Joe Murray | |
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 Murray in 2017 | |
| Born | Joseph David Murray (1961-05-03)May 3, 1961 (age 64) San Jose, California, U.S. |
| Education | Leland High School |
| Alma mater | De Anza College |
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| Years active | 1977–present |
| Known for | Rocko's Modern Life Camp Lazlo Let's Go Luna! |
| Children | 2 |
| Website | http://www.joemurraystudio.com/ |
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Joseph David Murray (born May 3, 1961) is an Americananimator, illustrator, writer, producer, and director. He is best known as the creator ofNickelodeon'sRocko's Modern Life,Cartoon Network'sCamp Lazlo, andPBS Kids'Let's Go Luna!. Murray is the winner of twoPrimetime Emmy Awards forCamp Lazlo and the TV filmCamp Lazlo: Where's Lazlo?.
Born and raised inSan Jose, California,[1][2][3] Joe Murray said that he developed an interest in working as an artist as a career when he was three years old, but his father didn't approve. According to Murray, hiskindergarten teacher told his mother that he was the only student who drew zippers on pants and breasts on women. Murray credits hisLeland High School art teacher Mark Briggs for teaching him "so much about my art."[4][5] At age 16, he became a full-time artist, drawing caricatures of people and animals at an amusement park in his spare time.[1]
Taking the position ofpolitical cartoonist for a newspaper in San Jose, Murray's cartoons often targeted then-PresidentJimmy Carter. In a 2007 entry on his website, he said that he admired Carter's post-presidential work.[6]
Murray has citedPablo Picasso,Henri Matisse,Walt Kelly,George Baker,Mark O'Hare,Max Fleischer,Jay Ward,Frank Tashlin,Tex Avery,Bob Clampett,Chuck Jones andWalt Disney as his main influences.[7]
As a young adult, Murray was hired as a designer at an agency. He invested his earnings from the company into independent animated films. At age 20, Murray founded his independent illustration company, Joe Murray Studios (or Joe Murray Productions), in 1981 while still in university. His early attempts at animation date back to 1986 when he joinedDe Anza College. Murray created several short animated films, his most successful was made in 1987, which was a two-minute animated short titled "The Chore," which focused on a harried husband who uses his cat as a novel solution while not wanting to do a chore for his wife. He drew the scenes on typing paper and shot the scenes with 16 mm film. For creating "The Chore" Murray earned the Merit Student Academy Award two years later in 1989.[8][9] In the early 1990s, he did the storyboards and layouts onA Pup Named Scooby-Doo,Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog,Bobby's World, andThe Twisted Tales of Felix the Cat, while working as a freelancer at Drew Takahashi's now-defunctColossal Pictures studio.[10]
In 1988, he did two network IDs forMTV, and left in 1991 in hopes of starting his own projects. One of the MTV ID's Murray created involved the futureRocko's Modern Life characterHeffer Wolfe; the ID featured Heffer being pushed out of a building with the MTV logo branded onto his buttocks.[4]
My Dog Zero, released in 1992, was Murray's third independent film and first color film. Murray said thatMy Dog Zero was his "most gratifying" artistic project to date because of his own "stubbornness" in resolving the obstacles and issues involved in the production, such as lack of funding and lack of resources. With a grant he employed twelve people, mostly university students, to cel-paint the film. According to Murray, when he finished the film, several distributors refused to air it. He appeared at the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco with a copy of the film and persuaded the staff to air the film with the scheduled films. According to Murray,My Dog Zero received "good response".[8]
To fund the film, Murray initially tried to pre-sell the television show rights toMy Dog Zero but instead created a separate television series calledRocko's Modern Life.[4]
Murray created, and was the executive producer, for the animated seriesRocko's Modern Life, which aired on Nickelodeon from 1993 to 1996. He voiced the characterRalph Bighead in the episodes "I Have No Son" and "Wacky Delly", and acaricature version of himself in "Short Story".
Originally, the characterRocko appeared in an unpublished comic book titledTravis. Murray tried selling the comic book in the late 1980s, but was never successful of getting it in production. Murray wanted funding forMy Dog Zero, so he wanted Nickelodeon to pre-buy television rights for the series. Murray presented a pencil test toNickelodeon Studios, which afterwards became interested in buying and airing the show. After deciding thatMy Dog Zero would not work as a television series, Murray combed through his sketchbooks, developed theRocko's Modern Life concept and submitted it to Nickelodeon, believing that the concept would likely be rejected. According to Murray, around three or four months later he had "forgotten about" the concept and was working onMy Dog Zero whenLinda Simensky informed Murray that Nickelodeon wanted a pilot episode. Murray said that he was glad that he would get funding forMy Dog Zero.[4]
In 1992, two months prior to the production of season 1 ofRocko's Modern Life, Murray's first wife,[11] Diane, committed suicide.[12] Murray had blamed the show being taken as the reason for his wife's suicide.[13] Murray felt that he had emotional and physical "unresolved issues" when he moved to Los Angeles. He describes the experience as like participating in "marathon with my pants around my ankles". Murray initially believed that he would create one season, move back to theSan Francisco Bay Area and "clean up the loose ends I had left hanging". To his surprise, Nickelodeon approved new seasons.[4]
After season 3, he decided to hand the project toStephen Hillenburg, who mostly did work for season 4 and createdSpongeBob SquarePants shortly after that; Murray continued to manage the cartoon.[4] Murray said that he would completely leave the production after season 4. Murray said that he encouraged the network to continue production. Nickelodeon decided to cancel the series. Murray described all 52 episodes as "top notch" and that, in his view, the quality of a television show may decline as production continues "when you are dealing with volume".[4]
After completing 52 episodes ofRocko's Modern Life, Murray took a break from the animation business and produced two children's books and illustrated two others:[14]Who Asked the Moon to Dinner? (1999),[15][16]The Enormous Mister Schmupsle: An ABC Adventure (2003),[16][17]Hugville (written by Court Crandall) (2005),[18] andFunny Cryptograms (written by Shawn Kennedy).
Murray was working on a web-based cartoon namedThe Family Pop, which was produced in Flash and was in the middle of negotiations for this cartoon just prior to the onset ofCamp Lazlo.[19] On September 30, 2008, Murray added a new feature to his website,The Tin Box, where Murray posts some of his independent work. The first work posted was "Where's Poppa", a short episode ofThe Family Pop.[20]
Murray decided to return to television cartooning, this time selling his work toCartoon Network Studios. In 2005, he produced a pilot for the cartoonCamp Lazlo, which was picked up for a 13-episode first season and ran for five seasons, with production ending in November 2007.[21][22]
On September 8, 2007, the TV movieWhere's Lazlo? won anEmmy forOutstanding Animated Program (For an Hour or More).[23] During the production ofCamp Lazlo, Murray underwent a divorce.[13]
Once production finished forCamp Lazlo, and the final episodes were delivered, Murray developed a new television series.[24] While he is working out details about production and distribution, he has started work on his next independent film project,Fish Head,[25] and publishingCreating Animated Cartoons with Character, a book on creating and producing an animated TV series,[26][27] and working on producing a new short series, entitledFrog in a Suit for his web network; KaboingTV.[20]
On April 20, 2010, Murray launched a donation drive onKickstarter to fund the project, KaboingTV, a web network entirely dedicated to cartoons.[28] By June 5, the project surpassed its goal of $16,800 and Murray developed episodes of hisFrog in a Suit series for the platform. KaboingTV premiered on March 11, 2011.
Murray worked on the PBS animated seriesLet's Go Luna!, which aired from November 2018 to November 2022.[29]
Murray also worked on the hour-longRocko TV specialRocko's Modern Life: Static Cling, which premiered on Netflix on August 9, 2019. This included reprising his voice role asRachel Bighead. In October 2019, Murray and his wife relocated from California toBelgium, and at the time Murray expressed interest in developing new series forNickelodeon Europe.[30]
In 2023, Murray completed work on his independent film, now entitledFiego and the Magic Fish.[31] A reimagining of the fairy tale "The Fisherman and His Wife", the short was produced by his Garden Box Studio in Belgium and received aCannes Film Festival award for Best Direction for an Animated Film in 2024.[32]
On his personal website, Murray describes his character creation process[33] as "sometimes like playingFrankenstein".
Murray explains that one of the interesting aspects of character creation is the evolution of the personalities over time. In a one-time movie, the characters will have a static personality, but for a television series, the characters will change from season to season, developing new relationships, and even changing from mere background characters into a main character.[35]
| Year | Title | Role | Production company | Network | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1993–1996 | Rocko's Modern Life | Ralph Bighead | Games Animation (Nickelodeon Animation Studio) | Nickelodeon | Creator, director, story, story editor, writer, main character designer, producer, executive producer, storyboard artist, layout artist, voice actor |
| 2005–2008 | Camp Lazlo | N/A | Cartoon Network Studios | Cartoon Network | Creator, writer, story, storyboard director, executive producer, storyboard artist |
| 2018–2022 | Let's Go Luna! | N/A | Brown Bag Films 9 Story Media Group | PBS Kids | Creator, writer, executive producer |
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2007 | Camp Lazlo: Where's Lazlo? | N/A | Creator, writer, story, storyboard artist, director |
| 2019 | Rocko's Modern Life: Static Cling | Rachel Bighead | Creator, director, writer, storyboard artist |
| Year | Title | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 2011 | Frog in a Suit | Creator |
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