Factor Humano for the Chilean television channel Rock & Pop. But, contrary to their expectations, neither production prospered. In addition, the channel ceased broadcasting on December 1, 1999, leaving both Peirano and Diaz unemployed. To get out of this situation, they founded the production company Aplaplac together with Juan Manuel Egaña. Initially, Aplaplac developed two programs: Sangre, sudor y lágrimas (Blood, Sweat and Tears), —a human-interest program bought by the sports channel PSN—, and Mira tú (Look at You), a cultural program produced with funds from the Consejo Nacional de Televisión in 2001 and broadcast by Televisión Nacional de Chile in 2002. Mira tú stood out for its quality and became the production company's letter of introduction, therefore Díaz, Peirano and Egaña applied for a second time to a CNTV competition fund in 2002, this time in the children's television category. The project presented was entitled El gabinete del Doctor Mojado (The Wet Doctor's Cabinet), and in it a fish was conducting a television program from a fishbowl. In one of its segments, a puppet reported on what was happening with the excrements in the treatment plants. Aplaplac won the contest and obtained funds to produce 21 episodes that would be broadcast on Televisión Nacional de Chile. The idea evolved into a puppet and marionette news show called "31 minutos" -—a name that originated from the contest rules, which mentioned that the projects had to last half an hour—. At the same time, Peirano worked at the Chilean newspaper El Mercurio, where he met the artist Rodrigo Salinas, who -together with the artists Daniel Castro and Matias Iglesis- formed the art collective La nueva gráfica chilena. Peirano invited them to be part of the production team for 31 minutos, leaving Salinas and Castro as scriptwriters —along with Díaz and Peirano—, Iglesis as art director —establishing the visual identity of the program and its characters— and Juan Manuel Egaña as executive producer of Aplaplac and 31 minutos. Due to requirements from TVN, a stable female character had to be included in the episodes. The actress and comedian Alejandra Dueñas —known from La nueva gráfica chilena— later joined the team, giving life to Patana's character. The conviction of their creators at the beginning was to make a type of television program that they would have liked to see as children. They were fully aware that minors no longer consumed only programs that