Robot Chicken is an American stop motion animated comedy television series, created and executive
produced by Seth Green and Matthew Senreich along with co-head writers Douglas Goldstein
and Tom Root.
The writers, especially Green, also provide many of the voices.
Senreich, Goldstein, and Root were formerly writers for the popular action figure hobbyist
magazine ToyFare.
Robot Chicken has won an Annie Award and three Emmy Awards.
Background Robot Chicken is based on "Twisted ToyFare
Theater", a humorous photo comic-strip appearing in ToyFare: The Toy Magazine.
It is a sketch comedy that parodies a number of pop culture conventions using stop motion
animation of toys, action figures, claymation, and various other objects, such as tongue
depressors, The Game of Life pegs, and popsicle sticks during a joke about a loss of budget.
The show's name was inspired by a dish on the menu at a West Hollywood Chinese restaurant,
Kung Pao Bistro, where Green and Senreich had dined; the series originally was intended
to be called Junk in the Trunk.
The series first appeared as Sweet J Presents on the Sony website Screenblast.com in 2001.
The show was created, written, and produced by Green and Senreich.
Sweet J Presents ended after 12 episodes and moved to Cartoon Network's Adult Swim in 2005
as Robot Chicken.
In the first episode, Conan O'Brien was a featured character, voiced by Seth MacFarlane.
Robot Chicken premiered on Sunday, February 20, 2005.
It is produced by Stoopid Buddy Stoodios in association with Stoop!d Monkey, Williams
Street, Sony Pictures Digital, and Sony Pictures Television.
It also airs in the United Kingdom and Ireland as part of FX's Adult Swim block, in Canada
on Teletoon's TELETOON at Night block, in Australia on The Comedy Channel's Adult Swim
block, in Russia on 2x2's Adult Swim block, in Germany on TNT Series' Adult Swim block,
and in Latin America on the I.Sat Adult Swim block.
The show is rated TV-MA, and many of the sketches from Sweet J Presents were redone for Robot
Chicken.
The series was renewed for a 20-episode third season, which ran from August 1, 2007, to
September 28, 2008.
After an eight month hiatus during the third season, the show returned on August 31, 2008,
to air the remaining 5 episodes.
The series was renewed for a fourth season which premiered on December 7, 2008, and ended
September 20, 2009.
In early 2010, the show was renewed for a fifth and sixth season.
Season 5 premiered on December 12, 2010.
The second group of episodes began broadcasting on October 23, 2011.
The 100th episode aired on January 15, 2012.
In May 2012, Adult Swim announced they were picking up a sixth season of Robot Chicken,
which began airing in September 2012.The seventh season premiered on April 13, 2014.
Opening sequence On a stormy night, a mad scientist finds a
road-killed chicken, which he takes back to his laboratory to re-fashion into a cyborg.
Midway through the opening sequence, the titular chicken turns his laser eye towards the camera,
and the title appears amidst the "laser effects" as Les Claypool of Primus can be heard screaming
"It's alive!"
a-la Frankenstein.
Claypool also composed and performed the show's theme song.
The mad scientist then straps the re-animated Robot Chicken into a chair, uses calipers
to hold his eyes open, and forces him to watch a bank of television monitors; this scene
segues into the body of the show, which resembles someone frequently changing TV channels.
In the episode "1987", Michael Ian Black claims that this sequence tells the viewer that they
are the robot chicken(s), being forced to watch the skits.
As a result, the show does not actually focus on the robot chicken until the 100th episode
when he finally makes his escape and later kills the mad scientist when he kidnaps a
hen who is the chicken's girlfriend.
Beginning in the sixth season, the role of chicken and mad scientist are reversed in
this opening sequence: The chicken turns the mad scientist into a cyborg and then subjects
him to watch the television sets.
However, the eye color is changed in the sixth season intro, with it being changed from red
to blue.
Overview The show mocks popular culture, referencing
toys, movies, television, popular fads, and more obscure references like anime cartoons
and older television programs, much in the same vein as comedy sketch shows like Saturday
Night Live.
One particular motif involves the idea of fantastical characters being placed in a more
realistic world or situation.
The program even had a 30-minute episode dedicated to Star Wars which premiered June 17, 2007,
in the US featuring the voices of Star Wars notables George Lucas, Mark Hamill, Billy
Dee Williams, and Ahmed Best.
The Star Wars episode was nominated for a 2008 Emmy Award as Outstanding Animated Program.
Recurring sketches The show features several recurring sketches.
Some of the more predominant ones include: Bloopers - A parody of the Bob Saget-era of
America's Funniest Home Videos, featuring a host with exaggerated spastic mannerisms
who commits suicide at the end of each show.
The Nerd - The Nerd is an awkward middle school student with broken glasses who lisps.
Although his name was mentioned as "Gary" in an early episode, later episodes give his
name as "Arthur Kensington Jr.".
The Nerd imagines what it would be like to live in various well-known fantasy worlds.
Where Are They Now?
- A sketch in which Michael Moore investigates past media celebrities who have fallen into
obscurity.
Robot Chicken has been cancelled - Four of the six season finales of Robot Chicken perpetuated
a running gag in which Mike Lazzo, the head of Adult Swim, announces that Robot Chicken
has been cancelled.
Episodes
Voice cast Main cast
Main and major recurring actors / writers are:
Celebrity guest stars Among those celebrities that have contributed
to this show are: Other voice actors
Besides the celebrities above, many famous voice actors work on this series including:
DVD releases Revolver Entertainment have released the first
four seasons and all three Star Wars specials in the United Kingdom.
A box set including the first 3 seasons has also been released.
Madman Entertainment has released all Robot Chicken seasons and specials to date in Australia
and New Zealand.
International Robot Chicken premiered in Australia on The
Comedy Channel on March 11, 2008, after the Group Programming Director Darren Chau secured
The Comedy Channel as the Australian home of Adult Swim.
The Comedy Channel brought both Seth Green and Matt Senreich to Australia to conduct
a promotional tour to support the launch.
Robot Chicken premiered in Portugal on the channel MOV in February 2013.
Robot Chicken premiered in Germany on the pay TV channel Sat.1 Comedy on December 5th,
2007 and on the free TV channel VIVA Germany in January 2014.
Robot Chicken premiered in the Netherlands on the channel Comedy Central Netherlands
in February 2014.
In Canada, the series airs on Teletoon at Night, the nighttime programming block on
Teletoon.
References
External links RobotChicken.com - official website
"Robot Chicken" at AdultSwim.com Robot Chicken at the Internet Movie Database
Robot Chicken at the Big Cartoon DataBase Robot Chicken at TV.com
Robot Chicken – Star Wars Review at Variety.com