Nickelodeon has been delivering some fun animated series for years including Cat Dog and easily their most popular series ever Spongebob Squarepants. Years before the popularity of the sponge and his pineapple under the sea were the adventures of an Australian-immigrant wallaby trying to adjust to life in a new town called Rocko’s Modern Life.
The series ran for 4 seasons from 1993 to 1996 delivering a series unlike anything on at the time. While we all know Rocko and Spongebob aired on Nickelodeon, what you may not know is they are connected a lot closer than you think. If you know the story, you know the series featured Rocko and his dog Spunky, his intelligence challenged friend Heffer, neurotic friend Filburt, and grumpy neighbors the Fatheads and filled with double entendres, innuendos, and satirical social commentary much like Spongebob, but it doesn’t stop there. After the end of the series the majority of the staff from Rocko, regrouped to work on Spongebob, including Spongebob creator Stephen Hillenburg who was producer and director on Rocko, as well as voice actor Tom Kenney who voice Heffer prior to taking over Spongebob himself.
Over the years the series has garnered a much deserved cult following. The show is one of those few cartoons of the time that while geared towards kids, was clearly written for adults to enjoy even more and works. Each episode featured duel stories of over the stop crazy shenanigans that never failed to entertain. The characters are all memorable and entertaining and just feel like they belong together. Some shows like Rocko just slapped various styles and characters together in hopes to create a clever world, but at times end up just cluttering it up with no direction. Here they are able to bring it all together with the great core characters and still consistently introduce new ones that seem like they always belonged. The animation is a little strange, but is one of the reasons it works so well. There are very few straight lines, but instead everything is a bit off kilter to create a unique world for these great characters to play in.
While the first three seasons have already been individually released by Shout Factory, they have decided to take it one step further and give the fans what they want with the release of Rocko’s Modern Life the Complete Series. While this series features the first time the 4th season is available and features all 52 episodes of the series, that’s not all. In addition it features behind the Character shorts, commentary, “Trash-O-Madness” original pilot version, and “Wacky Deli” Live 2012 with Joe Murray and the cast.
As if the collection itself wasn’t enough reason to order this awesome cartoon series, Shout Factory is giving away an exclusive lithograph featuring original art by series creator Joe Murray while supplies last.
For more information or to order your copy head over to www.shoutfactory.com
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