Robot Chicken

**Robot Chicken** is an American stop motion sketch comedy television series created and executive produced by Seth Green and Matthew Senreich along with co-head writers Douglas Goldstein and Tom Root for the late-night programming block, Adult Swim. The writers, most prominently Green, also provide many of the voices.

The entire series was made available at launch.

## Premise

*Robot Chicken* entails numerous pop culture references fly thick and fast as stop-motion animation is featured in sketches lampooning everything from television movies to comic books.

## Characters

> NOTE: *While Robot Chicken uses a variety of famous real people and fictional characters, it also has original characters created exclusively for the show.*
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* Robot Chicken (vocal effects by Seth Green) - The show's titular character. He is a cyborg chicken with a red laser eye revived by a mad scientist.
* Cluckerella (vocal effects by Seth Green) - The Robot Chicken's girlfriend. She wears a dress and has hair and lipstick.
* The Mad Scientist (voiced by Les Claypool) - A scientist who revived the Robot Chicken. He has wild hair and an evil grin.
* Mad Scientist's Son (voiced by Zachary Levi) - The mad scientist's twisted son, who steals his cyborg-making tools as part of a plot to kidnap all living US presidents for ransom. According to the script of the season 7 finale, it revealed his real name is Tony Huhnmorder-Anderson.
* The Nerd (voiced by Seth Green) - A boy with square-framed glasses. He appears in many episodes and often ends up in wild situations in famous media. His real name is Arthur Kensington, Jr., or referred to as Gary in the season 1 episode "Joint Point".

## Production

*Robot Chicken* is based on "Twisted ToyFare Theatre", a humorous photo comic-strip appearing in ToyFare: The Toy Magazine. 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; the series originally was intended to be called *Junk in the Trunk*.

The show was created, written, and produced by Seth Green and Matthew Senreich, and produced by Stoopid Buddy Stoodios (ShadowMachine Films Seasons 1–5) in association with Stoop!d Monkey, Williams Street, and Sony Pictures Television (Sony Pictures Digital Seasons 1–5). The series first appeared as Sweet J Presents on the Sony website Screenblast.com in 2001. In the first episode ("Conan's Big Fun"), Conan O'Brien was a featured character, voiced by Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane (2005–present). Sweet J Presents ended after 12 episodes and moved to Cartoon Network's Adult Swim in 2005 as Robot Chicken, premiering on Sunday, February 20, 2005.

Some television networks and sketch shows rejected Robot Chicken, including Comedy Central, MADtv, Saturday Night Live, and even Cartoon Network. However, someone at Cartoon Network passed the pitch along to Adult Swim, around the same time that *Family Guy* creator Seth MacFarlane told Seth Green and Matthew Senreich to pitch the show to Adult Swim.

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*. It employs stop motion animation of toys, action figures, claymation, and various other objects, such as tongue depressors, The Game of Life pegs, and popsicle sticks.

## Reception

### Awards

*Robot Chicken* has won an Annie Award and six Emmy Awards.

## Trivia

* Creator Matthew Senreich, writer Douglas Goldstein, and Tom Root were formerly writers for the popular action figure hobbyist magazine *ToyFare*.
* A sketch in the 6th episode "Vegetable Funfest" which featured Beavis and Butthead joining the Teen Titans was not included on the Robot Chicken DVD set due to legal complications.
* On June 1st, 2020, the previously missing eighth season, seventh episode of Robot Chicken, 'Robot Chicken Christmas Special: The X-Mas United', was added onto to the service.