Rocco DeSocko

 

In yet another (and probably ill fated) attempt to clean and organize my workroom, I found a puppet prototype I made for a possible SNAP interstitial on the Game Show Network last summer.

The producer's had a loose idea for a game featuring some kind of puppet host (a' la Triumph the insult comic dog). I came up with this guy. He was unnamed at the time, but I've been calling him Rocco DeSocko. In my imagination Rocco was a disgruntled old sock once worn by many famous game show hosts and eventually left behind in a backstage wardrobe bin.

 

They liked him and I went ahead making the prototype. In the meantime, the producer's reworked the idea. They now wanted three cuter sock puppets as the host and the contestants. I abandoned Rocco and started to make those.

I was a little disappointed. I thought Rocco could of been a fun recurring character. When all was said and done though, the puppet bit was nixed by the network anyway.

I never actually finished Rocco, he was going to be worn and dirty looking with a few holes in his head and thought he should be living in some old sneaker (like Oscar in his garbage can).

He was made with a big blob of Crayola Model Magic clay stuffed into a regular tube sock. I pressed the fabric into the clay, then shaped his mouth and brow ridge. His eyes are two glued on black marbles.