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Robot Chicken is an American stop motion animated television series created by Stoop!d Monkey and Sony Pictures Digital, currently airing in America as a part of Cartoon Network's Adult Swim lineup, in Britain, the Bravo's Adult Swim lineup, 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, provide the majority of voices, and have even directed a few episodes.
Robot Chicken is a variety show that parodies a number of pop culture conventions using stop motion animation of toys, action figures, dolls, and claymation and various other objects, such as tongue depressers. The show's name was inspired by a dish on the menu at a Chinese restaurant where Green and Senreich had dined.
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Show opening
The frame story, seen during the show's opening credits, recounts the life of the eponymous Robot Chicken. It was a regular chicken who was run over by a car (presumably while crossing the road) and was brought back to life in cyborg form. Its 'creator' is a mad scientist named Fritz Huhnmorder ("Huhnmörder" is German for "chicken killer") who resembles the "unmasked" Dr. Claw figure from the Inspector Gadget toyline. He forces Robot Chicken to watch a random selection of television shows as an act of 'torture' in parody of A Clockwork Orange, also similar to the series Mystery Science Theater 3000. The main focus of the show is the "TV shows" Robot Chicken watches. The chicken story is not relevant to the sketches, however.
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 infamous Muzak named "The Gonk" (famously used in George A. Romero's 1978 horror film Dawn of the Dead) clucked by a chorus of chickens.
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Key elements
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The show was inspired by the comedy antics of Twisted Mego Theatre (now called Twisted ToyFare Theater), which appears monthly in Toyfare Magazine, which is published by Gareb Shamus' company, Wizard Entertainment. The segment, "The Aussie Hunter" on FOX's MADtv is an early work of the group. Matthew Senreich worked in various capacities with Wizard Entertainment prior to working on the show. Some of the first shorts were originally on the now defunct Sony ScreenBlast website under the name "Sweet J Presents" (this website also hosted the animated Lenore shorts).
A number of celebrities have done voice acting for the series (often portraying themselves), including the entire casts of That 70's Show, Family Guy and the ''Scooby-Doo'' films, as well as "Weird Al" Yankovic, Jon Heder, Ryan Seacrest, members of 'N Sync, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Mark Hamill, Scarlett Johansson, Macaulay Culkin, Don Knotts, Burt Reynolds, Dom DeLuise, Rachael Leigh Cook, Hulk Hogan, Bruce Campbell, Phyllis Diller, Conan O'Brien, Breckin Meyer, Alfonso Ribeiro, Bea Arthur, Betty White, Amy Smart, Melissa Joan Hart, Ginnifer Goodwin and Pat Morita. Many of these are people that Seth Green has worked with in the past on other projects or that he knows personally.
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Co-head Writers
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Writers
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Episode Guide
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DVD releases
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Trivia
Several of the sketches seem to take place in or around New Jersey. Various locations are references to actual places such as the highway scenes which feature I-78 "Clinton" which is an actual sign on the 78 Interstate in New Jersey when traveling westbound.
One recurring theme is the "Hilarious Bloopers" guy, who parodies the Bob Saget era of America's Funniest Home Videos. Whenever he is featured, he commits suicide at the end of his skit using various household methods in the manner Saget did in AFHV.
Robot Chicken was not the first name suggested. Rejected names include "The Deep End", "Junk in the Trunk", "ADD TV", "Gold Dust Gasoline", "Toyz in the Attic", "Nightmare Generator", "Plastic Buffet", and "The Sack". Many of these names have now been used as episode titles.
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