''Whatever Happened to... Robot Jones?'' (simply known as ''Robot Jones'' or ''WHTRJ?'') is an American

animated television series An animated series is a set of Animation, animated works with a common series title, usually related to one another. These episodes should typically share the same main characters, some different secondary characters and a basic theme. Series can ...

created by Greg Miller for

Cartoon Network Cartoon Network (often abbreviated as CN) is an American cable television channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. It is a part of The Cartoon Network, Inc., a division that also has the broadcasting and production activities of Boomerang, Car ...

. It follows Robot Jones, a teenage robot who attends the fictional suburban Polyneux Middle School in a

retrofuturistic Retrofuturism (adjective ''retrofuturistic'' or ''retrofuture'') is a movement in the creative arts showing the influence of depictions of the future produced in an earlier era. If futurism is sometimes called a "science" bent on anticipatin ...

1980s world. Episodes follow Robot Jones researching aspects of human life, including music, facial hair, and gym class. Jones is guided by his three friends, Socks, Mitch, and Cubey. Robot Jones is often smitten with his crush, Shannon Westerburg, a tall, young girl with

orthodontic headgear Orthodontic headgear is a type of orthodontic appliance typically attached to the patient's head with a strap or number of straps around the patient’s head or neck. From this, a force is transferred to the mouth/jaw(s) of the subject. Headgear ...

and a

prosthesis In medicine, a prosthesis (plural: prostheses; from grc, πρόσθεσις, prósthesis, addition, application, attachment), or a prosthetic implant, is an artificial device that replaces a missing body part, which may be lost through trau ...

. 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 first pilot aired on Cartoon Network on June 16, 2000, as part of "Voice Your Choice Weekend", a contest in which previously unaired pilots were broadcast for viewers to decide which should be given a full series. Even though the ''Robot Jones'' pilot ranked second below ''

Grim & Evil ''Grim & Evil'' is an American animated television series created by Maxwell Atoms for Cartoon Network. It consists of two segments which were eventually spun off into their own series, ''The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy'' and ''Evil Con Car ...

'' in the event, Robot Jones was greenlit for its own series, which premiered on July 19, 2002. The first season voice of Robot Jones was created with a

Microsoft Word 97 Microsoft Office 97 (version 8.0) is the fifth major release for Windows of Microsoft Office, released by Microsoft on November 19, 1996. It succeeded Microsoft Office 95 and was replaced by Microsoft Office 2000 in 1999. A Mac OS equivalent, M ...

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 overs. The series ended on November 14, 2003, after 13 episodes and a pilot.

Premise

Robot Jones (voiced by a text-to-speech program in the pilot and season 1; Bobby Block in season 2 and season 1 reruns) is a teenage robot living in a fictional early 1980s version of

Delaware Delaware ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Maryland to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and New Jersey and the Atlantic Ocean to its east. The state takes its name from the adjacent Del ...

where robots are commonplace. Robot attempts to learn human nature by attending Polyneux Middle School with his new friends Timothy "Socks" Morton (

Kyle Sullivan Kyle Russell Sullivan (born September 24, 1988) is an American former actor, known for appearing on the TV series ''All That'' and the Fox sitcom '' The War at Home''. Sullivan was born in Los Angeles, California. He played the recurring char ...

), a tall boy who loves rock music, Mitch Davis (

Gary LeRoi Gray Gary LeRoi Gray (born February 12, 1987) is an American actor, who has appeared in movies, television and animation. Career He is best known for his childhood role as Nelson Tibideaux, the son of Sondra Huxtable Tibideaux and Elvin Tibideaux on ...

), a

headphones Headphones are a pair of small loudspeaker drivers worn on or around the head over a user's ears. They are electroacoustic transducers, which convert an electrical signal to a corresponding sound. Headphones let a single user listen to an au ...

-wearing boy whose eyes are hidden by his long hair, and Charles "Cubey" Cubinacle (Myles Jeffrey), a shorter boy who loves video games. He holds a crush on Shannon Westerburg (

Grey DeLisle Grey DeLisle (; born Erin Grey Van Oosbree; August 24, 1973), sometimes credited as Grey Griffin, is an American voice actress, comedian and singer-songwriter. DeLisle is known for various roles in animated productions and video games. On Sept ...

), a girl with a large

retainer Retainer may refer to: * Retainer (orthodontics), devices for teeth * RFA ''Retainer'' (A329), a ship * Retainers in early China, a social group in early China Employment * Retainer agreement, a contract in which an employer pays in advance for ...

and

prosthetic In medicine, a prosthesis (plural: prostheses; from grc, πρόσθεσις, prósthesis, addition, application, attachment), or a prosthetic implant, is an artificial device that replaces a missing body part, which may be lost through trau ...

metal leg. In each episode, Robot Jones explores 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 (

Jeff Bennett Jeffrey Glenn Bennett (born October 2, 1962) is an American voice actor who voiced Johnny Bravo in the Johnny Bravo, eponymous television series, Dexter's Dad in ''Dexter's Laboratory'', Brooklyn in ''Gargoyles (TV series), Gargoyles'' and List o ...

), a

technophobic Technophobia (from Greek τέχνη ''technē'', "art, skill, craft" and φόβος ''phobos'', "fear"), also known as technofear, is the fear or dislike of advanced technology or complex devices, especially computers. Although there are numerou ...

principal, Mr. McMcMc (

Rip Taylor Charles Elmer "Rip" Taylor Jr. (January 13, 1931 – October 6, 2019) was an American actor and comedian, known for his exuberance and flamboyant personality, including his wild moustache, toupee, and his habit of showering himself (and others ...

), a jealous and insecure math teacher, and Lenny (

Josh Peck Joshua Michael Peck (born November 10, 1986) is an American actor and comedian. Peck began his career as a child actor in the late 1990s and early 2000s, and had an early role on the Nickelodeon sitcom ''The Amanda Show'' from 2000 to 2002. Peck ...

) and Denny (Austin Stout) 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 ''You Can't Do That on Television'' is a Canadian sketch comedy television series that first aired locally in 1979 before airing in the United States in 1981. It featured pre-teen and teenage actors in a sketch comedy format similar to that of ...

''. 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 The Mac (known as Macintosh until 1999) is a family of personal computers designed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple Inc. Macs are known for their ease of use and minimalist designs, and are popular among students, creative professionals, and ...

Macintalk PlainTalk is the collective name for several speech synthesis (MacinTalk) and speech recognition technologies developed by Apple Inc. In 1990, Apple invested a lot of work and money in speech recognition technology, hiring many researchers in th ...

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.

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. 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. While ''

'' 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. ''Robot Jones'' animation style can be seen as a throwback to 1970s and 1980s cartoons such as ''

Schoolhouse Rock! ''Schoolhouse Rock!'' is an American interstitial programming series of animated musical educational short films (and later, videos) that aired during the Saturday morning children's programming block on the U.S. television network ABC. The theme ...

'', with an intentionally messy and rough look; it also strongly resembles classic newspaper comic strips such as ''

Calvin and Hobbes ''Calvin and Hobbes'' is a daily American comic strip created by cartoonist Bill Watterson that was syndicated from November 18, 1985, to December 31, 1995. Commonly cited as "the last great newspaper comic", ''Calvin and Hobbes'' has enjoyed ...

''. 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 Traditional animation (or classical animation, cel animation, or hand-drawn animation) is an animation technique in which each frame is drawn by hand. The technique was the dominant form of animation in cinema until computer animation. Proce ...

. The show was animated at

Rough Draft Studios Rough Draft Studios, Inc. is an American animation production studio based in Glendale, California, with a second studio in Glendale and its sister studio Rough Draft Korea located in Seoul, South Korea. The studio was founded in Van Nuys, Los An ...

in Seoul, South Korea. Greg Miller stated in an interview on Facebook that he used a

text-to-speech software on his old

computer for Robot's voice during production for season one, but after the first season was completed, the executives of Cartoon Network didn't like how it sounded.https://www.facebook.com/OperationRobotJones/posts/555286887825999 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. The aforementioned interview also revealed that the show was originally planned to be about Robot Jones growing up in the style of ''

The Wonder Years ''The Wonder Years'' is an American coming-of-age story, coming-of-age situation comedy, comedy/Drama (film and television), drama television series created by Neal Marlens and Carol L. Black, Carol Black. It ran on American Broadcasting Company ...

'' only to take over the world in the style of ''

The Terminator ''The Terminator'' is a 1984 American science fiction action film directed by James Cameron. It stars Arnold Schwarzenegger as the Terminator, a cyborg assassin sent back in time from 2029 to 1984 to kill Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton), whos ...

'', and when asked how the show would have ended, Greg Miller explained it would end in the show's version of the 1990s with Robot Jones rallying a robot army to attack the human race.

Episodes

Series overview

Pilot (2000)

Season 1 (2002–03)

Season 2 (2003)

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 2006, ''Robot Jones'' reran sporadically on ''

The Cartoon Cartoon Show ''What a Cartoon!'' (later known as ''The What a Cartoon! Show'' and ''The Cartoon Cartoon Show'') is an American animated anthology series created by Fred Seibert for Cartoon Network. The shorts were produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions; by th ...

'', along with segments of other

Cartoon Cartoons Cartoon Cartoons is a collective name used by Cartoon Network for their original animated television series originally aired between 1995 and 2003 and produced in majority by Hanna-Barbera and/or Cartoon Network Studios. Beginning with its incepti ...

from that time period. Reruns began airing on Cartoon Network's Latin-American sister network

Tooncast Tooncast is a Latin American pay television channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery through its Warner Bros. Discovery#Assets, International division. It was launched on 1 December 2008; its programming consists of classical animation, both from H ...

in 2015. It has also been added to the local version of

HBO Max HBO Max is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. Launched in the United States on May 27, 2020, the service is built around the libraries of HBO, Warner Bros., Cartoon Netw ...

in 2022. 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 was provided by the Microsoft Word 97 text-to-speech programmed voice.

References

External links

* (archive) * * * pilot foru
at The Lost Media Wiki
{{DEFAULTSORT:Whatever Happened To Robot Jones? 2000s American animated television series 2000s American comic science fiction television series 2002 American television series debuts 2003 American television series endings American children's animated comic science fiction television series Animated television series about robots Cartoon Cartoons Cartoon Network original programming Television series by Cartoon Network Studios English-language television shows Middle school television series Teen animated television series Television series by Rough Draft Studios Television series set in the 1980s Television shows set in Delaware