Joe Murray conceived Rocko after encountering a wallaby at a Bay Area zoo, describing the character as a 20-year-old wallaby resembling a 'young anthropomorphic Woody Allen'.

Murray originally pitched an independent short film called My Dog Zero to Nickelodeon for funding, and it was this project that led executive Linda Simensky to invite him to pitch a Nicktoon.

The pilot episode 'A Sucker for the Suck-O-Matic' was originally written as the pilot, but Murray instead produced 'Trash-O-Madness' after executives worried that Heffer Wolfe was too weird for test audiences.

Rocko was originally colored yellow, but Nickelodeon forced Murray to change it to beige after a toy company said the color was too close to another popular cartoon character; the company then dropped out of merchandising the show anyway, making the change unnecessary.

Carlos Alazraqui was discovered performing stand-up comedy and was cast as both Rocko and Spunky after Murray was impressed by his vocalizations for Spunky.

The character Filburt was created after Murray heard an audition tape and was impressed by the voice, only to discover it belonged to Mr. Lawrence, who had already been hired as an artist and director on the series.

Tom Kenny's 13-year-old nephew served as the inspiration for Heffer Wolfe's distinctive voice.

Writer Dan Povenmire, who had learned knife-throwing in Alabama, would sometimes trim overlong episodes by throwing a letter opener at a storyboard from behind his back, removing whichever scene it struck.

One crew member designed his office as a parody of a late-night talk show set, complete with canned applause, staged interviews, and pre-recorded laughter triggered by visitors' remarks.

Murray negotiated a contractual provision preventing unannounced visits from Nickelodeon representatives, and kept a Hunter S. Thompson quote in his office reflecting the show's anti-authoritarian ethos.

Two months before season one began production, Murray's first wife died by suicide, and he later said he often blamed his wife's suicide on the timing of the show being picked up.

Murray originally wanted Danny Elfman to perform the theme song, but Elfman was booked on another project, so the B-52's were chosen as the second choice starting from season two.

Music director Pat Irwin recalled that Murray asked him to make the score evoke a feeling of sensory overload, telling him to 'climb the ladder of anxiety,' and that each episode's music was recorded and mixed in a single day.

The fictional restaurant Chokey Chicken, a reference to a masturbation slang term, was renamed Chewey Chicken in the fourth season after someone reported the innuendo.

The season one episode 'Leap Frogs,' involving Bev attempting to seduce Rocko, drew parental complaints and was pulled from air for the rest of the show's run.

A scene at a love hotel in the season two episode 'Road Rash' was pulled after its original broadcast and never aired again, though it was later leaked online as a video file by 1997.