Robot Chicken
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| Robot Chicken | |
 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 Breckin Meyer Chad Morgan Tom Root Dan Milano Seth MacFarlane |
| Country of origin |  United States |
| No. of seasons | 4 |
| No. of episodes | 70 (List of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Running time | approx 11 minutes, approx. 23 minutes (Star Wars specials) |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | Adult Swim |
| Picture format | 480i |
| Original run | February 20, 2005 – present |
Robot Chicken is an Emmy Award-winning American stop motion animated television series created and executive produced by Seth Green and Matthew Senreich. They are also on the writing team, and have directed some episodes. Green provides many voices for the show.
The program is a sketch comedy 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 The Game of Life pegs. 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, although the series originally was intended to be titled "Junk in the Trunk".[1]
The show is produced by Stoopid Monkey, ShadowMachine Films, Williams Street, and Sony Pictures Digital, and currently airs in the US as a part of Cartoon Network's Adult Swim block, in the United Kingdom and Ireland as part of Bravo's Adult Swim block, in Canada on Teletoon's Detour block, in Australia on The Comedy Channel's Adult Swim block, in Russia on 2x2's Adult Swim block and in Latin America on the Cartoon Network's Adult Swim block. It premiered on Sunday, February 20, 2005.
The series was renewed for a 20-episode third season, which ran from August 12, 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 five episodes, Three episodes beginning with "Tubba-Bubba's Now Hubba-Hubba", which also aired as an April Fool's Day prank. The series has been renewed for a fourth season which premiered on December 7, 2008.
Robot Chicken is currently the highest rated original show on Adult Swim and the second highest on the network (after Family Guy).[2]
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[edit] Inspirations
The show focuses on mocking pop culture, referencing toys, films, television, and popular fads. 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 after losing his abilities due to aging, 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 (from a previous episode), Billy Dee Williams, and Ahmed Best. (The Star Wars episode was nominated for a 2008 Emmy Award: Outstanding Animated Program (for Programming Less Than One Hour).) Another recurring segment is "Hilarious Bloopers", a parody of the Bob Saget era of America's Funniest Home Videos featuring the host constantly moving around in various exaggerated, disjointed motions. Unlike that show, this skit ends with the host using various household methods of suicide.
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 not actually Muzak but from a cut from a Capitol Hi-'Q' production music album entitled "The Gonk" (famously used in George A. Romero's 1978 horror film Dawn of the Dead) clucked by a chorus of chickens, which are actually the crew members.
[edit] Opening sequence
The opening sequence, which is the only part of the show that includes a robot chicken (with the exceptions of "The Black Cherry," the Christmas Special, "Suck It", "Adoptions an option" and "Book of Corrine"), opens with a mad scientist finding a road-killed chicken. He takes it back to his laboratory and refashions it into a cyborg resembling Locutus of Borg, although Matt Senreich denies that this allusion was deliberate. The mad scientist then straps it into a chair, uses specula to hold its eyes open, and forces it to watch a bank of television monitors (an allusion to A Clockwork Orange); this scene segues into the body of the show. In the episode "1987", Michael Ian Black claims that this sequence tells the viewer that they are the Robot Chicken being forced to watch the skits. Midway through, the words Robot Chicken appear and the mad scientist can be heard screaming "It's alive!"
In the "Star Wars Special", the opening is changed to mimic Anakin Skywalker's transformation into Darth Vader as depicted in Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, with the mad scientist in the role of Darth Sidious and the chicken as Vader.
[edit] Cast
Besides Seth Green voicing himself and many of the characters for the show, major recurring actors/writers are:
[edit] Celebrity guest stars
Among those celebrities that contributed to this show are:
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 premieres.
[edit] Non-celebrity voice acting
Besides the celebrities above, many famous voice actors work on this series, including:
- Michael Benyaer
- Bob Bergen
- Jeannie Elias
- Bill Farmer
- Keith Ferguson
- Quinton Flynn
- Danny Goldman
- Tom Kane
- George Lowe
- Roger L. Jackson
- Patrick Pinney
- Bill Ratner
- Adam Reed
- Susan Silo
- Dana Snyder
- Stephen Stanton
- Cree Summer
- Fred Tatasciore
- Frank Welker
[edit] Episodes
| Season | Episodes | Originally Aired | DVD Release Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Season 1 | 20 | 2005 | March 28, 2006 [3] |
| Season 2 | 20 | 2006 | September 4, 2007 [4] |
| Season 3 | 20 | 2007 – 2008 | October 7, 2008 [5] |
| Season 4 | 20 | 2008 – 2009 | July 22, 2009 |
[edit] Awards
The show won an Emmy for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Animation in 2006 and 2007 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."
The show was again nominated for Outstanding Animated Program in 2008 for the Star Wars special.
[edit] DVD releases
| Title | Release date | Episodes | |
|---|---|---|---|
| "Season One" | March 28, 2006 | 1–20 | |
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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, 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. A Region 2 version of the set was released in the UK on September 29 2008.[6] |
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| "Season Two: Uncensored" | September 4, 2007 | 21–40 | |
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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 because of copyright issues involving the "Archie's Final Destination" segment.)[7] 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 absent from the DVD. Bonus features include the Christmas Special. 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: Uncensored" | October 7, 2008 [5] | 41–60 | |
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This two disc boxset will include all 20 episodes from Season 3 in production order. This DVD is Uncensored except for the cat and the hat sketch in episode 7 on Disk 1. It also censored on purpose in episode 5 in the law and order KFC sketch. This DVD has special features such as Deleted Scenes and Animatics. It also includes commentary for all of the episodes and has "Chicken Nuggets" commentary for episode 1 and 3-5. Also there is a gag real and audio takes. |
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| " Star Wars Special " | July 22, 2008 | n.a. | |
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This single DVD features the special in its TV-edited version (i.e. with bleeps in place of profane words) and several extras about the crew and their work on the special, including a photo gallery, alternate audio, and an easter egg demonstrating the crew's difficulty in composing a proper musical score for the sketch "Empire on Ice". |
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[edit] In popular culture
In Family Guy episode "Blue Harvest," at the end of the story Chris Griffin (voiced by Robot Chicken creator Seth Green) accused Peter (voiced by Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane) of stealing the Star Wars special idea from the Robot Chicken Star Wars special. This sparks a discussion in which Peter himself denigrates and insults Robot Chicken, claiming that it is not a real, legitimate, show. This prompts Chris to call him "a real jerk!" and walk out of the room.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ G4 - The Screen Savers - Robot Chicken, Constantine, Dark Tip
- ^ Toon Zone - Your Source for Toon News!
- ^ Release date for season 1 Amazon.com
- ^ Release date for season 2 Amazon.com
- ^ a b Robot Chicken DVD news: Announcement for Robot Chicken - Season 3 | TVShowsOnDVD.com
- ^ Amazon.co.uk: Robot Chicken - Season 1 Box Set (Region 2) (Pal): DVD
- ^ Robot Chicken - Season 2 Review | TVShowsOnDVD.com
[edit] External links
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Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Robot Chicken |
- Robot Chicken Page on adultswim.com
- Robot Chicken collection on Adult Swim Video
- AdultSwim.co.uk - Adult Swim UK website.
- 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
- LA Restaurant Kung Pao Bistro still features Robot Chicken on the menu.
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