Rocko's Modern Life

Rocko's Modern Life
File:Rocko group.jpg The Rocko's Modern Life cast.
Created by	Joe Murray
Starring	Carlos Alazraqui Tom Kenny Doug Lawrence Linda Wallem Charlie Alder
Country of origin	USA
No. of episodes	52
Production
Running time	approx. 0:22 (0:11 per episode)
Original release
Network	Nickelodeon
Release	September 18, 1993 – November 24, 1996

Rocko's Modern Life was an American animated series whose four seasons aired from 1993 to 1996. The show, which was in the form of a sitcom, concentrated on the life of a wallaby named Rocko trying to survive everyday modern life in the city of O-Town which is on the border of Michigan and Canada. It 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 Games Productions.

The show was renowned by many as one of Nickelodeon's freshest, most offbeat offerings, as well as being laden with suggestive double entendres. For this reason, it has become a prominent cult classic. It is also credited for being the precursor to SpongeBob SquarePants, and Camp Lazlo, which were created by Rocko directors Stephen Hillenburg and Joe Murray respectively. The show has been credited as being the second Nicktoon to be popular among adults (the first was Ren & Stimpy), followed by The Angry Beavers, SpongeBob SquarePants, The Fairly OddParents, and Invader Zim. The show, despite these claims, has not yet been released on DVD.

Characters

File:Rocko alone.gif

• Rocko James Wallabee (voiced by Carlos Alazraqui): Rocko James Wallabee is a wallaby who emigrated to the United States from Australia. He is a sensible, moral, and somewhat timid character who enjoys the simple pleasures in life, such as doing his laundry or feeding his dog, Spunky. He is neat, compassionate, and self-conscious. Rocko works at "Kind of a Lot o' Comics" and his hobbies include recreational jackhammering and pining for the love of his life, Melba Toast. Due to Rocko's benevolence and non-confrontational personality, he is often taken advantage of by the other characters. Rocko would prefer to live a quiet life, but his reckless friends often throw him into turbulent situations. His most common catchphrase is, "_______ Day is a very dangerous day." (the main theme or situation of the episode fills the blank)
• Heffer Wolfe (voiced by Tom Kenny): Rocko's best friend, a happy-go-lucky and not-too-bright steer whom he met in high school. Heffer loves to eat and party. His favorite food is "Pasture Puffies." Though he is normally portrayed as being jobless, he has worked in a number of professions including a waiter at a coffee shop, a salesman at a tree farm, a mail carrier, and a security guard at Conglom-O (which caused him to go insane in a reference to The Shining). Strangely, as his last name suggests, he was raised by a family of wolves who decided not to eat him as a child; his "birthmark" is actually their plotting lines of how to best divide him up into choice dishes.
• Philbert Robert Norbert Wilbert Turtle III (voiced by Doug Lawrence): Philbert Robert Norbert Wilbert Turtle III, also briefly known as Filburt Shellbach, is Rocko's other best friend, a neurotic turtle wearing Woody Allen-style glasses. He started out as a background character and became a main character in the second season. He lives in a trailer and earns his money by collecting cans "here and there", and has a penchant for "sauce". (In one episode he took Rocko down into his trailer's basement, which was bigger than the lot above it and filled with literal mountains of cans, prompting Rocko's line "So this is why he never works.") Filburt has an extremely weak stomach and even the slightest wrong movements can give him indigestion. He eventually started a family with Doctor Hutchison, an upbeat cat with a hook for a hand. One of their children turned out to bear a strong resemblance to Heffer, thanks to his having sat on their egg during the incubation period. Among Filburt's catchphrases are "Oh fish sticks!" and "I'm nauseous... I'm nauseous.."
• Spunky (voiced by Carlos Alazraqui): Rocko's dog; he looks similar to a whippet. He willingly eats almost anything he sees.
• Edward Bighead (voiced by Charles Adler): A grumpy old toad who is Rocko's neighbor. He hates Rocko (even though Rocko normally acts nice to him). Ed works at the large corporation Conglom-O (the company's motto is "We Own You"). His position with the company is usually in middle management, but it can be anything from assembly-line worker to an executive role, depending on the needs of the episode: according to his nameplate at Conglom-O, his job title is "Toad". Ed seems to have very bad luck wherever he goes and thus is very cynical. He hates his life.
• Beverly Bighead (voiced by Charles Adler): Ed's wife, a boisterous redhead who enjoys flirting with other men and speaks with a very gravelly voice. Unlike her husband, she actually enjoys the company of Rocko, Heffer and Philbert. Her favorite bedroom pasttime with Ed is to make him crack plates in mid-air with his tongue like clay pigeons.
• Chuck and Leon (voiced by Carlos Alazraqui and Tom Kenny): Two chameleons who, like their species, adapt very well to many situations — usually to make a quick buck. They run a variety of businesses throughout the show. Both have pseudo-Swedish accents.
• Really Really Big Man: an insectoid superhero who lives in O-Town. He is very big and depicted as a kind of Editorial cartoon. He is also Rocko's hero.

Episodes

Season 1 (1993-1994)

• No Pain, No Gain/Who Gives a Buck
• Leap Frogs/Bedfellows
• Jet Scream/Dirty Dog
• Keeping Up With the Bigheads/Skid Marks
• Power Trip/To Heck and Back
• The Good, The Bad, and The Wallaby/Trash-O-Madness
• Spitballs/Popcorn Pandemonium
• A Sucker for the Suck-O-Matic/Canned
• Carnival Knowledge/Sand in Your Navel
• Cabin Fever/Rinse & Spit
• Rocko's Happy Sack/Flu-In-U-Enza
• Who's For Dinner/Love Spanked
• Clean Lovin'/Unbalanced Load

Season 2 (1994-1995)

• I Have No Son
• Pipe Dreams/Tickled Pinky
• The Lounge Singer/She's the Toad
• Down the Hatch/Road Rash
• Boob Tubed/Commute Sentence
• Rocko's Modern Christmas: You Can't Squeeze Cheer From A Cheese Log
• Hut Sut Raw/Kiss Me I'm Foreign
• Cruisin'
• Born to Spawn/Uniform Behavior
• Hair Licked/Gutter Balls
• Junk Junkies/Day of the Flecko
• Snowballs/Frog's Best Friend
• Short Story/Eyes Capades

Season 3 (1995-1996)

• Bye, Bye Birdie/Belch of Destiny
• The Emperor's New Joe/Schnit-heads
• Sugar Frosted Frights/Ed is Dead
• Fish-N-Chumps/Camera Shy
• Nothing to Sneeze At/Old Fogey Froggy
• Manic Mechanic/Rocko's Happy Vermin
• I See London, I See France/Fatlands
• Fortune Cookie/Dear John
• Speaking Terms/Tooth and Nail
• Wacky Delly
• The Big Question/The Big Answer
• An Elk for Heffer/Scrubbin' Down Under
• Zanzibar/Fatil Contraption

Season 4 (1996-1997)

• With Friends Like These/Sailing the 7 Zzz's
• Pranksters/From Here to Maternity
• Ed Good, Rocko Bad/Teed Off
• Wimp on the Barby/Yarn Benders
• Mama's Boy/Feisty Geist
• S.W.A.K./Magic Meatball
• Closet Clown/Seat to Stardom
• The High Five of Doom/Fly Burgers
• Heff in a Handbasket/Wallaby on Wheels
• Dumbells/Rug Birds
• Hypno-Puppy Luv/Driving Mrs. Wolfe
• Put to Pasture/Future Schlock
• Turkey Time/Floundering Fathers

Trivia

• Heffer first appeared (with the MTV logo branded on his butt) in a 1989 MTV station ID that Murray animated.
• The episode "Leap Frogs" was eventually banned due to sexual innuendo (Bev Bighead tries to seduce Rocko) during the show's rerun cycle on Nick, replaced with "Wallaby on Wheels". It is, however, shown on Nicktoons TV.
• The series' last episodes, "Turkey Time" and "Floundering Fathers," were not intended to be the last episodes. After they were aired, the show's status was put on hiatus—and cancelled a week after that.
• One of the more well-known things about the show was that The B-52's did the opening theme song for seasons two and later.
• The creator of the series, Murray, has since moved on and is now currently working on a new show, Camp Lazlo.
• Rocko was originally supposed to have an older sister named Magdalene, but she was dropped out of protest against political correctness. Joe Murray had not yet introduced her in the first season, and abandoned the character entirely when Nickelodeon executives, under pressure from feminist critics who derided the cartoon for being centered around the antics of three male friends, demanded a stronger female character be included in the show. His sister did appear in flashbacks in select episodes, though she was a younger character than had been originally envisioned.
• Rocko made his first computer appearance on the Nickelodeon 3D Movie Maker CD Rom Game. Furthermore, he also has a combination platformer/puzzle game available for the SNES entitled Rocko's Modern Life: Spunky's Dangerous Day.
• Rocko's original color was golden yellow. This was changed to avoid a copyright problem involving a pre-existing golden yellow kangaroo that was the mascot for an Australian company.

Cultural references and innuendo

The program is well known for its frequent pop culture references and its subtle and sometimes controversial references to adult subject matter.

• Rocko and the guys frequented a restaurant called "Chokey Chicken", however the name of the restaurant was later changed to "Chewy Chicken."
• Rocko's favorite hobby was "jacking" (as "jackhammering" is often shortened to).
• Rocko and the guys played a game called "Spank the Monkey", where there was a monkey on the table between them and they all are holding paddles before Mr. Bighead enters the room and asks them to go bowling.
• During one episode, Rocko and Heffer walk past a demonstration pit for jackhammers which reads, "Jack all you want." (in that same episode, there was a high-tech, three-headed jackhammer called, "Sir Jack-A-Lot".
• In "Who Gives a Buck?", on Rocko's credit card, you see, in capital letters "A$$".
• Rocko, after getting fired from his job, is seen briefly holding a job as a phone-sex operator, where he is talking on the phone in a monotone voice, repeating the words, "Oh baby, oh baby, oh baby." Rocko later realizes that his customer is Mrs. Bighead, and both parties then hang up. (There was also a sign on the wall that read, "Remember: be hot, be naughty, be courteous".)
• Rocko finds another job where he is tattooing a rhinoceros named 'Mr. Horny'.
• A show in Rocko's Modern Life is called "The Fatheads", though in the show's universe, it's a send-up of the Bigheads and their lifestyle as created by their cartoonist son, Ralph Bighead.
• Rocko's dog Spunky falls in love with a mop, and there is a scene where the mop and Spunky are cuddling, then a not-so-sexual montage that shows a train speeding through a tunnel and someone spreading mayonnaise on a slice of bread.
• The city of "Ballzach" was shown in an episode.
• Heffer had a nudist party in Rocko's backyard. (With a nudist band known as, "The Dangles".)
• When Rocko goes to buy a new bowl for Spunky, he goes to Dog World in the mall, and the guy says, "Hop on our doggy style bowl rides, everybody on your hands and knees!"
• Filburt pretends to be a woman on more than one occasion (and pretends to be Rocko's wife so Rocko could stay in the country, in an episode spoofing The Odd Couple).
• The Bunmaster TV ads show a guy shoving his buttocks in front of the camera.
• The Wolfe family referring to Rocko as a "beaver" and Grandpa Wolfe suggested that they "eat the beaver."
• In "Hut Sut Raw", Rocko finds what looks like two berries side by side on a bush while camping. When he plucks one of the berries, a bear runs out of the bushes clutching his groin in pain. This scene was cut from later airings.
• In the episode where Mrs. Bighead tries to seduce Rocko, she offers him a drink which she had covertly spiked with spanish fly. Literally, she sprinkles brown flies with sombreros and ponchos into his drink.
• In "Wacky Delly", during the scene in which Rocko, Heffer and Filburt expose the film, Heffer is heard shouting "Stop touching me!" Filburt begins apologizing profusely but fails to be forgiven by Heffer. It should be evident where Heffer was touched to make him that angry.
• In the episode when Heffer gets Rocko on a dating show, it is mentioned that the fish lady "has a fetish for short wallabies".
• In "Flu-en-u-enza", Rocko who has the flu, visits a doctor named, "Bendova", who gives him a prostate exam.
• In one episode, the one where Rocko accidentally orders a complete TV/Stereo system, Rocko, Filburt, and Heffer are watching movies. The first movie shown is called "Night of the Shaved Kittens".
• In "Leap Frogs", Mrs. Bighead hands some cash to Rocko (who is not wearing a shirt), for helping her around the house. Seconds later, Mr. Bighead walks in the door and catches the two. A surprised Rocko quickly explains, "It's not what you think!".
• A character often known simply as Hippo Lady has made a few appearances on the show, often accompanied by her line of dialogue in a very deep voice, "How dare you!" On one occasion in a supermarket, Rocko falls into her cleavage and gets stuck.
• One character, Bob Bucky Taylor (a spoof of Tim Taylor of Home Improvement which in turn is a spoof of Bob Vila), said on a tv ad that he and his crew built a "26 room fellatio mansion". (later, he also stated, "I can't tell a hammer from a hemorrhoid!")
• In the episode where Spunky falls in love with a broom, a faint sqeaking is heard, possibly referring to a sexual act towards the broom. Spunky does this once, and so does his Psychiatrist.
• In "Commuted Sentence", Rocko's car gets impounded, and there is a scene where his car calls him from the impound lot. After asking Rocko to get him out of the lot, Rocko's car looks over his shoulder, and spots a semi with a menacing grin on his face who laughs at him. Then, Rocko's car yells to him, "hurry!" The view then shifts back to Rocko, and the sound of metal squeaking against metal, can be heard from the phone. This hints that Rocko's car was being sodomized. To prove this further, when Rocko comes to pick up his car, he asks the man at the lot, "I've come to pick up my car, it's the red one." The man at the lot tells him, "yeah, the other cars call him 'fancy fenders'. (he then says in a disgusted voice) A term of endearment I'm sure."
• Really Really Big Man at one point tells Rocko to 'gaze into my nipples of the future,' after which RRBM's nipples attatch themselves to Rocko's eyes
• In the episode "manic mechanic" right before the car returns from sky and into the original body, you can see the words HIV being spelled out with wooden boards.
• In the episode "closet clown" there are numerus jokes that compare being a clown to being gay.
• In the episode "The Good, the Bad, and the Wallaby", while Heffer is sleeping in a barn with cows, a farmer comes along, mistakes him for a cow, and "hooks him up" to an automated milking machine. After a few seconds of sucking sounds, facial contortions, and stars in his eyes, Heffer orgasms. This scene was only showed once and was removed from further airings.
• On "Road Rash", Heffer and Rocko stop at a motel advertising "hourly rates" and "wa-wa beds" (water beds), called, "The No-Tell Motel". They are told by the man at the front desk, that the place is full, and a room will not be available for twenty minutes. A buzzer suddenly interupts the man, and the man tells them, "oh, we have premature departure, you can have room now. How long you want?" Rocko tell him, "Just till tomorrow." The man responds, "All night? (he then whistles) ok?!" This hints that the motel is rented by prostitutes on the hour. (This scene was shown the first time the episode aired. It was cut from later airings.)
• One of Filburt and Dr. Hutchinson's babies looks like Heffer. This suggests that Dr. Hutchinson and Heffer had sex. (Actually in the context of the show, all four of Filbert's and Hutchinson's were hatched from one egg. When trying to keep it warm Filbert found out he's a failure at egg sitting and had Heffer do it, who took the role very seriously. At the end of the episode four babbies hatched from the one egg, and apparently because of egg sitting one of the kid's took on Hef's apperance in a form of strange cartoon logic.)
• Mr. Bighead, Rocko's next door neighbor, constantly has a problem with Rocko's dog playing around in his front yard. Specifically, and to quote Ed Bighead himself, he hates having "Spunky in his salmon bushes"
• At the end of "Power Trip", Rocko tells Really Really Big Man, "thanks Really Really Big Man, we've all been touched by your bigness."
• When Heffer discovered he was adopted he went searching for his real parents and came to what he thought was his father's tombstone. While he was crying his father appeared in a vision and explained that he's not dead, nor is that his grave. After which there's a cut showing that the grave reads "Here lies a big wet cat".
• On "Hair Licked", Rocko and Heffer go to Filburt's house to get Rocko's picture taken. When they arrive, three fashion models walk out of his trailor. Rocko then walks in with an embarassed face, and asks Filburt, "who were they?" Filburt responds, "oh, just a couple of fashion models." Finally, Heffer walks in with an embarassed face, then says (in an embarassed, somewhat ashamed voice), "I spilled my puffies!" Spilling his puffies was referring to ejaculation.
• In one episode, Heffer's brother referred to him as a cow, but Heffer's father referred to him as a steer. This hints that Heffer was castrated.
• In the episode where Heffer is a security guard, at the end of the episode he goes out of the store naked, and he is arrested.
• In "Carnival Knowledge", when Rocko and Heffer get tickets for the carnival, a severely injured man is shown somewhat happy, then his thumb pops off and bleeds. Then the man at the gate says, "Another satisfied customer."
• In one episode where Rocko and Spunky go to the beach, after Rocko is thrown into the water by the hippo lady, he comes out with a buoy stuck in the back of his pants. he then says "I think she likes me". and a walrus appears and says "Boy you've got a bouy in your pants". this is an obvious term for an erection. Also, Rocko spots a nudist beach in this episode.
• In another episode, everyone is telling their secrets (Heffer pretending hes a pixie, DR. Hutchinson having a baboon heart under her pillow) Then Rocko tells everyone that he's always enjoyed rainbows. Mr. Bighead responds by saying "THATS DISGUSTING!" and everyone attacks Rocko who is heard screaming "Did I say rainbows?? i meant...dolls?". this whole scene is reference to violence in gay culture.

Cast and crew

• Crew

• Joe Murray: Creator, Executive Producer
• Andy Houts: Project Coordinator
• Stephen Hillenburg: Producer, Storyboard Director, Writer
• Derek Drymon: Storyboard Artist, Writer
• Doug Lawrence: Storyboard Director, Writer
• Jeff "Swampy" Marsh: Storyboard Director, Writer
• Timothy Berglund: Storyboard Director, Writer
• Tim Hill: Writer
• Mark O'Hare: Storyboard Artist/Director, Writer
• Sherm Cohen: Art Director
• Tom Yasumi: Art Director

• Cast

• Carlos Alazraqui as Rocko James Wallabee/Spunky/Leon/Granny Rocko
• Tom Kenny as Heffer Wolfe/Chuck/Mr. Fathead/Mr. Smitty/Really Really Big Man/Peaches/Various males
• Doug Lawrence as Philbert Robert Norbert Wilbert Turtle III/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
• Joe Murray as Ralph Bighead
• Kevin Meaney as Mother Hutchison (appeared only in two episodes)
• Nancy Cartwright as Mrs. Fathead/Philbert's mother

External links

• Rocko's Modern Life at IMDb
• Rocko's Modern Life at the Big Cartoon DataBase
• Rocko's Modern Life FAQ - Includes interviews with "Rocko" creator, and production staff
• Richard Brant's Rocko Page - Includes episode titles and descriptions
• Rocko's Modern Message Board - A place to discuss "Rocko's Modern Life"