Robot Chicken
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Robot Chicken | |
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The opening title for Robot Chicken. |
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Format | Stop-motion animation/Comedy |
Created by | Seth Green Matthew Senreich |
Voices of | Seth Green Dan Milano Breckin Meyer Seth MacFarlane. |
Country of origin | United States |
No. of seasons | 3 |
No. of episodes | 53 (List of episodes) |
Production | |
Running time | 8-12 minutes, approx. 30 minutes (Star Wars special) |
Broadcast | |
Original channel | Cartoon Network (Adult Swim block) |
Original run | February 20, 2005 – present |
External links | |
IMDb profile | |
TV.com summary |
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.
Contents |
[edit] Inspirations
This article or section may contain original research or unverified claims. Please improve the article by adding references. See the talk page for details. (September 2007) |
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 Rina Paste" (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).
[edit] Opening sequence
The opening sequence, which is the only part of the show that includes a robot chicken (with the exception of "The Black Cherry"), is as follows:
A mad scientist finds a road-killed chicken and takes it back to his laboratory, where he transforms it into a living Borg-like creature. He then straps it into a chair, uses clamps to hold its eyes open (like in A Clockwork Orange), and forces it to watch a wall of television monitors; this scene segues into the body of the show.
[edit] 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:
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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.
[edit] Writing staff
[edit] Co-head writers
[edit] Writers
- Hugh Davidson
- Jordan Allen-Dutton
- Mike Fasolo
- Seth Green
- Charles Horn
- Breckin Meyer
- Dan Milano
- Pat McCallum
- Ben Schwartz
- Matthew Senreich
- Kevin Shinick
- Erik Weiner
- Zeb Wells
- Jesus Flores
- The Buck,Buck,Buck Singers
[edit] 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
[edit] Episodes
[edit] DVD releases
Title | Release date | Episodes | ||||
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"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. |
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"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. |
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"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. |
[edit] 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.
[edit] 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. The joke is that the voice of Chris is actually Seth Green, the creator of Robot Chicken.
[edit] References
[edit] External links
- Robot Chicken Page on adultswim.com
- Robot Chicken collection on Adult Swim Video
- AdultSwim.co.uk - Broadband VOD website for Adult Swim UK.
- The Robot Chicken Wiki
- Robot Chicken at the Internet Movie Database
- Robot Chicken at TV.com
- Chicago Newspaper review of Robot Chicken Star Wars including links to the Commentary Extras
- Robot Chicken - Star Wars Review at Variety.com
Categories: Articles that may contain original research since September 2007 | All articles with unsourced statements | Articles with unsourced statements since August 2007 | 2005 television program debuts | 2000s American television series | Animated television series | Parodies | Adult Swim original programs | Stop-motion animated television series | Action figures