Joseph Scarbrough launched what he called "The Scarblog" as a way of cataloging his work over the years, as well as going into greater detail of things on his mind (known as "Unfinished Thoughts").
Now here is a relic from that past that really was from a different time . . . and as a matter of fact, may not have even stood the test of time at all.
TECHNICOLOR DREAMS was my experimental film in its truest form from both an artistic and technical aspect, but at its core, TECHNICOLOR DREAMS was a pseudo-autobiographical deep dive into my creative process as a Content Creator.
As a lot of artists will tell you, and I am certainly no exception to this rule, a sizable hunk of our ideas come to us in our dreams, and a vast majority of the better ideas that I've ever had have been sourced from the cavernous mines of my mind: I have had numerous TV show concepts, and even entire movies come to me in my dreams . . . it's not at all unlike what people have said about THE DARK CRYSTAL being the movie that Jim Henson saw in his head (which also may or may not explain why, at the time, that movie made sense to nobody but him).
Script sample
Still, dreams fascinate me, especially mine, because honestly, I rarely have what I would consider to be pleasant, or even "normal" dreams. That is to say, I would estimate about 98% of my dreams are incredibly lucid, vivid, trippy, disturbing, and borderline nightmarish . . . think of them as if Sid & Marty Krofft shows were written by Stephen King and designed by Salvador Dali. Cosmically, my dreams are just straight-up weird, maaaaan! Like I say, though, in as much as dreams like these are a constant source of the hebejebes for me, every once in a while, I will end up striking gold for an idea for a very ambitious project; at times, it's as if my astral projections are more like astral movie projectors showcasing a mental film festival, and it's from that mental film festival that many of my more ambitious project ideas were born. Ironically, I'm not one of those people who actually keeps a dream journal by my bedside, and that is something I've been reproached about . . . I am very lucky if I can remember all or any of the pertinent details of my dreams without writing them down, because more often than not, I will gradually begin to forget such details of these dreams throughout the rest of the day after waking up. Those that I do remember and have provided me with outlines and treatments, however, have at least made it through the development stages, ranging from scripts being written and characters being designed . . . unfortunately, that's about as far those have gotten anywhere. This is why TECHNICOLOR DREAMS has become the closest things of such dreams becoming a reality.
Designing Dream Sprites
Because of the nature of my dreams and how big of a source of inspiration they are, in February 2015, I finally decided to get a little creative with my own creativity, and do something of a personal deep-dive into this creative process of mine by actually making a film about it, which is why TECHNICOLOR DREAMS is a true experimental film - it didn't necessarily follow a story or a plot, but it was a way of showing how dreams can lay down the foundation from which you can build entire universes for the world of fiction. As a matter of fact, the entire concept of my being visited by a pair of dream sprite was one big alegory to this creative process of mine, with the dream sprites themselves symbolically representing a pair of similar characters for one TV show premise that came to me in a dream as far back as 2007 that I have really wanted to actually create and execute, but has still never seen the light of day.
But TECHNICOLOR DREAMS wasn't just an experimental film from an creative and artistic perspective, because there was also a lot of technical experimentation that went on behind the scenes as well. The production itself was fairly simple -helped by there only being one set: my bedroom- but this time I had some new toys to play with. It was my first production to be filmed in full HD, and also one of my first productions that was edited with a professional editing program: Adobe Premiere. I had already played around with Adobe Premiere with a previous production, THE WINDMILL, just to sort of familiarize myself with certain things I was able to do now that were previously unavailable to me in years past, such as lighting effects. This time, I wanted to try even more things that wasn't able to accomplish before, namely being able to overlay and blend film and video footage with psychedelic imaging to create dream-like sequences.
Editing TECHNICOLOR DREAMS in Adobe Premiere. Oh, hey, that's a nice face, isn't it?
But it was even more than just that. One of the biggest influences on my production work has been the classic single-camera sitcoms of yesteryears that were shot on 35mm motion picture film, which gave them such a rich and distinct look that not only is lacking in many other shows that are shot on multiple cameras that record on videotape, but also severely lacking in this day and age of digital media in general. I have always wanted to emulate the look, feel, and aesthetic of the golden age of television, and now I could finally start doing that. As they say, everything is fixable in post[-production]; figuring out your camera's settings is a good way to achieve a certain look you want to capture on film or video, but it all can still be improved in the editing process. With Adobe Premiere, not only are there presets available that you can use to simulate the appearance of certain types of filmstock, but all sorts of other technical wizardry are at your fingertips to adjust your footage's brightness, contrast, color saturation, and even the framerate, to achieve the desired look you want - even as I previously mentioned regarding blending footage, I could now also employ overlays of grain and film dust to really give my productions that old 35mm motion picture film look I've wanted for so long, and continue to do to this day. Of course, I was still green around the gills in this area, and I still had a lot to learn - I'm even still learning to this day. I have been and probably always will be an artist first and foremost, and a technician second. Whenever I put a new project into action, it always begins from an artistic approach, so my mind doesn't always immediately take the technical aspects into consideration, which is why even as my production work began to improve, it still was far from perfect; I knew about simple adjustments (again, brightness, contrast, saturation, and the like), but I was ignorant and clueless about other technical aspects such as color correction, legal ranges, white and black balances, and so on and so forth . . . heck, even manual exposure and focus were foreign concepta to me at first because I was accustomed to working with cheaper consumer cameras that mostly operated on automatic settings that adjusted to your environment accordingly.
After all was said and done, TECHNICOLOR DREAMS premiered on YouTube on the night of Sunday, February 22, 2015. What was the critical response? It was a mixed bag, to say the least. Truthfully, TECHNICOLOR DREAMS probably became my most polarizing production to date: people either loved it or hated it, with hardly any middle ground. Those who enjoyed the film were able to appreciate it for its originality, and to see the then-visual and technical improvements in my content; those who hated the film found it to be too long, too dragged out, and too redundant. I did attempt to remedy at least one of these critiques: two years later on Sunday, February 26, 2017, I released a redux of the film that shortened its TRT from 18 to 13 minutes, but apparently, that wasn't much of an improvement, and the reception was still mixed. Looking back on it myself, I have come to the conclusion that another major problem with the film was that even though it was, admittedly, pseudo-autobiographical, it may also have been a little too self-indulgent as well . . . even when I couldn't think of a suitable title for the film (I considered such possibilities as THE DREAM CATCHERS and THE DREAM BUSTERS), I eventually went with TECHNICOLOR DREAMS, which was inspired by the Broadway musical JOSEPH AND THE AMAZING TECHNICOLOR DREAM COAT (because my name is Joseph, and because my dreams are so vivid, you could say I dream in Technicolor). I'm not at all saying that this was a vanity project, because I'm not too particularly fond of being in front of the camera as I am behind it, but the way I presented this concept was just from my own personal experience and perspective. While I'm sure there are countless other artists and creative individuals out there who have had similar experiences in finding inspiration for material from their subsconcious, the film may have been a litttle too esoteric that it excluded others and didn't necessarily resonate with a broader or more general audience. Of course, it also could very well have been the simple fact that avant garde isn't for everybody; in fact, most general audiences prefer to be told a narrative story that they can invest in and follow along with, which is usually why such experimental and artsy sort of avant garde filmmaking tends to go unappreciated and/or misunderstood by the average joe. I guess what they say is true, "True art is incomprehensible."
Ten years later, TECHNICOLOR DREAMS really does feel like it was made such a long, long time ago, and admittedly, is not something that I look back on with as much fondness as I do with other productions I've made over the years. Not only does it really not stand the test of time, but even the dream sprite puppets haven't survived: they ended up being damaged and destroyed in storage . . . guess that makes them fodder for the Dead Puppets Society.
Dead as a doornail
In conclusion, as I look back on TECHNICOLOR DREAMS, I wouldn't necessarily say I'm entirely proud of it. I would certainly consider it one of my better technical achievements; artistic, not so much.
This week on SUMMER OF SCARBROUGH, I discuss the various different ways that my creative process has inspired the projects and productions I have made over the years, ranging from some of my better ideas being mined from my dreams, to occasional whims providing bursts of artistic inspiration.
This week's episode of SUMMER OF SCARBROUGH looks back on what was perhaps the strangest Scarbrough creation, the short-lived webcomic miniseries, VAMPIRE GIRL.
Also a special shout-out to my amazingly talented artist pal, Dave Hulteen, Jr. for the beautiful job he did on coloring my pencil sketch of Levana for the YouTube thumbnail!
This week's episode of SUMMER OF SCARBROUGH continues the discussion of Steve D'Monster, this time as we take a look back at the evolution of his time on YouTube, from the early days of the late 2000s with his simplistic and minuscule little videos, to today with bigger, more carefully-planned productions.
This week's episode of the SUMMER OF SCARBROUGH discuss the origins of Steve D'Monster, and how a poorly-made and originally nameless monster puppet who was void of personality ended up evolving into an actual character over the course of appearing on local public television for a week in the August of 2004.
Oh, and by the way, today also happens to be Steve D'Monster's birthday - talk about incredible timing, huh?
Today kicks off the beginning of the Summer of Scarbrough, where I will discuss what went into the making of some of my significant creations and productions over the past 15 years, and this week's Summer of Scarbrough episode kicks off with the one that started it all back in December of 2007: MORON LEAGUE!
2022 marks 15 years of Scarbrough! Hopefully, if all goes well, we'll be seeing new content dropping in the months to come, including videos, cartoons, and a featured called THE SUMMER OF SCARBROUGH, which will be a (semi) weekly vlog looking back on the past 15 years. Oh yeah, and maybe, maybe, we'll also be seeing some merchandise . . . that's right, merchandise! Probably won't be anything to get too excited about, though.
Hope you'll be celebrating along with us this year!!
Here it is, ten years after the fact. VAMPIRE GIRL was certainly one of my more peculiar and often overlooked (more on that later) creations, and the story of how it came to be is also a rather peculiar one . . . it all started with a song from one of rock-and-roll's quirkiest and most eccentric artists, that eventually lead to a web comic mini-series that really had hardly anything to do with the actual song itself, other than bearing the same name.
The Inspiration
It was October 2011, and Comcast's (now xfinity) Sounds of the Season Music Choice channel featured a playlist of Halloween music - just right for the occasion. In all honesty, I had never really heard much Halloween music before, and while there were a few songs featured in the playlist I had certainly heard before under other circumstances ("Witch Doctor" by David Seville, "Purple People Eater" by Sheb Wooley, "Ghostbusters" by Ray Parker, Jr., "Headless Horseman" by Bing Crosby, "Tain't No Sin," "Devil Went Down to Georgia," just to name a few), there were a lot of songs that were completely new to my ears, and have since become just as much of a tradition to listen to every October as, well, Christmas music every December.
You ever get a song so stuck in your head, that it's almost impossible to get it out? That's what happened to me during this particular time (and it wasn't just Warren Zevon's "Werewolves of London" or "Here Comes the Bride (of Frankenstein)" by Elvira and The B-52s): a really catchy, toe-tapping, almost rockabilly-esque song by Modern Lovers' Jonathan Richman.
Needless to say, this song wasn't just stuck in my head - it was practically etched and seared into my brain like no other song had been before . . . I had to do something about it!
The Development
Levana's evolution during development, from something of a chibi-esque little girl to an older twenty- something-esque young woman.
The strange thing is VAMPIRE GIRL didn't originate as a web comic; given how catchy and fun the song is, my thinking was it needed to be set to some kind of production number . . . in fact, I'll even go as far as to say it seemed like it would have made for a great number on THE MUPPET SHOW, that's how much I felt like the song was so fun. With that in mind, I envisioned such a production number with Steve D'Monster and Bethany Crystal, with Bethany in the part of the titular Vampire Girl, and Steve as the de-facto admirer of said Vampire Girl. However, at the time, I had other projects with Steve in the works (including planning a multi-part Christmas Eve special that never got made), so I considered that option off the table.
Still, I really needed to find some kind of a creative outlet for my own cathartic purposes from having this song stuck in my head so badly, and eventually, I began doodling vampire girls. After a few doodles and sketches, I eventually settled on a design that I liked particularly well, and decided that this design needed to be turned into an actual character . . . first thing's first, she needed a name, but I couldn't think of one. Ordinarily, I like to give my characters names that either fit their appearance or personality, or names that you don't hear very often (especially for fictional characters). A few different suggestions were pitched to me, including one from an artist friend of mine, Kimmi Guerrero, that just felt right: Levana. In Hebrew, "Levana" means "moon." In Latin, "Levana" means "to lift," or "raise up." In Roman mythology, "Levana" is a fertility goddess who protects newborns. In this case, "Levana" just seemed like a perfect name for a vampire! Now, I just needed to actually do something with her.
I came out of "Cartoon
Retirement" to tell Levana's
story.
Given that Levana was a cartoon character, doing a comic strip about her seemed like the most logical thing to do. Once upon a time, I dabbled in cartoons, comics, and even a little bit of animation, as it was always something I enjoyed doing, and seemed like something I would like to do as a career . . . but I had been doing such almost non-stop from 1999 into 2007 . . . quite frankly, I was getting very tired of it, and ended up suffering from burn-out . . . I didn't want to do it anymore, because puppetry had taken over as my one true passion, and that was what I wanted to focus more of my energy on. But for Levana, I was willing to come out of my "Cartoon Retirement" and do a comic about her: even if it was a short subject, like a mini-series or something that wouldn't run for too long . . . all I needed to do was figure out a story for her. Even though such characters always appeal to me, I was especially interested in developing somewhat subversive characters at the time, such as Ella the Elf, who was conceived shortly after Levana was (unlike traditional Christmas elves who are cheerful, jolly, and sugary sweet, Ella is snarky, cynical, and cold . . . no pun intended), so the idea came to me that Levana was a vampire . . . who didn't want to be a vampire. The life of a vampire had so many limitations, as so many things ordinary people take for granted can kill her: she can only travel by night to avoid sunlight, her diet is extremely limited to avoid things like garlic, and even she is disgusted by her thirst for blood. This is what lead to the comic's tagline: "She lives a life of irony."
Just your friendly, neighborhood vampire hunters.
That became the main plot line of the story: Levana's journey to finding a way to make her a mortal girl. But, there still needed to be more to it than that; like every story, there needed to be conflict. This is where the comic's antagonists came in: upon learning about her mere existence, a pair of modern-day vampire hunters (named simply Vampire Hunter and Goofy Idiot Sidekick) attempt to hunt her down and destroy her.
Get high with a little help
from your friends.
There were still other details that needed to be filled in as well, and (dark) fantasy was a genre I had never really worked with before - but another artist friend of mine, Marie Kerns, was totally into that world; so after consulting with her, and bouncing around other ideas, all of the other little voids were filled in, such as Levana having befriended a hospital employee (CNA Laura) who would sneak her some human blood whenever she has urges from withdrawals or relapses, and figuring out how, exactly, she would eventually get to become mortal (with the aid of a cranky old wizard, and a very handsome doctor), the whole story was set into place.
For nearly an entire month, I worked almost non-stop (things slowed down because of Thanksgiving, obviously) putting the comic together, until it was finally completed and ready to be published.
The Inaugural Run
Original Smack Jeeves cover art
On Thursday, December 8, 2011, VAMPIRE GIRL debuted. Originally hosted on Smack Jeeves, the comic ran weekly until March 29, 2012 for a total of seventeen strips (I had originally planned it for about thirteen, but the story ended up running a little longer than I thought it would) . . . and nobody read it.
There were certainly a number of factors at play as to why the comic went virtually unnoticed during its initial run: I think the biggest problem was it was a couple of months too late . . . granted, the comic wasn't necessarily Halloween-themed, but vampires are traditionally associated with Halloween, so the timing was way off.
Another factor was probably due to the fact that the whole mainstream vampire craze - while still very popular at the time - was kind of fizzling out and losing quite a bit of steam just the same . . . so again, with that in mind, VAMPIRE GIRL kind of felt like it missed the bandwagon and ended up tailing way far behind.
But as it turned out, one major factor was VAMPIRE GIRL, evidently, did not fall into the zeitgeist. During its initial run each week, I would take a peak at whatever the most popular web comics were that were generating a lot of traffic, and I came to notice that there were three particular categories of comics that seemed to dominate Smack Jeeves (and I presume other hosts at the time): Westernized Manga, stolen video game sprites, and LGBT. Not a lot of room for originality it seems, but then again, so is the internet (YouTube has been having similar problems ever since Google bought it out).
As a stunt one week, I took a particularly suggestive verse from Jonathan Richman's song and used it to advertise the comic in an attempt to lure in visitors and readers: "Is she in Heaven? Is she in Hell? Is she a sex industry professional?" Obviously, it didn't work . . . but, in a way, it was a fun little tribute to Jim Henson trying to get THE MUPPET SHOW sold under the title SEX AND VIOLENCE. Still, VAMPIRE GIRL ran for seventeen weeks, and aside from a few friends following it (out of politeness, I'm sure), nary a soul gave it a glance.
The Scrapped Second Season
"Vampress" Concept Art
Even though Levana's character and story arc were completely wrapped up in those seventeen strips, I played with the idea of a continuation of her story into something of a second season . . . something that not only would have shown how much she was embracing her new life as a mortal, but also showing what kind of consequences she may have faced for forsaking her vampish lifestyle. The idea I had was that Levana was now working at the same hospital as Laura and Dr. Charmin, where she was something of an orderly, mainly taking care of children (I guess they put in a good word for her and used her babysitting experience to help her get the job), little knowing that somewhere out there, an evil vampire empress (a "vampress" if you will), had discovered that one of her own has basically thrown away her birthright, and must be punished severely for it. Clearly, this would have been a lot darker and more along the lines of an actual horror-comedy than the initial comic was.
Incomplete rough draft of a
Season 2 strip, showing Levana's
new position as a hospital
orderly, reading to a sick kid.
I got as far doing some design work for such a second season, and even started making plans on how this continuation of the story could play out, but ultimately, I decided against it, for two main reasons: 1) As I said previously, Levana's arc was already wrapped up in those initial seventeen strips, and although it's a trend that Disney's been real hot about in the past couple of decades, I wasn't sure if we really needed to explore what happens after "happily ever after." 2) Again, nobody even read the comic during its original run, and the archive saw very, very little activity in the years afterward, so why continue another season of strips of a comic that nobody was even reading to begin with? In the end, I just left it as it was, and never pressed forward with any continuation of the story - I will admit, I sometimes still feel curious about how, exactly, such a continuation could possibly play out.
Other Random Thoughts
I never really had intentions of wanting to see VAMPIRE GIRL adapted into animation, however, every now and then, what few people have looked at it (mostly friends) have asked me who would I consider providing the voices of the characters . . . I do think about that from time to time, and I do believe I have in mind what my ideal voice cast would be:
Nika Futterman as Levana
Kat Cressida as Laura
Michael Dorn as Vampire Hunter
Rob Paulsen as Goofy Idiot Sidekick
John Byner as The Wizard
Tom Kane as Dr. Charmin
(Although Tom Kane has since endured a stroke and unable to do voice work anymore)
That being said, I have had thoughts about it being adapted into a live action short - maybe even with Steve D'Monster serving as the storyteller . . . although I have absolutely no idea who would be ideal to play each of the characters, the app Artbreeder has actually given me a pretty interesting idea of what a live action Levana could possibly look like, which blows me away.
Last year, when the COVID-19 pandemic was really peaking during its first wave, particularly in the U.S. where it was treated more like a political opinion than an actual threat to people's health and safety, I ended up utilizing the cast of characters in a couple of P.S.A. comics as it were, and although I had no intentions of actually rebooting the comic as a whole, I did have a few other brief little set-ups, gags, and jokes pop into my mind at the time as well, which resulted in these few little random strips I did, samples of which you can see here:
COVID Comic A
COVID Comic B
The Crossover That Nobody Asked For
Positive Negative
It's All About the Vitamins
Hang in There, Baby
So, there you have it: the story behind VAMPIRE GIRL on this day of its 10th anniversary. I would welcome you to browse the archive of the comic, but you can't do that anymore: As of late 2019,
Smack Jeeves has been bought out by another company, and basically, their
entire server has been completely overhauled and redesigned, which has
effectively killed the web comics that were being hosted on their
server, including VAMPIRE GIRL, so I decided to just completely delete
the comic altogether, so it's no longer online or available for viewing.
It isn't just simply amazing that 2019 marks the 50th anniversary of the most iconic children's educational series in television history, but the fact that Sesame Street themselves encouraged fans across the world to join in on the celebration made it all the more special.
It's no secret that SESAME STREET has had a huge influence on me, mainly because of Jim Henson's Muppets, but clearly, other puppeteers out there have been inspired and influenced by Sesame and the Muppets for decades, thanks to Henson practically reinventing the art of puppetry as we know it. Ever since I and so many others started using YouTube as a platform to share our own work in puppetry with virtual audiences, some of us have expressed interest in doing collaboration videos that would combine our various different acts and characters into a single, fun project . . . unfortunately that wasn't a logistical possibility for many of us - particularly way back in the earlier years of our YouTube channels, when the tools many of us had were not that great (I certainly wasn't capable of chromakey or any similar visual effects).
But, as the years have passed, and a lot of us have, indeed, gotten better tools, better equipment, and have developed better sensibilities, the possibility of us collaborating on such a project had a higher likelihood - and with this being SESAME STREET's 50th anniversary, what better project to collaborate on than having our various characters get together for a sing-along of one the street's most treasured songs?
What you see here is not just Steve D'Monster, but other notable YouTube puppets such as Peter A. Cancilla's Allegra Longfellow and Professor Monster Johnson, Clyde Monster from Tai Jackson's A COMPANY OF FOOLS, Kevin L. Williams's Muley the Mule, Tim Kelly's Zook & Max, Marcelo R. Bottaro's new character Raspberry, and Matt (a.k.a. SchfiftyThree)'s pal Mike, singing along to the Joe Raposo classic, "Sing."
Don't forget to take the time to check out everybody's YouTube channels for yourselves; we could all use some subscribers!
Happy 50th anniversary, SESAME STREET! Thank you for your decades of service and education to generations of children, the young-at-heart, and of course us puppeteers!
Steve's 15th anniversary live stream went really, really well - so well, in fact, that it ended up lasting nearly two hours! I honestly wasn't prepared or expecting it to go on so long - by the time it was over and I removed Steve, my entire arm was red and sore! I'm sure part of the reason for the better turn out this time around was more advance notice than the previous live stream this past December, which only had a week's notice.
That's not to say, however, that things didn't go completely smooth: once again, there were issues with the Facebook feed randomly cutting off halfway through for no reason . . . but this was a benefit of having it simulcast on YouTube at the same time, as people were able to hop over there to continue the stream.
Those who participated in the live stream requested that it remain available for playback and rewatching afterwards, so here is the entire, uninterrupted YouTube feed of Steve's 15th anniversary live stream. And be advised: some of the comments and discussions brought up almost got a tad naughty (a lot of which goes right over Steve's head):
Today's the day. It was on this day, fifteen years ago, when I was but a fifteen-year-old lad myself, that I put my first puppet creation out there for all to see. This poorly put together mess of purple fur with lop-sided yellow horns, out-of-focus eyes, and the badly sewn-together features was Steve D'Monster, making his debut on East Tennessee PBS as part of their Friends of Sesame Street pledge drive, encouraging children watching to have their parents call in their pledges of support to keep the wholesome, entertaining, and educational PBS Kids shows on the station.
And now, here it is, fifteen years later, and that furry purple thing certain looks a lot better than he did then, actually possesses a personality, and has been appearing in all sorts of humorous little videos on YouTube for the better part of nearly thirteen years. Steve D'Monster has been enjoying a week-long celebration of his fifteenth anniversary with some special retrospective episodes detailing the evolution of his appearance, as well as the overall history of his existence:
But curiously of all is what we actually decided to do for his big fifteenth anniversary video . . . parody another popular YouTube channel, Chills!
It's not quite over yet! Steve wants to celebrate his anniversary with you guys! A reminder that his special live stream will be simulcast on YouTube and Facebook at the same time! Tonight, 11pm EDT!
In spite of the minor technical difficult that was experienced the last time we attempted a live stream with Steve (the matter of Facebook chat comments not working in real time), we're attempt a second live stream with Steve again this August, since it will be his fifteenth anniversary live stream!
Hard to believe it, but it would seem I have finally reached my ten-year mark on YouTube. In a way, it doesn't even really feel like it's been that long, and a lot of my work feels like it was done just yesterday, but here it is, ten years later.
In a way, I'm surprised I've even lasted this long, especially with how YouTube has been doing so much to stunt the growth of smaller channels and sweep the little guy under the rug more and more since about 2009 or so, but nevertheless, it's a milestone, so I guess I should take the time to look over my catalog of work over the past ten years in a retrospective, so here it is:
As you probably already know, today is SESAME STREET's 45th anniversary; to celebrate, here's a nice little number all the way back from their 35th anniversary special:
It's almost kind of hard for me to believe that it was ten years ago today that Steve was officially born to the world; I think of this as something of a milestone, if only because Steve is, so far, the only character I've ever developed that has survived for this long.
Steve's genesis is kind of an interesting one... it really isn't a stretch for me to say that when he was first developed, he wasn't anything like he is today, mainly because his personality wasn't really fully established. In fact, he really didn't have much personality at all... the only thing that was established from day one that's still in use today (albeit seldom) is his disdain for anyone calling him, "Stevie."
When I first built Steve in August 2004, I didn't intend on really using him in the manner of which I did. I was fifteen-years-old at the time - still young, still ambitious, still immature, and had my head in the clouds far more than I do now - I really had my sights set on someday being a Muppet Performer on SESAME STREET, and I thought if I was able to move up in the ranks and establish myself as a performer, that Steve could be a signature character of mine (which, to me, made sense, as I am now publically admitting for the first time that Steve's overall character design is pretty much borrowed from an Anything Muppet monster seen at least once or two on SESAME STREET in the 1970s, though some of you either already knew that, or already figured that out... and for the record, that's the only time I've done such a thing). To the best of memory, Steve's character, at the time, was that he was a wannabe comedian. I could see it now: he had a makeshift comedy club on the roof of 123, but the jokes and routines he told were so corny or cliched, that nobody really found them funny; Grover would have been his best friend, since somehow, Grover never managed to drive him crazy (that, and I was on a Grover kick at the time), though he would have a habit of calling him Stevie, resulting in Steve snapping, "Don't call me, Stevie!" (Interestingly, my fellow puppeteer, Missey Wright, thought the routine was a nod to the movie AIRPLANE!, but I hadn't seen the movie at the time, and I wasn't aware of Leslie Nielsen's iconic line, "Don't call me Shirley.")
Speaking of which, I was an intern at ETPBS (East Tennessee PBS, then known as ETPtv) at the time, and we were just getting ready for the summer 2004 Friends of Sesame Street Pledge Drive to help support and fund children's programming on PBS (we did two a year, one for two weeks in March, and other for a week in August). I had heard that Missey - who was their regular puppeteer for pledge drives - was unavailable to attend, and that they were thinking about trying to find somebody else, or foregoing puppets altogether; I offered to be a substitute. I wasn't officially a puppeteer at that point yet - I had a strong interest in puppetry, and a desire to be a puppeteer, but I wasn't actually performing yet (Kids on the Block had expressed interest in hiring me to be a performer, but I never heard back from them). They agreed to give me a shot, but there was just one problem: I needed a puppet to actually perform. I was already in the process of building Steve, just to play around and practice with, so I rushed to finish him (and boy, did it show in the beginning). The Friday before we were to start, I brought Steve in to give a little demonstration for Chris Smith, my supervisor; I don't even remember what I did as a demonstration, but they were impressed enough to let me do it. Monday finally came along, and considering this was going to be live on the air, broadcasting in multiple viewing areas (East Tennessee, southern Kentucky, southwestern Virginia, and the western ends of both Carolinas), I was a little uneasy about possibly not being quick enough on my toes to pull this off, but amazingly, so much of my focus and attention was drawn down to the monitor between my knees, that everything else around me was a void of nothingness; I was separated from the rest of the world, and in a world of my own that felt so natural, that I can't remember ever having any major catastrophes... a few errors, perhaps, but I was learning as I was going.
Chick magnet
But this isn't about me, this is about Steve. On Monday, August 9, 2004, Steve made his debut as a fill-in for Missey's character - a girl named Karla - to show his support for his favorite programs on PBS Kids (this pre-dates the PBS Kids GO! era). At the time, however, Steve still didn't have any personality to speak of, he was really just a generic monster puppet appearing on TV screens to inform kids to have their parents phone in their pledges of support, and they, in turn, would receive thank you gestures, such as t-shirts, bouncy balls, frisbees, circus tickets, Chick-fil-A coupons, among other little goodies; but one day, that all changed. Another one of my ETP colleagues, Russ Manning - who has contributed some terrific input to my work - had this wild idea: he saw something potentially funny in having Steve be something of a casanova wannabe. Every now and then, Russ would have Steve flirt with one of the phone girls, or one of his fellow on air personalities, and as it turned out, it was funny; that was a personality trait that ended up sticking, which is why even to this day Steve likes to think of himself as quite the ladies' monster.
Even then, Steve had an active imagination.
Karla and Steve
I think Steve went over fairly well his initial week on ETP - he seemed to be something of a hit with everyone in the studio, and I think there may have been an occasion or two where a kid phoned into the station to try and talk to him. Whatever the case may be, it seemed to warrant an invitation to have Steve return for further pledge drives. Missey returned for the March 2005 pledge drive, and after getting acquainted, they had Karla and Steve on air together; it worked pretty well for both Karla and Steve, to have another puppet character to interact with... at first. From a technical aspect, apparently there were too many mics on that particular set for the control room, so Karla and Steve were later separated, and Steve was given Karla's old position, while Karla was promoted to her own newsdesk segment (something that was proposed for Steve for station bumpers and promos, but never materialized, though the idea was later recycled for the MONSTROCITY NEWS entries of Steve's YouTube series).
THE KARLA REPORT and MONSTROCITY NEWS
Steve made his internet debut on YouTube, December 26, 2007.
There was no question in having Steve return for the August 2005 pledge drive, but after that, ETP quietly ceased having on air pledge drives for rather sound reasons, and as such, Steve ended up being put to rest for a while. At that time, I hadn't quite made up my mind whether to persue a career in puppetry, or animation: I was taking an animation course my senior year, but by the time that was over, I was so burned out on animation that I swore it off forever, and decided to go with puppetry instead: it came more natural to me, and it felt far more satisifying to manipulate a puppet in real time and get instant results, as opposed to manipulating a drawn figure on a computer screen, frame by frame, and only getting a few second's worth of results that took hours (and sometimes days) to achieve. By then, I also started getting ideas for other shows and characters, so it made sense to stick with puppetry; but there was still a matter of Steve: what was I going to do with him? By the end of 2007, I had a thought: YouTube was still relatively new (Google's fascism hadn't set in for another couple of years), and I had a camcorder, with a pull-out LCD screen that could serve as a monitor; why not take advantage of using a pre-social media YouTube to do something with Steve, and put both him and myself out there? I didn't have a whole lot to work with at first: most of those earlier entries on YouTube were mostly reactions to what was in the news (such as the survey conducted in London that children don't like clowns), or just having Steve lip-sync to a song. It was fun to do, and slowly but surely, Steve started getting a little attention from people who appreciate puppetry - especially the film and television style of puppetry Jim Henson innovated with the Muppets - and it all seemed to snowball a little from there. As time went on, Steve's small yet dedicated fanbase seemed to grow, and at the same time, so did Steve's personality: no longer was he just a generic monster character; the more I played around with him, the more I was able to find his character, and he grew into the little self interested and self absorbed prima donna, with the slight little mischevious streak, and a love for the ladies, that people know him as today (and it's interesting that at one point, his fanbase was largely female).
D'Monster for 2012
YouTube was certainly a wonderful tool in helping spread Steve's exposure to a far broader scope, taking him from a nice-sized viewership just in the East Tennessee and surrounding areas, to an even nicer-sized viewership that spans not just across the U.S., but also Canada, the U.K., and Australia. In those years, as the series progressed, more effort was put into the entries: while Steve still maintained his little intimacy with viewers, more and more entries were planned in greater detail, with some reflecting current events, holidays, and at times, the series even got topical with reviews from movies to politics, to Steve even running for President in 2012. Later still, entries were given actual plots and scenarios for Steve to act in. But, as the old saying goes, "There's a little bad in everything good." Eventually, Google's control over YouTube became far more biased - YouTube began favoring partner channels that generate revenue for them (therefore, putting money in their pockets), and as such, smaller channels began being swept under the rug; a combination of a serious decline in Steve's viewership on YouTube, and feeling I've done as much as I could, I decided to end Steve's YouTube series in the spring of 2013 - after seven seasons, and 63 entries. This was also going to allow me to ponder on trying to focus on other projects within The Joseph Scarbrough Universe, including the ambitious anthology special, PUPPET POWER (for which Steve served hosting duty).
Steve hosted the webspecial PUPPET POWER
And now, here it is, 2014, ten years since Steve first graced TV screens (seven since he first graced computer screens). In all these years, one thing that I've recently come to realize is Steve is actually the hardest character for me to write for... I guess I've performed him in such spontaneity for so many years, that any dialogue for him feels more natural and in-character if it comes off the cuff, rather than off a script page; it's hard to describe, but if a line is written for him, even if it's a line he would probably say, it still feels artificial doing that line, rather than doing a line on the spur of the moment. But, all that aside, it's an interesting feeling to be looking back on ten years of Steve being in existence; I've certainly enjoyed what I've done with him, and there's even more areas I'd certainly would have liked to explore with him... but has Steve stood the test of time? Has he left an impression on the public? I honestly don't know, and I don't even really think it's my place to answer that, I think that's up to the people to decide.
I would like to thank those of you who have been watching all of Steve's exploits and escapades these past ten years, whether you've watched him show his support for public television, or get himself into unusual situations on the internet, or host faux news programs and web specials; I certainly hope you've enjoyed all of this. If you have a favorite moment from all of this, please feel free to comment, I appreciate getting feedback, and I'd like to know what you've personally enjoyed.
