editor (on Season 4 only)
 * Mark O'Hare: Storyboard Artist
 * Steven E. Gordon: Storyboard Artist
 * Robert Hughes: Animation Director
 * Antoine Guilbaud: Storyboard Artist
 * Tom Yasumi: Animation Timer, animation director
 * Danny Antonucci: Storyboard artist
 * Jeff Myers: Storyboard Director
 * Kevin O' Brien: Storyboard artist
 * Joe Suggs: Storyboard Artist
 * Conrad Vernon: Storyboard Artist
 * Bert Ring: Storyboard Artist
 * Alan Smart: animation director
 * George Chilatas: animation director
 * Nick Jennings: storyboard artist
 * Pete Michels: animation director
 * Chris Savino: animation artist
 * Howy Parkins: animation director
 * Roger Chiassen: writer/storyboard director
 * Robert McNally Scull writer/storyboard artist
 * Pat Irwin: Music composer

Writers
+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+
 * Tim Hill: 36 episodes, 1994-1996
 * Martin Olson: 33 episodes, 1993-1996
 * George Maestri: 32 episodes, 1993-1996
 * Stephen Hillenburg: 27 episodes, 1993-1996
 * Mark O'Hare: 25 episodes, 1993-1996
 * Robert McNally-Scull: 24 episodes, 1993-1996
 * Joe Murray: 23 episodes, 1993-1995
 * Jeff "Swampy" Marsh: 23 episodes, 1993-1996
 * Jeff Meyer: 22 episodes, 1993-1996
 * Dan Povenmire: 22 episodes, 1993-1996
 * Doug Lawrence: 20 episodes, 1993-1995
 * Timothy Berglund: 18 episodes, 1993-1995
 * Vince Calandra: 13 episodes, 1993-1994
 * Derek Drymon: 7 episodes, 1996
 * Rob Porter: 7 episodes, 1996
 * John McIntyre: 6 episodes, 1996
 * Roger Chiasson: 4 episodes, 1993
 * Nick Jennings: 4 episodes, 1993
 * Kevin O'brian: 3 episodes, 1993
 * Ron Hauge: 3 episodes, 1993
 * Don Spencer: 3 episodes, 1993
 * Conrad Vernon: 2 episodes, 1993
 * Carlos Alazraqui: 2 episodes, 1994-1995
 * Nichole Poinski: 1 episode, 1993
 * Raymond Johnson: 1 episode, 1993
 * Joe D. Suggs: 1 episode, 1993
 * Andy Houts: 1 episodes, 1993
 * Veronica Alicino: 1 episode, 1996
 * Antoine Guilbaud: 1 episode, 1996

Reception
+	Murray said that the cartoon "resonated" with people because the scenarios depicted in the cartoon involving "the neurosis, the daily chores of everyday life" were based on Murray's own experiences "breaking out into the world" after leaving school. On September 19, 1993, the series' first night of airing, Rocko's Modern Life received a 3.0 in ratings. By January 31, 1994 the series' audience grew by 65%. +	 	+	Ted Drozdowski of The Boston Phoenix stated in the "Eye pleasers" article that he enjoyed Rocko's Modern Life because of "jovial excitement," "good-hearted outrage," "humanity," and "pushy animated characterizations." +	 	+	A music video for Animal by Pearl Jam featuring Rocko's Modern Life characters was made for Nickelodeon. +	 	+

Airing history
+	 	+	 	+	 	+
 * Nickelodeon (1993–1996) (1993–2001) (Reruns)
 * Nicktoons (2002–2007; 2008; 2010–present) (Reruns)

Awards
+	Timothy J. Borquez, Patrick Foley, Michael Giesler, Michael A. Gollorn, William B. Griggs, Tom Jeager, Gregory LaPlante, Timothy Mertens, and Kenneth Young of Rocko's Modern Life received a 1993 Daytime Emmy Award for "Outstanding Achievement in Film Sound Editing." +	 	+	George Maestri was nominated for a CableACE Award for his Rocko's Modern Life writing. +	 	+	The series won an Environmental Media Award in 1996 for the episode "Zanzibar!". The award was accepted by the episode's writers, Dan Povenmire and Jeff "Swampy" Marsh. +	 	+

Reviews
+	Ken Tucker of Entertainment Weekly described the series as "a witless rip-off of Ren & Stimpy: mucus jokes without the redeeming surrealism or contempt for authority." +	 	+	Common Sense Media reviewer Andrea Graham, whose review is posted on Go.com, describes Rocko's Modern Life as "somewhat edgy" and gave the series four out of five stars. Graham tells parents to watch for "innuendos." +	 	+

Other broadcasts
+	In 1994 the series aired on MTV. In Malaysia Rocko's Modern Life aired in MetroVision around 1996. +	In the early 2000s Nickelodeon Japan marketed the show along with The Ren and Stimpy Show. In Australia, it was shown on ABC Kids. +	 	+

Rocko's DVD
+	Fans have requested that Nickelodeon produce a DVD collection of the series for years. In 2008 Nickelodeon partnered with Amazon.com to allow new and old programming to be made available on DVD through CreateSpace. As part of the deal Amazon.com is responsible for producing the discs (on one time burnable media) on-demand as well as cover and disc art. Two DVDs were released on September 16, 2008. +	 	+	Prior to the official DVD releases, Murray stated that he has not heard of any plans for a DVD release and that there are several illegal DVD releases of the series sold on eBay. He commented, "But at least someone is trying to give Rocko fans what they want. Because Nickelodeon sure isn't doing it." Murray worked with his legal team to regain the rights, so that an official DVD can be released. +	 	+	The official home video release of the series in the United States was in 1995, when selected episodes were released on VHS by Sony Wonder. Paramount Home Entertainment later re-released the episodes in 1997 and 1998. +	 	+	Select episodes from the first season of the show have been released on Zune and iTunes as part of the Nick Rewind releases. iTunes and Zune has a "Best of Vol. 1" collection of 6 Rocko episodes. +	 	+	The complete first season is available in streaming format on Netflix. +	 	+	 	+
 * }

Marvel Comics series
−	These characters are modeled on cartoon stereotypes, to varying extents. The show also features secondary characters and extras, mostly in crowd scenes, whose designs are directly inspired by famous anime characters, but who are different enough to avoid copyright infringements. Sometimes this is done to spoof the films and television programs intentionally, such as the character Masaka Masako, whose appearance spoofs Yubaba, or her twin, Zeneba, from the film Spirited Away, or Takashi Katashi, who shares a similar appearance and name with Kakashi Hatake from the magna/anime franchise Naruto. The person standing next to him could be a character that s supposed to resemble Sakura Haruno, also from Naruto, note the clothing. On another episode there is an anime version of Ami and Yumi from the TV series, Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi, which was running on Cartoon Network at the time. Also in the final scene of the episode "Reality Bites", there is a person in the crowd that was designed like a persocom from the anime Chobits. Other times, it is done to continue the show's original concept, without any intention behind it. +

Episodes and comic book chapters
+

+	During Tom DeFalco's Editor-in-Chief career, Marvel Comics produced a seven-issue comic book series based on the television series. −

Episodes
+	"Rocko's Modern Life" Information, Google Books −

+	 Marvel published the series from June 1994 to December 1994 with monthly releases. +	Nickelodeon approached Marvel, asking the company to produce comic book series for Rocko's Modern Life and Ren and Stimpy. Marvel purchased the license for Rocko from Nickelodeon. The staff created the comics, and Susan Luposniak, a Nickelodeon employee, examined the comics before they were released. Joe Murray said in a December 2, 2008 blog entry that he drew some of the pages in the comic book series. −	! Last Airdate −	−	−	−	−	−	−	−	−	−	−	 	+	The comics contain stories not seen in the television show. In addition, the comic book series omits some television show characters and places, while some original places and characters appear in the comics. John "Lewie" Lewandowski wrote all of the stories except for one; Joey Cavalieri wrote "Beaten by a Club," the second story of Issue #4. −
 * Season 1
 * style="text-align: center; top" | 26
 * February 25, 2006
 * April 28, 2007
 * Season 2
 * style="text-align: center; top" | 26
 * June 9, 2007
 * September 20, 2008
 * }

Home media
−	A Kappa Mikey DVD was released on September 18, 2007 under the Starz Home Entertainment brand, and includes the episodes "Lost in Transportation", "Easy Come, Easy Gonard", and "The Man Who Would Be Mikey", all from the first season, as well as bonus material, including a fictional music video of "I'm Alright" taken from "Battle of the Bands", wallpaper, an interactive game parodying Hollywood Squares, and a How-to-Draw-Mikey tutorial. +	Troy Little, a resident of Monroe, Oregon, wrote to Marvel requesting that the title for the comic's letters column should be "That's Life." In Issue 3, published in August 1994, the editors decided to use the title for the comic's "Letters to the Editor" section. In Issue 5, published in October 1994, the editors stated that they still received suggestions for the title for the comic even though the editors had decided on using "That's Life" by Issue 3. +	 	+

Merchandise
+	By January 31, 1994 Nickelodeon received ten "licensing partners" for merchandise for the series. Hardee's distributed Rocko toys. Viacom New Media released one game based on the show, Rocko's Modern Life: Spunky's Dangerous Day, in the United States for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. In addition, Nickelodeon 3-D Movie Maker features various characters from the show. Rocko also appeared in the game Nicktoons: Attack of the Toybots. Nick.com created two free online games featuring Rocko, using Shockwave Flash (which requires the Shockwave plugin). +	Hot Topic has been selling Rocko's Modern Life merchandise such as t-shirts, wrist bands, key chains and other items as part of their Nick Classic line. +	 	+

Nickelodeon's website safety guide
+	In the late 1990s and early-to-mid 2000s Nickelodeon used Rocko's Modern Life characters in several short comics collected under the title "A Byte-Size Online Safety Guide" explaining netiquette, internet security, and internet safety to readers of Nick.com. +	 	+

Plot
+	−	The series centers around Mikey Simon, a 19-year-old actor who just graduated from high school and is from Cleveland, Ohio. He embarks to Japan after winning a scratch-off card contest to star in the country's formerly popular live-action series, LilyMu, which is presented as an "anime". In doing this, he rockets the show back to the top of the ratings, and becomes Japan's biggest star in anime history. +

History
+	Originally, the character appeared in an unpublished comic book titled Travis. Murray tried selling the comic book in the late 1980s, between illustrating jobs, and did not find success in getting it into production. Many other characters appeared in various sketchbooks. He described the early 1990s animation atmosphere as "ripe for this kind of project. We took some chances that would be hard to do in these crappy times (the 1990s)". Murray wanted funding for his independent film My Dog Zero, so he wanted Nickelodeon to pre-buy television rights for the series. He presented a pencil test to Nickelodeon, which afterward became interested in buying and financing the show. Murray had never worked in television before. The industry was coming out of a "rough period" and Murray wanted to "shake things up a bit." +	 	+	Linda Simensky, then in charge of animation development in Nickelodeon, described the Nicktoons lineup and concept to Murray. He originally felt skepticism towards the concept of creating a Nicktoon as he disliked television cartoons. Simensky told him that Nicktoons differed from other cartoons. He then told her that he believed that My Dog Zero would not work as a cartoon. He then researched Nickelodeon at the library and found that Nickelodeon's "attitude was different than regular TV." The cable network providers were "making their own rules": for example, Murray stated that he "didn't write for children," which the executives were fine with. Murray was unsure at first, but was inspired by independent animation around him, such as Animation Celebration and MTV's Liquid Television, and gave the network a shot. At the time, Nickelodeon was selling itself as a network based as much around edge as around kids’ entertainment. It aimed to appeal to college students and parents as much as children. +	 	+	Murray developed the Rocko character after visiting a zoo in the Bay Area and coming across a wallaby that seemed to be oblivious to the chaos around him. Murray combed through his sketchbooks, developed the Rocko's Modern Life concept, and submitted it to Nickelodeon, believing that the concept would likely be rejected. Murray felt they would not like the pilot, and he would just collect his sum and begin funding his next independent film. According to Murray, around three or four months later he had "forgotten about" the concept and was working on My Dog Zero when Simensky informed him that Nickelodeon wanted a pilot episode. Murray said that he was glad that he would get funding for My Dog Zero. On his website he describes My Dog Zero as "that film that Linda Simensky saw which led me to Rocko." "Sucker for the Suck-O-Matic" was originally written as the pilot; the executives decided that Heffer Wolfe, one of the characters, would be "a little too weird for test audiences." Murray, instead of removing Heffer from "Sucker for the Suck-O-Matic," decided to write "Trash-O-Madness" as the pilot episode. +	 	+	In the original series pilot, Rocko was colored yellow. His color was changed when a toy merchandising company informed Nick they were interested in marketing dolls but didn't want to market Rocko because "They already had a yellow character." Murray changed Rocko's color to beige, and after the pilot aired, the company opted out of producing toys for the series. When the series was in development prior to the release of the first episode, the series had the title The Rocko Show. +	 	+	In 1992, two months prior to the production of season 1 of Rocko's Modern Life, Murray's first wife committed suicide. Murray had often blamed his wife's suicide on the show being picked up. He said "It was always an awful connection because I look at Rocko as such a positive in my life." Murray felt that he had emotional and physical "unresolved issues" when he moved to Los Angeles. He describes the experience as like participating in "marathon with my pants around my ankles." Murray initially believed that he would create one season, move back to the San Francisco Bay Area, and "clean up the loose ends I had left hanging." Murray said that he felt surprised when Nickelodeon approved new seasons; Nickelodeon renewed the series for its second season in December 1993. +	After season 3 he decided to hand the project to Stephen Hillenburg, who performed most work for season 4; Murray continued to manage the cartoon. He said that he would completely leave the production after season 4. He said also that he encouraged the network to continue production, but Nickelodeon eventually decided to cancel the series. He described all fifty-two episodes as "top notch", and in his view the quality of a television show may decline as production continues "when you are dealing with volume." On his website he said that, "In some ways it succeeded and in some ways failed. All I know it developed its own flavor and an equally original legion of fans." In a 1997 interview Murray said that he at times wondered if he could re-start the series; he feels the task would be difficult. −	Segments of LilyMu are seen at the beginning and end of each episode, but the show focuses primarily on the actors' and producers' lives off-set and Mikey's adjustments to the new world he has entered, similar in concept to The Famous Jett Jackson. The humor comes from the fact that because Mikey is an American, he actually stands out visually from the other cast members, similar to the mix of styles in Who Framed Roger Rabbit. While most characters on the show are drawn in an anime-inspired style (thin outlines, big, detailed eyes, small mouths, and all ten fingers), Mikey (and all other American characters) is drawn in a retro-inspired American cartoon manner (thicker outlines, single black dot pupil eyes, a larger mouth, and only eight fingers). The humor is delivered in a rapid pace, and also consists of light satire, incongruity, slapstick, character quirks, and a fair amount of gross-out humor.

Production
+

−	The show's title is a variation on the word kappamaki, a type of sushi. It is suggested that it was the inspiration for naming the title character Mikey, and uses the prefix kappa. Like Mikey, who is a 'fish out of water' in Japan, the kappa creature itself is a water demon who can live on land. The kappas first appeared on this show in the episode "Mikey, Kappa", on August 5th, 2007, where the origin of the title was explained. Mikey also shares his name with the actor who supplies his voice. +	The show was jointly produced between Games Animation and Joe Murray Productions. Since Nickelodeon didn't have an animation studio, that had to contact out to other studios. After incidents with The Ren & Stimpy Show creator John Kricfalusi, Nickelodeon began to not trust its creators as much and began to form its own studio - Games Animation. However, Murray recalls that they were still able to get a lot done independently. Murray has likened the independence to that of "Termite Terrace" (Warner Bros. Cartoons) from the 1930s. As Nickelodeon began to have more and more success with its animation cartoons, Murray said the "Termite Terrace" mentality wasn't working as much. Producer Mary Harrington made the move from New York City to Los Angeles to set up Games Animation, in order to produce Rocko's Modern Life. The crew first began production on the show in January 1993. Rocko's Modern Life was Nickelodeon's first in-house animated production. +	Murray's Joe Murray Productions and Games Animation rented office space on Ventura Boulevard in the Studio City neighborhood of the San Fernando Valley region of Los Angeles, California. . Production for the two seasons wrapped in September 2007. +	"Animators Feel Free With `Rocko'." The Palm Beach Post +	 The production moved to a different office building on Vineland Avenue in Studio City. Executives did not share space with the creative team. Murray rented a floor in the Writers Guild of America, West building, although the team of Rocko was not a part of the union, which the staff found ironic. Rough Draft Studios assembled the animation. According to Murray, as Rocko's Modern Life was his first television series, he did not know about the atmosphere of typical animation studios. Murray said that he opted to operate his studio in a similar manner to the operation of his Saratoga, California studio, which he describes as "Very relaxed." His cadre included many veterans who, according to him, described the experience as "the most fun they had ever had!" He, saying that the atmosphere was "not my doing," credited his team members for collectively contributing. Murray described the daily atmosphere at the studio as "very loose," adding that the rules permitted all staff members to use the paging system to make announcements. He stated that one visitor compared the environment of the production studio to "preschool without supervision." Murray stated that 70 people in the United States and over 200 people in South Korea animated the series. +	Rick Bentley of the Ventura County Star said that it was unusual for a cartoon creator to select a wallaby as a main character. Bentley also stated that the Rocko universe was influenced by "everything from Looney Tunes to underground comics." The staff of the show were fans of outrageous comedy, both animated and not animated. Tom Kenny cited Looney Tunes and SCTV as influences for the show, and also stated "I'm sure if you asked Joe Murray or Mr. Lawrence or any of those guys, especially in terms of animation, the weirdest cartoons would of course be our favorites—those weird ‘30s Fleischer brothers Betty Boop cartoons and stuff like that." −	Schwarz conceived the series in 2000, when he was running Rumpus toys, a toy design company in New York City, but they folded before any storyboarding could commence. They resurfaced years later as Animation Collective, and produced an early test pilot for a pitch to MTV Networks, where the character designs and backgrounds resembled more like those found in Adult Swim series Perfect Hair Forever, and the humor was also more adult-oriented. Much of the current cast was voicing their characters even this early in production. MTV declined the deal, and Nickelodeon eventually picked up the project. The series was tweaked heavily in order to be aimed at a younger audience. Voice talents were usually local, and its audio was recorded at Manhattan-based NYAV Post, which Michael Sinterniklaas owns. Larry Schwarz, along with the other executive producers, oversaw all phases of production, but only had writing credits on the pilot episode, "Mikey Impossible", and "A Christmas Mikey". All the episodes were directed by Sergei Aniskov. The instrumental score was composed by John Angier, who also wrote the lyrics to "The Recycling Song", "Ori and Yori's Hits", "Living With Mikey", "How Did We Get Here?", and the songs in "The Karaoke Episode". +	Murray produced the pilot episode, "Trash-O-Madness", at his studio in Saratoga; he animated half of the episode, and the production occurred entirely in the United States, with animation in Saratoga and processing in San Francisco. While directing during recording sessions, Murray preferred to be on the stage with the actors instead of "behind glass" in a control room, which he describes as "the norm" while making animated series. He believes that, due to his lack of experience with children, Rocko's Modern Life "skewed kind of older." Murray noted, "There's a lot of big kids out there. People went to see 'Roger Rabbit' and saw all these characters they'd grown up with and said, 'Yeah, why don't they have something like that anymore?'" When he began producing Rocko, he says that his experience in independent films initially led him to attempt to micromanage many details in the production. He said that the approach, when used for production of television shows, was "driving me crazy." This led him to allow for other team members to manage aspects of the Rocko's Modern Life production. Director and later creative director Stephen Hillenburg met Murray at an animation film festival where he was showing his three short films. Murray hired Hillenburg as a director on the series, making Hillenburg's first job in the animation business as a director. +	 	+

Writing style
+	The writers aimed to create stories that they describe as "strong" and "funny." The writers, including George Maestri and Martin Olson, often presented ideas to Murray while eating hamburgers at Rocky's, a restaurant formerly located on Lankershim in the North Hollywood section of the San Fernando Valley. He took his team members on "writing trips" to places such as Rocky's, the LaBrea Tar Pits, and the wilderness. If he liked the story premises, the writers produced full outlines from the premises. Outlines approved by both him and Nickelodeon became Rocko's Modern Life episodes. Maestri describes some stories as originating from "real life" and some originating from "thin air." Murray stated that each episode of Rocko's Modern Life stemmed from the personal experiences of himself and/or one or more of the directors or writers. He said that he did not intend to use formulaic writing seen in other cartoons; he desired content that "broke new ground" and "did things that rode the edge," and that could be described as "unexpected." He did not hire writers who had previous experience with writing cartoons, instead hiring writers who worked outside of animation, including improv actors and comic artists. He said that story concepts that "ever smacked close to some formula idea that we had all seen before" received rejection. +	 	+	Jeff "Swampy" Marsh, a storyboard writer, says that writers of Rocko's Modern Life targeted children and adults. He cites Rocky and Bullwinkle as an example of another series that contains references indecipherable by children and understood by adults. Aiming for a similar goal, Marsh described the process as "a hard job." According to him, when censors questioned proposed material, sometimes the team disagreed with the opinions of the censors and sometimes the team agreed with the rationale of the censors. He says that "many people" told him that the team "succeeded in this endevour" [sic] and that "many parents I know really enjoyed watching the show with their kids for just this reason." John Pacenti said the series "seems very much aimed at adults" "for a children's' cartoon." Marsh believes that the material written by Doug Lawrence stands as an example of a "unique sense of humor." For instance, Marsh credits Lawrence with the "pineapple references" adding that Lawrence believed that pineapples seemed humorous. The staff drew upon Looney Tunes and the Fleischer cartoons to appeal to wide demographic: having a certain adult sensibility but also enjoyed by kids. +	 	+

Animation style
+	Rocko's Modern Life has been described as similar to that of the output of Warner Bros Cartoons in the Golden Age: a visually driven show heavy on humor, sight gags, and good animation. Instead of a finished script, the animators usually received a three-page outline, requiring them to come up with a majority of the gags and dialogue. The animation team appreciated this approach, with storyboard artist Jeff Myers, formerly of The Simpsons, quoted as saying "The script [at The Simpsons] was carved in stone. Here it's […] more of a challenge and a lot more fun when we're given a rough outline." Murray's animation lacked parallel lines and featured crooked architecture similar to various Chuck Jones cartoons. In an interview he stated that his design style contributed to the show's "Wonky bent feel." Jean Prescott of The Sun Herald described the series as "squash-and-stretch." A 1993 Houston Chronicle article described the series' setting as having a "reality that is 'squashed and stretched' into a twisted version of real life." The background staff hand-painted backgrounds with Dr. Martin Dyes, while each episode title card consisted of an original painting. Linda Simensky said that she asked the creators of Rocko's Modern Life about why the women in the series were drawn to be "top-heavy," the creators told her that they believed that drawing women "the traditional way" was easier. Simensky described the creators as "talented guys" who formed "a boy's club" and added that "we pushed them to be funny, but a lot of their women are stereotypical." +	 	+

Music
+	There are 3 versions of the Rocko's Modern Life theme song. The first and original version can be heard playing throughout season one and was composed by Pat Irwin, who also composed the series' background music. The second version of the theme song was a slightly remixed version of the first and was only used during episodes 8 and 9 of season one. One of the changes included high pitched voices added to the chorus. The third version of the theme song was performed by Kate Pierson and Fred Schneider from The B-52s. They performed the Rocko's Modern Life theme song from Season 2 onwards. +	 	+	At first Murray wanted Paul Sumares to perform the theme song since Sumares created most of the music found in My Dog Zero. Murray wanted the same style in My Dog Zero exhibited in Rocko's Modern Life. Nickelodeon wanted a person with more experience. According to Sumares, believing for the request to be a long shot, Murray asked for Danny Elfman and felt stunned when Nickelodeon decided to honor his request by asking Elfman to perform. According to Murray, Elfman, his first choice, was booked. Therefore he chose the B-52's, his second choice. According to Sumares Murray decided to use the B-52's instead of Elfman. Murray states that the difference between the stories "could just be a recollection conflict, because Paul is a brilliant amazing guy." Murray also sought Alan Silvestri. According to Sumares Viacom did not want to use Silvestri as the organization wanted a band "slightly older kids could identify with." +	 	+	Pat Irwin, a veteran of many bands, including the New York-based instrumental group the Raybeats, and, a side gig, the B-52s, spent five years as a music director on the series. Leading a six-piece combo, Irwin brought together musicians such as trombonist Art Baron and drummer Kevin Norton. +	 	+

Plot
+

+

+	The plot follows the life of a wallaby, Rocko, who has immigrated to America from Australia. In America, he is faced with various problems and challenges involving his pals who try to teach him what it means to be a good friend. +	Many of the locations in the television show Rocko's Modern Life have the letter "O" for example O-Town and Conglom-O. When asked about the use of "O" in his show Murray said, +	"I always got a big kick out of the businesses that were 'House-O-Paint', or 'Ton-O-Noodles', because their names seemed to homogenize what they sold, and strip the products of true individuality and stress volume ... and we all know, the American dream is volume! So what better company to create volume than 'Conglom-O', and since a majority of the town worked at Conglom-O, it should be called 'O' Town. I also wanted the town to be 'anytown' USA, and I used to love sports players with a big ZERO on their back. It was funny to me."

+	 	+	The plot locations included the following: +	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+
 * O-Town is the town in which Rocko lives, apparently located near the Great Lakes.
 * Chokey Chicken is a favorite restaurant/hang-out place for Rocko, Heffer, and Filburt. At some point during the fourth season the restaurant was renamed "Chewy Chicken" due to the former name referring to a euphemism for masturbation (i.e., "choking the chicken"), though earlier episodes continued to air with the "Chokey Chicken" name. It's a parody of KFC.
 * Conglom-O Corporation is the biggest company in town; it even runs City Hall. Mr. Dupette, who has very peculiar ways to see if the employees are fit to work there, manages Conglom-O. Conglom-O does not seem to have a specific purpose or product—it is a giant company that manufactures many products. Conglom-O's slogan is always shown beneath its name. The slogan is "We own you," revealing in a later musical episode that they own everything in O-Town. When Ed Bighead was shown to work at Conglom-O in 1961, the slogan stated "We Will Own You" (alluding to the future of megacorporations). The illustration that appears with the logo and on top of the official Conglom-O Corp. skyscraper is a martini glass with the earth in place of an olive.
 * Heck is where "bad people" go when they die. Run by Peaches, it is where Heffer is doomed to eternal suffering.
 * Holl-o-Wood is a town that resembles the Hollywood section of Los Angeles, California.
 * Kind of a Lot O' Comics is a comic book store where Rocko works. His boss, Mr. Smitty, is a cruel toad who only concentrates on selling comics. Rocko, however, is very nice and giving. For example, when a customer sneezed all over a comic, Rocko gave him a fresh copy and did not charge him for the previous comic.

Characters
−

+

+	All the characters in the Rocko's Modern Life series are animals. There is a wide range of species, and the vast majority of them are also mentally unstable. Murray said that he matched personalities of his characters to the various animals in the series to form a "social caricature". Rocko, the protagonist, is a wallaby who encounters various dilemmas and situations regarding otherwise mundane aspects of life. His best friend Heffer Wolfe is fat and enthusiastic while Filburt often feels uncomfortable or disturbed. −	{| class="wikitable" +	−	 	+	−	! Character +	−	! Voice actor +	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+
 * Carlos Alazraqui as the voice of Rocko, Spunky, Leon, Squirmy and Granny Rocko
 * Tom Kenny as the voice of Heffer Wolfe, Chuck, Mr. Smitty, Really Really Big Man, Bloaty, Peaches, Rocko's singing voice and various males
 * Mr. Lawrence as the voice of Filburt and Peter Wolfe
 * Linda Wallem as the voice of Dr. Paula Hutchison, Mrs. Virginia Wolfe, Grandma Wolfe, Cindy Wolfe, Tammy the Pig, and various females
 * Charlie Adler as the voice of Ed Bighead, Gladys, Mr. George Wolfe, Grandpa Wolfe, Bev Bighead, Mr. Dupette, Mr. and Mrs. Fathead and various males

Crew
+	 	+	Murray selected several newcomer voice actors for the roles. +	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+
 * Joe Murray: creator, executive producer, writer, story editor (Seasons 1–3)
 * Andy Houts: project coordinator
 * Stephen Hillenburg: producer, storyboard director, writer, creative director
 * Derek Drymon: storyboard artist, writer
 * Doug Lawrence: storyboard director, writer
 * Dan Povenmire: storyboard director, writer
 * Swampy Marsh: storyboard director, writer
 * Timothy Berglund (aka Timothy Björklund): storyboard director, writer
 * Martin Olson: writer
 * George Maestri: writer
 * Kevin Stalker: writer
 * Gary Conrad and Merriwether Williams: writer
 * Vince Calandra: writer
 * Tim Hill: story editor (on Season 4 only)
 * Mark O'Hare: storyboard artist
 * Steven E. Gordon: storyboard artist
 * Robert Hughes: animation director
 * Antoine Guilbaud: storyboard artist
 * Tom Yasumi: animation timer, animation director
 * Danny Antonucci: storyboard artist
 * Jeff Myers: storyboard director
 * Kevin O' Brien: storyboard artist
 * Joe Suggs: storyboard artist
 * Conrad Vernon: storyboard artist
 * Bert Ring: storyboard artist
 * Nathan Clark: animation timer
 * Alan Smart: animation director
 * George Chilatas: animation director
 * Nick Jennings: storyboard artist
 * Pete Michels: animation director
 * Chris Savino: animation artist
 * Howy Parkins: animation director
 * Roger Chiassen: writer/storyboard director
 * Robert McNally Scull: writer/storyboard artist
 * Pat Irwin: music composer

Writers
+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+
 * Tim Hill: 36 episodes, 1994–1996
 * Martin Olson: 33 episodes, 1993–1996
 * George Maestri: 32 episodes, 1993–1996
 * Stephen Hillenburg: 27 episodes, 1993–1996
 * Mark O'Hare: 25 episodes, 1993–1996
 * Robert McNally-Scull: 24 episodes, 1993–1996
 * Joe Murray: 23 episodes, 1993–1995
 * Jeff "Swampy" Marsh: 23 episodes, 1993–1996
 * Jeff Meyer: 22 episodes, 1993–1996
 * Dan Povenmire: 22 episodes, 1993–1996
 * Doug Lawrence: 20 episodes, 1993–1995
 * Timothy Berglund: 18 episodes, 1993–1995
 * Vince Calandra: 13 episodes, 1993–1994
 * Derek Drymon: 7 episodes, 1996
 * Rob Porter: 7 episodes, 1996
 * John McIntyre: 6 episodes, 1996
 * Roger Chiasson: 4 episodes, 1993
 * Nick Jennings: 4 episodes, 1993
 * Kevin O'brian: 3 episodes, 1993
 * Ron Hauge: 3 episodes, 1993
 * Don Spencer: 3 episodes, 1993
 * Conrad Vernon: 2 episodes, 1993
 * Carlos Alazraqui: 2 episodes, 1994–1995
 * Nichole Poinski: 1 episode, 1993
 * Raymond Johnson: 1 episode, 1993
 * Joe D. Suggs: 1 episode, 1993
 * Andy Houts: 1 episodes, 1993
 * Veronica Alicino: 1 episode, 1996
 * Antoine Guilbaud: 1 episode, 1996

Reception
+	Murray said that the cartoon "resonated" with people because the scenarios depicted in the cartoon involving "the neurosis, the daily chores of everyday life" were based on Murray's own experiences "breaking out into the world" after leaving school. The show was first debuted in a preview on September 18, 1993, and officially premiered the following morning, to join Nickelodeon's Sunday morning animation block. On September 18, the series' first night of airing, Rocko's Modern Life received a 3.0 in ratings. By January 31, 1994 the series' audience grew by 65%. Rocko's Modern Life, was at the time the network's highest-rated cartoon launch ever. There was a brief period in 1993 when the network received numerous complaints from members of a religious group that Ren & Stimpy and Rocko's Modern Life were too adult-oriented to be shown to kids on Sunday mornings. They wanted the shows moved to a different time slot. The network was polite but did not make the programming change. +	 	+	Initial reviews of Rocko's Modern Life were positive. The Miami Herald ran an article about series that were "rais[ing] the standards for children's programming," singling out Rocko's Modern Life as "definitely worth a look." Jennifer Mangan of the Chicago Tribune likened the series to The Simpsons, noting the show as another example of adult animation that is "not for kids." Newsday highlighted the show's "twisted sight gags. Ted Drozdowski of The Boston Phoenix stated in the "Eye pleasers" article that he enjoyed Rocko's Modern Life because of "jovial excitement," "good-hearted outrage," "humanity," and "pushy animated characterizations." However, not all reviews were positive. Ken Tucker of Entertainment Weekly described the series as "a witless rip-off of Ren & Stimpy: mucus jokes without the redeeming surrealism or contempt for authority." Charles Solomon of the Los Angeles Times called the series "rock bottom" and a "tasteless attempt to capture the Ren & Stimpy audience," mostly expressing displeasure at the crass humor. 	+	 	+	Common Sense Media reviewer Andrea Graham, whose review is posted on Go.com, describes Rocko's Modern Life as "somewhat edgy" and gave the series four out of five stars. Graham also warned parents to watch for "innuendos." +	 	+

Awards
+	Timothy J. Borquez, Patrick Foley, Michael Giesler, Michael A. Gollorn, William B. Griggs, Tom Jeager, Gregory LaPlante, Timothy Mertens, and Kenneth Young of Rocko's Modern Life received a 1993 Daytime Emmy Award for "Outstanding Achievement in Film Sound Editing." +	 	+	George Maestri was nominated for a CableACE Award for his Rocko's Modern Life writing. +	 	+	The series won an Environmental Media Award in 1996 for the episode "Zanzibar!". The award was accepted by the episode's writers, Dan Povenmire and Jeff "Swampy" Marsh. +	 	+

Broadcast history
+	Rocko's Modern Life aired on Nickelodeon from 1993 until 2004. The show was briefly syndicated to local stations by Nickelodeon during 1995 and 1996. +	 	+	In the summer of 2006, Rocko's Modern Life came back to Nickelodeon as part of the Nick Rewind block. Reruns of Rocko's Modern Life currently air on Nicktoons TV and Nick Canada. +	 	+	MTV picked up Rocko's Modern Life from sister station Nickelodeon in early 1994 in an attempt to lure Beavis and Butt-head viewers. In Malaysia Rocko's Modern Life aired in MetroVision around 1997. +	In the early 2000s Nickelodeon Japan marketed the show along with The Ren and Stimpy Show. In Australia, it was shown on ABC Kids. It was also shown on Ukrainian channel ICTV: Rocko's Modern Life on ICTV. Rocko's Modern Life was one of the seminal premieres on Nickelodeon Canada, the network's Canadian extension launched in November 2009. +	 	+	Rocko's Modern Life is set to air as a part of The '90s Are All That, a programming block beginning in July 2011 on TeenNick, focused on college students and young adults that grew up with the programs. +	 	+

Legacy
+	The fourth Nicktoon to debut, Rocko’s boasts a sizable cult to this day. Tom Kenny cited Rocko's Modern Life as vital in him learning how to do voiceover for animation. He recalled that seeing Charlie Adler have a two-way conversation with himself as the Bigheads without any edits was "dazzling." It was a very early job for Mr. Lawrence. +	 	+	Many members of the Rocko's Modern Life staff have, in recent years, gone on to become incredibly successful. Stephen Hillenburg later went on to pitch a new series to Nickelodeon in 1998, regarding which Murray said "If it goes well, it'll be a blessing to us all." The network bought the pitch and SpongeBob SquarePants premiered the following year, becoming an enormous popular, critical and financial success. Hillenburg stated that he "learned a great deal about writing and producing animation for TV" from his time on Rocko's Modern Life and noted that "a lot of people came off of Rocko that work on SpongeBob." Tom Kenny, who voiced Heffer Wolfe, performs the voice of the title character, SpongeBob. Two writers for the series, Dan Povenmire and Jeff "Swampy" Marsh, went on to create Phineas and Ferb for the Disney Channel; the show became a ratings success and received numerous award nominations. When Murray returned with a new animated series, Camp Lazlo, in 2005, much of the former staff of Rocko's Modern Life joined him. Murray stated that "We always kept in touch and they told me to look them up if I ever did another project," adding that the crew already knew his sensibilities and an extra decade worth of experience. Carlos Alazraqui, who played Rocko, also ended up playing the main character of Lazlo. Derek Drymon and Nick Jennings, both part of the staff, went on to be responsible for the tone and visual looks of a lot of very successful animated series that came later. +	 	+	In recent years, the show has seen renewed acclaim. Brahna Siegelberg of Slate said that the aspect that was most compelling was that the show had "a really poignant critique of the materialist demands of American life." She added that she "realized that Rocko was really a show about how to navigate the adult world; one that could be appreciated by kids for its slapstick humor and absurdity, but had even more to say to young adults—like me." IGN called the show a prime example of the "sophisticated, intelligent brand of children's programming" during Nickelodeon's golden age. The A.V. Club also called the show "one of the best series" from that era, praising the show's "impressive commitment to expressive character acting, well-drawn sight gags, and cartoony jokes that play with the form’s slapstick strengths." New York compared the series' humor, in retrospect, to that of Office Space (1999) and praised the subversive, anti-corporate stories. +	 	+

Censorship
+	Rocko's Modern Life has been noted for its racy humor. Adults made up more than one-fifth of the audience for the show during it's run. The series contained numerous adult innuendos, such as Rocko's brief stint as a telephone operator: the instructions on the wall behind him helpfully remind all employees to "Be Hot, Be Naughty, and Be Courteous" while he repeats "Oh baby" into the receiver. In "The Good, the Bad and the Wallaby", Heffer encounters a milking machine and finds pleasure, his reactions are shown onscreen. According to writer/director Jeff "Swampy" Marsh, the scene was originally supposed to have hearts appearing in Heffer's eyes at the climactic moment. Sure it wasn't going to make it, they described the scene to Nickelodeon censors anyway: "We described the scene, and then waited for the axe to fall, but all they said was 'can you change the hearts to stars?', we said sure, and it went in." The scene, as well as a scene showing Heffer's break-up with the machine, were later removed. +	 	+	There were at least two occurrences of immediate censorship of the series. The original broadcast of the segment "Road Rash" featured a scene in which Rocko and Heffer stop at a seedy motel (the "No-Tell Motel") advertising "hourly rates" and ask the oriental-horse desk clerk for a room, who implies the two will be engaging in intercourse: "All night? [whistles] Wheeeooo! Okay." The first airing of "Hut Sut Raw" included a scene in which Rocko is picking berries; upon picking one lower on the bush, a bear rushes out whimpering and grasping his crotch. Both scenes were edited by Nickelodeon after their first broadcasts. In addition, the restaurant named "Chokey Chicken" (a term for masturbation) was renamed "Chewy Chicken" for the series' fourth season. As the series entered reruns after cancellation, more scenes were cut. The entire episode "Leap Frogs", in which Bev Bighead attempts to seduce Rocko, was skipped. +	 	+	When Shout! Factory announced a retail release for the series' first season, there were concerns on whether Nickelodeon would allow Shout! to release the series complete with some of the racier humor that the network eventually cut out for reruns. During production, Shout! Factory only received materials from sources that were edited for broadcast. In the end, both scenes from "The Good, the Bad and the Wallaby" appeared censored. +	 	+

Home release
+	Fans have requested that Nickelodeon produce a DVD collection of the series for years. Murray has often got e-mails from fans, and his top question was "When will Rocko be on DVD?" Prior to the official DVD releases, Murray stated that he had not heard of any plans for a DVD release and that there are several illegal DVD releases of the series sold on eBay. He commented, "But at least someone is trying to give Rocko fans what they want. Because Nickelodeon sure isn't doing it." Murray worked with his legal team to regain the rights, so that an official DVD can be released. +	 	+	The first home video release of the series in the United States was in February 1995, when selected episodes were released on VHS by Sony Wonder. Sony Wonder used Rocko's Modern Life, alongside releases from Ren & Stimpy and Are You Afraid of the Dark?, as "leading brands" in order for the company to break into the market. Paramount Home Entertainment later re-released the tapes in 1997 and 1998. +	 	+	In July 2008, Rocko's Modern Life was added to the iTunes Store as a part of the "Nick Rewind" collection, in four "Best of" volumes. Eventually, in August 2008, Nickelodeon joined forces with CreateSpace, part of the Amazon.com Inc. group of companies, to make a number of animated and live-action shows available on DVD, many for the first time. The DVDs were published via CreateSpace DVD on Demand, a service that manufactures discs as soon as customers order them on Amazon.com. Rocko's Modern Life was available in two "Best of" collections, released September 5, 2008. +	 	+	In March 2011, Shout Factory announced that they were going to release Season 1 in an official box set on June 21, 2011. The two-disc set received relatively positive reviews, only receiving criticism for video quality and the lack of bonus features. +	 	+	All four seasons are available in streaming format on Netflix. +	 	+	−		 −	These characters are modeled on cartoon stereotypes, to varying extents. The show also features secondary characters and extras, mostly in crowd scenes, whose designs are directly inspired by famous anime characters, but who are different enough to avoid copyright infringements. Sometimes this is done to spoof the films and television programs intentionally, such as the character Masaka Masako, whose appearance spoofs Yubaba, or her twin, Zeneba, from the film Spirited Away, or Takashi Katashi, who shares a similar appearance and name with Kakashi Hatake from the magna/anime franchise Naruto. The person standing next to him could be a character that s supposed to resemble Sakura Haruno, also from Naruto, note the clothing. On another episode there is an anime version of Ami and Yumi from the TV series, Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi, which was running on Cartoon Network at the time. Also in the final scene of the episode "Reality Bites", there is a person in the crowd that was designed like a persocom from the anime Chobits. Other times, it is done to continue the show's original concept, without any intention behind it. −		 −
 * }

Episodes
−

−

Home media
+

Marvel Comics series
+	During Tom DeFalco's Editor-in-Chief career, Marvel Comics produced a seven-issue comic book series based on the television series. Marvel published the series from June 1994 to December 1994 with monthly releases. +	Nickelodeon approached Marvel, asking the company to produce comic book series for Rocko's Modern Life and Ren and Stimpy. Marvel purchased the license for Rocko from Nickelodeon. The staff created the comics, and Susan Luposniak, a Nickelodeon employee, examined the comics before they were released. Joe Murray said in a December 2, 2008 blog entry that he drew some of the pages in the comic book series. +	The comics contain stories not seen in the television show. In addition, the comic book series omits some television show characters and places, while some original places and characters appear in the comics. John "Lewie" Lewandowski wrote all of the stories except for one; Joey Cavalieri wrote "Beaten by a Club," the second story of Issue #4. −	The soundtrack for "Kappa Karaoke" is available as a downloadable album on iTunes. +	Troy Little, a resident of Monroe, Oregon, wrote to Marvel requesting that the title for the comic's letters column should be "That's Life." In Issue 3, published in August 1994, the editors decided to use the title for the comic's "Letters to the Editor" section. In Issue 5, published in October 1994, the editors stated that they still received suggestions for the title for the comic even though the editors had decided on using "That's Life" by Issue 3. −

Trivia
+	"That's Life," Rocko's Modern Life. Marvel Comics. Volume 1, Issue 5. −	 	+	−
 * The voice of Gonard (Sean Schemmel) is also the same actor who voiced Goku from the Dragon Ball Z series. If one listens closely they can hear that Gonard sounds very similar to Goku in terms of voice.

Merchandise
+	By January 31, 1994 Nickelodeon received ten "licensing partners" for merchandise for the series. Hardee's distributed Rocko toys. Viacom New Media released one game based on the show, Rocko's Modern Life: Spunky's Dangerous Day, in the United States for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. In addition, Nickelodeon 3-D Movie Maker features various characters from the show. Rocko also appeared in the game Nicktoons: Attack of the Toybots. Nick.com created two free online games featuring Rocko, using Shockwave Flash (which requires the Shockwave plugin). +	Hot Topic has been selling Rocko's Modern Life merchandise such as t-shirts, wrist bands, key chains and other items as part of their Nick Classic line. +	After Nicktoons: Attack of the Toybots, Rocko, Filburt and Peaches will soon be features Nicktoons MLB. +	 	+

Nickelodeon's website safety guide
+	In the late 1990s and early-to-mid 2000s Nickelodeon used Rocko's Modern Life characters in several short comics collected under the title "A Byte-Size Online Safety Guide" explaining netiquette, internet security, and internet safety to readers of Nick.com. These shorts can still be found on the Nick.com site by going to the Nickelodeon Safety Page.

Plot
+	−	The series centers around Mikey Simon, a 19-year-old actor who just graduated from high school and is from Cleveland, Ohio. He embarks to Japan after winning a scratch-off card contest to star in the country's formerly popular live-action series, LilyMu, which is presented as an "anime". In doing this, he rockets the show back to the top of the ratings, and becomes Japan's biggest star in anime history. +

History
+	Originally, the character appeared in an unpublished comic book titled Travis. Murray tried selling the comic book in the late 1980s, between illustrating jobs, and did not find success in getting it into production. Many other characters appeared in various sketchbooks. He described the early 1990s animation atmosphere as "ripe for this kind of project. We took some chances that would be hard to do in these crappy times (the 1990s)". Murray wanted funding for his independent film My Dog Zero, so he wanted Nickelodeon to pre-buy television rights for the series. He presented a pencil test to Nickelodeon, which afterward became interested in buying and financing the show. Murray had never worked in television before. The industry was coming out of a "rough period" and Murray wanted to "shake things up a bit." +	 	+	Linda Simensky, then in charge of animation development in Nickelodeon, described the Nicktoons lineup and concept to Murray. He originally felt skepticism towards the concept of creating a Nicktoon as he disliked television cartoons. Simensky told him that Nicktoons differed from other cartoons. He then told her that he believed that My Dog Zero would not work as a cartoon. He then researched Nickelodeon at the library and found that Nickelodeon's "attitude was different than regular TV." The cable network providers were "making their own rules": for example, Murray stated that he "didn't write for children," which the executives were fine with. Murray was unsure at first, but was inspired by independent animation around him, such as Animation Celebration and MTV's Liquid Television, and gave the network a shot. At the time, Nickelodeon was selling itself as a network based as much around edge as around kids’ entertainment. It aimed to appeal to college students and parents as much as children. +	 	+	Murray developed the Rocko character after visiting a zoo in the Bay Area and coming across a wallaby that seemed to be oblivious to the chaos around him. Murray combed through his sketchbooks, developed the Rocko's Modern Life concept, and submitted it to Nickelodeon, believing that the concept would likely be rejected. Murray felt they would not like the pilot, and he would just collect his sum and begin funding his next independent film. According to Murray, around three or four months later he had "forgotten about" the concept and was working on My Dog Zero when Simensky informed him that Nickelodeon wanted a pilot episode. Murray said that he was glad that he would get funding for My Dog Zero. On his website he describes My Dog Zero as "that film that Linda Simensky saw which led me to Rocko." "Sucker for the Suck-O-Matic" was originally written as the pilot; the executives decided that Heffer Wolfe, one of the characters, would be "a little too weird for test audiences." Murray, instead of removing Heffer from "Sucker for the Suck-O-Matic," decided to write "Trash-O-Madness" as the pilot episode. +	 	+	In the original series pilot, Rocko was colored yellow. His color was changed when a toy merchandising company informed Nick they were interested in marketing dolls but didn't want to market Rocko because "They already had a yellow character." Murray changed Rocko's color to beige, and after the pilot aired, the company opted out of producing toys for the series. When the series was in development prior to the release of the first episode, the series had the title The Rocko Show. +	 	+	In 1992, two months prior to the production of season 1 of Rocko's Modern Life, Murray's first wife committed suicide. Murray had often blamed his wife's suicide on the show being picked up. He said "It was always an awful connection because I look at Rocko as such a positive in my life." Murray felt that he had emotional and physical "unresolved issues" when he moved to Los Angeles. He describes the experience as like participating in "marathon with my pants around my ankles." Murray initially believed that he would create one season, move back to the San Francisco Bay Area, and "clean up the loose ends I had left hanging." Murray said that he felt surprised when Nickelodeon approved new seasons; Nickelodeon renewed the series for its second season in December 1993. +	After season 3 he decided to hand the project to Stephen Hillenburg, who performed most work for season 4; Murray continued to manage the cartoon. He said that he would completely leave the production after season 4. He said also that he encouraged the network to continue production, but Nickelodeon eventually decided to cancel the series. He described all fifty-two episodes as "top notch", and in his view the quality of a television show may decline as production continues "when you are dealing with volume." On his website he said that, "In some ways it succeeded and in some ways failed. All I know it developed its own flavor and an equally original legion of fans." In a 1997 interview Murray said that he at times wondered if he could re-start the series; he feels the task would be difficult. −	Segments of LilyMu are seen at the beginning and end of each episode, but the show focuses primarily on the actors' and producers' lives off-set and Mikey's adjustments to the new world he has entered, similar in concept to The Famous Jett Jackson. The humor comes from the fact that because Mikey is an American, he actually stands out visually from the other cast members, similar to the mix of styles in Who Framed Roger Rabbit. While most characters on the show are drawn in an anime-inspired style (thin outlines, big, detailed eyes, small mouths, and all ten fingers), Mikey (and all other American characters) is drawn in a retro-inspired American cartoon manner (thicker outlines, single black dot pupil eyes, a larger mouth, and only eight fingers). The humor is delivered in a rapid pace, and also consists of light satire, incongruity, slapstick, character quirks, and a fair amount of gross-out humor.

Production
+

−	The show's title is a variation on the word kappamaki, a type of sushi. It is suggested that it was the inspiration for naming the title character Mikey, and uses the prefix kappa. Like Mikey, who is a 'fish out of water' in Japan, the kappa creature itself is a water demon who can live on land. The kappas first appeared on this show in the episode "Mikey, Kappa", on August 5th, 2007, where the origin of the title was explained. Mikey also shares his name with the actor who supplies his voice. +	The show was jointly produced between Games Animation and Joe Murray Productions. Since Nickelodeon didn't have an animation studio, that had to contact out to other studios. After incidents with The Ren & Stimpy Show creator John Kricfalusi, Nickelodeon began to not trust its creators as much and began to form its own studio - Games Animation. However, Murray recalls that they were still able to get a lot done independently. Murray has likened the independence to that of "Termite Terrace" (Warner Bros. Cartoons) from the 1930s. As Nickelodeon began to have more and more success with its animation cartoons, Murray said the "Termite Terrace" mentality wasn't working as much. Producer Mary Harrington made the move from New York City to Los Angeles to set up Games Animation, in order to produce Rocko's Modern Life. The crew first began production on the show in January 1993. Rocko's Modern Life was Nickelodeon's first in-house animated production. +	Murray's Joe Murray Productions and Games Animation rented office space on Ventura Boulevard in the Studio City neighborhood of the San Fernando Valley region of Los Angeles, California. . Production for the two seasons wrapped in September 2007. +	"Animators Feel Free With `Rocko'." The Palm Beach Post +	 The production moved to a different office building on Vineland Avenue in Studio City. Executives did not share space with the creative team. Murray rented a floor in the Writers Guild of America, West building, although the team of Rocko was not a part of the union, which the staff found ironic. Rough Draft Studios assembled the animation. According to Murray, as Rocko's Modern Life was his first television series, he did not know about the atmosphere of typical animation studios. Murray said that he opted to operate his studio in a similar manner to the operation of his Saratoga, California studio, which he describes as "Very relaxed." His cadre included many veterans who, according to him, described the experience as "the most fun they had ever had!" He, saying that the atmosphere was "not my doing," credited his team members for collectively contributing. Murray described the daily atmosphere at the studio as "very loose," adding that the rules permitted all staff members to use the paging system to make announcements. He stated that one visitor compared the environment of the production studio to "preschool without supervision." Murray stated that 70 people in the United States and over 200 people in South Korea animated the series. +	Rick Bentley of the Ventura County Star said that it was unusual for a cartoon creator to select a wallaby as a main character. Bentley also stated that the Rocko universe was influenced by "everything from Looney Tunes to underground comics." The staff of the show were fans of outrageous comedy, both animated and not animated. Tom Kenny cited Looney Tunes and SCTV as influences for the show, and also stated "I'm sure if you asked Joe Murray or Mr. Lawrence or any of those guys, especially in terms of animation, the weirdest cartoons would of course be our favorites—those weird ‘30s Fleischer brothers Betty Boop cartoons and stuff like that." −	Schwarz conceived the series in 2000, when he was running Rumpus toys, a toy design company in New York City, but they folded before any storyboarding could commence. They resurfaced years later as Animation Collective, and produced an early test pilot for a pitch to MTV Networks, where the character designs and backgrounds resembled more like those found in Adult Swim series Perfect Hair Forever, and the humor was also more adult-oriented. Much of the current cast was voicing their characters even this early in production. MTV declined the deal, and Nickelodeon eventually picked up the project. The series was tweaked heavily in order to be aimed at a younger audience. Voice talents were usually local, and its audio was recorded at Manhattan-based NYAV Post, which Michael Sinterniklaas owns. Larry Schwarz, along with the other executive producers, oversaw all phases of production, but only had writing credits on the pilot episode, "Mikey Impossible", and "A Christmas Mikey". All the episodes were directed by Sergei Aniskov. The instrumental score was composed by John Angier, who also wrote the lyrics to "The Recycling Song", "Ori and Yori's Hits", "Living With Mikey", "How Did We Get Here?", and the songs in "The Karaoke Episode". +	Murray produced the pilot episode, "Trash-O-Madness", at his studio in Saratoga; he animated half of the episode, and the production occurred entirely in the United States, with animation in Saratoga and processing in San Francisco. While directing during recording sessions, Murray preferred to be on the stage with the actors instead of "behind glass" in a control room, which he describes as "the norm" while making animated series. He believes that, due to his lack of experience with children, Rocko's Modern Life "skewed kind of older." Murray noted, "There's a lot of big kids out there. People went to see 'Roger Rabbit' and saw all these characters they'd grown up with and said, 'Yeah, why don't they have something like that anymore?'" When he began producing Rocko, he says that his experience in independent films initially led him to attempt to micromanage many details in the production. He said that the approach, when used for production of television shows, was "driving me crazy." This led him to allow for other team members to manage aspects of the Rocko's Modern Life production. Director and later creative director Stephen Hillenburg met Murray at an animation film festival where he was showing his three short films. Murray hired Hillenburg as a director on the series, making Hillenburg's first job in the animation business as a director. +	 	+

Writing style
+	The writers aimed to create stories that they describe as "strong" and "funny." The writers, including George Maestri and Martin Olson, often presented ideas to Murray while eating hamburgers at Rocky's, a restaurant formerly located on Lankershim in the North Hollywood section of the San Fernando Valley. He took his team members on "writing trips" to places such as Rocky's, the LaBrea Tar Pits, and the wilderness. If he liked the story premises, the writers produced full outlines from the premises. Outlines approved by both him and Nickelodeon became Rocko's Modern Life episodes. Maestri describes some stories as originating from "real life" and some originating from "thin air." Murray stated that each episode of Rocko's Modern Life stemmed from the personal experiences of himself and/or one or more of the directors or writers. He said that he did not intend to use formulaic writing seen in other cartoons; he desired content that "broke new ground" and "did things that rode the edge," and that could be described as "unexpected." He did not hire writers who had previous experience with writing cartoons, instead hiring writers who worked outside of animation, including improv actors and comic artists. He said that story concepts that "ever smacked close to some formula idea that we had all seen before" received rejection. +	 	+	Jeff "Swampy" Marsh, a storyboard writer, says that writers of Rocko's Modern Life targeted children and adults. He cites Rocky and Bullwinkle as an example of another series that contains references indecipherable by children and understood by adults. Aiming for a similar goal, Marsh described the process as "a hard job." According to him, when censors questioned proposed material, sometimes the team disagreed with the opinions of the censors and sometimes the team agreed with the rationale of the censors. He says that "many people" told him that the team "succeeded in this endevour" [sic] and that "many parents I know really enjoyed watching the show with their kids for just this reason." John Pacenti said the series "seems very much aimed at adults" "for a children's' cartoon." Marsh believes that the material written by Doug Lawrence stands as an example of a "unique sense of humor." For instance, Marsh credits Lawrence with the "pineapple references" adding that Lawrence believed that pineapples seemed humorous. The staff drew upon Looney Tunes and the Fleischer cartoons to appeal to wide demographic: having a certain adult sensibility but also enjoyed by kids. +	 	+

Animation style
+	Rocko's Modern Life has been described as similar to that of the output of Warner Bros Cartoons in the Golden Age: a visually driven show heavy on humor, sight gags, and good animation. Instead of a finished script, the animators usually received a three-page outline, requiring them to come up with a majority of the gags and dialogue. The animation team appreciated this approach, with storyboard artist Jeff Myers, formerly of The Simpsons, quoted as saying "The script [at The Simpsons] was carved in stone. Here it's […] more of a challenge and a lot more fun when we're given a rough outline." Murray's animation lacked parallel lines and featured crooked architecture similar to various Chuck Jones cartoons. In an interview he stated that his design style contributed to the show's "Wonky bent feel." Jean Prescott of The Sun Herald described the series as "squash-and-stretch." A 1993 Houston Chronicle article described the series' setting as having a "reality that is 'squashed and stretched' into a twisted version of real life." The background staff hand-painted backgrounds with Dr. Martin Dyes, while each episode title card consisted of an original painting. Linda Simensky said that she asked the creators of Rocko's Modern Life about why the women in the series were drawn to be "top-heavy," the creators told her that they believed that drawing women "the traditional way" was easier. Simensky described the creators as "talented guys" who formed "a boy's club" and added that "we pushed them to be funny, but a lot of their women are stereotypical." +	 	+

Music
+	There are 3 versions of the Rocko's Modern Life theme song. The first and original version can be heard playing throughout season one and was composed by Pat Irwin, who also composed the series' background music. The second version of the theme song was a slightly remixed version of the first and was only used during episodes 8 and 9 of season one. One of the changes included high pitched voices added to the chorus. The third version of the theme song was performed by Kate Pierson and Fred Schneider from The B-52s. They performed the Rocko's Modern Life theme song from Season 2 onwards. +	 	+	At first Murray wanted Paul Sumares to perform the theme song since Sumares created most of the music found in My Dog Zero. Murray wanted the same style in My Dog Zero exhibited in Rocko's Modern Life. Nickelodeon wanted a person with more experience. According to Sumares, believing for the request to be a long shot, Murray asked for Danny Elfman and felt stunned when Nickelodeon decided to honor his request by asking Elfman to perform. According to Murray, Elfman, his first choice, was booked. Therefore he chose the B-52's, his second choice. According to Sumares Murray decided to use the B-52's instead of Elfman. Murray states that the difference between the stories "could just be a recollection conflict, because Paul is a brilliant amazing guy." Murray also sought Alan Silvestri. According to Sumares Viacom did not want to use Silvestri as the organization wanted a band "slightly older kids could identify with." +	 	+	Pat Irwin, a veteran of many bands, including the New York-based instrumental group the Raybeats, and, a side gig, the B-52s, spent five years as a music director on the series. Leading a six-piece combo, Irwin brought together musicians such as trombonist Art Baron and drummer Kevin Norton. +	 	+

Plot
+

+

+	The plot follows the life of a wallaby, Rocko, who has immigrated to America from Australia. In America, he is faced with various problems and challenges involving his pals who try to teach him what it means to be a good friend. +	Many of the locations in the television show Rocko's Modern Life have the letter "O" for example O-Town and Conglom-O. When asked about the use of "O" in his show Murray said, +	"I always got a big kick out of the businesses that were 'House-O-Paint', or 'Ton-O-Noodles', because their names seemed to homogenize what they sold, and strip the products of true individuality and stress volume ... and we all know, the American dream is volume! So what better company to create volume than 'Conglom-O', and since a majority of the town worked at Conglom-O, it should be called 'O' Town. I also wanted the town to be 'anytown' USA, and I used to love sports players with a big ZERO on their back. It was funny to me."

+	 	+	The plot locations included the following: +	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+
 * O-Town is the town in which Rocko lives, apparently located near the Great Lakes.
 * Chokey Chicken is a favorite restaurant/hang-out place for Rocko, Heffer, and Filburt. At some point during the fourth season the restaurant was renamed "Chewy Chicken" due to the former name referring to a euphemism for masturbation (i.e., "choking the chicken"), though earlier episodes continued to air with the "Chokey Chicken" name. It's a parody of KFC.
 * Conglom-O Corporation is the biggest company in town; it even runs City Hall. Mr. Dupette, who has very peculiar ways to see if the employees are fit to work there, manages Conglom-O. Conglom-O does not seem to have a specific purpose or product—it is a giant company that manufactures many products. Conglom-O's slogan is always shown beneath its name. The slogan is "We own you," revealing in a later musical episode that they own everything in O-Town. When Ed Bighead was shown to work at Conglom-O in 1961, the slogan stated "We Will Own You" (alluding to the future of megacorporations). The illustration that appears with the logo and on top of the official Conglom-O Corp. skyscraper is a martini glass with the earth in place of an olive.
 * Heck is where "bad people" go when they die. Run by Peaches, it is where Heffer is doomed to eternal suffering.
 * Holl-o-Wood is a town that resembles the Hollywood section of Los Angeles, California.
 * Kind of a Lot O' Comics is a comic book store where Rocko works. His boss, Mr. Smitty, is a cruel toad who only concentrates on selling comics. Rocko, however, is very nice and giving. For example, when a customer sneezed all over a comic, Rocko gave him a fresh copy and did not charge him for the previous comic.

Characters
−

+

+	All the characters in the Rocko's Modern Life series are animals. There is a wide range of species, and the vast majority of them are also mentally unstable. Murray said that he matched personalities of his characters to the various animals in the series to form a "social caricature". Rocko, the protagonist, is a wallaby who encounters various dilemmas and situations regarding otherwise mundane aspects of life. His best friend Heffer Wolfe is fat and enthusiastic while Filburt often feels uncomfortable or disturbed. −	{| class="wikitable" +	−	 	+	−	! Character +	−	! Voice actor +	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+
 * Carlos Alazraqui as the voice of Rocko, Spunky, Leon, Squirmy and Granny Rocko
 * Tom Kenny as the voice of Heffer Wolfe, Chuck, Mr. Smitty, Really Really Big Man, Bloaty, Peaches, Rocko's singing voice and various males
 * Mr. Lawrence as the voice of Filburt and Peter Wolfe
 * Linda Wallem as the voice of Dr. Paula Hutchison, Mrs. Virginia Wolfe, Grandma Wolfe, Cindy Wolfe, Tammy the Pig, and various females
 * Charlie Adler as the voice of Ed Bighead, Gladys, Mr. George Wolfe, Grandpa Wolfe, Bev Bighead, Mr. Dupette, Mr. and Mrs. Fathead and various males

Crew
+	 	+	Murray selected several newcomer voice actors for the roles. +	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+
 * Joe Murray: creator, executive producer, writer, story editor (Seasons 1–3)
 * Andy Houts: project coordinator
 * Stephen Hillenburg: producer, storyboard director, writer, creative director
 * Derek Drymon: storyboard artist, writer
 * Doug Lawrence: storyboard director, writer
 * Dan Povenmire: storyboard director, writer
 * Swampy Marsh: storyboard director, writer
 * Timothy Berglund (aka Timothy Björklund): storyboard director, writer
 * Martin Olson: writer
 * George Maestri: writer
 * Kevin Stalker: writer
 * Gary Conrad and Merriwether Williams: writer
 * Vince Calandra: writer
 * Tim Hill: story editor (on Season 4 only)
 * Mark O'Hare: storyboard artist
 * Steven E. Gordon: storyboard artist
 * Robert Hughes: animation director
 * Antoine Guilbaud: storyboard artist
 * Tom Yasumi: animation timer, animation director
 * Danny Antonucci: storyboard artist
 * Jeff Myers: storyboard director
 * Kevin O' Brien: storyboard artist
 * Joe Suggs: storyboard artist
 * Conrad Vernon: storyboard artist
 * Bert Ring: storyboard artist
 * Nathan Clark: animation timer
 * Alan Smart: animation director
 * George Chilatas: animation director
 * Nick Jennings: storyboard artist
 * Pete Michels: animation director
 * Chris Savino: animation artist
 * Howy Parkins: animation director
 * Roger Chiassen: writer/storyboard director
 * Robert McNally Scull: writer/storyboard artist
 * Pat Irwin: music composer

Writers
+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+
 * Tim Hill: 36 episodes, 1994–1996
 * Martin Olson: 33 episodes, 1993–1996
 * George Maestri: 32 episodes, 1993–1996
 * Stephen Hillenburg: 27 episodes, 1993–1996
 * Mark O'Hare: 25 episodes, 1993–1996
 * Robert McNally-Scull: 24 episodes, 1993–1996
 * Joe Murray: 23 episodes, 1993–1995
 * Jeff "Swampy" Marsh: 23 episodes, 1993–1996
 * Jeff Meyer: 22 episodes, 1993–1996
 * Dan Povenmire: 22 episodes, 1993–1996
 * Doug Lawrence: 20 episodes, 1993–1995
 * Timothy Berglund: 18 episodes, 1993–1995
 * Vince Calandra: 13 episodes, 1993–1994
 * Derek Drymon: 7 episodes, 1996
 * Rob Porter: 7 episodes, 1996
 * John McIntyre: 6 episodes, 1996
 * Roger Chiasson: 4 episodes, 1993
 * Nick Jennings: 4 episodes, 1993
 * Kevin O'brian: 3 episodes, 1993
 * Ron Hauge: 3 episodes, 1993
 * Don Spencer: 3 episodes, 1993
 * Conrad Vernon: 2 episodes, 1993
 * Carlos Alazraqui: 2 episodes, 1994–1995
 * Nichole Poinski: 1 episode, 1993
 * Raymond Johnson: 1 episode, 1993
 * Joe D. Suggs: 1 episode, 1993
 * Andy Houts: 1 episodes, 1993
 * Veronica Alicino: 1 episode, 1996
 * Antoine Guilbaud: 1 episode, 1996

Reception
+	Murray said that the cartoon "resonated" with people because the scenarios depicted in the cartoon involving "the neurosis, the daily chores of everyday life" were based on Murray's own experiences "breaking out into the world" after leaving school. The show was first debuted in a preview on September 18, 1993, and officially premiered the following morning, to join Nickelodeon's Sunday morning animation block. On September 18, the series' first night of airing, Rocko's Modern Life received a 3.0 in ratings. By January 31, 1994 the series' audience grew by 65%. Rocko's Modern Life, was at the time the network's highest-rated cartoon launch ever. There was a brief period in 1993 when the network received numerous complaints from members of a religious group that Ren & Stimpy and Rocko's Modern Life were too adult-oriented to be shown to kids on Sunday mornings. They wanted the shows moved to a different time slot. The network was polite but did not make the programming change. +	 	+	Initial reviews of Rocko's Modern Life were positive. The Miami Herald ran an article about series that were "rais[ing] the standards for children's programming," singling out Rocko's Modern Life as "definitely worth a look." Jennifer Mangan of the Chicago Tribune likened the series to The Simpsons, noting the show as another example of adult animation that is "not for kids." Newsday highlighted the show's "twisted sight gags. Ted Drozdowski of The Boston Phoenix stated in the "Eye pleasers" article that he enjoyed Rocko's Modern Life because of "jovial excitement," "good-hearted outrage," "humanity," and "pushy animated characterizations." However, not all reviews were positive. Ken Tucker of Entertainment Weekly described the series as "a witless rip-off of Ren & Stimpy: mucus jokes without the redeeming surrealism or contempt for authority." Charles Solomon of the Los Angeles Times called the series "rock bottom" and a "tasteless attempt to capture the Ren & Stimpy audience," mostly expressing displeasure at the crass humor. 	+	 	+	Common Sense Media reviewer Andrea Graham, whose review is posted on Go.com, describes Rocko's Modern Life as "somewhat edgy" and gave the series four out of five stars. Graham also warned parents to watch for "innuendos." +	 	+

Awards
+	Timothy J. Borquez, Patrick Foley, Michael Giesler, Michael A. Gollorn, William B. Griggs, Tom Jeager, Gregory LaPlante, Timothy Mertens, and Kenneth Young of Rocko's Modern Life received a 1993 Daytime Emmy Award for "Outstanding Achievement in Film Sound Editing." +	 	+	George Maestri was nominated for a CableACE Award for his Rocko's Modern Life writing. +	 	+	The series won an Environmental Media Award in 1996 for the episode "Zanzibar!". The award was accepted by the episode's writers, Dan Povenmire and Jeff "Swampy" Marsh. +	 	+

Broadcast history
+	Rocko's Modern Life aired on Nickelodeon from 1993 until 2004. The show was briefly syndicated to local stations by Nickelodeon during 1995 and 1996. +	 	+	In the summer of 2006, Rocko's Modern Life came back to Nickelodeon as part of the Nick Rewind block. Reruns of Rocko's Modern Life currently air on Nicktoons TV and Nick Canada. +	 	+	MTV picked up Rocko's Modern Life from sister station Nickelodeon in early 1994 in an attempt to lure Beavis and Butt-head viewers. In Malaysia Rocko's Modern Life aired in MetroVision around 1997. +	In the early 2000s Nickelodeon Japan marketed the show along with The Ren and Stimpy Show. In Australia, it was shown on ABC Kids. It was also shown on Ukrainian channel ICTV: Rocko's Modern Life on ICTV. Rocko's Modern Life was one of the seminal premieres on Nickelodeon Canada, the network's Canadian extension launched in November 2009. +	 	+	Rocko's Modern Life is set to air as a part of The '90s Are All That, a programming block beginning in July 2011 on TeenNick, focused on college students and young adults that grew up with the programs. +	 	+

Legacy
+	The fourth Nicktoon to debut, Rocko’s boasts a sizable cult to this day. Tom Kenny cited Rocko's Modern Life as vital in him learning how to do voiceover for animation. He recalled that seeing Charlie Adler have a two-way conversation with himself as the Bigheads without any edits was "dazzling." It was a very early job for Mr. Lawrence. +	 	+	Many members of the Rocko's Modern Life staff have, in recent years, gone on to become incredibly successful. Stephen Hillenburg later went on to pitch a new series to Nickelodeon in 1998, regarding which Murray said "If it goes well, it'll be a blessing to us all." The network bought the pitch and SpongeBob SquarePants premiered the following year, becoming an enormous popular, critical and financial success. Hillenburg stated that he "learned a great deal about writing and producing animation for TV" from his time on Rocko's Modern Life and noted that "a lot of people came off of Rocko that work on SpongeBob." Tom Kenny, who voiced Heffer Wolfe, performs the voice of the title character, SpongeBob. Two writers for the series, Dan Povenmire and Jeff "Swampy" Marsh, went on to create Phineas and Ferb for the Disney Channel; the show became a ratings success and received numerous award nominations. When Murray returned with a new animated series, Camp Lazlo, in 2005, much of the former staff of Rocko's Modern Life joined him. Murray stated that "We always kept in touch and they told me to look them up if I ever did another project," adding that the crew already knew his sensibilities and an extra decade worth of experience. Carlos Alazraqui, who played Rocko, also ended up playing the main character of Lazlo. Derek Drymon and Nick Jennings, both part of the staff, went on to be responsible for the tone and visual looks of a lot of very successful animated series that came later. +	 	+	In recent years, the show has seen renewed acclaim. Brahna Siegelberg of Slate said that the aspect that was most compelling was that the show had "a really poignant critique of the materialist demands of American life." She added that she "realized that Rocko was really a show about how to navigate the adult world; one that could be appreciated by kids for its slapstick humor and absurdity, but had even more to say to young adults—like me." IGN called the show a prime example of the "sophisticated, intelligent brand of children's programming" during Nickelodeon's golden age. The A.V. Club also called the show "one of the best series" from that era, praising the show's "impressive commitment to expressive character acting, well-drawn sight gags, and cartoony jokes that play with the form’s slapstick strengths." New York compared the series' humor, in retrospect, to that of Office Space (1999) and praised the subversive, anti-corporate stories. +	 	+

Censorship
+	Rocko's Modern Life has been noted for its racy humor. Adults made up more than one-fifth of the audience for the show during it's run. The series contained numerous adult innuendos, such as Rocko's brief stint as a telephone operator: the instructions on the wall behind him helpfully remind all employees to "Be Hot, Be Naughty, and Be Courteous" while he repeats "Oh baby" into the receiver. In "The Good, the Bad and the Wallaby", Heffer encounters a milking machine and finds pleasure, his reactions are shown onscreen. According to writer/director Jeff "Swampy" Marsh, the scene was originally supposed to have hearts appearing in Heffer's eyes at the climactic moment. Sure it wasn't going to make it, they described the scene to Nickelodeon censors anyway: "We described the scene, and then waited for the axe to fall, but all they said was 'can you change the hearts to stars?', we said sure, and it went in." The scene, as well as a scene showing Heffer's break-up with the machine, were later removed. +	 	+	There were at least two occurrences of immediate censorship of the series. The original broadcast of the segment "Road Rash" featured a scene in which Rocko and Heffer stop at a seedy motel (the "No-Tell Motel") advertising "hourly rates" and ask the oriental-horse desk clerk for a room, who implies the two will be engaging in intercourse: "All night? [whistles] Wheeeooo! Okay." The first airing of "Hut Sut Raw" included a scene in which Rocko is picking berries; upon picking one lower on the bush, a bear rushes out whimpering and grasping his crotch. Both scenes were edited by Nickelodeon after their first broadcasts. In addition, the restaurant named "Chokey Chicken" (a term for masturbation) was renamed "Chewy Chicken" for the series' fourth season. As the series entered reruns after cancellation, more scenes were cut. The entire episode "Leap Frogs", in which Bev Bighead attempts to seduce Rocko, was skipped. +	 	+	When Shout! Factory announced a retail release for the series' first season, there were concerns on whether Nickelodeon would allow Shout! to release the series complete with some of the racier humor that the network eventually cut out for reruns. During production, Shout! Factory only received materials from sources that were edited for broadcast. In the end, both scenes from "The Good, the Bad and the Wallaby" appeared censored. +	 	+

Home release
+	Fans have requested that Nickelodeon produce a DVD collection of the series for years. Murray has often got e-mails from fans, and his top question was "When will Rocko be on DVD?" Prior to the official DVD releases, Murray stated that he had not heard of any plans for a DVD release and that there are several illegal DVD releases of the series sold on eBay. He commented, "But at least someone is trying to give Rocko fans what they want. Because Nickelodeon sure isn't doing it." Murray worked with his legal team to regain the rights, so that an official DVD can be released. +	 	+	The first home video release of the series in the United States was in February 1995, when selected episodes were released on VHS by Sony Wonder. Sony Wonder used Rocko's Modern Life, alongside releases from Ren & Stimpy and Are You Afraid of the Dark?, as "leading brands" in order for the company to break into the market. Paramount Home Entertainment later re-released the tapes in 1997 and 1998. +	 	+	In July 2008, Rocko's Modern Life was added to the iTunes Store as a part of the "Nick Rewind" collection, in four "Best of" volumes. Eventually, in August 2008, Nickelodeon joined forces with CreateSpace, part of the Amazon.com Inc. group of companies, to make a number of animated and live-action shows available on DVD, many for the first time. The DVDs were published via CreateSpace DVD on Demand, a service that manufactures discs as soon as customers order them on Amazon.com. Rocko's Modern Life was available in two "Best of" collections, released September 5, 2008. +	 	+	In March 2011, Shout Factory announced that they were going to release Season 1 in an official box set on June 21, 2011. The two-disc set received relatively positive reviews, only receiving criticism for video quality and the lack of bonus features. +	 	+	All four seasons are available in streaming format on Netflix. +	 	+	−		 −	These characters are modeled on cartoon stereotypes, to varying extents. The show also features secondary characters and extras, mostly in crowd scenes, whose designs are directly inspired by famous anime characters, but who are different enough to avoid copyright infringements. Sometimes this is done to spoof the films and television programs intentionally, such as the character Masaka Masako, whose appearance spoofs Yubaba, or her twin, Zeneba, from the film Spirited Away, or Takashi Katashi, who shares a similar appearance and name with Kakashi Hatake from the magna/anime franchise Naruto. The person standing next to him could be a character that s supposed to resemble Sakura Haruno, also from Naruto, note the clothing. On another episode there is an anime version of Ami and Yumi from the TV series, Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi, which was running on Cartoon Network at the time. Also in the final scene of the episode "Reality Bites", there is a person in the crowd that was designed like a persocom from the anime Chobits. Other times, it is done to continue the show's original concept, without any intention behind it. −		 −
 * }

Episodes
−

−

Home media
+

Marvel Comics series
+	During Tom DeFalco's Editor-in-Chief career, Marvel Comics produced a seven-issue comic book series based on the television series. Marvel published the series from June 1994 to December 1994 with monthly releases. +	Nickelodeon approached Marvel, asking the company to produce comic book series for Rocko's Modern Life and Ren and Stimpy. Marvel purchased the license for Rocko from Nickelodeon. The staff created the comics, and Susan Luposniak, a Nickelodeon employee, examined the comics before they were released. Joe Murray said in a December 2, 2008 blog entry that he drew some of the pages in the comic book series. +	The comics contain stories not seen in the television show. In addition, the comic book series omits some television show characters and places, while some original places and characters appear in the comics. John "Lewie" Lewandowski wrote all of the stories except for one; Joey Cavalieri wrote "Beaten by a Club," the second story of Issue #4. −	Season 1 (Episodes 1 - 13) was released on DVD on September 12th, 2007, and Season 1 (Episodes 14-26) was released on DVD on March 12th, 2008 by Anchor Bay Entertainment in Australia. +	Troy Little, a resident of Monroe, Oregon, wrote to Marvel requesting that the title for the comic's letters column should be "That's Life." In Issue 3, published in August 1994, the editors decided to use the title for the comic's "Letters to the Editor" section. In Issue 5, published in October 1994, the editors stated that they still received suggestions for the title for the comic even though the editors had decided on using "That's Life" by Issue 3. −

Trivia
+

Merchandise
+	By January 31, 1994 Nickelodeon received ten "licensing partners" for merchandise for the series. Hardee's distributed Rocko toys. Viacom New Media released one game based on the show, Rocko's Modern Life: Spunky's Dangerous Day, in the United States for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. In addition, Nickelodeon 3-D Movie Maker features various characters from the show. Rocko also appeared in the game Nicktoons: Attack of the Toybots. Nick.com created two free online games featuring Rocko, using Shockwave Flash (which requires the Shockwave plugin). +	Hot Topic has been selling Rocko's Modern Life merchandise such as t-shirts, wrist bands, key chains and other items as part of their Nick Classic line. +	After Nicktoons: Attack of the Toybots, Rocko, Filburt and Peaches will soon be features Nicktoons MLB. +

Nickelodeon's website safety guide
−

Plot
+	−	The series centers around Mikey Simon, a 19-year-old actor who just graduated from high school and is from Cleveland, Ohio. He embarks to Japan after winning a scratch-off card contest to star in the country's formerly popular live-action series, LilyMu, which is presented as an "anime". In doing this, he rockets the show back to the top of the ratings, and becomes Japan's biggest star in anime history. +

History
+	Originally, the character appeared in an unpublished comic book titled Travis. Murray tried selling the comic book in the late 1980s, between illustrating jobs, and did not find success in getting it into production. Many other characters appeared in various sketchbooks. He described the early 1990s animation atmosphere as "ripe for this kind of project. We took some chances that would be hard to do in these crappy times (the 1990s)". Murray wanted funding for his independent film My Dog Zero, so he wanted Nickelodeon to pre-buy television rights for the series. He presented a pencil test to Nickelodeon, which afterward became interested in buying and financing the show. Murray had never worked in television before. The industry was coming out of a "rough period" and Murray wanted to "shake things up a bit." +	 	+	Linda Simensky, then in charge of animation development in Nickelodeon, described the Nicktoons lineup and concept to Murray. He originally felt skepticism towards the concept of creating a Nicktoon as he disliked television cartoons. Simensky told him that Nicktoons differed from other cartoons. He then told her that he believed that My Dog Zero would not work as a cartoon. He then researched Nickelodeon at the library and found that Nickelodeon's "attitude was different than regular TV." The cable network providers were "making their own rules": for example, Murray stated that he "didn't write for children," which the executives were fine with. Murray was unsure at first, but was inspired by independent animation around him, such as Animation Celebration and MTV's Liquid Television, and gave the network a shot. At the time, Nickelodeon was selling itself as a network based as much around edge as around kids’ entertainment. It aimed to appeal to college students and parents as much as children. +	 	+	Murray developed the Rocko character after visiting a zoo in the Bay Area and coming across a wallaby that seemed to be oblivious to the chaos around him. Murray combed through his sketchbooks, developed the Rocko's Modern Life concept, and submitted it to Nickelodeon, believing that the concept would likely be rejected. Murray felt they would not like the pilot, and he would just collect his sum and begin funding his next independent film. According to Murray, around three or four months later he had "forgotten about" the concept and was working on My Dog Zero when Simensky informed him that Nickelodeon wanted a pilot episode. Murray said that he was glad that he would get funding for My Dog Zero. On his website he describes My Dog Zero as "that film that Linda Simensky saw which led me to Rocko." "Sucker for the Suck-O-Matic" was originally written as the pilot; the executives decided that Heffer Wolfe, one of the characters, would be "a little too weird for test audiences." Murray, instead of removing Heffer from "Sucker for the Suck-O-Matic," decided to write "Trash-O-Madness" as the pilot episode. +	 	+	In the original series pilot, Rocko was colored yellow. His color was changed when a toy merchandising company informed Nick they were interested in marketing dolls but didn't want to market Rocko because "They already had a yellow character." Murray changed Rocko's color to beige, and after the pilot aired, the company opted out of producing toys for the series. When the series was in development prior to the release of the first episode, the series had the title The Rocko Show. +	 	+	In 1992, two months prior to the production of season 1 of Rocko's Modern Life, Murray's first wife committed suicide. Murray had often blamed his wife's suicide on the show being picked up. He said "It was always an awful connection because I look at Rocko as such a positive in my life." Murray felt that he had emotional and physical "unresolved issues" when he moved to Los Angeles. He describes the experience as like participating in "marathon with my pants around my ankles." Murray initially believed that he would create one season, move back to the San Francisco Bay Area, and "clean up the loose ends I had left hanging." Murray said that he felt surprised when Nickelodeon approved new seasons; Nickelodeon renewed the series for its second season in December 1993. +	After season 3 he decided to hand the project to Stephen Hillenburg, who performed most work for season 4; Murray continued to manage the cartoon. He said that he would completely leave the production after season 4. He said also that he encouraged the network to continue production, but Nickelodeon eventually decided to cancel the series. He described all fifty-two episodes as "top notch", and in his view the quality of a television show may decline as production continues "when you are dealing with volume." On his website he said that, "In some ways it succeeded and in some ways failed. All I know it developed its own flavor and an equally original legion of fans." In a 1997 interview Murray said that he at times wondered if he could re-start the series; he feels the task would be difficult. −	Segments of LilyMu are seen at the beginning and end of each episode, but the show focuses primarily on the actors' and producers' lives off-set and Mikey's adjustments to the new world he has entered, similar in concept to The Famous Jett Jackson. The humor comes from the fact that because Mikey is an American, he actually stands out visually from the other cast members, similar to the mix of styles in Who Framed Roger Rabbit. While most characters on the show are drawn in an anime-inspired style (thin outlines, big, detailed eyes, small mouths, and all ten fingers), Mikey (and all other American characters) is drawn in a retro-inspired American cartoon manner (thicker outlines, single black dot pupil eyes, a larger mouth, and only eight fingers). The humor is delivered in a rapid pace, and also consists of light satire, incongruity, slapstick, character quirks, and a fair amount of gross-out humor.

Production
+

−	The show's title is a variation on the word kappamaki, a type of sushi. It is suggested that it was the inspiration for naming the title character Mikey, and uses the prefix kappa. Like Mikey, who is a 'fish out of water' in Japan, the kappa creature itself is a water demon who can live on land. The kappas first appeared on this show in the episode "Mikey, Kappa", on August 5th, 2007, where the origin of the title was explained. Mikey also shares his name with the actor who supplies his voice. +	The show was jointly produced between Games Animation and Joe Murray Productions. Since Nickelodeon didn't have an animation studio, that had to contact out to other studios. After incidents with The Ren & Stimpy Show creator John Kricfalusi, Nickelodeon began to not trust its creators as much and began to form its own studio - Games Animation. However, Murray recalls that they were still able to get a lot done independently. Murray has likened the independence to that of "Termite Terrace" (Warner Bros. Cartoons) from the 1930s. As Nickelodeon began to have more and more success with its animation cartoons, Murray said the "Termite Terrace" mentality wasn't working as much. Producer Mary Harrington made the move from New York City to Los Angeles to set up Games Animation, in order to produce Rocko's Modern Life. The crew first began production on the show in January 1993. Rocko's Modern Life was Nickelodeon's first in-house animated production. +	Murray's Joe Murray Productions and Games Animation rented office space on Ventura Boulevard in the Studio City neighborhood of the San Fernando Valley region of Los Angeles, California. . Production for the two seasons wrapped in September 2007. +	"Animators Feel Free With `Rocko'." The Palm Beach Post +	 The production moved to a different office building on Vineland Avenue in Studio City. Executives did not share space with the creative team. Murray rented a floor in the Writers Guild of America, West building, although the team of Rocko was not a part of the union, which the staff found ironic. Rough Draft Studios assembled the animation. According to Murray, as Rocko's Modern Life was his first television series, he did not know about the atmosphere of typical animation studios. Murray said that he opted to operate his studio in a similar manner to the operation of his Saratoga, California studio, which he describes as "Very relaxed." His cadre included many veterans who, according to him, described the experience as "the most fun they had ever had!" He, saying that the atmosphere was "not my doing," credited his team members for collectively contributing. Murray described the daily atmosphere at the studio as "very loose," adding that the rules permitted all staff members to use the paging system to make announcements. He stated that one visitor compared the environment of the production studio to "preschool without supervision." Murray stated that 70 people in the United States and over 200 people in South Korea animated the series. +	Rick Bentley of the Ventura County Star said that it was unusual for a cartoon creator to select a wallaby as a main character. Bentley also stated that the Rocko universe was influenced by "everything from Looney Tunes to underground comics." The staff of the show were fans of outrageous comedy, both animated and not animated. Tom Kenny cited Looney Tunes and SCTV as influences for the show, and also stated "I'm sure if you asked Joe Murray or Mr. Lawrence or any of those guys, especially in terms of animation, the weirdest cartoons would of course be our favorites—those weird ‘30s Fleischer brothers Betty Boop cartoons and stuff like that." −	Schwarz conceived the series in 2000, when he was running Rumpus toys, a toy design company in New York City, but they folded before any storyboarding could commence. They resurfaced years later as Animation Collective, and produced an early test pilot for a pitch to MTV Networks, where the character designs and backgrounds resembled more like those found in Adult Swim series Perfect Hair Forever, and the humor was also more adult-oriented. Much of the current cast was voicing their characters even this early in production. MTV declined the deal, and Nickelodeon eventually picked up the project. The series was tweaked heavily in order to be aimed at a younger audience. Voice talents were usually local, and its audio was recorded at Manhattan-based NYAV Post, which Michael Sinterniklaas owns. Larry Schwarz, along with the other executive producers, oversaw all phases of production, but only had writing credits on the pilot episode, "Mikey Impossible", and "A Christmas Mikey". All the episodes were directed by Sergei Aniskov. The instrumental score was composed by John Angier, who also wrote the lyrics to "The Recycling Song", "Ori and Yori's Hits", "Living With Mikey", "How Did We Get Here?", and the songs in "The Karaoke Episode". +	Murray produced the pilot episode, "Trash-O-Madness", at his studio in Saratoga; he animated half of the episode, and the production occurred entirely in the United States, with animation in Saratoga and processing in San Francisco. While directing during recording sessions, Murray preferred to be on the stage with the actors instead of "behind glass" in a control room, which he describes as "the norm" while making animated series. He believes that, due to his lack of experience with children, Rocko's Modern Life "skewed kind of older." Murray noted, "There's a lot of big kids out there. People went to see 'Roger Rabbit' and saw all these characters they'd grown up with and said, 'Yeah, why don't they have something like that anymore?'" When he began producing Rocko, he says that his experience in independent films initially led him to attempt to micromanage many details in the production. He said that the approach, when used for production of television shows, was "driving me crazy." This led him to allow for other team members to manage aspects of the Rocko's Modern Life production. Director and later creative director Stephen Hillenburg met Murray at an animation film festival where he was showing his three short films. Murray hired Hillenburg as a director on the series, making Hillenburg's first job in the animation business as a director. +	 	+

Writing style
+	The writers aimed to create stories that they describe as "strong" and "funny." The writers, including George Maestri and Martin Olson, often presented ideas to Murray while eating hamburgers at Rocky's, a restaurant formerly located on Lankershim in the North Hollywood section of the San Fernando Valley. He took his team members on "writing trips" to places such as Rocky's, the LaBrea Tar Pits, and the wilderness. If he liked the story premises, the writers produced full outlines from the premises. Outlines approved by both him and Nickelodeon became Rocko's Modern Life episodes. Maestri describes some stories as originating from "real life" and some originating from "thin air." Murray stated that each episode of Rocko's Modern Life stemmed from the personal experiences of himself and/or one or more of the directors or writers. He said that he did not intend to use formulaic writing seen in other cartoons; he desired content that "broke new ground" and "did things that rode the edge," and that could be described as "unexpected." He did not hire writers who had previous experience with writing cartoons, instead hiring writers who worked outside of animation, including improv actors and comic artists. He said that story concepts that "ever smacked close to some formula idea that we had all seen before" received rejection. +	 	+	Jeff "Swampy" Marsh, a storyboard writer, says that writers of Rocko's Modern Life targeted children and adults. He cites Rocky and Bullwinkle as an example of another series that contains references indecipherable by children and understood by adults. Aiming for a similar goal, Marsh described the process as "a hard job." According to him, when censors questioned proposed material, sometimes the team disagreed with the opinions of the censors and sometimes the team agreed with the rationale of the censors. He says that "many people" told him that the team "succeeded in this endevour" [sic] and that "many parents I know really enjoyed watching the show with their kids for just this reason." John Pacenti said the series "seems very much aimed at adults" "for a children's' cartoon." Marsh believes that the material written by Doug Lawrence stands as an example of a "unique sense of humor." For instance, Marsh credits Lawrence with the "pineapple references" adding that Lawrence believed that pineapples seemed humorous. The staff drew upon Looney Tunes and the Fleischer cartoons to appeal to wide demographic: having a certain adult sensibility but also enjoyed by kids. +	 	+

Animation style
+	Rocko's Modern Life has been described as similar to that of the output of Warner Bros Cartoons in the Golden Age: a visually driven show heavy on humor, sight gags, and good animation. Instead of a finished script, the animators usually received a three-page outline, requiring them to come up with a majority of the gags and dialogue. The animation team appreciated this approach, with storyboard artist Jeff Myers, formerly of The Simpsons, quoted as saying "The script [at The Simpsons] was carved in stone. Here it's […] more of a challenge and a lot more fun when we're given a rough outline." Murray's animation lacked parallel lines and featured crooked architecture similar to various Chuck Jones cartoons. In an interview he stated that his design style contributed to the show's "Wonky bent feel." Jean Prescott of The Sun Herald described the series as "squash-and-stretch." A 1993 Houston Chronicle article described the series' setting as having a "reality that is 'squashed and stretched' into a twisted version of real life." The background staff hand-painted backgrounds with Dr. Martin Dyes, while each episode title card consisted of an original painting. Linda Simensky said that she asked the creators of Rocko's Modern Life about why the women in the series were drawn to be "top-heavy," the creators told her that they believed that drawing women "the traditional way" was easier. Simensky described the creators as "talented guys" who formed "a boy's club" and added that "we pushed them to be funny, but a lot of their women are stereotypical." +	 	+

Music
+	There are 3 versions of the Rocko's Modern Life theme song. The first and original version can be heard playing throughout season one and was composed by Pat Irwin, who also composed the series' background music. The second version of the theme song was a slightly remixed version of the first and was only used during episodes 8 and 9 of season one. One of the changes included high pitched voices added to the chorus. The third version of the theme song was performed by Kate Pierson and Fred Schneider from The B-52s. They performed the Rocko's Modern Life theme song from Season 2 onwards. +	 	+	At first Murray wanted Paul Sumares to perform the theme song since Sumares created most of the music found in My Dog Zero. Murray wanted the same style in My Dog Zero exhibited in Rocko's Modern Life. Nickelodeon wanted a person with more experience. According to Sumares, believing for the request to be a long shot, Murray asked for Danny Elfman and felt stunned when Nickelodeon decided to honor his request by asking Elfman to perform. According to Murray, Elfman, his first choice, was booked. Therefore he chose the B-52's, his second choice. According to Sumares Murray decided to use the B-52's instead of Elfman. Murray states that the difference between the stories "could just be a recollection conflict, because Paul is a brilliant amazing guy." Murray also sought Alan Silvestri. According to Sumares Viacom did not want to use Silvestri as the organization wanted a band "slightly older kids could identify with." +	 	+	Pat Irwin, a veteran of many bands, including the New York-based instrumental group the Raybeats, and, a side gig, the B-52s, spent five years as a music director on the series. Leading a six-piece combo, Irwin brought together musicians such as trombonist Art Baron and drummer Kevin Norton. +	 	+

Plot
+

+

+	The plot follows the life of a wallaby, Rocko, who has immigrated to America from Australia. In America, he is faced with various problems and challenges involving his pals who try to teach him what it means to be a good friend. +	Many of the locations in the television show Rocko's Modern Life have the letter "O" for example O-Town and Conglom-O. When asked about the use of "O" in his show Murray said, +	"I always got a big kick out of the businesses that were 'House-O-Paint', or 'Ton-O-Noodles', because their names seemed to homogenize what they sold, and strip the products of true individuality and stress volume ... and we all know, the American dream is volume! So what better company to create volume than 'Conglom-O', and since a majority of the town worked at Conglom-O, it should be called 'O' Town. I also wanted the town to be 'anytown' USA, and I used to love sports players with a big ZERO on their back. It was funny to me."

+	 	+	The plot locations included the following: +	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+
 * O-Town is the town in which Rocko lives, apparently located near the Great Lakes.
 * Chokey Chicken is a favorite restaurant/hang-out place for Rocko, Heffer, and Filburt. At some point during the fourth season the restaurant was renamed "Chewy Chicken" due to the former name referring to a euphemism for masturbation (i.e., "choking the chicken"), though earlier episodes continued to air with the "Chokey Chicken" name. It's a parody of KFC.
 * Conglom-O Corporation is the biggest company in town; it even runs City Hall. Mr. Dupette, who has very peculiar ways to see if the employees are fit to work there, manages Conglom-O. Conglom-O does not seem to have a specific purpose or product—it is a giant company that manufactures many products. Conglom-O's slogan is always shown beneath its name. The slogan is "We own you," revealing in a later musical episode that they own everything in O-Town. When Ed Bighead was shown to work at Conglom-O in 1961, the slogan stated "We Will Own You" (alluding to the future of megacorporations). The illustration that appears with the logo and on top of the official Conglom-O Corp. skyscraper is a martini glass with the earth in place of an olive.
 * Heck is where "bad people" go when they die. Run by Peaches, it is where Heffer is doomed to eternal suffering.
 * Holl-o-Wood is a town that resembles the Hollywood section of Los Angeles, California.
 * Kind of a Lot O' Comics is a comic book store where Rocko works. His boss, Mr. Smitty, is a cruel toad who only concentrates on selling comics. Rocko, however, is very nice and giving. For example, when a customer sneezed all over a comic, Rocko gave him a fresh copy and did not charge him for the previous comic.

Characters
−

+

+	All the characters in the Rocko's Modern Life series are animals. There is a wide range of species, and the vast majority of them are also mentally unstable. Murray said that he matched personalities of his characters to the various animals in the series to form a "social caricature". Rocko, the protagonist, is a wallaby who encounters various dilemmas and situations regarding otherwise mundane aspects of life. His best friend Heffer Wolfe is fat and enthusiastic while Filburt often feels uncomfortable or disturbed. −	{| class="wikitable" +	−	 	+	−	! Character +	−	! Voice actor +	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+
 * Carlos Alazraqui as the voice of Rocko, Spunky, Leon, Squirmy and Granny Rocko
 * Tom Kenny as the voice of Heffer Wolfe, Chuck, Mr. Smitty, Really Really Big Man, Bloaty, Peaches, Rocko's singing voice and various males
 * Mr. Lawrence as the voice of Filburt and Peter Wolfe
 * Linda Wallem as the voice of Dr. Paula Hutchison, Mrs. Virginia Wolfe, Grandma Wolfe, Cindy Wolfe, Tammy the Pig, and various females
 * Charlie Adler as the voice of Ed Bighead, Gladys, Mr. George Wolfe, Grandpa Wolfe, Bev Bighead, Mr. Dupette, Mr. and Mrs. Fathead and various males

Crew
+	 	+	Murray selected several newcomer voice actors for the roles. +	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+
 * Joe Murray: creator, executive producer, writer, story editor (Seasons 1–3)
 * Andy Houts: project coordinator
 * Stephen Hillenburg: producer, storyboard director, writer, creative director
 * Derek Drymon: storyboard artist, writer
 * Doug Lawrence: storyboard director, writer
 * Dan Povenmire: storyboard director, writer
 * Swampy Marsh: storyboard director, writer
 * Timothy Berglund (aka Timothy Björklund): storyboard director, writer
 * Martin Olson: writer
 * George Maestri: writer
 * Kevin Stalker: writer
 * Gary Conrad and Merriwether Williams: writer
 * Vince Calandra: writer
 * Tim Hill: story editor (on Season 4 only)
 * Mark O'Hare: storyboard artist
 * Steven E. Gordon: storyboard artist
 * Robert Hughes: animation director
 * Antoine Guilbaud: storyboard artist
 * Tom Yasumi: animation timer, animation director
 * Danny Antonucci: storyboard artist
 * Jeff Myers: storyboard director
 * Kevin O' Brien: storyboard artist
 * Joe Suggs: storyboard artist
 * Conrad Vernon: storyboard artist
 * Bert Ring: storyboard artist
 * Nathan Clark: animation timer
 * Alan Smart: animation director
 * George Chilatas: animation director
 * Nick Jennings: storyboard artist
 * Pete Michels: animation director
 * Chris Savino: animation artist
 * Howy Parkins: animation director
 * Roger Chiassen: writer/storyboard director
 * Robert McNally Scull: writer/storyboard artist
 * Pat Irwin: music composer

Writers
+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+	 	+
 * Tim Hill: 36 episodes, 1994–1996
 * Martin Olson: 33 episodes, 1993–1996
 * George Maestri: 32 episodes, 1993–1996
 * Stephen Hillenburg: 27 episodes, 1993–1996
 * Mark O'Hare: 25 episodes, 1993–1996
 * Robert McNally-Scull: 24 episodes, 1993–1996
 * Joe Murray: 23 episodes, 1993–1995
 * Jeff "Swampy" Marsh: 23 episodes, 1993–1996
 * Jeff Meyer: 22 episodes, 1993–1996
 * Dan Povenmire: 22 episodes, 1993–1996
 * Doug Lawrence: 20 episodes, 1993–1995
 * Timothy Berglund: 18 episodes, 1993–1995
 * Vince Calandra: 13 episodes, 1993–1994
 * Derek Drymon: 7 episodes, 1996
 * Rob Porter: 7 episodes, 1996
 * John McIntyre: 6 episodes, 1996
 * Roger Chiasson: 4 episodes, 1993
 * Nick Jennings: 4 episodes, 1993
 * Kevin O'brian: 3 episodes, 1993
 * Ron Hauge: 3 episodes, 1993
 * Don Spencer: 3 episodes, 1993
 * Conrad Vernon: 2 episodes, 1993
 * Carlos Alazraqui: 2 episodes, 1994–1995
 * Nichole Poinski: 1 episode, 1993
 * Raymond Johnson: 1 episode, 1993
 * Joe D. Suggs: 1 episode, 1993
 * Andy Houts: 1 episodes, 1993
 * Veronica Alicino: 1 episode, 1996
 * Antoine Guilbaud: 1 episode, 1996

Reception
+	Murray said that the cartoon "resonated" with people because the scenarios depicted in the cartoon involving "the neurosis, the daily chores of everyday life" were based on Murray's own experiences "breaking out into the world" after leaving school. The show was first debuted in a preview on September 18, 1993, and officially premiered the following morning, to join Nickelodeon's Sunday morning animation block. On September 18, the series' first night of airing, Rocko's Modern Life received a 3.0 in ratings. By January 31, 1994 the series' audience grew by 65%. Rocko's Modern Life, was at the time the network's highest-rated cartoon launch ever. There was a brief period in 1993 when the network received numerous complaints from members of a religious group that Ren & Stimpy and Rocko's Modern Life were too adult-oriented to be shown to kids on Sunday mornings. They wanted the shows moved to a different time slot. The network was polite but did not make the programming change. +	 	+	Initial reviews of Rocko's Modern Life were positive. The Miami Herald ran an article about series that were "rais[ing] the standards for children's programming," singling out Rocko's Modern Life as "definitely worth a look." Jennifer Mangan of the Chicago Tribune likened the series to The Simpsons, noting the show as another example of adult animation that is "not for kids." Newsday highlighted the show's "twisted sight gags. Ted Drozdowski of The Boston Phoenix stated in the "Eye pleasers" article that he enjoyed Rocko's Modern Life because of "jovial excitement," "good-hearted outrage," "humanity," and "pushy animated characterizations." However, not all reviews were positive. Ken Tucker of Entertainment Weekly described the series as "a witless rip-off of Ren & Stimpy: mucus jokes without the redeeming surrealism or contempt for authority." Charles Solomon of the Los Angeles Times called the series "rock bottom" and a "tasteless attempt to capture the Ren & Stimpy audience," mostly expressing displeasure at the crass humor. 	+	 	+	Common Sense Media reviewer Andrea Graham, whose review is posted on Go.com, describes Rocko's Modern Life as "somewhat edgy" and gave the series four out of five stars. Graham also warned parents to watch for "innuendos." +	 	+

Awards
+	Timothy J. Borquez, Patrick Foley, Michael Giesler, Michael A. Gollorn, William B. Griggs, Tom Jeager, Gregory LaPlante, Timothy Mertens, and Kenneth Young of Rocko's Modern Life received a 1993 Daytime Emmy Award for "Outstanding Achievement in Film Sound Editing." +	 	+	George Maestri was nominated for a CableACE Award for his Rocko's Modern Life writing. +	 	+	The series won an Environmental Media Award in 1996 for the episode "Zanzibar!". The award was accepted by the episode's writers, Dan Povenmire and Jeff "Swampy" Marsh. +	 	+

Broadcast history
+	Rocko's Modern Life aired on Nickelodeon from 1993 until 2004. The show was briefly syndicated to local stations by Nickelodeon during 1995 and 1996. +	 	+	In the summer of 2006, Rocko's Modern Life came back to Nickelodeon as part of the Nick Rewind block. Reruns of Rocko's Modern Life currently air on Nicktoons TV and Nick Canada. +	 	+	MTV picked up Rocko's Modern Life from sister station Nickelodeon in early 1994 in an attempt to lure Beavis and Butt-head viewers. In Malaysia Rocko's Modern Life aired in MetroVision around 1997. +	In the early 2000s Nickelodeon Japan marketed the show along with The Ren and Stimpy Show. In Australia, it was shown on ABC Kids. It was also shown on Ukrainian channel ICTV: Rocko's Modern Life on ICTV. Rocko's Modern Life was one of the seminal premieres on Nickelodeon Canada, the network's Canadian extension launched in November 2009. +	 	+	Rocko's Modern Life is set to air as a part of The '90s Are All That, a programming block beginning in July 2011 on TeenNick, focused on college students and young adults that grew up with the programs. +	 	+

Legacy
+	The fourth Nicktoon to debut, Rocko’s boasts a sizable cult to this day. Tom Kenny cited Rocko's Modern Life as vital in him learning how to do voiceover for animation. He recalled that seeing Charlie Adler have a two-way conversation with himself as the Bigheads without any edits was "dazzling." It was a very early job for Mr. Lawrence. +	 	+	Many members of the Rocko's Modern Life staff have, in recent years, gone on to become incredibly successful. Stephen Hillenburg later went on to pitch a new series to Nickelodeon in 1998, regarding which Murray said "If it goes well, it'll be a blessing to us all." The network bought the pitch and SpongeBob SquarePants premiered the following year, becoming an enormous popular, critical and financial success. Hillenburg stated that he "learned a great deal about writing and producing animation for TV" from his time on Rocko's Modern Life and noted that "a lot of people came off of Rocko that work on SpongeBob." Tom Kenny, who voiced Heffer Wolfe, performs the voice of the title character, SpongeBob. Two writers for the series, Dan Povenmire and Jeff "Swampy" Marsh, went on to create Phineas and Ferb for the Disney Channel; the show became a ratings success and received numerous award nominations. When Murray returned with a new animated series, Camp Lazlo, in 2005, much of the former staff of Rocko's Modern Life joined him. Murray stated that "We always kept in touch and they told me to look them up if I ever did another project," adding that the crew already knew his sensibilities and an extra decade worth of experience. Carlos Alazraqui, who played Rocko, also ended up playing the main character of Lazlo. Derek Drymon and Nick Jennings, both part of the staff, went on to be responsible for the tone and visual looks of a lot of very successful animated series that came later. +	 	+	In recent years, the show has seen renewed acclaim. Brahna Siegelberg of Slate said that the aspect that was most compelling was that the show had "a really poignant critique of the materialist demands of American life." She added that she "realized that Rocko was really a show about how to navigate the adult world; one that could be appreciated by kids for its slapstick humor and absurdity, but had even more to say to young adults—like me." IGN called the show a prime example of the "sophisticated, intelligent brand of children's programming" during Nickelodeon's golden age. The A.V. Club also called the show "one of the best series" from that era, praising the show's "impressive commitment to expressive character acting, well-drawn sight gags, and cartoony jokes that play with the form’s slapstick strengths." New York compared the series' humor, in retrospect, to that of Office Space (1999) and praised the subversive, anti-corporate stories. +	 	+

Censorship
+	Rocko's Modern Life has been noted for its racy humor. Adults made up more than one-fifth of the audience for the show during it's run. The series contained numerous adult innuendos, such as Rocko's brief stint as a telephone operator: the instructions on the wall behind him helpfully remind all employees to "Be Hot, Be Naughty, and Be Courteous" while he repeats "Oh baby" into the receiver. In "The Good, the Bad and the Wallaby", Heffer encounters a milking machine and finds pleasure, his reactions are shown onscreen. According to writer/director Jeff "Swampy" Marsh, the scene was originally supposed to have hearts appearing in Heffer's eyes at the climactic moment. Sure it wasn't going to make it, they described the scene to Nickelodeon censors anyway: "We described the scene, and then waited for the axe to fall, but all they said was 'can you change the hearts to stars?', we said sure, and it went in." The scene, as well as a scene showing Heffer's break-up with the machine, were later removed. +	 	+	There were at least two occurrences of immediate censorship of the series. The original broadcast of the segment "Road Rash" featured a scene in which Rocko and Heffer stop at a seedy motel (the "No-Tell Motel") advertising "hourly rates" and ask the oriental-horse desk clerk for a room, who implies the two will be engaging in intercourse: "All night? [whistles] Wheeeooo! Okay." The first airing of "Hut Sut Raw" included a scene in which Rocko is picking berries; upon picking one lower on the bush, a bear rushes out whimpering and grasping his crotch. Both scenes were edited by Nickelodeon after their first broadcasts. In addition, the restaurant named "Chokey Chicken" (a term for masturbation) was renamed "Chewy Chicken" for the series' fourth season. As the series entered reruns after cancellation, more scenes were cut. The entire episode "Leap Frogs", in which Bev Bighead attempts to seduce Rocko, was skipped. +	 	+	When Shout! Factory announced a retail release for the series' first season, there were concerns on whether Nickelodeon would allow Shout! to release the series complete with some of the racier humor that the network eventually cut out for reruns. During production, Shout! Factory only received materials from sources that were edited for broadcast. In the end, both scenes from "The Good, the Bad and the Wallaby" appeared censored. +	 	+

Home release
+	Fans have requested that Nickelodeon produce a DVD collection of the series for years. Murray has often got e-mails from fans, and his top question was "When will Rocko be on DVD?" Prior to the official DVD releases, Murray stated that he had not heard of any plans for a DVD release and that there are several illegal DVD releases of the series sold on eBay. He commented, "But at least someone is trying to give Rocko fans what they want. Because Nickelodeon sure isn't doing it." Murray worked with his legal team to regain the rights, so that an official DVD can be released. +	 	+	The first home video release of the series in the United States was in February 1995, when selected episodes were released on VHS by Sony Wonder. Sony Wonder used Rocko's Modern Life, alongside releases from Ren & Stimpy and Are You Afraid of the Dark?, as "leading brands" in order for the company to break into the market. Paramount Home Entertainment later re-released the tapes in 1997 and 1998. +	 	+	In July 2008, Rocko's Modern Life was added to the iTunes Store as a part of the "Nick Rewind" collection, in four "Best of" volumes. Eventually, in August 2008, Nickelodeon joined forces with CreateSpace, part of the Amazon.com Inc. group of companies, to make a number of animated and live-action shows available on DVD, many for the first time. The DVDs were published via CreateSpace DVD on Demand, a service that manufactures discs as soon as customers order them on Amazon.com. Rocko's Modern Life was available in two "Best of" collections, released September 5, 2008. +	 	+	In March 2011, Shout Factory announced that they were going to release Season 1 in an official box set on June 21, 2011. The two-disc set received relatively positive reviews, only receiving criticism for video quality and the lack of bonus features. +	 	+	All four seasons are available in streaming format on Netflix. +	 	+	−		 −	These characters are modeled on cartoon stereotypes, to varying extents. The show also features secondary characters and extras, mostly in crowd scenes, whose designs are directly inspired by famous anime characters, but who are different enough to avoid copyright infringements. Sometimes this is done to spoof the films and television programs intentionally, such as the character Masaka Masako, whose appearance spoofs Yubaba, or her twin, Zeneba, from the film Spirited Away, or Takashi Katashi, who shares a similar appearance and name with Kakashi Hatake from the manga/anime franchise Naruto. The person standing next to him could be a character that s supposed to resemble Sakura Haruno, also from Naruto, note the clothing. On another episode there is an anime version of Ami and Yumi from the TV series, Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi, which was running on Cartoon Network at the time. Also in the final scene of the episode "Reality Bites", there is a person in the crowd that was designed like a persocom from the anime Chobits. Other times, it is done to continue the show's original concept, without any intention behind it. −		 −
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Episodes
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Home media
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Marvel Comics series
+	During Tom DeFalco's Editor-in-Chief career, Marvel Comics produced a seven-issue comic book series based on the television series. Marvel published the series from June 1994 to December 1994 with monthly releases. +	Nickelodeon approached Marvel, asking the company to produce comic book series for Rocko's Modern Life and Ren and Stimpy. Marvel purchased the license for Rocko from Nickelodeon. The staff created the comics, and Susan Luposniak, a Nickelodeon employee, examined the comics before they were released. Joe Murray said in a December 2, 2008 blog entry that he drew some of the pages in the comic book series. +	The comics contain stories not seen in the television show. In addition, the comic book series omits some television show characters and places, while some original places and characters appear in the comics. John "Lewie" Lewandowski wrote all of the stories except for one; Joey Cavalieri wrote "Beaten by a Club," the second story of Issue #4. −	Season 1 (Episodes 1 - 13) was released on DVD on September 12th, 2007, and Season 1 (Episodes 14-26) was released on DVD on March 12th, 2008 by Anchor Bay Entertainment in Australia. +	Troy Little, a resident of Monroe, Oregon, wrote to Marvel requesting that the title for the comic's letters column should be "That's Life." In Issue 3, published in August 1994, the editors decided to use the title for the comic's "Letters to the Editor" section. In Issue 5, published in October 1994, the editors stated that they still received suggestions for the title for the comic even though the editors had decided on using "That's Life" by Issue 3. −

Merchandise
+	By January 31, 1994 Nickelodeon received ten "licensing partners" for merchandise for the series. Hardee's distributed Rocko toys. Viacom New Media released one game based on the show, Rocko's Modern Life: Spunky's Dangerous Day, in the United States for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. In addition, Nickelodeon 3-D Movie Maker features various characters from the show. Rocko also appeared in the game Nicktoons: Attack of the Toybots. Nick.com created two free online games featuring Rocko, using Shockwave Flash (which requires the Shockwave plugin). +	Hot Topic has been selling Rocko's Modern Life merchandise such as t-shirts, wrist bands, key chains and other items as part of their Nick Classic line. +	After Nicktoons: Attack of the Toybots, Rocko, Filburt and Peaches will soon be features Nicktoons MLB. +	 	+

Nickelodeon's website safety guide
+	In the late 1990s and early-to-mid 2000s Nickelodeon used Rocko's Modern Life characters in several short comics collected under the title "A Byte-Size Online Safety Guide" explaining netiquette, internet security, and internet safety to readers of Nick.com. These shorts can still be found on the Nick.com site by going to the Nickelodeon Safety Page.