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Robot Chicken

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Robot Chicken
File:Robot Chicken.jpg
The opening title for Robot Chicken.
Created bySeth Green
Matthew Senreich
Voices ofSeth Green
Dan Milano
Breckin Meyer
Seth MacFarlane.
Country of originUnited States
No. of seasons3
No. of episodes53 (list of episodes)
Production
Running time8-12 minutes, approx. 30 minutes (Star Wars special)
Original release
NetworkCartoon Network

Teletoon

2x2
ReleaseFebruary 20, 2005 –
present

Robot Chicken is an Emmy award-winning American stop motion animated television series produced by Stoopid Monkey, ShadowMachine Films, Williams Street, and Sony Pictures Digital, currently airing in the US as a part of Cartoon Network's Adult Swim line-up, in the United Kingdom and Ireland as part of Bravo's Adult Swim line-up, and in Canada on Teletoon's Detour nightly adult programming. It premiered on Sunday, February 20 2005. Seth Green and Matthew Senreich are the creators and executive producers of the show. They are also on the writing team, and have directed some episodes. Seth Green provides many voices for the show.

The program is a sketch show that parodies a number of pop culture conventions using stop motion animation of toys, action figures, dolls, and claymation (usually for special effects) and various other objects, such as tongue depressors and Game of Life pegs. The show's name was inspired by a dish on the menu at a Chinese restaurant, Kung Pao Bistro, where Green and Senreich had dined, although the series originally was intended to be titled "Junk in the Trunk".[1]

The series was renewed for a 20-episode third season, which started on August 12, 2007. The Robot Chicken Season Two DVD was released September 4, 2007.

Inspirations

File:Robotchicken.jpg
A scene from Robot Chicken featuring a toy Arnold Schwarzenegger and a doctor informing him that "It is not a tumor"

The show was inspired by the comedy antics of Twisted Mego Theatre (now called Twisted ToyFare Theater), which appears monthly in Gareb Shamus's ToyFare magazine. Matthew Senreich worked in various capacities with Wizard Entertainment from commercially available toys such as G.I. Joe or Barbie, or vehicles such as the General Lee from the Dukes of Hazzard are also sometimes used.

Robot Chicken often uses extremely outrageous and twisted humor. One recurring segment is "Hilarious Bloopers", a parody of the Bob Saget era of America's Funniest Home Videos, though unlike that show, this skit ends with the host using various household methods of suicide. The show tends to avoid political issues, instead mocking pop culture, referencing toys, films, television, and popular fads. When political figures are depicted on the program, the focus of their appearance is usually only tangentially-related to recent news or their positions in world affairs (such as Fidel Castro's Dance Dance Counter-Revolucíon video game competition from Season Two and President George W. Bush fantasizing he is a Jedi). One particular motif often involves the idea of fantastical characters being placed in a more realistic world or situation (such as Stretch Armstrong requiring a corn syrup transplant, Optimus Prime performing a prostate cancer PSA, and Godzilla having problems in the bedroom). 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 and Ahmed Best.

The show's theme song was composed and performed by Les Claypool of Primus, and he sings the song's only lyrics, "It's alive!", in typical Frankenstein fashion. The ending theme of the show is a portion of the famous Muzak named "The Gonk" (famously used in George A. Romero's 1978 horror film Dawn of the Dead) clucked by a chorus of chickens.

Robot Chicken is currently the highest rated original show in Adult Swim and the second highest in the network (right after Family Guy). Seth Green owes me five bucks.

Celebrity guest voices

Besides the recurring voice acting by Seth Green, Breckin Meyer, Chad Morgan, Dan Milano, Tom Root, and Jamie Kaler in this series, a number of celebrities have done voice acting for the series (often portraying themselves). Among the celebrities are:

As well as:

Many of these are people that Seth Green has worked with in the past on other projects or that he knows personally.[citation needed] Williams Street executives Mike Lazzo and Keith Crofford have also lent their voices to the show on occasions revolving around season premiers. Seth Green Owes me five bucks.

Writing staff

Co-head writers

Writers

Stop-Motion Animators

  • Melissa Goodwin
  • Joshua A. Jennings
  • Pete Levin
  • Ethan Marak
  • Kelly Mazurowski
  • Sarah E. Meyer
  • Michael Wolfe
  • Cameron Baity
  • John Harvatine IV
  • Liz Harvatine
  • Martin Jimenez
  • Jeff Riley
  • Gabe Sprenger
  • Matt Manning
  • Misha Klein
  • Eileen K. Kohlhepp
  • Joe Mell

Episodes

Further information: List of Robot Chicken episodes

DVD releases

Title Release date Episodes
"Season One" March 28, 2006 1–20

This two disc boxset includes all 20 episodes from Season 1 in production order. While it contains many sketches that were edited from the TV airings, the several of the original Sony Screenblast webtoons, and the words "Jesus" and "Christ" as an oath unbleeped (though "fuck" and "shit" are still censored out), the episodes are not all uncut. One particular segment that featured the Teen Titans meeting Beavis and Butt-head was omitted from the DVD due to legal problems. The Voltron/"You Got Served" sketch shown on the DVD has a replacement song due to legal issues over having the song that was used on the TV. At a performance of Family Guy Live in Chicago, during the Q&A session that ends each performance, Seth Green was asked how they came up with the name Robot Chicken. He explained that the title of each episode, was a name Adult Swim rejected for the name of the show.

"Season Two: Uncensored" September 4, 2007 21–40

This two disc boxset includes all 20 episodes from Season 2 in production order and uncensored, with the words fuck and shit unbleeped (except for one instance in the episode "Easter Basket" in the Lego sketch). It is currently available for download on iTunes (though the episode "Veggies for Sloth" is absent for an unknown reason.) Seth Green stated at Comic-Con 2006 that the second DVD set will contain the "Beavis and Butt-head meet the Teen Titans" sketch, which had been removed from the first DVD set due to copyright issues. However, the sketch is nowhere to be found on the DVD. Bonus features include the Christmas Special. The Archie sketch from "Veggies For Sloth" is missing from this release,[2] possibly due to copyright reasons. A secret Nerf gun fight can be found on the disc 1 extras menu, and pushing "up" over the extras and set-up items on the menu reveals more special features.

"Season Three" Late 2008 41–60

This two disc boxset will include all 20 episodes from Season 3 in production order. It is currently running on Adult Swim.Link from the Zelda series is also featured

Awards

The show won an Emmy for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Animation in 2006 and was a nominee for the 2007 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Animated Program (For Programming less than One Hour) for the episode Lust for Puppets. It won an award from Nintendo for featuring Link from the Zelda series.

References outside the show

On an episode of Family Guy entitled "Blue Harvest," at the end of the story Chris Griffin (voiced by Robot Chicken creator Seth Green) accused Peter of stealing the Star Wars special idea from the Robot Chicken Star Wars special, to which Peter replied, "Yeah, but I don't think anyone is aware of what that is." Chris debates that it is the most popular show on Adult Swim, where Peter argues that the show probably only gets 10 viewers. After Chris argues the fact the show gets a sizable audience and that the Star Wars special doubled that number, Peter says, "Well double of 10 is 20 so that's still not much." After a while Chris gets annoyed at Peter's thickheadedness and storms off.

References

  1. ^ http://www.g4tv.com/screensavers/episodes/3902/Robot_Chicken_Constantine_Dark_Tip.html
  2. ^ http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/sitereviews.cfm?ReleaseID=6795
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