Whatever Happened to... Robot Jones? (simply known as Robot Jones or WHTRJ?) is an American animated television series created by Greg Miller for Cartoon Network. It follows the eponymous Robot Jones, a young robot who attends the fictional suburban Polyneux Middle School in a retrofuturistic version of the 1980s. Episodes follow Robot Jones researching aspects of human life, including music, facial hair, and gym class. Jones has friends in three boys: Socks, Mitch, and Cubey. Robot Jones is often smitten with his crush, Shannon Westerburg, a tall 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' 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 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 98 text-to-speech function on a Macintosh computer. Beginning with the second season, Robot Jones' voice was dubbed over by child actor Bobby Block, and reruns of the first season were re-dubbed with Block's voice overs.
Premise
left|thumb|Promotional image featuring the series' main characters. From left to right: Cubey, Socks, Robot Jones, and Shannon
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 young robot living in a fictional early 1980s version of Delaware where robots are commonplace. 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 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.
Robot Jones animation style can be seen as a throwback to 1970s and 1980s cartoons such as Schoolhouse Rock!, with an intentionally messy and rough look; it also strongly resembles classic newspaper comic strips such as Calvin and Hobbes. 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. The show was animated at Rough Draft Studios in Seoul, South Korea.
Greg Miller stated in an interview on Facebook that he used a Microsoft Word 97 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 didn't like how it sounded. Child actor Bobby Block was chosen to take the role of Robot in season two. Robot Jones' 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 only to take over the world in the style of The Terminator, 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. Greg Miller also mentioned in another interview that he originally planned for the series to have a music video every episode, each one in a different style of music, but that was ultimately shot down by the network.
Greg Miller also confirmed a few things on his Twitter about the production. A big inspiration for the visual language was an anime called Chibi Maruko Chan where in a dramatic moment or intense emotion the background changes. Another thing borrowed from Chibi Maruko Chan was the characters turning white when they were overcome with emotion. In addition, a lot of speculation began in the 21st Century regarding the character of Principal Madman bearing a resemblance to Adolf Hitler. Miller cleared this up stating he was based on Mr. Schidtler from Nickelodeon's You Can't Do That on Television (portrayed by Les Lye), and that any resemble to the former was coincidental.
Episodes
Series overview
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;"
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!rowspan="2" colspan="2"|Season
!rowspan="2"|Episodes
!colspan="2"|Originally aired
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!First aired
!Last aired
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| colspan=2|Pilot
| colspan="2" |
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| style="background:#FF5F5F; width:4px;"|
| 1
| 6
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| 2
| 7
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|}