Robot Chicken

Robot Chicken is an American adult stop-motion animated sketch comedy television series created by Seth Green and Matthew Senreich for Cartoon Network's nighttime programming block Adult Swim. The twelve-minute show consists of short unrelated sketches usually satirizing pop culture characters or celebrities. Toys are employed as the players, animated via stop motion and supplemented by claymation. The voice cast changes every episode, and features many celebrity cameos. The writers, most prominently Green, also provide many of the voices. Robot Chicken has won two Annie Awards and six Emmy Awards.
Robot Chicken was conceptually preceded by Twisted ToyFare Theatre, a humorous photo comic strip appearing in ToyFare. Matthew Senreich, an editor for ToyFare, got in touch with actor Seth Green when Senreich learned that Green had made action figures of castmates from Buffy the Vampire Slayer and asked to photograph them. Months later, Green asked Senreich to collaborate on an animated short for Late Night with Conan O'Brien, featuring toy versions of himself and O'Brien. This led to the 12-episode stop-motion series Sweet J Presents on the Sony website Screenblast.com in 2001. Conan O'Brien is voiced by Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane in the first episode ("Conan's Big Fun").
Continuing the concept of the web series, the show creators pitched Robot Chicken as a television series, the name being inspired by a dish on the menu at a West Hollywood Chinese restaurant, Kung Pao Bistro, where Green and Senreich had dined (other ideas for the series' name included Junk in the Trunk, The Deep End, and Toyz in the Attic; some of these would be reworked into episode titles for the first season). Some television networks and sketch shows rejected the series, including Comedy Central, MADtv, Saturday Night Live, and even Cartoon Network. However, someone at that network passed the pitch along to its nighttime programming block, Adult Swim, around the same time that Seth MacFarlane told Green and Senreich to pitch the show to the channel. On February 20, 2005, the series premiered on Adult Swim.
The show was created, written, and produced by Green and Senreich and produced by ShadowMachine Films (Seasons 1–5) and Stoopid Buddy Stoodios in association with Stoop!d Monkey, Williams Street, Sony Pictures Digital (Seasons 1–5) and Sony Pictures Television (Seasons 6–10).
The program aired a 30-minute episode dedicated to Star Wars that premiered June 17, 2007, in the U.S., 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 as Outstanding Animated Program (for Programming Less Than One Hour).
The series was renewed for a 20-episode third season, which ran from August 12, 2007, to October 5, 2008. After an eight-month hiatus during the third season, the show returned on September 7, 2008, to air the remaining 5 episodes. The series was renewed for a fourth season, which premiered on December 7, 2008, and ended on December 6, 2009. In early 2010, the show was renewed for a fifth and sixth season (40 more episodes total). The fifth season 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. The eight season premiered on October 25, 2015. The ninth season premiered on December 10, 2017. Season 10 premiered on September 29, 2019, containing the 200th episode. Season 11 premiered on September 6, 2021.
Following the 2020 cancellation of The Venture Bros., Robot Chicken became Adult Swim's longest running series, until it was surpassed by Aqua Teen Hunger Force after its renewal in 2023.
After not having released new episodes since April 2022, Green announced in a live-streamed interview that, while a new full season of Robot Chicken would likely not be ready in time for the following year, a new half-hour Robot Chicken special is slated for release sometime in 2025. In a later interview, Green announced that Robot Chicken will be moving away from 20-episode seasons and towards doing specials. The Robot Chicken Self-Discovery Special will be released in summer 2025 in honor of the series' 20th anniversary.
Robot Chicken employs stop-motion animation of toys, primarily action figures, as well as claymation and sometimes other objects, such as socks, paper bags, and popsicle sticks. Custom action figures made in the likeness of celebrities are used to portray them.
Each episode is composed of short unrelated sketches varying from a few seconds to a few minutes long. Between each sketch is a moment of static, resembling the act of channel surfing on an analog TV.
The show mocks popular culture, referencing toys, movies, television, games, 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.
A recurring motif involves fantastical characters being placed in mundane or adult situations (such as Stretch Armstrong requiring a corn syrup transplant after losing his abilities due to age, Optimus Prime performing a prostate cancer PSA, and Godzilla experiencing sexual dysfunction).
Robot Chicken features a rotating ensemble cast of recurring performers and cameos. Its most frequent performers include Seth Green, Matthew Senreich, Breckin Meyer, Tom Root, and Dan Milano.
While Robot Chicken primarily features satirical versions of celebrities and existing popular characters in its sketches, it has also debuted some original characters created for the show.
All Robot Chicken episodes from seasons 1-11 are available on Max. The show is streamed censored on the service until Season 5.
The show aired on TBS for a short time in October 2014.
Robot Chicken has partnered with various brands to produce television advertisements, including KFC in 2015, Burger King in 2017, and most recently, Kellogg's Pop-Tarts in 2023.
Revolver Entertainment have released the first four seasons and all three Star Wars specials on DVD in the United Kingdom. A box set including the first three seasons and a box set including all three Star Wars specials have also been released. Madman Entertainment has released the first nine seasons of Robot Chicken and specials on DVD in Australia and New Zealand.
Adult Swim released Robot Chicken: The Complete Series for digital purchase on iTunes and Vudu in July 2023.
The series airs in the United Kingdom and Ireland as part of E4's Adult Swim block, in Canada on Adult Swim (previously Teletoon's Teletoon at Night block from 2006 to 2019) and also in Quebec on Télétoon's Télétoon la nuit block, in Australia on The Comedy Channel's Adult Swim block, in Russia on 2x2's Adult Swim block, in Germany on WarnerTV Comedy's Adult Swim block (previously TNT Serie's Adult Swim block from 2009 to 2017), and in Latin America on the I.Sat Adult Swim block (after the Adult Swim block was canceled from Cartoon Network Latin America in 2008). Many of the show's sketches from Sweet J Presents were redone for Robot Chicken.