"Trash-O-Madness" is the original pilot episode of Rocko's Modern Life, later reworked as an episode in the first season. In series' production order, it is the second segment of the tenth episode of the first season, as well as the twentieth episode overall.[1]
Summary[]
Rocko and Spunky have great difficulty in taking out the trash, including dealing with Earl the bulldog.
Plot[]
Original pilot version[]
The sun rises over O-Town as Earl, a dog who escaped from the science lab wakes up, growling and barking crazily, bitting off the lid to the trash can he resides in, and drinks weed-killer, and gazes at a house behind him. In there, someone is sleeping, and their pet dog is fast asleep too. The dog, named Spunky has his stomach rumbling, and the owner jolts awake in fright, as in fact, he's a yellow-colored wallaby named Rocko. He spots his dog's stomach bump, he yawns and tells Spunky that he's "too hungry to dance'. He grabs his family portrait with his mother, father who is angry at his photo bill, his little sister, his dog and himself. Remarking that they never had a real breakfast since they migrated from Australia. He then daydreams about the breakfast that his mother used to make him, such as toaster waffles on a stick and even he remembers his mom making him Billy Bob's bacon-bums. Spunky even remembers being fed "Heart Valve Bits". Rocko puts on a blue Hawaiian shirt that has purple triangles decorated on it and clips his toenails, all while telling Spunky if he promises not to electrocute himself today, he'll get to buy him a puppy-pooch meal at Barfy's. He puts on his orange shoes and asks Spunky if he'd like that, only to find the mind-dead dog eat his toenail clippings. Suddenly, he hears a noise and investigates to see what's going on by looking out the window. A Hill-O-Stench garbage truck crushes someone's car flat. Rocko realizes that it's garbage day, and that the garbage men have never been by for around six months, and figures out that their license has been reinstated. At this, he grabs together a pile of garbage while telling himself that they can't miss the event today, and that they don't know when they'll come around again, and panickingly instructs Spunky to grab all the garbage that he can, and Spunky quickly eats the toenail clippings.
Downstairs, Rocko puts multiple piles of garbage while Earl sneaks around the house while peeking through the windows occasionally. Rocko plugs in his vaccum, the Suck-O-Matic, while Spunky stands in front of the sucking tube. It vaccums up everything in his nose, including screws, nuts, bolts, a small wedge of cheese, and a fish. The poor dog gets sucked up into the tube. Rocko realizes this, and hits reverse on the vaccum, inflating Spunky and bursts toward the ceiling.
In the kitchen, Rocko throws out any garbage in the fridge, such as a bone, a flat plastic-like surface with holes in it, and comes across a container that reads "Buy War Bonds". He opens it, revealing a slime smut ball being what's left in it, disgusting Rocko. He empties the container as the slime ball oozes out. Spunky examines it out of the trash can, and he barks at it. All the thing does is just squirt a black liquid-like substance.
Spunky plays with the ball, but not before being caught by Rocko, and silently instructs the dog to spit that back out into the can. The dog hesitantly tries, not only to realize that it's also sticky, but while running out the window, the garbage men are coming closer. Rocko puts the rest of the trash out onto the now-huge pile of garbage. Spunky digs himself into the pile before Rocko carries it out to the trash-compactor, the Compact-O-Matic, which is in the kitchen. Rocko chooses either large, small, and decides on Chinese Take-Out Box size, and peeks under to see not only has it compacted the garbage, but his dog Spunky at the front as well. He notices the garbage men are getting even closer, and Rocko hurryingly attempts to carry the now-take-out-box-sized garbage out to the front lawn's trash bin, only to be jump-scared by Earl, causing his brain to literally pop out of his skull. He quickly shuts the door, and looks out the peephole. He nervously chips off his fingernails with his teeth.
Atop the roof of his house, Rocko ties the trash and dog to a fishing pole in order to lure Earl into the garbage truck. Earl becomes suspicious of what's going on, and Rocko snickers, calling Earl a big, ferocious dog. He tells Spunky that they're shakin' but doesn't realize that Spunky was still compacted into the garbage, and the face that's on the back of the truck eats the trash, escalating the problem and freaking Rocko out, eyes bulging out of his skull and all, within the fact that his beloved pet dog has been crushed. He reels back and Earl follows, and eats the compacted trash cube and Spunky. Rocko lets go of the pole in shock, causing Earl and the pole to plummet to the ground. Rocko turns at the screen, and says that garbage day is a very dangerous day. He heads to the area where Earl is at now, and politely tells him that small dogs and trash are not part of a balanced diet. Before he can say anymore, Earl strikes him in fury. He comes back, now less polite and offers him a steak instead. That doesn't work either, as he still gets punched back. Now not taking it anymore, he launches at Earl's face and screws it up, pulling the line from the fishing pole, then wrestles with the tough dog, and socks him straight into the snout. He realizes that what he did was wrong and undoes it by pulling it back out. He then remarks that it's good as new, and Earl finally spits the dog and trash out in enragement and physically abuses the poor wallaby off-screen.
Back inside Rocko, now beaten to a pulp, walks to the kitchen to remove Spunky from the the trash and flattens him out like dough, and grabs an air pump to inflate Spunky, and spins him so the dog can at least look at him dead in the eyes. Spunky grins, causing some air to free from his ear.
At bath night, Rocko now cooled down, realizes that in fact they did get the trash out, and that it just scared him. He tells Spunky how much he loves him, saying that he's all the kangaroo boy's got now, and tells him that he'd do anything for him, but not before he notices that Spunky has in fact brought the slime ball that Rocko disposed of earlier with him the entire time, and tells him to get rid of it, before realizing that he didn't mean to throw it away earlier, while Spunky erects his tongue with the slime out and into the water, as Rocko tells him not to, and tries to flee from the bathtub, but fails to do so, as the slime bursts everywhere, causing the poor wallaby to scream in agonizing and excrutiating pain.
Series version[]
8:00 in the morning, Spunky's stomach grumbles, waking up Rocko. The two tell about their childhoods in Australia. Then, a Hill-O-Stench Inc. garbage truck passes by. Rocko and Spunky need to bring all of their garbage outside before it's too late. When they try to catch up to the garbage-men, Earl peeks through the window and gets ready to eat the two. when they look in the fridge, they find a box with a green slime-ball inside. When he tries to get rid of the slime, Spunky tries to play with it, but the slime sprays ink on Spunky's face, then he gets it in his mouth. In the new version, Spunky tries to chew on it like bubble gum, but the sludge sprays on Spunky, they chase each other until the slime lands in his food bowl. all of a sudden, the slime grows bigger and bigger until it sprays ink on Rocko's face. Spunky grabs the slime and walks away, but Rocko grabs the slime and puts it in the trash. Spunky climbs in the trash and grabs the slime in his mouth.
Rocko puts the trash in the dish washer, pushes an "Chinese Take-Out Box Size" button, and Spunky becomes the size of a cube. Rocko opens the door, and Earl appears, Rocko screams and closes the door real hard. He grabs a fishing rod, ties Spunky, and uses it on the roof. Before that, in the new version, Rocko tries to go the back door to escape Earl. Later on, the garbage truck eats Spunky, Rocko is terrified and he tries to get back Spunky, but Earl catches him in his mouth. Rocko replies "Garbage Day is a very dangerous day." to the watcher. Rocko manages to get Spunky back, but he's beaten up by Earl. Rocko and Spunky now shaped like a balloon appear again in a bathtub at night. Rocko finds out that the slime is in Spunky's mouth all the time. Rocko tells him to get rid of it, but the slime grows beyond the size of the house, popping through the windows and other parts of the house.
Behind the scenes[]
Joe Murray animating the pilot version in 1992.
This episode was made as the pilot for the series. Originally, "A Sucker for the Suck-O-Matic" was going to be pilot, but Nickelodeon decided that having Heffer in the episode would not test well with focus groups.
As development moved forward on the show in 1992, Joe Murray was commissioned by Linda Simensky and Vanessa Coffey to produce a pilot episode to show how the series would look. Joe Murray Studio was coming off of independent films and since they wanted to replicate the look of an independent film on TV, approached the pilot as another indie project. Joe Murray wrote and storyboarded the episode. Producer Marty McNamara assembled additional animators from the San Francisco animation community, including Mike Smith, Robyn Steele, Robert Scull, Mark West, Sean Murday and Tim Bjorklund. Murray animated half of the pilot by himself, and after that, he had help animating the second half by the rest of his creative team and animators. Originally, the pilot was only seven minutes long, but additional animation was added to fill the eleven minutes, with an extra few seconds of credits for the pilot.
When casting Rocko, an extensive casting call of voice talent was done. Murray felt the part needed a comic touch and original voice that he was not getting from the traditional voice actors in the area. They reached out to the stand-up comedy talent in the bay area and after a series of auditions, Carlos Alazraqui walked in with a spot-on version of Spunky, and short later, Alazraqui was chosen as the voice of Rocko.
Murray approached everything with many crew members wearing several hats, from Nick Jennings doing backgrounds and acting as producer and camera operator, and George Maestri handling producer duties, animation assisting, tech guidance, audio guide and also camera operator. Daily rushes of shot film would be rushed to a San Francisco film lab in the morning after shooting all night, wear the film from the previous day would be screened. Motel rooms near the studio were utilized to keep the crew rested and showered through the production. Marshall Crutcher scored the episode.
The pilot was completed in the late summer of 1992.[2]
Trivia[]
- Heffer, and the Bigheads don't appear in the episode, but they did appear unnamed in drawings in the intro of the pilot version. Filburt did not appear in the pilot nor the drawings because he was not created yet.
- The clips of Rocko saying, "Heh heh, good as new" and yelling "SPUNKY!!!" in the original version of the theme song are from this episode.
- In the video game Spunky's Dangerous Day, the second level is named after this episode.
- The credits in the newer version of this episode feature a slightly longer version of the theme song with one extra verse and one extra bark from Spunky.
- This was the only Rocko episode to be animated in-house at Joe Murray Studios, with ink and paint work being sub-contracted to Karen Johnson Productions, an ink and paint and animation studio located in Racine, Wisconsin.
- The intro of the pilot was later used in a promo for the show's premiere in 1993.
Differences between original version and the new version[]
- Rocko was colored yellow in this episode. He was changed to beige-ish gray after a toy company did not want to market plush toys because "they thought he looked like a talking Australian banana" (likely refering to Bananas in Pajamas, an Australian series popular at the time). The color was also changed because the toy company already had a yellow character, but after the series released the toy company stepped down from making toys for the series, thus making the color change pointless. The toy company has been speculated to be either Dakin, who also made toys for Ren & Stimpy among others, or TOMY, which made toys of Bananas in Pajamas.
- New music, sound effects, and extra scenes, replacing some scenes are used in the new version. Although, the original music from when Rocko goes to the kitchen to roll and inflate Spunky remains the same.
- In the new version, the alarm clock tells Rocko to get up, not Spunky's stomach sounds.
- The new title card has a blue background.
- The slime moves in the new version, acting more like the main villain, unlike Earl. In the end of the pilot version, the slime appears in the bathtub scene in Spunky's mouth, bursting Rocko. It overgrows Rocko's house in the new version.
- The new title card is rendered like other episodes of the series unlike the original title card.
- The original is 8 minutes long while the new version is 11 minutes long.
- In the new version, the original 1992 Joe Murray Studios logo is replaced with the Games Animation logo.
- Some of the newer animation is obvious as Rocko looks much closer to his current model sheet, with the exception of his blue eyes. Also, the newer animation is done in the tighter, more clean and finalized style of the TV show compared to the looser, more fluidly animated style of the original pilot.
- The additional scenes include:
- Rocko eating a bug then spitting it out while he's sleeping, then his alarm clock yells for him to wake up ultimately scaring him.
- The garbage rats unloading the trash cans and disposing of Rocko's flattened car.
- Rocko running out of his bedroom with the garbage, as Spunky keeps bumping into walls.
- Earl sharpening his fangs.
- Rocko disposing of bad sausage in his fridge.
- Rocko taking a longer time examining the slime in the "Buy War Bonds" package.
- Spunky chasing the now-alive slime.
- Rocko trying to escape through the back door, but Earl finds him there. Rocko is also now shown going upstairs to get his fishing pole.
Errors[]
- Thanks to the shifts between the new footage and the old footage, there are some continuity errors in the new version. Here are as follows:
- In the beginning, the alarm clock only appears in the new scene, as the shots of Rocko asleep & awake from the original version don't contain the clock.
- The original version has the garbage truck simply flatten a red car (not Rocko's) and one of the garbage men exit the truck to dispose of the trash, whereas the new version has an extra scene where one of the garbage men throws the flattened car at the back where it's crushed. The scene then cuts to Rocko staring out the window, and yet the car is still flattened and on the asphalt and the garbage man is still inside.
- Rocko at one point cleans out his fridge of any decomposed and/or unused products. In the new version, he comes across a foul sausage link. Once he sniffs it, he throws the entire thing away. But when he tries to dispose of the ornery green slime from the fridge, the sausage link is somehow completely gone.
- When Rocko completely & entirely inflates Spunky before he is exploded to the air, Rocko's tail disappears for 1 frame.
- When Rocko is trying to restore Spunky back to his normal appearance & fully picks up the bicycle pump before putting it down, his eye is miscolored his skin color for the very frame he picked it up all the way.
- When Rocko gets enraged & tries to take Earl down to get Spunky back from him, right after he pulls his face with both hands on both sides, Earl's skin color completely fills out the space that is supposed to be empty below Rocko's right leg.
- Also, almost right after this, Rocko's tail disappears each time he lodges his head backwards while trying to pull the rope put of Earl.
- When Rocko questions Spunky if that's the slime goo in his mouth, the rubber band holding the breathing tube of his snuggly goggles disappears and reappears as Spunky is floating in the water up & down.
- When Earl starts chasing Spunky after Rocko starts fishing him back, Earl's left eye becomes brighter for some reason.
- Spunky falls off the bed whilst sticking the bed blanket into his mouth, as if he were eating, & as such he falls down with it, but it is somehow back on the bed in the very next shot when Rocko is cutting his toenails.
- Since Rocko was digitally re-colored beige in the new version to match the rest of the series, there are moments where his original yellow color is still visible.
- In the new version, if you listen closely to Rocko screaming when it turns out Earl is at the door, 2 scream audios can be heard playing at the same time, 1 of them from the original version of the episode, and 1 that was not. It's possible that the producers attempted to re-record Rocko's scream, but they forgot to take out the original audio.
Quotes[]
- Rocko: Oh, Spunky, I'm too hungry to dance. We haven't had a real breakfast since we left home. Not like Mum used to make. Mmm, toaster waffles on a stick. Big Bob's baking bombs.
- Spunky: (pants)
- Rocko: Well, I'll tell you what, Spunky, if you promise not to electrocute yourself today, I'll buy you a puppy pooch meal at Barfy's. Would you like that?
- Rocko: The garbagemen, Spunky! They haven't been by for six months! They must've got their license back!
- Rocko: Spunky! Earl has escaped from the science lab again! (Chatters Teeth)
- Rocko: (laughs) Big dog. Big ferocious dog. We're shakin', aren't we, Spunky? ...Spunky? SPUNKYYYYYYYYY!!!
- Rocko: Garbage day is a very dangerous day.
- Rocko: Earl, buddy. Small dogs and trash are not part of a balanced diet.
References[]
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