Zorran/Behind the Scenes

Behind the Scenes

This is a behind the scenes subpage for Zorran. This subpage contains all behind the scenes material relating to said article.

Background Information[]

Zorran is a fictional tugboat created by David Mitton and Robert D. Cardona.

He first appeared in Sunshine (Episode), the first episode of TUGS, and continued to appear in the rest of the series. Chris Tulloch voices Zorran. Tulloch was originally just the voice of Zorran on the rough cut on one of the episodes, along with all the other characters. However, the crew liked Tulloch's voice for Zorran so much, they kept him as the final voice actor.

He's based off New York's 1920s Moran fleet of tugs.

Behind the Scenes[]

Zorran's model was scratch built with a fiberglass and plastic upper deck, along with a brass smokestack. He was designed by Chris Tulloch and built by Jeremy King. According to Jeremy King, David Mitton's original idea during the design phase was to have Zorran's superstructure to be low-slung so that it looked like he was "sneaking about with his head down". But when Zorran's superstructure was first built, the crew decided the 'low slung' appearance looked ridiculous on the model, so his superstructure was given an extra rim on the base to raise him higher. This added modification can still be seen on the model.

Like the other tugs, Zorran used a specially-constructed wheeled trolley chassis clamped to the hulls to move on the set. An external tube was stuck inside his hull and connected to a fog generator, this is how his stack "produces" smoke.

The eye mechanism had two servos, one for up and down movement and one for left and right movement. It was remote controlled and often controlled by David Mitton and Chris Tulloch. According to Tulloch, Zorran's eye mechanism was built too big and it would always lift his hat whenever he moved his eyes up. But the crew decided to leave this as it suited Zorran's character perfectly.

Ten different facial expressions were made for Zorran. The faces were first sculpted in clay and from that resin casts were made using a silicone mold. They were apparently based on English comedian and actor, Terry Thomas. A moustache was drawn on to each of Zorran's faces using a rotring pen. Additionally, Zorran had a gag Ronald Reagan face, made from a cut up Spitting Image Pet Hates dog toy.

After production on TUGS ended, Zorran's model was kept in storage at Shepperton Studios. In 2012, the models were cleared out into a skip without Cardona's permission and rescued by an builder, who sold all what he could salvage to a man named Richard. Richard restored the models to good condition and unable to keep them, he sold them off on eBay. Zorran is now owned by the TUGS: The Exhibition, an organization which aims to restore and preserve the models. Although he had his 'surprised' expression on, it is currently unknown if his other facial expressions still exist.