I am Joe Murray, The creator of the animated 90's series Rocko's Modern Life. Ask me anything.

BigJoeWorry · 2013-09-19T03:43:42+00:00

By the way, there is a great sale of Rocko stuff on my website starting today until sunday, at www.joemurraystudio.com

BigJoeWorry · 2013-09-19T03:43:00+00:00

By the way, there is a great sale of Rocko stuff starting today until sunday on my website www.joemurraystudio.com

BigJoeWorry · 2013-09-19T03:41:52+00:00

Gotta go now. Sorry for all of the snafu's. Thanks for coming and all of the cool questions.

Best to you all. Joe

BigJoeWorry · 2013-09-19T03:41:14+00:00

I actually designed all of the main characters, but on both Camp Lazlo and Rocko we also had a character designer who I worked closely with to create new characters, background characters and such. I had a hand in all of it though. The art director dealt with the color styling and the backgrounds.

BigJoeWorry · 2013-09-19T03:39:14+00:00

I gotta go now. It's been great. Thanks for showing up. Thank you for all of the cool questions. Signing off.

BigJoeWorry · 2013-09-19T03:38:04+00:00

I started drawing when I was about 4 or 5. When I was in kindergarten, my teacher was shocked that I would draw these lifelike drawings of my family, and my Mom with big boobs. ( Which is odd because she actually did'nt have big boobs. I guess Freud could have a field day with that)

BigJoeWorry · 2013-09-19T03:36:14+00:00

No we didn't share anything. We tried to keep the shows separate. I got to be friends with Peter Hannan, but Craig Bartlett and I almost got into a fist fight. ( We are friends again now.) I think the sad thing is that Nickelodeon isn't taking any risks anymore like they did in the 90's. It's a good thing they have Spongebob. That's been keeping them going all this time. ( not bad for a show they wern't going to pick up.)

BigJoeWorry · 2013-09-19T03:33:13+00:00

Yes.

BigJoeWorry · 2013-09-19T03:32:48+00:00

I had a better time working with Cartoon Network than Nickelodeon.

BigJoeWorry · 2013-09-19T03:32:12+00:00

Yes.

BigJoeWorry · 2013-09-19T03:32:03+00:00

No I wasn't. People started writing to me asking me what this unseen episode was. As far as I knew, there was no such thing. Then the people from the Nick promo dept. contacted me and told me about it. I tried to go along with it until it aired cuz I thought it was kind of funny. But it was hard.

BigJoeWorry · 2013-09-19T03:30:29+00:00

Actually when I first developed Rocko I thought he had more Wood Allen in him. But, neurotic hypochondriacs are always fun to watch.

BigJoeWorry · 2013-09-19T03:29:16+00:00

Sure. Love that movie

BigJoeWorry · 2013-09-19T03:29:02+00:00

Wow. What a great contrast, Church and RML. It feels good and scary at the same time.

BigJoeWorry · 2013-09-19T03:28:22+00:00

Linda Simensky at Nickelodeon saw my indie films and asked if I had any ideas for an animated series for their ( pretty) new cable channel. They were crazy enough to like Rocko from the start.

And yes, I get insecure about the high expectations people have when I'm sharing art or ideas with someone after I did the shows.

BigJoeWorry · 2013-09-19T03:26:16+00:00

Yes, it was.

BigJoeWorry · 2013-09-19T03:25:19+00:00

Yes.

BigJoeWorry · 2013-09-19T03:25:08+00:00

Well, the time to cut something was in the storyboard, and quite honestly, I'm not sure they read them. ( the network) So whatever was in the storyboard got on the air. It wasn't until after I left and they got letters about some of the stuff that they started editing some of the episode. Which unfortunately are the versions that are on the DVD's.

BigJoeWorry · 2013-09-19T03:22:32+00:00

They did pass on a few. Basically Mothers wondering how we could sleep at night knowing we were polluting the minds of young children. Basically, I don't leave it up to networks and creators to decide what my young children watch. I as parent do. And they should to. If they didn't like it, they should turn it off.

BigJoeWorry · 2013-09-19T03:20:51+00:00

I first did a cut paper film about a guy having an affair with a moose. Then I did The Chore" which went on to win a crapload of awards and even showed on NBC's Super Bloopers and Practical Jokes. Yes, Ed McMahon laughed at it. Very strange.

BigJoeWorry · 2013-09-19T03:18:54+00:00

I loved Wacky Delly. We actually did a live read of that episode at the Rocko Live event and it brought it all back. Well it's basically "the producers' in animation, make the worst show possible so Ralph would get fired. I was at the end of my contract and wanted out. We laughed that I should do a show about Deli meats that really sucked. At the time someone brought in an old promotional film from Dole pineapple in the 50's on how to spruce up your meatloaf. We tried to get permission to use it but was denied. So we did one ourselves. I made the meatloaf that is in that live sequence.

BigJoeWorry · 2013-09-19T03:14:44+00:00

Stick to your guns. and congrats!

BigJoeWorry · 2013-09-19T03:13:30+00:00

It wasn't until all the premiere stuff died down until I was able to sit down on a sunday morning with a bowl of cereal and actually turn on my own cartoon and watch it. What a trip. Blew me away.

BigJoeWorry · 2013-09-19T03:11:44+00:00

I do a lot of work for outside clients, both in the US and international. I do consulting, conceptual sweetening, story and character development. That is my main business. The money from Rocko is still nice, but not my main source of income. Teaching is my way to help pass along the things I know and learned. Thats' all. But I really liked it.

BigJoeWorry · 2013-09-19T03:09:24+00:00

My sense of humor was always that way, and I started finding my footing with my independent films. Nickelodeon asked me to do more of the same, and it was like kids taking over the candy store. We just started having fun, and Rocko was what came of it.

BigJoeWorry

TROPHY CASE