The "I Saw Something REALLY Weird Today" Thread

[D'Snowth]

In all honesty, when I first built Steve in 2004, it was pretty much just purely so I could have a puppet to practice with, I wasn't intending to actually turn him into an original character or anything like that. Around the same time, however, I heard the usual puppeteer our PBS has for pledge drives was unavailable, so I volunteered to substitute, but I needed a puppet, so I used Steve, because I figured I could "get away" with it - it's not as if I was stealing a major character like Grover (even though somebody's posted a series of high school PSAs with a Grover puppet on YouTube) . . . and apparently Steve became popular enough that I got the gig a couple of more times (even though our other puppeteer returned by then), and it just grew from there - in fact, it was one of the PBS guys who came up with the idea of making Steve the little casanova wannabe that he is.

I ordinarily wouldn't do this, and in fact, something similar happened quite coincidently a year later: I was designing a tree frog puppet, but then there was a puppet show that came on TV with a tree frog character that looked very, very similar, so my tree frog character never went beyond sketch phase. But Steve aside, I would just like to state for the record that all my other characters are 100% original - I don't even go for a Muppet look like I originally did with Steve, I just design characters how I would design them myself. My only other character that borrows from other character designs is Easter Egg because she was a blatant jab at how Jeanette from the Chipmunks and Irma from Ninja Turtles are virtually the same design.

 

[LittleJerry92]

I know Steve's an original character. I think people are just quick to judge cause he physically looks like one of the members of the Frazzletones, as well as the recurring every now and then lavender monster with yellow horns prior to that.

It's like the equivalent of fans assuming just because a clip isn't available for public viewing yet, we'll likely never see it again.

 

[D'Snowth]

To be fair, nobody's really taken me to task for pretty much ripping off the design or anything - or, at the very least, I've never gotten any kind of negative remarks or anything about it.

 

[Schfifty]

I always thought Steve was mostly based on the lavender Frazzletone since they look so similar. Were you actually a fan of the group or song when you first created Steve, or was it a different inspiration?

 

[ConsummateVs]

On Nicktoons Network, SpongeBob is rated TV-Y. I find that weird because the TV-Y rating is usually given to shows meant for younger kids, and SpongeBob is definitely not a TV-Y show.

Rocko's Modern Life on The Splat has the same rating, for some odd reason. With all the innuendos and adult jokes it has, it's totally NOT for young kids.

I think both shows should be given TV-Y7 ratings instead.

 

[LittleJerry92]

On Nicktoons Network, SpongeBob is rated TV-Y. I find that weird because the TV-Y rating is usually given to shows meant for younger kids, and SpongeBob is definitely not a TV-Y show.

Rocko's Modern Life on The Splat has the same rating, for some odd reason. With all the innuendos and adult jokes it has, it's totally NOT for young kids.

I think both shows should be given TV-Y7 ratings instead.

The splat gives everything TV-G or TV-PG. I blame overprotective parents if anything.

 

[LittleJerry92]

Oh..... Nicktoons network.

Eh...... My fault.

 

[D'Snowth]

I always thought Steve was mostly based on the lavender Frazzletone since they look so similar. Were you actually a fan of the group or song when you first created Steve, or was it a different inspiration?

It was a case of like what led to Elmo becoming a major character: for some reason, I just liked the look of the lavender monster; at the same time, I know Jim encouraged his performers to play around with the puppets to see if they can get anything out of them, like Whitmire did with a rat puppet which lead to the creation of Rizzo. I kinda felt like this monster had potential to be a character.

 

[LittleJerry92]

Maybe it's just a coincidence that he looks like the lavender Frazzletone.

Like how Little Jerry and the Monotones ended up looking like just like a group of recurring hippies from the first season. Or how a recurring season 6 monster looks like a Frackle. Or how Frazzle ended up looking like a properly built Fenwick.

 

[D'Snowth]

Alright, we'll just go with that then.

However, Frazzle and Fenwick look nothing alike: