Robot and Monster is an American computer-animated television series and the thirty-second major Nicktoon created by Dave Pressler, Joshua Sternin and J.R. Ventimilia for Nickelodeon. The main characters, Robot and Monster, are voiced by Curtis Armstrong and comedian Harland Williams, respectively. It premiered on the Nickelodeon network on August 4, 2012. Most episodes aired on Nickelodeon, but several episodes were left unaired on the channel. Some of these episodes later premiered on NickToons, and the remaining unaired segments were released on the Noggin streaming app on March 5, 2015.
Plot
Working at the Blinking Light Factory is basic for Mechanicals and Organics, but Robot and Monster make an odd couple, since Robot is serious and Monster is always goofy, but that doesn't keep them from being best friends. They do everything together, such as testing gadgets out, dreaming of JD, taking care of their pet Marf, avoiding both the annoying Ogo and Robot's arrogant brother Gart, and eating tons of bacon.
History
The series' started its development back in 2006, when Dave Pressler started working on the show bible and the series was intended to be named Robot and Monster: Best Friends Forever. His drawings of the characters would be based on Dave's regular robot drawings, where he's specialized in. The series' pilot was called "The Dark Night", in 2008, which was later turned into a full-length episode of the final series, with minor changes.
In 2010, Nickelodeon ordered 26 episodes for the first season and the series, now called Robot and Monster, officially premiered on August 4, 2012, with the episodes "Monster's Great Escape" and "Game Boys".
In December 2012, "Baconmas" was the last episode to premiere on Nickelodeon, leaving several episodes unaired on the channel. Some of the unaired episodes eventually premiered on the separate Nicktoons channel: "Dirty Money"/"What J.D. Wants" in December 2013, "Monster Hit" in July 2014, and "J.D. Loves Gart"/"Misery Date" in February 2015. The segments "A Better Marftrap" and "Monster Lie" did not air on TV, but they were released on the Noggin App in March 2015. The rest of the series was also available on Noggin.
Unfinished second season
According to Dave Pressler, Nickelodeon ordered a second season in August 2011. Production was shut down in January 2012, when the new episodes had already started their scripting and storyboard phases. Below is a quote from Dave Pressler about the unfinished season:
- "While we were still in production on season one, Nickelodeon was liking the show and felt confident to give us an additional 18 episode order. That meant we were going to start working on a second season in August of 2011. Our first big season 2 premier was going to be a two-part episode where we reveal that Robot's dad was captured by Blimp Pirates when he was a boy. Then Robot is reunited with his Dad 'Brickland' who has now become captain of the Blimp Pirates.
- It was going to be a cool episode. But Nickelodeon canceled our season 2 orders in Jan of 2012, so it was short lived. We never finished any of them.[1]
Of the unfinished episodes, storyboards have been found for two of them ("Blimp Pirates" and "Best in Marf"). The storyboard for "Blimp Pirates" can be viewed here and the one for "Best in Marf" can be viewed here.
On his blog, Dave said, My partners and I along with the entire R&M crew were stunned and crushed that Nickelodeon made this decision. We all felt like we were making something good that could have been the next big thing for Nick, unfortunately they did not feel that way[2].
On September 12, 2020, Dave Pressler hosted an hour-long Q&A session about the show called "Robot and Monster Talk" on his Instagram, giving more insight into the development of the series and how it came to be, as well as an explanation to why exactly the show was cancelled and what the second season would have been like.[3]
Characters
- Robot Default is an orange robot that is the main protagonist of the show that is the Quality Control Inspector at the Blinking Light Factory. Robot always feels like the world is trying to keep him down, even his know-it-all brother Gart doesn't help at all. Luckily, after meeting Monster, who believes in him all the way, Robot is now best friends with Monster.
- Monster Krumholtz is a purple minotaur-like monster with a floating bowler hat on his head and the show's deauteragonist. Monster is the eternal optimist living by the motto that "Good things happen to good people," and that all people are good. Monster is an extremely outgoing Organic that is endlessly fascinated by the little things in life. Monster is driven to make everyone happy, and the need to explore the "shiny thing." But because of Monster's fascination with the world, he is very easy to fool. Unlike Robot, Monster feels like everything goes his way, although it doesn't, making him a very good friend to have around.
- Marf is a pet of Monster. He is a block of metal that acts like a dog, and only says "marf".
- Ogo is the third wheel of Robot and Monster's friendship. He constantly tries to involve himself in the duo's doings, and just can't seem to grasp that he isn't part of the team.
- Perry is a robot co-worker of Robot and Monster's. He always has a smile on his face, but it's due to a function problem, as revealed in "Come On, Get Happy". He seems to get hurt a lot, and when something is thrown, it almost always hits him. He always feels miserable and the only thing that makes him genuinely happy is Robot's misfortunes. He is shaped like a sewage pipe, colored in orange with a yellow "2".
- J.D. is a cool, rebellious biker chick whose best friend is her equally hip robotic bike, Spitfire. They are inseparable best friends and regulars at the local bacon joint, Makin' Bacon. JD can be hot-headed at times, while Spitfire is more rational and willing to avoid fights. Both Monster and Robot have crushes on JD.
- Gart Default is Robot's arrogant, overbearing older brother and his supervisor. He runs their father's Blinking Light factory.
- Nessie is the six-tentacled owner and manager of the Makin' Bacon.
Episodes
- Main article: Robot and Monster episode list
Broadcast history
- Nickelodeon (original run, August 4, 2012-December 26, 2013; reruns, December 27, 2013-June 29, 2014)
- NickToons (August 4, 2012-May 8, 2015)
- Noggin App (March 5, 2015-September 30, 2018)
- Nick Jr. on Pluto TV (May 1, 2019-present; reruns)
- Paramount+ (November 10, 2020-December 31, 2023)
DVD release
A Complete Series DVD set was released as a manufacture-on-demand title from Amazon.com on November 11, 2014 (oddly before the series had finished airing). Unfortunately, as with all of Amazon's manufacture-on-demand DVDs, it was discontinued on June 4, 2021.
References
External links
- Nickstory Archives: Robot and Monster
- NickToons: G.L.O.B.E. Archives: Robot and Monster
- Robot and Monster at Behind the Voice Actors
The topic of this page has a wiki of its own: Robot and Monster Wiki.