Wallaby Wednesday: How did Conglom-O leadership change over time?

For one and only one episode, Ed Bighead runs Conglom-O while Mr. Dupette (or his prototype) manages Super Lot-O Comics. Then Dupette assumes Bighead’s role at O-Town’s omnipotent corporation while Ed takes a less powerful position.

Such is the pattern in the Rocko’s Modern Life canon, from Season 1’s “Canned” to Season 2’s “She’s the Toad.” And on the surface, there is no explanation for the personnel shuffle.

Is that a continuity error? Not really.

Then it must be a willful disregard for avoiding the appearance of excessive experimentation, right?

Not unless you connect the past and present dots the series presents after Dupette’s debuts in body and in name. They point to a pattern similar to Saturday Night Live’s switch from Lorne Michaels to Dick Ebersol to Michaels again. (Michaels left SNL in 1980, and Ebersol served as executive producer for five seasons before Michaels returned.)

While the yellow “gold-digging” lizard is the established Conglom-O boss, he easily could have spent an interlude elsewhere. The likes of Bighead filling his big shoes, and doing so in ultimate failure, befits Rocko’s perpetually frustrated neighbor.

Two episodes glimpsing Ed’s history at the company provide the pieces. Season 3’s “Old Fogey Froggy” begins with a flashback to 1961 (34 years before the episode premiered). Mr. Bighead is a rising star, going above and beyond in his time and productivity. As such, Dupette elevates his confidence by promising that, should he stay the course, “someday you’ll be the boss around here.”

At that point, the recollection gives way to the present day. The Bigheads have accrued ample pounds and wrinkles. And as is established in the second-season premiere, their son was born and raised before moving out during the interlude.

Yet through all of that, the 1961 and 1995 portrayals suggest, Ed has stagnated at Conglom-O. Except that he clearly went somewhere, only to revert. The “present-day” events from the first 61 Rocko half-episodes before “Old Fogey Froggy” combine to confirm that.

Rocko first speaks the name Conglom-O in “Canned,” which also yields the first season’s only depiction of the company’s headquarters. After Dupette gives Rocko the literal pink slip, the desperate wallaby finds his irascible neighbor running his last potential rebound.

Ed agrees to try him out, albeit with an ulterior motive. As a tester of assorted Conglom-O products, Rocko’s job is to get injured, if not killed. After too many experiments backfire, with only Ed sustaining any suffering, Rocko is fired once more.

That is the last confirmed depiction of Ed’s reign at the top of the company. However, another flashback scene in the two-part second-season premiere may further explain his loss of power.

Dupette and the dozen-plus identical lizards are conspicuously absent when Ed tries to initiate his son as their newest employee. As Bev had previously explained to Rocko, her husband offered Ralph no other acceptable career option.

Being the money-grubbing control glutton that he is, Ed had unquestionably banked on Ralph securing a long-term Bighead Conglom-O dynasty. That plan collapses as quickly as it goes into action, prompting Ed to shout the episode’s title, “I Have No Son!”

While no one specifies the elapsed time between that episode’s flashback and present day, it must be multiple years. Even if Ralph becomes an overnight success with The Fatheads, his relocation, conception of the show and rise to Rocko and Filburt’s favorite must have combined for at least two years.

That period clearly coincides with the events of “Canned.” And before any of that, Ed must have ranked high enough at Conglom-O to build his expectations for Ralph without any colleagues raising concerns over nepotism.

Likewise, Dupette would have needed his share of time to raise his comic-book industrial complex. And given the fun-loving side he unveils in Season 4’s “Closet Clown,” dabbling in comics is hardly unbecoming Dupette.

If anything, from what the show depicts of their respective personalities, he is more credible than Mr. Smitty. Whereas the Kind of a Lot O Comics manager is a strict penny-pinching hothead, Dupette is more dimensional. He clearly craved a change in his career and, likely sometime in the 1980s, gave Bighead the keys to Conglom-O.

But for Dupette to return to his 1961 position, each buildup must have given way to a letdown. Regardless of how long Bighead filled Dupette’s spot, his tenure took a turn for the worse after Ralph’s defection to Hollowood.

Ed’s long-prepared long-term plan means enough to him to disown his offspring for derailing it. Moreover, Ralph’s refusal prompts a diverse group of Conglom-O employees to flee.

Some time later, Rocko moves nextdoor to the Bigheads, unaware of Ralph’s existence. He arrives at Conglom-O and bears witness to a slew of failures on Ed’s watch. But because he is the fall guy, he has a chance to happen upon Smitty’s new mom-and-pop store.

By the end of “Canned,” he is selling a bulk supply to the man who made him a budget-cut casualty. The gargantuan establishment’s reliance on the modest upstart for acquisitions all but further presages its demise.

Despite its support for big brands, O-Town confirms its collective preference for smaller comic shops. As a result, Super Lot-O Comics never resurfaces in the Rocko canon.

Meanwhile, Dupette is depicted as the present-day CEO of Conglom-O as early as the sixth quarter-hour segment of Season 2. Even with his soft spot for more fun-oriented endeavors, Conglom-O is his primary place.

The all-green-lizard board has clearly asserted that, at best, Bighead gave a good effort running the company. But when the stars align to bump him back down and bring Dupette back in, they do not hesitate.

The cost of dignity falls squarely on the tab of the same man who wins a dog-catcher election while a simultaneous ballot proposal dismantles the job description. It makes for a maddening motif from Ed’s perspective, and leaves little wonder as to why he hates his life.