A bawdy roost
‘Robot Chicken’ has developed a cult following with absurdist takes on pop culture, making Stoopid Buddy Stoodios of Burbank an industry player
Seth Green slumps on a bench seat in a 1970s Winnebago that’s parked inside of Stoopid Buddy Stoodios in Burbank. A nasty case of strep throat has him feeling low.
But the fact that “Robot Chicken,” the off-color stop-motion animated series Green created with Matthew Senreich was renewed for a seventh season, perks him up a bit.
“We thought it was the same generation as us who grew up watching the same TV shows and eating the same cereal,” says Green of the show’s fan base, which has helped make “Robot Chicken” a cult hit among mostly younger men. “But we have 9-year-olds who come up to us singing our theme song.”
He pauses, and adds, “I think that’s just bad parenting.” “Robot Chicken,” which airs its sixth-season finale midnight Sunday on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim, is a key part of the channel’s late-night programming block known for its absurdist, bawdy humor rife with sexual and violent imagery. The short episodes play like a super-salty animated version of “Saturday Night Live” in which popular actors give voice to animated toys in the service of crudely mocking pop culture.
“Adult Swim has an audience profile that a lot of cable networks would be envious of,” says Brad Adgate, a vice president of research at Horizon Media. He says the show might capture the largest audience of 18-to-34-year-old males in its late-night time slot. “And I think that ‘Robot Chicken,’ along with ‘Family