Whatever Happened to... Robot Jones? (usually shortened to Robot Jones or WHTRJ?) is an American animated television series created by Greg Miller for Cartoon Network.[1]
The show follows a robot named Robot Jones who attends the fictional suburban Polyneux Middle School in a retrofuturistic 1980s world.[2] In each episode, Robot Jones researches an aspect of human life, which include music, facial hair, gym class, etc. He is guided by his three friends, who go by the nicknames Socks, Mitch, and Cubey. Robot Jones is often smitten with his crush, Shannon Westerburg, a tall, young girl with orthodontic headgear and a prosthesis. In school, Robot Jones interacts with his teachers, Mr. McMcMc, Mr. Workout, and Mrs. Raincoat; the principal, Mr. Madman; and janitor Clancy Q. Sleepyjeans. His arch-rivals, Lenny and Denny Yogman, try to sabotage Jones's research by making school more difficult for him.
Miller's pilot for the series first aired on Cartoon Network on June 16, 2000, as part of a contest called "Voice Your Choice Weekend", in which new series pilots were shown on the network for viewers to decide on which would be the best one to eventually become its own full-fledged series. Despite the Robot Jones pilot coming in second to the Grim & Evil short, Robot Jones was greenlit for its own series, which premiered on July 19, 2002. The titular character's voice in the first season was created with a Microsoft Word 98 text-to-speech function. Beginning with the second season, Robot Jones's voice was dubbed over by child actor Bobby Block, and reruns of the first season were re-dubbed with Block's voice as well. The series ended on November 14, 2003, after 13 episodes and 1 pilot.
Premise[]
Promotional image featuring the series' main characters. From left to right: Cubey, Socks, Robot Jones and Shannon
The series centers on Robot Jones (voiced by a text-to-speech program in the pilot and season 1; Bobby Block in season 2), a teenage robot who lives in a small city in Delaware in a version of the early 1980s where robots are commonplace.[3] Robot attempts to learn of human nature by attending Polyneux Middle School where he makes three new friends: Timothy "Socks" Morton (Kyle Sullivan), a tall boy who loves rock music, Mitch Davis (Gary LeRoi Gray), a headphones-wearing boy whose eyes are hidden by his long hair, and Charles "Cubey" Cubinacle (Myles Jeffrey), a shorter boy who loves video games. He also meets Shannon Westerburg (Grey DeLisle), a girl he develops a crush on because of her large retainer and metal prosthetic leg.
Each episode has Robot explore a concept faced by average teenagers, such as gym class or competitions. Robot immerses himself in each subject to fully understand it while trying to fit in with his human peers, but this is challenging due to his social ineptitude and others' lack of understanding. As Robot settles in at school, he explores humanoid concepts of his own will. Though the situations he finds himself in are usually at his parents' insistence, others are a result of Robot trying to get closer to Shannon. An example is in "Summer Camp" when Socks convinces Robot to go camping and Robot discovers the ability to feel jealous. Due to his polite nature and short stature, students at his school tend to ignore Robot or are oblivious to his existence. His good grades, poor social skills, and status as a robot are at odds with Principal Madman, a technophobic principal, Mr. McMcMc, a jealous and insecure math teacher, and Lenny and Denny Yogman, two genius twin brothers. At the end of an episode, Robot reads a "data log entry" about what he learned that day and what conclusions he has arrived at on humanity.
The opening sequence, in which Robot Jones is factory assembled and inserted into a school bus, is an homage to that of 1980s children's show You Can't Do That on Television. When the title of the show is spoken, a group of young children voice the "Whatever Happened to..." part in unison while the "Robot Jones?" part is done by a Macintosh Macintalk voice known as Trinoids. The first season has children speaking out episode titles while season 2 episode titles are spoken by voices of the characters.
Characters[]
Main[]
- Robot Jones (voiced by a text-to-speech program's 'Junior' voice in season 1; Bobby Block in season 2 and redubbed reruns of season 1), as his name suggests, is a short, gray teenage cybernetic automaton robot who does whatever he can to fit into human society and often encounters problems in doing so. He is specifically Unit No. KX8-0, as he mostly claims to be in the episode "Jealousy" (and referred to as such in "Cube Wars"), created by JNZ Robotics. Although his real age is unknown, it is presumed that he is an adolescent, thereby fitting in with the middle schoolers he is observing. His torso is painted red with a black stripe on the bottom. Among his humanoid features, he has a set of large yellow eyes, which also function as "cameras" to analyze objects and humans as well as for X-ray vision. Robot's eyes also flash on and off when he talks, rather than his mouth moving. His "brain" resembles a giant light bulb which screws to the top of his head. The Yogman Twins make it one of their great missions to obtain Robot's brain, implying that it contains all of Robot's life essence, although being without his brain does little but slows down Robot's thought process, as seen in "Electric Boogaloo." Whenever a day ends, he adds something to his memory called a "data log entry" which he uses to recall what he learned through the experience.
- Socks (voiced by Kyle Sullivan) is the best friend of Robot Jones. He is quite a fanatic to rock music. Though he typically mentors and provides Robot with reassurance as best as he can, he has a realistic cap to his understanding and can lose his temper with Robot, as shown in "Family Vacation." In his first appearance in the first pilot, he was a student in Mr. McMcMc's class who commented positively on Robot challenging him and had no name. Unlike Mitch and Cubey, it is never revealed how he became Robot's friend, let alone his closest. He has blond curly hair and wears a green jacket. He is roughly 12 years old.
- Cubey (voiced by Myles Jeffrey) is the short boy with dark, straight hair, a Dot-Man T-shirt, sunglasses with window blinds for lenses and roller skates. He is roughly 12 years old.
- Mitch (voiced by Gary LeRoi Gray) is a boy often seen wearing headphones, a red jacket and sandals. His eyes are obscured by his long hair. Like Cubey and Robot, he also enjoys video games and appears more often with Cubey than either appear without each other. It may be assumed from this that Cubey and Mitch are best friends. Mitch is roughly 12 years old.
- Dad Unit (voiced by a text-to-speech program's 'Fred' voice pitched down to sound like 'Ralph') is a robotic lawn mower who is Robot's father, specifically a KC213 model. When he says something, he often says it three times; one example would be "Listen to your mother! Listen to your mother! Listen to your mother!" as said in the second pilot "Electric Boogaloo". He is blue in color, has one arm on the top of his head and wears a tie. In his focus on tasks, he often gets into shenanigans such as smashing through walls. He is very sensical and easily annoyed, which often results in him causing destruction of some kind. He is very protective of his family, and will punch out a supposed peeping tom spying on his wife, as seen in Hookie 101, or threaten anybody who comes too close to Robot's house such as the mailman in "Parents".
- Mom Unit (voiced by Grey DeLisle) is a pink robotic jet oil fuel pump who is Robot's mother, specifically a JUN77 model. She has one red eye, which is a camera lens, and her arms are hoses with nozzle-like hands, which she uses for fueling her fellow units. Like Dad Unit, she seems to generally have a no-nonsense attitude. Mom Unit also spends time at home drilling holes in the front yard looking for sources of jet oil whenever she runs out, as shown in "Parents". She is more verbose than Robot's father, and often it is she who is explaining or instructing Robot on what task he will complete in a given episode. Though very intelligent, she herself is bewildered by human behavior, and uses her own questions to prompt Robot's next social assignment such as in "Cube Wars".
Recurring[]
- Shannon Westerburg (voiced by Grey DeLisle) is a roughly 12-year-old girl with a lisp, a large orthodontic appliance, and a prosthetic leg. Although friendly to Robot (as seen in "Embarrassment", "Garage Band" and "House Party"), Shannon does not socialize unless he approaches her. Whether she realizes that Robot has a crush on her is unclear. She considers him anything from a close friend to a pest to a nobody. In "Jealousy", she is not a technophobe, as seen when she has a crush on a handsome Austrian android named "Finkman". She kisses Robot on the head in "Scantron Love" and "Popularity". She is socially awkward, as seen in "Hair" when she pesters a boy named Frederico. How her leg became amputated is never revealed.
- Lenny and Denny Yogman (voiced by Josh Peck and Austin Stout, respectively) are young genius brothers and the series' main antagonists. They wear red hats that resembles the 1980s band Devo's energy dome hats, yellow shirts, green shorts, and black/white sneakers. Lenny is tall while Denny is short. They believe that stealing Robot's brain will allow them to "rule the school". Lenny mentions in "The Yogmans Strike Back" that he plans to brainwash Principal Madman and abolish PE forever.
- Principal Madman (voiced by Maurice LaMarche in the pilot and Jeff Glen Bennett in the series) is the principal of Polyneux Middle School. He is very tyrannical to Robot Jones and is afraid of technology as a whole, as seen in "Sickness", "Parents", and the pilot episode. He is based on Les Lye's Mr. Schidtler character from You Can't Do That on Television. Although Miller wanted Lye to voice the character, location and contractual restrictions led to recasting.
- Mr. McMcMc (voiced by Maurice LaMarche in the pilot and Rip Taylor in the series) is Robot Jones's math teacher. Like most staff at Polyneux, he is childish and insecure about his intelligence, as seen in "Math Challenge". Mr. McMcMc is based on Mike Stern's algebra teacher, Mr. McManus.
- Clancy Q. Sleepyjeans (voiced by David Koechner) is the school janitor. He owns a Dust Buddy vacuum cleaner named "Vacuum Friend" whom Robot befriends after concluding that humans and robots were never designed to coexist. In "Safety Patrol", he lets Robot take part in the safety patrol, but Robot strictly enforces the rules, and the entire school is thrown into detention. Clancy partners with Mr. McMcMc in a math competition in "Math Challenge".
- Mr. Workout (voiced by Dee Bradley Baker) is the PE teacher in Polyneux Middle School. After forcing Robot to take a shower in "PU to PE", he becomes inadvertently electrocuted by Robot. He later appears in "Growth Spurts", with little impact on the plot, alongside an unnamed mustached coach.
- Mrs. Raincoat (voiced by Grey DeLisle) is the English teacher with whom Robot struggles, causing her to discipline him for creating havoc.
- James Nob (voiced by Gedde Watanabe) is the owner of Nob's Arkaid, where Robot and his friends hang out. Nob tells the kids that they break his arcade machines every time they play with them. In "Hookie 101", his arcade gives a discount on game tokens during school hours.
- Gramps Unit (voiced by a text-to-speech program's 'Trinoids' voice in season 1, and 'Zarvox' in season 2) is Robot's grandfather with an unknown model number. In "Vacuum Friend", he strongly dislikes humans and wishes for machines to take over mankind. In "House Party", he shows to deeply care about his grandson.
Production[]
Greg Miller's original series pilot aired on Cartoon Network on June 8, 2000, in a contest featuring 11 animated shorts to be chosen for a spot on the network's 2000 schedule.[4] During the weekend of August 25–27, 2000, all 11 pilots aired as part of a 52-hour marathon called "Voice Your Choice Weekend", in which viewers would vote for their favorite pilots.[4][5] While Grim & Evil won the contest with 57% of the vote, Robot Jones came in second place with 23% and was given its own series run beginning July 19, 2002.[6][7][8][9]
Robot Jones's animation style can be seen as a throwback to 1970s and 1980s cartoons such as Schoolhouse Rock!, with an intentionally messy and rough look. The artistic style seems to be influenced by Paul Coker and Jolly Roger Bradfield. The series' animation technique is different from most American cartoons from the early 2000s. It was animated with traditional cel animation, at a time when many American cartoons had switched to digital ink and paint (possibly due to the 1980s settings).[3] The show was animated at Rough Draft Studios at Seoul, South Korea.
Greg Miller stated in an interview on Facebook that he used a Microsoft Word 98 text-to-speech software on his old Macintosh computer for Robot's voice during production for season one, but after the first season was completed, the executives of Cartoon Network disliked how it sounded. Bobby Block was chosen to take the role of Robot in season two. Robot Jones's text-to-speech voice was also recorded for production of the second season, but because the voice change happened during the production of those episodes, this voice was never dubbed into the final prints. In that interview, he also said that he would want to do a revival of Robot Jones, but it would be up to Cartoon Network.
Episodes[]
Series overview[]
| Season | Episodes | Originally aired | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| First aired | Last aired | |||
| Pilot | June 16, 2000 | |||
| 1 | 6 | July 19, 2002 | September 13, 2002 | |
| 2 | 7 | October 3, 2003 | November 14, 2003 | |
Pilot (2000)[]
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No. in season |
Title | Directed by | Written by | Original air date
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Season 1 (2002)[]
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No. in season |
Title | Written by | Storyboarded by | Directed by | Original air date
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Season 2 (2003)[]
| No. in series |
No. in season |
Title | Written by | Storyboarded by | Directed by | Original air date
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Broadcast[]
After production ceased on Robot Jones, it aired in syndication before being removed from Cartoon Network's schedule, but episodes were available online on Cartoon Network Video for a short period.
From 2005 to 2008, Robot Jones returned sporadically in reruns on The Cartoon Cartoon Show, along with segments of other Cartoon Cartoons from that time period.
Reruns began airing on Cartoon Network's Latin-American sister network Tooncast in 2015.
As of 2018, Cartoon Network has stated no intention of releasing the show for consumer purchase on digital retailers such as iTunes, Amazon, Hulu, and Netflix, moving the show to its sister channel Boomerang, or even physically releasing the show on a DVD set anytime soon.
Robot Jones made a cameo appearance on the OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes episode "Crossover Nexus" that aired October 8, 2018, along with other Cartoon Network characters from current and ended shows. This marks the first appearance of Robot Jones's character since the show's cancellation and the first time since the first season where the character's voice is provided by the Microsoft Word 98 text-to-speech programmed voice.
See also[]
- List of fictional robots and androids
- List of science fiction universes
References[]
- ↑ Perlmutter, David (2018). The Encyclopedia of American Animated Television Shows. Rowman & Littlefield. pp. 689–690. ISBN 978-1538103739.
- ↑ Erickson, Hal (2005). Television Cartoon Shows: An Illustrated Encyclopedia, 1949 Through 2003 (2nd ed.). McFarland & Co. pp. 900–901. ISBN 978-1476665993.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Sissario, Ben. "FOR YOUNG VIEWERS; A Retro Robot Who's Big for His Age", The New York Times, The New York Times Company, July 14, 2002. Retrieved on 2 December 2012.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 DeMott, Rick (May 10, 2000). "Cartoon Network Navigates 10 New Pilots". Animation World Network. http://www.awn.com/news/television/cartoon-network-navigates-10-new-pilots. Retrieved 2013-01-25.
- ↑ Schultz, Paul. "An Animated Election", NY Daily News, July 30, 2000. Retrieved on 2 December 2012.
- ↑ Dempsey, John. "'Billy & Mandy' beats out 'Robot,' 'Longhair' to get greenlight", Variety, August 29, 2000. Retrieved on 2013-05-31.
- ↑ DeMott, Rick (August 28, 2000). "Only One Grim Survivor Of Cartoon Network's Voice Your Choice Weekend". Animation World Network. http://www.awn.com/news/television/only-one-grim-survivor-cartoon-network-s-voice-your-choice-weekend. Retrieved 2013-01-25.
- ↑ Macmillan, Alissa (February 22, 2001). "'toon Net Sets 2 New Series". NY Daily News. http://articles.nydailynews.com/2001-02-22/entertainment/18164957_1_billy-mandy-grim-adventures-samurai-jack. Retrieved 2 December 2012.
- ↑ Owen, Rob. "'Robot' premieres", Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Block Communications, July 11, 2002. Retrieved on 2 December 2012.
External links[]
- Official website (archive)
- Whatever Happened to... Robot Jones? at the Internet Movie Database
- Template:Tv.com show
- Template:Bcdb
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