Joe Murray: Summary

Recent Role:: n/a on Camp Lazlo

Gender:: Male

Birthday:: 5-3-1961

Birthplace:: San Jose, California

Ever since the age of 5, Joe Murray's goal was to be an artist of occupation and so far he's been very fortunate to fulfill that. Joe Murray had began practicing how to draw since the age of 3 and as he grew, his art improved.
He has been a designer at an agency, at twenty years old he opened up his own studio after finishing high school, doing commercial illustration, and later, animation. He was really lucky because he got to work with some great high profile clients like Random House, Intel, Hilton Hotels, and MTV, and he funneled the money into independent animated films. His animation department grew and soon, he found himself the creater and executive producer for Rocko's Modern Life, which aired on Nickelodeon for over 5 years in the ninety's and is currently in syndication.
However, during the making of the cartoon, he had been facing problems during the times the show was being aired. He had a hard time supporting his work and his personal life. After 3 seasons, he wanted to end it from there. Surprisingly, a fouth season was still produced, for Joe Murray left his work to Sthepehn Hillenburg, the person that soon later created the hit children show Spongebob Squarepants. Joe still however kept track of the show's progress.
After he completed 52 episodes of "Rocko" he took a break from the animation buisness, to try to reconnect with life, reeducate, and produced a couple of children's books. The books he had done were Who Asked the Moon to Dinner? (1999) and The Enormous Mister Schmupsle: An ABC Adventure (2003).
Three years ago (2003), he decided to venture back into TV animation and produced a pilot for Cartoon Network called Camp Lazlo, which fortunately has been picked up for a 13 episode first season. Now currently, he's making the season 4 for the show.
Although professionally he is very fortunate, his biggest blessing by far is his two daughters Daisy and Casey and his wife Carol. Ever since the age of 5, Joe Murray's goal was to be an artist of occupation and so far he's been very fortunate to fulfill that. Joe Murray had began practicing how to draw since the age of 3 and as he grew, his art improved.
He has been a designer at an agency, at twenty years old he opened up his own studio after finishing high school, doing commercial illustration, and...

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cheese1994
member since: Feb 9, 2008
Joe Murray ...Continue »
Joe Murray is a really really really really great cartoonist. Almost every single thing I learned about drawing cartoons, I learned it all from Joe Murray. Joe Murray is the proud creator of two really really really really good shows. ( And they are called Camp Lazlo and Rocko's Modern Life ) I love both of his shows. And they are all in my favorites list. :P But I mostly like Rocko's Modern Life better. It's just too bad Camp Lazlo got canceled though. I really liked that show. Hopefully, Joe Murray might be thinking of another great show he can make.
08/20/08 03:50pm | report abuse
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tomkfan
member since: Jul 21, 2005
Hi I'm tomkfan and I'm a Joe Murray Cartoon addict. ...Continue »
Whenever Rocko's Modern Life or Camp Lazlo is on I must stop what I'm doing and watch the entire episode before I continue on. Mr. Murray's shows are the kind of shows that you watch when your having a bad day and you just take one look at those greatly designed characters and your day becomes a good one. When I say greatly designed I mean with their personalities and their looks. Joe always seems to treat characters like his children if not better. Because you can look at a background character lets take Dave and Ping-Pong from Camp Lazlo and you can see that their full of personality though they rarely talk. And he can make you feel for the characters too and that's what makes his shows so loveable. When I'm watching Filburt getting ready to propose to Dr. Hutchinson I really hope that she's going to say yes even though I've seen the episode a hundred million times and I know exactly what happens. No other show or movie can do that. When Bambi's Dad died I laughed. That is how good Joe Murray is at what he does. I think Joe Murray is up their in greatness with Chuck Jones, Friz Freling, and all of the other all time greats. So there you go Joe Murray. You are my hero when it comes to animation. You'll never read this but I don't care. You deserve to have great reviews, because you are a great animator!
12/07/06 09:47am | report abuse
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marbles01
member since: Aug 26, 2006
The creator of Rocko's Modern Life. ...Continue »
Joe Murray is the creator of Rocko's Modern Life, which, along with shows such as Invader Zim, Ren and Stimpy(the first two seasons)and The Angry Beavers, is a classic Nick Toon with a fairly large fan following. Ah, don't you miss the days when Nickelodeon was a channel worth watching? Anyway, Rocko isn't Joe Murray's only show. Murray is also the creator of Camp Lazlo, a show which can be watched on Cartoon Network. Whilst no where near as good as Rocko, Camp Lazlo still has it's moments and is currently one of Cartoon Network's better shows when being compared to cack fests such as My Gym Partner's A Monkey. So overall I'd say that both his shows are worth watching. Thanks for reading!
10/31/06 04:22am | report abuse
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jenny2571
member since: Jun 1, 2006
I loved rocko's modern life! ...Continue »
I still watch it today but i wish it would come out on dvd. Camp lazlo is a great show too but it's mostly targeted to a younger audience. Rocko's modern life was a show that everyone love although i didn't get the inside jokes when i was 8, now when i watch rocko's modern life i think oh i get it. It is an original show that i watch and love. Stephen Hillenburg can't do half as good a show as rocko's modern life but spongebob squarepants was pretty good. now the episodes are getting kinda dumb and meaningless they should have ended it when hillenburg left.
05/31/06 11:22am | report abuse
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esanchez7587
member since: Aug 6, 2005
A very awesome cartoonist! ...Continue »
I love Joe Murray's cartoons, Rocko's Modern Life and Camp Lazlo, which are some of the greatest works he has ever done! He's a very talented person on making and plotting his cartoons! He's one of my top favorite cartoonists and one of the best of all! He should do more but how he is going, he's doing an incredible job!
02/15/06 07:53pm | report abuse