What's Happening With Rocko's Modern Life: Static Cling?

Nickelodeon announced August 2016 it had green-lit a one-hour TV special based on the 1993-96 Nicktoon classic Rocko's Modern Life. Titled Static Cling, the special one of a number of new retro revivals announced by Nick in the past few years, along with Hey Arnold! andÂ Invader ZIM movies, and a Rugrats reboot. Creator Joe Murray was attached to the special, along with all of the original series' main cast and much of its crew.RELATED: Rocko's Modern Life Creator Calls Nickelodeon's Early Days 'Loose & Crazy'The premise of the Static Cling special is said to involve Rocko and his friends returning to O-Town after 20 years living in outer space, and the resulting culture shock of life in the high-tech 21st century. Nickelodeon released a trailer at the 2017 Comic-Con International in San Diego.From the trailer, it looks like the special faithfully recaptures the style and attitude of the original series. The animation looks the same as the old show, just upgraded to High Definition, and the satire of the smartphone era appears right in line with the original's cynically biting take on the pitfalls of Late Capitalism.

It's been quite the wait to see more of the special. It would be one thing if there were problems on the production side of things causing delays. The whole special, however, was reportedly finished in the Fall of 2017, as confirmed in Sept. 2018 blog post by Joe Murray that otherwise couldn't elaborate on any details about the special's release.

That same month, Murray responded to a fan's query claiming there is "something going on behind the scenes that I think everyone will be happy about that is delaying the airing of the special."

As of this writing, however, Murray seems much less confident that the special will ever get released. On his personal Facebook page, he said that he's "praying that Nickelodeon haven't abandoned the film" and has approved a petition to try and convince the channel to release the movie.

When contacted by CBR, a Nickelodeon spokesperson said there are no updates available for Rocko's Modern Life: Static Cling.

Other creators at Nick have expressed worry about the movie's fate and what it could mean for their own projects. Jhonen Vasquez, who has just completed production on the Invader ZIM movie Enter the Florpus, jokingly compared the channel's management to "that weird man from Shirkers," Sandy Tan's Netflix documentary about how producer Georges Cardona stole her work in the '90s.

Next Page: So what's responsible for theÂ Static Cling hold up?

There are two main suspected reasons for the delay. One is the ratings disappointment of Hey Arnold!: The Jungle Movie. The first of the current wave of Nicktoon revivals to be completed and the only one to actually air, The Jungle Movie was mostly well-received by those who watched it, but the network was apparently disappointed that not as many were watching it as hoped.

An average of 1.63 million viewers isn't a disastrous rating as cable viewership has declined overall, but it was poor enough that Nick canceled all scheduled repeats of the movie.

It's hard to get kids to watch continuations of old shows they never really had the chance to get into, and it's hard getting the attention of adults who might reminisce about Nick's good old days but never turn to the channel today.

Rumor is that Nick is trying to navigate around these obstacles by eventually releasing Static Cling, as well as Into the Florpus, straight to streaming. Which streaming service that might be is uncertain, however. Nick licenses some ofÂ its shows to Hulu and Amazon Prime, while VRV hosts the NickSplat streaming channel, which hosts the original Rocko and would be a branding fitÂ in a more niche market.

Then there's the recently announced deal between Nickelodeon and Netflix. Netflix has already premiered the long-delayed Nicktoon Pinky Malinky and started development on a live-action adaptation of Avatar: The Last Airbender. Now the two companies' partnership has expanded to include movie versions of The Loud House (previously scheduled for a 2020 theatrical release) and Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Could the Rocko special and the ZIM movie join them?

The other big factorÂ that might be complicating the release of Rocko's Modern Life: Static Cling is Nickelodeon's massive changing of the guard over the past few years. Cyma Zarghami stepped down as President of Nickelodeon in June of 2018 after 30 years at the network. Brian Robbins filled the position four months later. As Nick's dominance in the ratings has fallen drastically, Viacom corporate management has reportedly pushed for more shake-ups.

These corporate changeovers can often lead to projects spearheaded by previous management falling through the cracks or getting short shrift. This is Joe Murray's big fear forÂ Static Cling: that the new executives won't give his movie the same support.Â Static Cling would not be the only Nicktoon project to face such difficulties recently: Pinky Malinky was delayed for years before being dumped on Netflix, and another long in-the-works Nicktoon Glitch Techs is also reportedly facing production difficulties.