My Life as a Teenage Robot is an American animated science fantasy
television series created by Rob Renzetti for Nickelodeon. The series
follows the adventures of XJ-9, better known as Jenny Wakeman, a robot girl who
attempts to juggle her duties of protecting Earth while trying to live a
normal teenage life. My Life as a Teenage Robot premiered on
Nickelodeon on August 1, 2003. The final episode on Nick aired on October 17,
2005. Unaired episodes of the series were finally seen on Nicktoons from
October 4, 2008 to May 2, 2009. The series totaled 40 episodes and three
seasons, including one TV movie. All three seasons are available on iTunes
and on DVD at Amazon. Overview
XJ-9 is a state-of-the-art gynoid automaton sophisticated robot created by
her mother Dr. Nora Wakeman, an elderly spinster robotics scientist, five years
prior to the series. Jenny is Earth's protector, armed to the teeth with a
wide range of weapons and devices, but all she really wants is to live the life
of a normal teenage girl. She was preceded in development by eight other
models; in season one, the episode "Sibling Tsunami" introduced XJs 1–8.
Jenny's friends are her next-door neighbors Brad and Tuck Carbuckle. Brad
is outgoing and adventurous, and is the first actual friend Jenny makes, while
Tuck is Brad's rambunctious younger brother who usually tags along on
adventures. Another one of her friends is Sheldon Lee, a somewhat stereotypical
nerd who is infatuated with her. Jenny often rejects his romantic advances, but
still cares for him as a friend. Fans of the show often speculate on whether
Jenny would have ended up with Sheldon or Brad. Renzetti and his team seem to
favor Sheldon but refuse to give any definitive answers as to how he would
have ended the series if he was given a fourth season.
At high school, Jenny has an ongoing rivalry with the Crust Cousins, Brit and
Tiff, the popular girls in school. Dr. Wakeman often tries in vain to control
her creation and keep her "daughter" focused on protecting the planet Earth.
Adding to her trouble is that she is constantly being dogged by the
all-robotic Cluster Empire, whose queen, Vexus, wants her to join their world of
robots. Despite it all, Jenny struggles to maintain some semblance of a
mostly-human life. The series is set in the fictional
futuristic town of Tremorton, Ohio, presumably in the year 2072. Its themes
focus on making lighthearted fun of typical teenage problems and other
conventions and drama of the teenage and superhero lives, mixed up with a
combination of action, adventure, sci-fi fantasy, and comedy sequences.
Production Rob Renzetti moved from Cartoon Network
to Nickelodeon to develop his own ideas as part of Oh Yeah! Cartoons. At
Nickelodeon, he developed a pilot called "My Neighbor was a Teenage Robot" which
was the basis for the series. After brief stints working on Family Guy, The
Powerpuff Girls, and Samurai Jack, Renzetti returned to Nickelodeon to
start the Teenage Robot series. Renzetti made 11 shorts during two
seasons as a director on Oh Yeah! Cartoons. Five of these starred two
characters called Mina and the Count and followed the adventures of a
rambunctious little girl and her vampire best friend. He hoped that these
characters might get their own series, but Nickelodeon rejected the idea. Faced
with an empty slot where the sixth Mina short was slated to go, Fred Seibert
tasked Renzetti to come up with three new ideas. One of these was about a
teenaged girl whose boyfriend was a robot. After further thought, Renzetti
merged the two characters to create Jenny, a robot with the personality of a
teenaged girl. On October 17, 2005, the show's crew
announced on their blog that the show had been cancelled, and the third season
would be the last: "The executives love the show but the ratings aren't good
enough for them to give us more episodes." After the show ended,
Renzetti spent two years as story editor for My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic
before moving on to become a producer for Gravity Falls.
Home media "See No Evil", "The Great Unwashed",
"Hostile Makeover" and "Grid Iron Glory" were previously on Nick Picks DVD
compilations. As of December 12, 2011, seasons 1, 2 and 3 are available on DVD
exclusive to Amazon.com in region 1. The full series was released across six
discs by Beyond Home Entertainment in Australia on February 5, 2012.
Broadcast Nickelodeon debuted My Life as a Teenage
Robot on August 1, 2003 at 8:30 PM. The show was a part of Nickelodeon's
Saturday night programming block called SNICK on August 2, 2003 and briefly was
a part of the TEENick lineup on August 2003 to June 2004. The first season
ended on February 27, 2004 with "The Wonderful World of Wizzley / Call
Hating". The second season was pushed back to
December 8, 2004 with the Christmas episode "A Robot for All Seasons". A new
second season episode was not aired until January 24, 2005. In the second
season, a 48-minute, 2-part TV movie entitled "Escape from Cluster Prime"
aired. References
External links My Life as a Teenage Robot at the
Internet Movie Database