| My Life as a Teenage Robot | |
|---|---|
Title card |
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| Genre | |
| Created by | Rob Renzetti |
| Voices of | Janice Kawaye Chad Doreck Audrey Wasilewski Candi Milo Quinton Flynn Moira Quirk Cree Summer Eartha Kitt |
| Theme music composer | Peter Lurye |
| Composer(s) | James L. Venable Peter Lurye |
| Country of origin | United States Canada |
| No. of seasons | 3 |
| No. of episodes | 40 (List of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Running time | 24 minutes |
| Production company(s) | Frederator Studios Nickelodeon Animation Studios Stoopid monkey (The N) |
| Distributor | MTV Networks (USA) Nelvana Limited (non-USA) |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | Nickelodeon |
| Original run | August 1, 2003 – March 30, 2007 |
My Life as a Teenage Robot is an American animated television series, created by Rob Renzetti for Nickelodeon. The series follows the adventures of XJ-9, better known as Jenny Wakeman, a female robot designed to protect Earth, who is excessively addicted to teen-related activities, which are almost always interrupted by Nora Wakeman, her creator.
Nickelodeon debuted the series by airing the first episode of My Life as a Teenage Robot on August 1, 2003 at 8:30 PM. Despite critical success, the series was a ratings disappointment. After the series was cancelled, later episodes of the series started airing as "never before seen episodes" on Nicktoons Network. The series is distributed outside the United States by the Canadian animation studio, Nelvana Limited.
The first season is available on iTunes. All three seasons are now available on DVD at Amazon.
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Robert Renzetti was born in the Chicago suburbs in 1967. He graduated with a BFA in Art History from University of Illinois but immediately returned to school to study animation at Columbia College in Chicago and then CalArts in Valencia, California. He worked in Madrid as an animator for Batman: The Animated Series the summer after leaving CalArts before moving back to the United States. He worked for Hanna–Barbera on 2 Stupid Dogs and Dexter's Laboratory before moving to Nickelodeon to develop his own ideas as part of Oh Yeah! Cartoons He made a pilot called "My Neighbor was a Teenage Robot which was the basis for the series. After brief stints at Family Guy and Cartoon Network (working on The Powerpuff Girls, and Samurai Jack) Renzetti returned to Nickelodeon to start the Teenage Robot series.
Renzetti made 11 shorts during two seasons as a director on Oh Yeah Cartoons. Five of these starred two characters called Mina and The Count and followed the adventures of a rambunctious little girl and her undead best friend. He hoped that these characters might get their own series but Nickelodeon rejected the idea. Faced with an empty slot where the sixth Mina short was slated to go, Fred Seibert tasked Renzetti to come up with three new ideas. One of these was about a teenaged girl whose boyfriend was a robot. After further thought, Renzetti merged the two characters to create Jenny, a robot with the personality of a teenaged girl.
The cartoon is often known for its title sequence.
While Jenny looks at a magazine in her room, she "gets a call to go blading at the skatepark down by the mall". She goes there but is interrupted by her mother, Nora Wakeman, who tells her about an alien invasion. She karate-kicks, lifts and racquet-strikes one of the invaders. She comes down to ground and poses victoriously. A bolt hits a nearby water tower, she is rusted by the water sprinkling from it, and is struck by second bolt. After she is struck, she turns her eyes to another invader and she flies up to drill and destroy it. She finally lands at the skatepark with the robot nearly crashing into her. The song appearing in the sequence was written by Peter Luyre and was sung by Jennifer Karr.
XJ-9 ("Jenny" as she calls herself) is a highly sophisticated battle robot created by Dr. Nora Wakeman, but Jenny only wants to live the life of a normal teenage girl. Both live in the fictional futuristic town of Tremorton, and live next door to her best friends Brad and Tuck Carbuckle. At school, she has an ongoing rivalry with the Crust Cousins, Brit and Tiff, the popular girls in school, and puts up with Sheldon, a somewhat stereotypical nerd who is completely obsessed with her (and robots in general). Adding to her trouble is that she is constantly being dogged by the all-robotic Cluster Empire, whose queen, Vexus, wants her to join their world of robots (by force if necessary). Despite it all, Jenny struggles to maintain some semblance of a mostly-human life.
The series' themes focus on making lighthearted fun of typical teenage problems and other conventions of the teenage and superhero lives, mixed up with a combination of action, adventure, and comedy sequences. In total, 40 episodes are airing on the United States television network Nicktoons, then known as Nicktoons Network at the time it aired the third season.
My Life as a Teenage Robot has over 30 characters. Jennifer "Jenny" Wakeman (aka XJ-9) is the main protagonist. She is a state-of-the-art gynoid automaton created by Dr. Noreen Wakeman five years prior to the series. She is the Earth's protector, armed to the teeth with a wide range of weapons and devices, but all she really wants is to live the life of a normal teenager. She was preceded in development by eight other models. In season one (1) the show entitled "Sibling Tsunami" introduced XJs 1-8.
Bradley Carbuckle is outgoing and adventurous, and is the first actual friend Jenny makes. He likes to think of himself as a "ladies' man", but he mostly fails to find a girlfriend until he meets Melody. Melody is introduced during season two (2) as the creation of Dr. Locus in "Bradventure". Brad does not know that Melody is also a robot until "No Harmony with Melody" during season three (3). It is during "No Harmony with Melody" that Brad's feelings for Melody are made clear and Jenny Wakeman (XJ9) appears to be jealous. Tucker Cornelius Carbuckle is Brad's younger brother and usually tags along on adventures. He can be very rambunctious and brash but also suffers from weird phobias. Though not as heavily featured as the rest of the main cast, Sheldon Oswald Lee arguably qualifies as a core member of the group. Sheldon is Jenny's self-proclaimed romantic admirer. No matter what he tries, Jenny refuses his romantic advances, though she does care for him as a friend. Fans of the show often speculate on whether Jenny would have ended up dating Sheldon or Brad. Renzetti and his team seem to favor Sheldon but refuse to give any definitive answers as to how he would have ended the series if he was given a fourth season.[1] Jenny also has allies, such as Misty and Vega. Misty appears during season two (2) in "Teen Team Time" as part of a teenage super hero group that are just really teen aged mercenaries. Misty returns in "Teenage Mutant Ninja Trouble" toward the end of season two (2). Misty makes a third appearance during season three (3) in "Mist Opportunities". Vega is introduced as the daughter of Vexus at the start of season three (3) in "Escape from Cluster Prime". Dr. Noreen "Nora" Wakeman is the elderly spinster robotics scientist who built Jenny, and tries in vain to control her creation and keep her "daughter" focused on protecting the planet Earth. In one episode it is revealed that Dr. Wakeman has a sister "Wisteria" whom she argues with every time they meet. Aunt Wisteria believes in "fun, peace, and love" and has a strange ability to either accelerate plant life or control it. Wisteria is introduced during season three (3) in "Never say Uncle" with her son Glen, a living plant along the lines of the Swamp Thing.
Many antagonists in the series appear in one or more episodes. The most popular of them, Vexus, Smytus and Krackus, appeared the most, particularly "Designing Women", "Around the World in 80 Pieces", "Hostile Makeover", "Sister Sledgehammer", "Queen Bee" and "Trash Talk". Vexus is obsessed with the conquest of Earth, under the claim of "liberating robotkind" from the humans. About the only thing that matches her dreams of conquest is her controversial obsession with Jenny, whom she has continuously tried to induct into the Cluster with no lasting success. Smytus is an arrogant Cluster commander with an overinflated ego. In comparison to the manipulative Vexus, Smytus prefers action, and is always quick to jump into battle. Krackus is an inventor who is no good at inventing. Despite being skilled at putting a variety of devices together, he usually misses the necessary details needed for them to work (and keeping it together), which usually results in humiliating defeats for the Cluster.
| Title | Episodes |
|---|---|
| "Pajama Party Prankapalooza" | "Love 'Em or Leash 'Em", "Daydream Believer", "Pajama Party Prankapalooza", "A Pain in my Sidekick", "The Return of Raggedy Android", "Last Action Zero", "Sister Sledgehammer", "Around the World in Eighty Pieces", "Silbing Tsunami", "Call Hating" |
| "Good Old Sheldon" | "Good Old Sheldon", "Party Machine", "Teenage Mutant Ninja Troubles", "I Was a Preschool Dropout", "Designing Women", "Toying With Jenny", "Ball and Chain", and "Labor Day" |
| "Turncoats" | "Turncoats", "There's No Place Like Home School", "The Price of Love", "No Harmony with Melody", "Future Shock", "Dancing with my Shell", "Tuckered Out", and "Ear No Evil" |
| "Pest Control" | "Dressed to Kill", "Tradeshow Showdown", "The Boy Who Cried Robot", "Pest Control", "Hostile Makeover", "Raggedy Android", "Class Action", "See No Evil", "This Time With Feeling", and "Grid Iron Glory" |
Seasons 1, 2 and 3 are now available on DVD and are exclusive to Amazon.com.
Nickelodeon debuted the series by airing the first episode of My Life as a Teenage Robot on June 1, 2003 at 8:30 PM. My Life as a Teenage Robot was aired in repeats on The N on June 7, 2005.[2] The show was a part of Nickelodeon's Saturday night programming block called SNICK on June 2, 2003 and briefly was a part of the TEENick lineup on June 2003 to June 2004. The first season ended on June 27, 2004 with "The Wonderful World of Wizzley / Call Haiting".
The second season, which was originally set to air on October 1, 2004, was pushed back to October 8, 2004 with the Christmas episode "A Robot for All Seasons". A new second season episode was not aired until January 24, 2005.[3] After the airing of the 48-minute Escape from Cluster Prime 2-part episode (which was emmy nominated in 2006),[4] the show was canceled[5][6]
The third season first aired in Asia starting on October 6, 2006, with "Weapons of Mass Distraction/There's No Place Like Home School". For those in North America watching on Nicktoons, the third season started on October 4, 2008 with the last episode of the third season airing on May 2, 2009. This marked the end of the series' 7-year run. The series has been rerun worldwide on various channels, such as Nicktoons, but there are rumors of a second full length feature film and a fourth season that are yet to be confirmed.
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