| "Rabbot" | |||
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| Aqua Teen Hunger Force episode | |||
Dr. Weird unveiling the Rabbot. |
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| Episode no. | Season 1 Episode 1 |
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| Directed by | Dave Willis Matt Maiellaro |
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| Written by | Dave Willis Matt Maiellaro |
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| Production code | 101 | ||
| Original air date | December 30, 2000 | ||
| Episode chronology | |||
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| Aqua Teen Hunger Force (season 1) List of Aqua Teen Hunger Force and Aqua Unit Patrol Squad 1 episodes |
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"Rabbot" is the pilot episode and the first episode of the first season of the animated television series Aqua Teen Hunger Force. This episode marks the first official appearance of Master Shake, Frylock, and Meatwad, who first made rough-cut appearances in the Space Ghost Coast to Coast episode "Baffler Meal". This episode also marks the first appearance of Carl Brutananadilewski, Dr. Weird, and Steve. "Rabbot" was rated TV-PG-L in the U.S. An original, unannounced "stealth" version of this episode originally aired in the U.S. on December 30, 2000, on Cartoon Network, making "Rabbot" the only episode to originally air on the station instead of Adult Swim. The final cut of this episode eventually aired on September 16, 2001, on Adult Swim.
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Dr. Weird unveils his newest invention, a titanic robotic rabbit named Rabbot, to solve the world's "vegetable problem". Dr Weird then sprays Rabbot in the face with French perfume, which causes Rabbot to go berserk, to break out of Dr. Weird's laboratory, and to flatten Carl's car. The next morning, Carl notices his flattened car; Master Shake comes out to solve the mystery of what happened Carl's to car, but after briefly examining the crime scene, Master Shake concludes that "Meteors did it" and charges Carl $20. Frylock then comes out to teleport Carl to work. Carl reasserts that he works out of home, so Frylock's teleportation beam simply flings Carl onto the roof of his house. Master Shake and Frylock then proceed to solve the rest of this mystery from inside Carl's pool against his demands. There, Shake says that the culprit "is someone who is jealous of Carl's ability to drive" and goes to wake Meatwad. Upon awakening, Meatwad begins to dance to his jam box, but then Shake stomps on it, saying that "Dancing is forbidden".
Once again, Master Shake, Frylock, and Meatwad loiter in Carl's pool, where Shake loses all his enthusiasm he had for this mission and wishes to close it, but Frylock reminds him of the danger the culprit poses. Meatwad is then hitched to the Aqua Teens' mode of transportation, the "Danger Cart". After a mishap with the garage door in which Frylock resolves by blowing it up, the Aqua Teens head for the mall. However, Rabbot has already rampaged the mall, spraying whatever it did not smash with a strange hair growing formula. The Aqua Teens make it to the mall, where Frylock discovers a mountain of evidence from Rabbot's rampage. There, he continues to investigate.
As the Aqua Teens return home, they head through downtown and notice that Rabbot is rampaging through the city and is spraying buildings with his hair growing formula. Rabbot sprays Shake with the spray, causing him to grow long hair and to abandon the mission to get a perm. Frylock blasts Rabbot with his eye lasers, but they reflect off his body and burn Shake's hair off. Meatwad then stops Rabbot by playing his jam box, which causes Rabbot to dance along to the music. The Aqua Teens then regroup in Carl's pool, where Shake says that Rabbot (who is still dancing to the music from Meatwad's jam box) has made downtown unsafe and that they must find some new restaurants and nightclubs. Carl then demands they get out of his pool. The episode ends with the Rabbot dancing downtown, while the closing credits are shown on a split screen.
"Rabbot" is the pilot as well as the first episode of Aqua Teen Hunger Force.[1] Written and directed by series creators Dave Willis and Matt Maiellaro, "Rabbot" was rated TV-PG-L in the U.S. A rough-cut, unannounced version of this episode originally aired on Cartoon Network on December 30, 2000, making it the only episode to first air on the station instead of Adult Swim. The final cut of this episode eventually aired on September 16, 2001, on Adult Swim. Unlike most episodes, "Rabbot" does not feature any guest appearances.[2] This episode introduces the current versions of the series' main characters: Master Shake, Frylock, and Meatwad, who had previously made an unofficial rough-cut appearances in the Space Ghost Coast to Coast episode season eight, "Baffler Meal".[3][4] This episode also marks the first appearance of their next door neighbor, Carl Brutananadilewski,[5] and supporting characters Dr. Weird and Steve.[6][7]
This is one of the only three episodes to feature Master Shake, Frylock, and Meatwad as detectives. After three episodes, this premise and the use of the name by the characters were dropped. The premise was a trick that had been added to appease Cartoon Network executives, who "didn't want to air a show about food just going around and doing random stuff". In the show itself, Frylock mentions that they stopped fighting crime because "that wasn't making us a whole lot of money."[8] This premise was later revisited in the season eight episodes "Allen Part 1" and "Allen Part 2",[9][10] which were the first two episodes to premiere as Aqua Unit Patrol Squad 1, after the title was officially changed in 2011.[11] In "Rabbot", Master Shake states "Dancing is forbidden".[12][13] This quote is sampled with the instrumental for the Aqua Teen Hunger Force theme song, and was used in the closing credits until 2011.[11] In "Rabbot", a number of different backgrounds from various Hanna-Barbera cartoons, such as the city background behind the Aqua Teens' and Carl's houses, which are from SWAT Kats: The Radical Squadron. The "Powerpuff Mall" is taken from the pilot episode of The Powerpuff Girls, "Meat Fuzzy Lumkins".[14]
The 2010 episode from season seven, "Rabbot Redux" is named after this episode. This episode features multiple clips, references and lines taken directly from "Rabbot". The Rabbot also makes a third appearance in this episode, where he crushes Frylock, Master Shake, and Meatwad's newly purchased house.[15][16]
Nine days following the unannounced stealth pilots for Sealab 2021 and The Brak Show, "Rabbot" originally aired on December 30, 2000 unannounced at 5:00 am. almost six months before Adult Swim officially started.[17] The show was listed on the official schedule as "Special Programming" and was aired with two episodes of Sealab 2021 and the unfinished pilot episode of Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law. In the original "stealth" broadcast of "Rabbot", there were many differences from the final cut. For example, there was no theme song or opening titles, the segues that cut to another scene were also different – instead of Schooly D narrating over rap music, they showed the old "outer space zoom" segue from the Hanna-Barbera Super Friends cartoon, with the instrumental of the Aqua Teen Hunger Force theme played over it. In the cold open, after the Rabbot escapes, Dr. Weird says "Unleash the mechanical frog!" and the giant garage door opens again, showing a huge mechanical frog. There was also a scene of Master Shake sitting in the hair salon talking about things he hates. After Meatwad says "everyone likes dancing" it cuts to Shake getting his hair done and saying "..And I HATE dancing. It's one of my LEAST favorite things to do. Other things I hate are work, exercise, people, stupid people—". An unfinished version of the stealth pilot can be found on the Aqua Teen Hunger Force Volume One DVD.[18]
TV.com gave "Rabbot" an 8.0 out of 10, which is considered "Great". In addition to receiving a good rating, this episode also received several positive comments from TV.com members as well.[19] "Rabbot" was given a score of 7.5 out of a possible 10 on the Internet Movie Data Base, and received positive reviews from users as well.[20] Both the final cut and an unfinished version of the original version of "Rabbot", along with sixteen of the following episodes from season one, were released by Warner Home Video on a two-disc DVD set in the U.S. on November 18, 2003. The set also includes audio commentary for "Rabbot" as well as "Mayhem of the Mooninites" and "Space Conflict from Beyond Pluto".[21][22] In addition to being available on DVD the final cut of "Rabbot" is available on iTunes and the "Build Your Own DVD" feature on the Adult Swim website.[23][24]
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