Whatever Happened to... Robot Jones - Alchetron, the free social encyclopedia

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Whatever Happened to... Robot Jones? (usually shortened to Robot Jones) is an American animated television series created by Greg Miller for Cartoon Network, and the 12th of the network's Cartoon Cartoons. The show centers on Robot Jones, a robotic teenager attending a suburban middle school.

Whatever happened to robot jones pilot

Premise

Whatever Happened to... Robot Jones? Robot Jones intro YouTube

The series centers on Robot Jones (Macintalk Junior; Bobby Block), who, as his name suggests, is a robot who lives in a small city in Delaware, in a futuristic version of the 1980s. 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 and wears a Pac-Man T-shirt. He also meets Shannon Westerburg (Grey DeLisle), a girl he has an unrequited crush on, because of her large retainer and metal prosthetic leg.

In each episode, Robot, usually with the help of his friends, does whatever he can to fit in the human society, which sometimes goes awry and gets himself into situations brought on by his social ineptitude and others' lack of understanding. In some episodes, he gets into a conflict with genius twin brothers who look nothing alike, Lenny and Denny Yogman. At the end of most episodes, Robot makes a data log entry, in which he states what he learned that day and what conclusions he has arrived at on humanity.

The opening sequence of the show, in which Robot Jones is assembled in a factory and then inserted into a school bus, is an homage to the opening sequence of 1980s children's show You Can't Do That on Television, which starts with a similar animation of children being assembled in a factory and poured into a school bus. At the end of the intro where the title of the show is spoken, the "...Robot Jones" part is done by a Macintosh Macintalk voice known as Trinoids.

Production

Greg Miller's original series pilot aired on Cartoon Network on June 16, 2000, in a contest featuring 10 animated shorts to be chosen for a spot on the network's 2001 schedule. During the weekend of August 25–27, 2000, all 10 pilots aired as part of a 52-hour marathon called "Voice Your Choice Weekend", in which viewers would vote for their favorite pilots.

While The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy won the contest with 57% of the vote, Robot Jones came in second place with 23% and was given its own series run beginning June 25, 2002.

After waning support from the network executives, constant time slot changes, and steps to redevelop the series (including re-casting the voice of Robot), Greg Miller left the show and Robot Jones was cancelled during its second season.

Robot Jones's animation style can been 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). The show was animated at Rough Draft Studios at Seoul, Korea.

After being cancelled, the series continued to air for a few more months throughout 2003 and 2004, before being removed from the network's schedule. From 2005 to 2008, it returned sporadically in reruns on The Cartoon Cartoon Show, along with segments of other Cartoon Cartoons from that time period.

As of 2016, it has not been made available for consumer purchase.

Main

Robot Electro Jones (voiced by a text-to-voice program in season one and Bobby Block in season two and the redubbed reruns of season one) is a robot who does whatever he can to fit in the human society, which can sometimes go awry. He is specifically a KX-8 model, developed and produced by JNZ Robotics. Whenever the day ends he adds to his memory called Data Log Entry something he learns through the experience. His "brain" resembles a giant light bulb. Macintalk Junior was replaced by Bobby Block in season two.

Timothy "Socks" Morton (voiced by Kyle Sullivan) is the best friend of Robot Jones. He is quite a fanatic to rock music. He has blond curly hair and wears a green jacket.

Charles "Cubey" Cubinacle (voiced by Myles Jeffrey) is the shorter friend with dark, straight hair, sunglasses with window blinds for lenses, and roller skates. He is a video game lover.

Mitchell "Mitch" Freeman Davis (voiced by Gary LeRoi Gray) is a lad often seen wearing headphones, a red sweater and sandals. His eyes are obscured by his long hair. In "Scantron Love", his last name was Davis.

Dad Unit is Robot's father, specifically a KC-213 Unit. 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 inaugural episode. He has one hand, wears a tie and in his focus on tasks he often gets into shenanigans such as smashing through walls. He is voiced by Macintalk's 'Ralph' voice.

Mom Unit (voiced by Grey DeLisle) is Robot's mother, specifically a JUN-77. She is pink in color and her hands look like the ends of a gas pump's hose which she uses for giving fuel to her fellow units. She seems to generally have a no-nonsense attitude.

Recurring

Principal Sam Madman (voiced by Maurice LaMarche in the pilot and Jeff Glen Bennett in the series) is the principal of Polyneux Middle School. His mustache and haircut resembles that of Adolf Hitler; as such, he is very tyrannical to Robot. He is afraid of technology as a whole, as seen in "Sickness", "Parents" and the pilot episode.

Lenny and Denny Yogman (voiced by Josh Peck and Austin Stout respectively) are notorious young genius brothers and the main antagonists of the show. 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 do whatever they can to take Robot's brain, as they believe that stealing it will allow them to "rule the school". Lenny mentions in "The Yogmans Strike Back" that he plans to it to "Brainwash the principal, and abolish PE forever!"

Shannon Westerburg (voiced by Grey DeLisle) is a girl whom Robot loves because she has more mechanical attachments than any human he has ever seen, specifically a large orthodontic appliance and a prosthetic leg. She is unaware that Robot has a crush on her and typically finds him more of an annoyance than anything else but is sometimes friendly to him. Shannon talks with a lisp.

Gramps Unit (voiced by Macintalk's 'Zarvox') is Robot Jones' grandfather. Gramps Unit sounds like Robot Jones' father, but he could be the dad of Dad Unit & Mom Unit. It is shown in "Vacuum Friend" that he strongly dislikes humans and wishes for machines to take over from mankind as rulers of the planet. However, he cares deeply for Robot, as seen in "House Party".

Mr. McMcMc (voiced by Maurice LaMarche in the pilot and Rip Taylor in the series) is Robot Jones' math teacher. Like most of the staff at Polyneux, he is very childish and also extremely insecure about his intelligence, as seen in "Math Challenge".

Clancy Q. Sleepyjeans (voiced by David Koechner) is the school janitor.

Mr. Workout (voiced by Dee Bradley Baker) is the PE teacher in Polyneux Middle School. He forced Robot to take a shower in "PU to PE", resulting in him being electrocuted inadvertently by Robot. He later appeared in "Growth Spurts" with little impact on the plot, alongside an unnamed bearded coach.

Mrs. Raincoat (voiced by Grey DeLisle) the English teacher.

James Nob (voiced by Gedde Watanabe) is the owner of Nob's Arkaid, where Robot and his friends hang out. He keeps telling kids that they're breaking his arcade machines, every time they play with them. In "Hookie 101", it is revealed that his arcade gives a discount on game tokens during school hours.

References

Whatever Happened to... Robot Jones? Wikipedia

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