Trash-O-Madness facts for kids

Trash-O-Madness is a cartoon short film made in 1992 by Joe Murray. This short film was the very first episode, also known as the pilot, for the popular Nickelodeon cartoon show Rocko's Modern Life. It was the fourth cartoon series, or Nicktoon, created by Nickelodeon.

Later, for the first season of Rocko's Modern Life, a longer version of Trash-O-Madness was made. This new version was shown as a regular episode. It was paired with another episode called "The Good, the Bad, and the Wallaby." The original pilot version was later released on a DVD in 2012. You can also find a level named after this episode in the video game Rocko's Modern Life: Spunky's Dangerous Day.

What Happens in the Episode

In this cartoon, the main character, Rocko, and his dog, Spunky, have a big job: taking out the trash. But things get tricky when Earl, a neighborhood dog, tries to stop them. It's a funny adventure as they try to get rid of their garbage!

How the Episode Was Made

Creating the Pilot Episode

Joe Murray first planned a different episode called "A Sucker for the Suck-O-Matic" to be the pilot. However, the people in charge thought one of the characters, Heffer, might be "too weird" for new viewers. Instead of changing Heffer, Joe Murray decided to write Trash-O-Madness as the pilot episode.

The Animation Team

Joe Murray worked with George Maestri, Marty McNamara, and Nick Jennings to make the pilot. They worked at Joe Murray Studio in Saratoga, California. Marty McNamara put together a team of animators. Joe Murray animated half of the pilot himself. Other animators from the San Francisco area, like Robert Scull, George Maestri, Nick Jennings, and Timothy Björklund, animated the rest. Nick Jennings also created all the backgrounds for the cartoon.

Filming the Cartoon

After animating, Joe Murray hired a company to film the cartoon. When they fell behind schedule, Joe Murray, Nick Jennings, and George Maestri changed a special 35mm camera to film at night. Tom Schott was the cameraman. During the day, they drove the film to San Francisco to be processed. After seeing their work, they went back to Saratoga to keep producing.

The team even rented a motel room so they could take turns sleeping and showering. Joe Murray, Nick Jennings, George Maestri, and Tom Schott all took shifts there. Police officers sometimes visited them because of the noise coming from the studio!

The team finished the cartoon on time. Later, they made the film longer, to 11 minutes, so it could be a regular episode in the series. Joe Murray said the animation in Trash-O-Madness had "variations in the Rocko models" and "a lot more stretch than usual." This means the characters looked a bit different and moved in a more exaggerated way.

Original vs. New Version

There were some interesting changes between the first pilot and the longer version:

• The music, sound effects, and even some of the voices were different. However, Carlos Alazraqui did all the voices in both versions.
• The original pilot had a unique opening. It showed a photo album with pictures of Rocko through the years. Then it showed clips from the pilot and drawings of Rocko with other characters like Ed and Bev Bighead, and Heffer. The new version just started with a simple title screen.
• Rocko was first drawn as a yellow character. But his color was changed to beige. This happened because a toy company wanted to make plush toys of Rocko, and they already had a yellow character.
• The first pilot was about 8 minutes long. The new version added about 1.5 minutes of new scenes to make it a full episode. They also made the end credits longer to fit the new length.