Created for the science fiction film Forbidden Planet, Robbie the Robot went on to star in a ton of movies, TV shows, commercials and other media. I mean this robot is everywhere. I daresay you won't find a celebrity living or dead who's made more cameos than Robbie. I looked him up on IMdB and their list is not anywhere near complete. For example, I know he was on the "Perry Como Show" (1956), but this isn't listed on his filmography. So exactly how many times has Robbie popped up on print and screen? I don't think anyone can really say.Before Robbie the Robot was on "The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis" (1959) as seen on the right, he originated on Forbidden Planet and followed up with its sequel The Invisible Boy. Below is a publicity shot of Robbie opposite co-star Anne Francis.
From Forbidden Planet on, Robbie enjoyed appearance after appearance in both print and screen. He made several appearances on "Lost in Space" and "The Twilight Zone". In addition, he made cameos on "Columbo", "Mork & Mindy", and "The Addam's Family".
Robbie is in the films Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace (he's in Watto's junk shop), Gremlins, Earth Girls Are Easy, and Cherry 2000. He's been on "Wonder Woman", "The Banana Splits", "Hazel", "The Man from U.N.C.L.E", "The Simpsons" and even "Stacked" in 2005. Robbie also made a cameo alongside Mr. Whipple in a Charmin commercial. My God, Robbie's taste for the limelight is unquenchable!
Also, Robbie commonly pops up in the background as in The Phantom Menace. Audiences often don't realize that he's even there. Exhibit A: Marvel’s Strikeforce Morituri #7 (June 1987). Can you spot our boy Robbie?
Little known facts: (1) there was a Robbie the Robot Dog comic book character (but Robbie claims no relation), and (2) Robbie the Robot was voiced by the same guy who did Aquaman on Superfriends.
And on a final note: there was a robot that landed on Gilligan's Island, but believe it or not, it was actually not Robbie.
Wow, I have not been here in a while. A lot of stuff to catch up on. The layout of the posts is getting sharp and tight... my hat is off to you.
ReplyDeleteNot much time now to go back and read. I am rebuilding my site at a new URL..alas the old site is defunct. Long story.
If you get the chance please relink me, okay :)
http://uraniumcafe-the.com
I am redoing old posts one at a time by copy/pasting the html. I am only up to #13 of 50 now.
Drop by and say hi as your comments always perked me up. Right now it is all reruns at my place but maybe you have seen some of the older posts.
Take care man and keep up the fantastic work... it is awesome!
Bill
Great post on Robbie. I had so idea the guy was around so much. In fact i an recall seeing more than I imagined but may have always assumed it was a different robot, got in retrospect it was one and the same.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Bill once again for the comments. It's funny but the number of people visiting this site has gone up substantially lately but very, very few comment. No comprende.
ReplyDeleteIf it's a blog I like and an interesting post, I'll generally try to put a comment on there because I think it's a sort of positive feedback to the author.
I haven't visited the uranium cafe lately because of your warning that it was under serious construction. I will definitely be back now that I know it's up and running. And, yes, your link will be updated for sure (as it stands, I'm sure a lot more come to my site via uranium cafe than vice versa - although my visitors have tripled lately for whatever reason, and I hope it continues).
yes, my traffic is zero really. need to build it back up, but first need to get the site back up and it is harder than I thought. some issues with my connection and the Wordpress 2.6 media uploader...making it slow slow.
ReplyDeleteI had good traffic really, but my site was only 4 months old! Ha, a babe. So I am confident I can get it back up, and the LAMB boosts all that too. I dunno if you saw the Three Company banner for your site I made in my sidebar, I sort of like it.
Congrats on your traffic, you deserve it, you work hard here.
Robbie was also cast as a waiter in Roger Corman's HOLLYWOOD BOULEVARD (directed by Joe Dante & Alan Arkush) and appeared with a different dome top in Jack Webb's "Dragnet" inspired sci-fi series PROJECT UFO.
ReplyDeleteGreat blog, BTW!
Robbie was also the co-host of "Tronic Theater" an afternoon movie show that peppered local airways in the 1960s. It would feature a movie split into two parts, one hour each. It was geared for the afternoon breaks for housewives.
ReplyDelete"Tronic Theater" was seen in the Virginia Beach area in the mid 1960s and had a human host as well as our friend Robbie.
I loved the show because on Fridays they would do a full 90 minutes and usually featured SCIFI movies for kids home after school.
Tronic Theater (with THE Robbie Robot) was hosted by Mike McMannus on WAVY TV 10, Norfolk-Virginia Beach area. Mondays thru Thursdays (around 4 PM) was usually an Italian dubbed sand-and-sandals Hercules/Samson-type flick, and Fridays was a monster or science fiction movie. Some of those Friday movies included the original King Kong, Son of Kong, The Giant Claw, Rodan. The theme music for the local TV show was lifted from the Forbidden Planet movie, with Ann Francis. And Ann Francis appeared in Norfolk, VA at the Tidewater Dinner Theater in 1977. McMannus also appeared on WAVY TV as host "Poopdeck Pappy" with Popeye cartoons. Tronic had no set, just a darkened studio with a black background, Robbie, and Mac on a bar stool.
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