Robot and Monster is an american CGI animated nicktoon created by Dave Pressler, Joshua Sternin and Jennifer Ventimilia which premiered on Nickelodean on August 4, 2012 with 26 episodes, some of which didn't premiere on tv and were later aired online and on DVDs when the series was taken off Nickelodeon. The show follows an episodic formula of the two main title characters, Robot, an orange mechanical who aspires to be an inventor and Monster, a purple organic who has an extremly optimistic view on life. They are the best of friends and the series generally follows their daily lives and the shenninagans they get themselves into.
I've been aware of this show since 2020 with memes about whether anybody remembers seeing this show while it aired on nick but it wasn't till late 2021 when a friend sat my friendgroup down to watch a couple of episodes of the series. Initially upon first viewing, this show just kinda seemed like a typical episodic 2010s nicktoons era show and that was all till a friend got me more interested in viewing the show on my own. What started out as a ironic viewing of a seemingly forgotten mediorce cartoon that generally got mixed or meh reviews turned into a rabbit hole of all the lost potential, fucking unhingness, troubled development hell and a deeper look/new perspective of how Nickelodean still continues to treat any cartoon they release on air that isn't Spongebob. While my hyperfixation for the show has somewhat dwindled nowadays I think it'd be cool to archive/document my thoughts on this show while showcasing different snippets of concept art, interesting facts and many more on here.
If you'd like to view the show for yourself, check it our here or here (only now just realized the link is dead FUCK LOVE), while some episodes can be kinda hit or miss or include kinda questionable content the show's just an entertaining watch if you don't mind 2010s Nickelodean comedic based episodic cartoons, especially when viewing with friends.
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What the hell is Robot and Monster???
As stated earlier, Robot and Monster is essentially a 2012 CGI Nicktoon about Robot and Monster, two pals who go through their daily lives and the shenanigans that surrounds them almost everyday. Robot and Monster both live in Scamtown or "place they live in" the latter name being a running gag in the show that it doesn't seem to have a name/they don't even know where they live, the two of them navigate adulthood sharing a apartment complex and working together in the Blinking Lights Factory which just so happens to be owned by Robot's stuck up and antagonistic older brother Gart where they earn minimun wage no matter what, at the end of the day or such they like coming to a popular diner in their town called the Makin Bacon where they eat bacon as bacon is one of their world's main food sources growing on trees.
This is Robot Default, they are part of one of the two fictional species of the world, Mechanicals and is the title and main protaganist of the show.
Robot is generally the "brains" of the duo, a budding and aspiring inventor but the world they live in is often in most cases very unkind to him, not only being exempt and outcasted by most of his much richer upper class family but also having most of their inventions either ridiculed or fail most of the time which causes Robot to also be quite cynical and no nonsense like, doesn't mean they don't have their own goofy or compassionate side, especially towards their best friend Monster. Robot can basically be described as the show's main "buttmonkey"/"Squidward", literally nothing goes right or quite like he wants to most of the time, but more often then not Monster is there encouraging Robot and sometimes even sharing a bit of the pain as well.
From the official Nick.com site description:
"As a Quality Control Inspector at the Blinking Light Factory, Robot is doing exactly what he was designed to do. Like any other Mechanical, Robot should be happy with fulfilling his purpose, but the amateur inventor and self-proclaimed genius knows that he is destined for something bigger. The only problem is, his ideas and inventions get him nowhere. He feels like the world is trying to keep him down. So frustrating! And it doesn't help that his supervisor at work is his know-it-all older brother, Gart. Lucky for Robot, he isn't alone! Monster believes in him all the way. That's what best friends are for!"
This is Monster Krumholtz, They are part of one of the two fictional species of the world, Organics and is the other title and main protagonists of the show.
Monster is the "happy-go-lucky" guy of the duo, an optimist with an extremely enthusiastic view on most things and life in general, they can be counterparted as the "Spongebob" of the show but even then Monster has their own fair share of being the show's buttmonkey like robot but generally has more things in their favour compared to Robot. They generally help Robot with testing their latest inventions while also having their own various interests on their own such as yodelling, pin-ball, plate balancing and many more. Despite Monster's happy attitude there are instances in which Monster shows anger and discontent especially in episodes like "anger management" or "boomerang".
From the official Nick.com site description:
"Monster is the eternal optimist, living by the motto that "good things happen to good people," and that all people are good. An extremely outgoing Organic, Monster is endlessly fascinated by the little things in life. He's driven by the need to make everybody happy, and the need to explore the "shiny thing." But because of his child-like fascination with the world, Monster is easy to fool. Unlike his best friend Robot, Monster feels like everything always goes his way, even when it doesn't. This makes him a great guy to have around!"
These two as established are the bestest of friends ever, knowing each other since childhood, they reside in an apartment together alongside their pet block Marf they found in the episode "A Better Marftrap". In their apartment also resides Ogo, their pesky neighbour who has a particular obsession with both Robot and Monster. Their landlord Mr Wheelie, an elderly mechanic who is often threatening to evict them/trying to find and catch Marf as there's a strict no pets policy.
Outside of their apartment, they're mostly seen at work at the "Blinking Lights Factory", one of the best lightbulb producing factories that is ran by Robot's upperclass family, mostly Gart who tends to mistreat all his workers unfairly, Robot especially as they're the "lesser" child. Other reoccuring characters who work here are Perry, a mechanical who's perpatual smile doesn't reflect how he's feeling, he's generally very grumpy and the 2nd biggest buttmonkey of the show, his relationship with Robot and Monster range from them being good acquaintances to being sick of their antics. Another more minor reoccuring character is Punch Morely, an older Organic who's main quirk is that he has amnesia and easily forgets things in the matter of minutes due to his pole-O days.
After work is done or any time they're free, they visit the famous "Makin' Bacon", a resturant diner run by Nessie, a sweet 6 legged organic who cooks, serves and runs the whole place. While we're here, we also see two of Robot and Monsters pals, Spitfire and JD, they're two crime fighting biker gals who are just as inseperable as Robot and Monster are (also they're in love they're lesbians)
(Also there's Crikey he's just some british fuck who likes to beat up the duo occasionally idk where to involve him sorry)
Of course, that's not all characters in the show, there's such characters like Bea Holder, Loud Mouth, Lucy, Crazy Cousin Gizmo uhm erm uhm... (related page just for Gizmo cause I swear to god)
ROBOT AND MONSTER EPISODE RANKING
Soley for convenience sake I won't be reviewing every episode in the series in this segment although the show is only 1 season long. I'll be ranking my top best and worst episodes as this show can be very mixed in quality, I'll also include a general tierlist of every episode.
so far luckily listings for good episodes out weigh the truely awful episodes but even then, for a show like Robot and Monster, when episodes are good/have good moments they're really good but when an episode is bad it's REALLy fucking bad and I have to emphasize that.
I'll first plow through the top worst rnm episodes since there's only really 3-4 to cover before going into the episodes I consider the best.
TOP WORST EPISODES OF ROBOT AND MONSTER
Top worst episodes in the entire show have to be Family Business, JD loves Gart, Monster Hit and Apartment 3 1/2, I'll be giving my general synopsises of the episodes and go into why I think they're very bad episodes.
FAMILY BUSINESS - Family business is the 18th/36th episode of the show which centers around Robot's stuck up and rich family the default family, mainly consisting of their brother Gart, their mom Arpa and their grandma. The episode starts off with the defaults having a party, having invited one of the company's rival CEOs, Pendulum Depot, the owner of the solid light factory to come. The party is then interrupted by Robot barging in due to an incident in which Robot in typical fashion gets ridiculed by Arpa and Gart for it. Feeling angry about constantly being his familys punching bag, Robot ends up teaming up with Pendulum Depot in his own factory, later revealed that Pendulum only took Robot in to get the secret recipe behind the blinking light factory out of them. Meanwhile Monster sets off to try and make the Default family nicer to Robot which seems to be failing. At the end Robot ends up giving Pendulum what seems to be the secret ingredient for the lights but it ends up being a phoney and Arpa is revealed to have kept a ripped off piece of him from a family photo near her heart cavity (quite literally) although it is claimed to only be there to keep the handle shut, it's implied that Arpa was only lying about that to Gart and that she does care about robot.
Now the biggest damn problem about this episode if you've ever seen a glimpse of this show is obvious, it's literally one of those "forgive your abusive family cause family is family" episodes. While of course highly exxagerrated and amped up cause of the fact that Robot and Monster is an episodic and comedy show first, it's still just infurieting to see an episode with such an inheretly shitty message especially since past this Robot's family pretty much treats them the same shit way and don't get me started on how Monster was written in this episode. Monster's whole "family is family is family is family" message has got to be one of the worst Monster moments in the show ever, I get that Monster is meant to be the cheery and somewhat naive character of the two but even then they're not this amount of naive. It especially sucks knowing this episode was paired with one of the best episodes in the show Anger Management and that this episode's entire existence contradicts the message and theming of another great Robot and Monster episode The Party. I just seriously don't know why the writers wanted to try and make the defaults sympathisable or "morally grey" (and I say that with huge qoutation marks) when they're mostly potrayed as these rich stupid assholes who don't give a single fuck about Robot or Gizmo soley cause of their ambitions, social status and for Gizmo's case, mental disorder (but I mean Robot also does have a disorder definitely). Maybe I'm looking too deep into this but man this episode is just a stinker, would not reccommend at all, you're probably best skipping this in general.
Monster Hit - Monster Hit is the 26th/46th episode, season 1 finale and general finale of Robot and Monster. The episode starts out with Robot and Monster at the Makin' Bacon watching the pop star Vapid Milquetoast and his newest hit single "I like love" which Robot dismisses as an insincere fad, Robot is then challenged on if he can write a better song in which they build a machine built to automatically write up a song that appeals to the masses enlisting Monster's help for vocals, it then creates a song "I love love" a direct copy of "I like love" which they perform at the Makin' Bacon. After their performance they become instant hit celebreties with the help of Hal-worth a thon but they make a promise to each other to not let the money or fame go into their heads. All seems well till Master Grabmirist introduces his daughter Robo Ono who's apparently a big fan of Robot and Monster's work, later Robo Ono sings a song which only Monster enjoys and the relationship of Robot and Monster starts to crumble due to Robo Ono hogging Monster in which Robot and Monster split up which leads to Robot having to find a new partner to perform at a concert they're supposed to be at, enlisting JD to help. Eventually Robot and JD manage to convince Monster that Robo Ono is just using them for riches and after defeating her decide to instead let Monster sing about saving the spiders as a callback to the start of the episode. The episode ends with a big performance of a lot of the main side characters of the show singing the song as a crowd of previous established character watch, only for it to end with Robot and Monster being booed and thrown garbarge at. However in the end no matter what, Robot and Monster's friendship ultimately prevails. It's also revealed the character Loudmouth who's main character trait was being angry all the time reason as to why he's angry is cause he was a team mate of Vapid Milquetoast before Vapid betrayed him for easy fame.
For a finale of the show in general, this episode is really dissapointing which is sad cause once again was it the final episode of the series in general, it had a really strong start and finish to it, it's just one aspect that single handedly ruined this episode/made it lost potential. Two words, Robo Ono. In fact just Master grabmirists and her existence alone sullies this whole episode cause they're both literally just east asian stereotypes the character, Robo Ono even worst considering she's based off a real person for seemingly no reason at all. I seriously do not know what was going on in Dave presslers or any of the writers heads who decided this would be alright to include in their show at all, it's just baffling, 2000s-2010s cartoon showrunners don't have a racist stereotype character in your show challenge (instantly failed). It's also just a big missed oppurtunity to have had Vapid Milquetoast be the end game villain instead for a good reason as well considering he's already shown to be vapid and backstabby like (with loud mouth) and Robot and Monster literally stole and renamed his song and became famous off it. It's once again just a huge shame considering the beginning and end are really good, and seeing the end is kinda just bitter sweet in perspective that the show never got renewed for a season 2 and that it would once again just be the last episode in Robot and Monster. Overall could've been a great or atleast alright episode if Robo Ono or Master grabmirist in general were not characters/didn't exist in the show, just watch the beginning and last parts of the episode.
Apartment 3 1/2 - Apartment 3 1/2 is the 14th/27th episode of the show, the plot starts off with Robot and Monster doing the laundrey when Robot finds Monster's childhood security blanket being shocked Monster hasn't thrown it away already, however Robot tells Monster they should throw it out as it's immature of them so they do despite Monster not wanting to. The next morning when Robot asks Monster where all the bacon cereal went, Monster anwsers that his newest friend 'Fuzzy Slippers' came and ate it all, this immediately concerns Robot leading them to question Monster on who and what their new friend is. Monster answers that Fuzzy Slippers is his new buddy who lives in the two apartments ceiling who's pink with bear ears and spreads cheer and disappearing confetti, Robot after hearing immediately claims that it's the craziest thing he's ever heard and gets concerned over Monster seeing imaginary people so they first visit Robot's cousin in the mental asylum, Crazy Cousin Gizmo, for his input on the situation as Gizmo has schizophrenia. This meeting generally goes unwell with Crazy Cousin Gizmo not providing much useful information for Monster and even her proclaiming Monster is "crazy" after they mentioned the disappearing confetti. When they return back to the apartment Robot finds that Monster's security blanket has not been thrown out and proclaims that Monster must just be imagining an imaginary friend due to not being able to grow up/mature. They try to consult and get as much advice as they can from others before Robot finally decides to put it to his own hands and deal with the issues themself by creating a machine that projects "mature" and "immature" ideas and either rewards or punishes Monster with good and rotten bacon based on the projection image. This seems to have worked turning Monster british and mature, however as they're about to throw away Monster's blanket as they've seem to have proven that they're an adult, Robot catches a glimpse of what seems to be Fuzzy Slippers which makes them second guest the idea of Fuzzy Slippers actually being real. Monster also sees Fuzzy Slippers in which Fuzzy Slippers finally reveals himself to them both and his living headqaurters which was this secret entrance in the roof which reveals a room full of toys. It's revealed that Fuzzy Slippers was an adult who refused to grow up, so once his parents moved out, he had remained and continued living as a child, he then invites them both to join him in playing which they do. Robot apologizes to Monster for having doubted Monster in the first place and that it's cool to like childish things, when all seems well, when Robot asks Fuzzy Slipper to help them clean up the toys, Fuzzy Slippers throws a tantrum and locks Robot and Monster out of the ceiling for that which concludes the episode.
While this episode is considerably more tame then the two previous episodes (with the exception of once again Master grabimirist making a brief appearance in this episode), it's a shame as the moral of the episode would've been alright if it was the way the plot kinda built itself up to that point through infantilizing Monster who's very autistic coded. This is def one of those episodes where tropes of certain character archetypes really come to play for Monster where the writers just seem to make it a constant point how "immature" Monster is for keeping a childhood blanket or having imaginary friends alongside how Robot kinda comes off as an asshole to Monster (which I mean is luckily resolved by the end) and don't get me started on Crazy Cousin Gizmo's introduction which is just a blatant stereotype of schizophrenic people. Overall good message but god the build up to the resolution is just awful, def not the worst but man is it boring and just tiring to sit through. Atleast we got Gizmo's first appearance which is really my highlight of the whole episode.
J.D. Loves Gart - J.D Loves Gart is the 24th/47th episode of Robot and Monster which was innitially not aired on Tv and instead first relased through Amazon Video alongside another episode. J.D Loves Gart takes place on valencrisps day in the Makin' Bacon as Robot and Monster notice the line of suitors giving their gifts to JD as she is the town/show's primary love interest. Robot tries give JD his valencrisps gift to JD before Gart enters the place and starts falling for JD upon first sight, JD soon starts to fall for Gart to the demise of Robot. As Robot tries to out Gart's true character to JD and break them up, Monster tries to grasp the idea of true love. All seems hopeless for Robot and no matter how many times they try to ruin Gart's dates with JD or expose his true nature to her Gart manages to turn it around, Robot finally gets the help of JD's best friend and sidekick Spitfire who both sabotage JD and Gart's first kiss by Robot sandwiching himself between the both of them. When finally asked what Gart likes about JD, it's shown that his admiration for her is only surface level and that he doesn't care about JD which upsets her so she beats up Gart and he breaks up with her. JD thanks them all for opening her eyes on how much of a jerk Gart is and kisses both Monster and Robot on the cheek before leaving off with Spitfire, they both conclude that valencrisps day wasn't so bad after all especially since Robot got a kiss from JD before Monster points out that he also technically got a kiss on the cheek from Gart which disgusts Robot and that's how the episode ends.
Like the previous episode, it's luckily not as bad as the previous 2 but it's really just a boring episode with a really hard to believe plot of Gart just falling in love with Jd and likewise, not to mention just how forced the relationship was alongside Robot's crush on JD which was only really shown in another 'JD love interest' centric episode "What JD Wants". Most of the time Robot and JD are potrayed as nothing more than friends with Robot having no interest in her so it's really strange why they just had to force a compulsory love "will they won't they" thing that doesn't even go anywhere, plus JD is a lesbian idc +ratio she is kissing Spitfire on the lips rn and Robot and Monster are also kissing so idc. Not a bad episode just a really boring mid cishet love centric episode of a forced dynamic just because.
And that concludes it for my top worst rated Robot and Monster episodes, now onto my top best rated Robot and Monster episodes!
TOP BEST EPISODES OF ROBOT AND MONSTER
Now onto my top rated Robot and Monster episodes, I won't be writing about all of them cause I obviously don't want to make this too long to sit through but I will try and single out episodes that really excell of things like character moments or such. Just basically episodes I think are really good/ worth rewatching.
The Party - The Party is the 16th/31th episode of Robot and Monster and marks the second full appearance of the character Crazy Cousin Gizmo which is an episode centric around her (PS I use he/she pronouns for Gizmo it's canon argue with a wall). The episode starts at the Blinking Light factory in which Robot accompanied with Monster is giving a presentation to the default family about his newest invention 'the light bulb unheater', like most of their projects do, it ends up malfunctioning and causing the default family to look down on Robot even more before Gart comments about this being the reason why Robot isn't being invited to his potrait unvealing party to Arpa and Grandma's demise, with Robot now knowing of such a party, Arpa is obligated to invite him and Monster to it with the rule that they behave as a writer for a high society newspaper, dame lady madamn will also be attending the event. It cuts to Robot and Monster back in their apartments preparing for the party with Robot telling Monster these types of parties thrown/hosted by his family are generally very boring while listing what they have to prepare for the party, before they leave to do that Gizmo makes his appearance which surpises the both of them, when questioned about her stay at the mental asylum Gizmo answers that they let her out as her wasn't hearing voices anymore but it's apparent he lied to them just to get discharged. Gizmo also introduces her partner Princess Invisible who is most likely one of Gizmo's delusions/voices he talks to. Robot is very surprised about Gizmo's surprise visit and very hesitent about actually ever telling Gizmo about the family party and Gizmo will surely mess it all up for Robot however agrees to let Gizmo accompany them when preparing for the party to Gizmo's delight. As they go on with their preparation for the party, it's made Gizmo's eccentricness is shown to annoy Robot more and more most of the time resulting in Robot being hurt or the like which makes Robot desperately want Gizmo to leave, however when requesting her to leave Gizmo reveals that he knew about the party he and Monster are attending through the high society newspaper and wants to join them both as Robot is Gizmo's favourite cousin. While Robot is annoyed about such news, Monster reminds them that Gizmo is family and Robot is in a way treating Gizmo the exact same way his own family treat him. Robot soon schemes a plan after seeing Gizmo "argue" with Princess Invisible by telling her that they saw Princess crying in the bathroom which leads to Gizmo attempting to apologize for upsetting her in which Robot soon nails the door shut with plank boards to prevent Gizmo from attending the party with him. While at the party, Robot and Monster are shown to not like it there as no fun or excitment beyond "indifferent" is accepted there, while all seems well and Gart's potrait is revealed, Gizmo bursts in the party and immediately tackles Robot to tell them that through being locked inside of their toilet he and Princess Invisible had to talk things out and set aside their differences and that they have been engaged, while Monster congragulates Gizmo on the engagement Arpa immediately questions Robot about Gizmo's arrival in which Robot tries to tell her that he tried to keep Gizmo away. When questioned about Gizmo's presence Arpa immediately deflects saying that she has no idea who Gizmo is and tells Robot to kick him out now, as Robot was about to do what he was told he remembers what Monster had told them about how they were treating Gizmo the same way the Defaults have treated them their whole life so they hesistate leading into an arguement between Robot and Arpa that no matter how eccentric Gizmo is due to her schizophrenia or the like she's still family and deserves the same respect as everyone does and Robot ultimately embraces Gizmo as their cousin and that Gizmo like Monster has described him is unique and doing what she likes which is what matters the most. As Robot tries to dance with Princess Invisible getting the attention of most of the guests attending the party Arpa shuts it down by sicking the security they hired for the event after them, after a wild chase around the party room destroying everything Gart's potrait is ruined and Gizmo and Robot are both restrained in the mental institute. The episode ends with Gizmo thanking Robot for sticking up for him and that once she and Princess Invisible gets engaged they'll have to get a seperate cell.
Now if you're either a close friend of mine or have seen my Crazy Cousin Gizmo shrine you'll already know why I love this episode so much despite it's flaws, this episode does so well with establishing a familiar bond with Robot and Gizmo and it's such a shame Gizmo wasn't utilized more in the Default family centric episodes past The Party such as Baconmas as Robot and Gizmo's dynamic to each other is very interesting with the both of them being casted out family members who are both looked down upon by their families, Gizmo probably more than Robot. While the message is fuddled through most of Gizmo's personality/actions being a heavy stereotype of schizophrenia it's still a meaningful message I'm atleast glad they touched on and despite Gizmo generally falling into those comedic characters who only exist to be laughed at for their mental illness (more specifically having schizophrenia), I can strangely relate a lot to Gizmo and how he is treated by her family and by an extent, their entire character to how you really are treated like a freak and isolated for displaying signs of mental illness or general eccentricness in anyway. I seriously think Gizmo is a great Robot and Monster character who if given to the right hands and written to be a a lot more tactful could've been a great character addition to the main cast and I'm sad she's not used or seen much beyond this episode unless you count her brief appearance in the background in the finale. Apart from all that Gizmo is legitimately a silly and fun character who added a lot to the episode and this episode is generally just very fun to watch in general. Overall one of my favourite episodes of the show that I can rewatch over and over again.
Baconmas - Baconmas is the 22nd/43th episode of Robot and Monster and is the second holiday themed episode out of the whole show (other being The Bacon Tree). Baconmas starts off with narration obviously by Ogo of how Baconmas came to be as there was a war between Mechanicals and Organics, one day a mysterious figure known as Saint Crispy came and blessed the people with loads of bacon in which they enjoyed it and came to peace due to their shared interest in bacon. After that we see Robot and Monster happily preparing and celebrating the beginning of Baconmas opening up their presents to each other and the like, Robot then reveals to Monster that he's invited their family (consisting of Monster's father Lev, younger sister Globitha and uncle, Uncle Kuffely) for baconmas. Excited about their family being invited to celebrate, Monster also reveals that they also invited Robot's family to the ocassion to Robot's demise. The default family and the krumholtz family butt heads multiple times during the celebration generally due to the defaults stuck up nature which clashes with the krumholtz family's very loud and cheerful attitudes while Robot and Monster try to keep the celebration under control. As Arpa and Lev both argue on whether Saint Crispy was a mechanical or an organic, Ogo ends up sneaking in as Robot pulls Monster aside to actually tell him what Robot's grandma has been calling Monster's family (yes the grandma is racist). Horrified over what grandma had been saying alongside the fact Ogo and grandma are good friends as Ogo himself knows what she's saying, they try but fail to not get Ogo to say what grandma had been saying all this while which leads to the krumholtz family being rightfully disturbed about what the grandma was saying decide that Monster is in no right to be staying with Robot any longer, same goes for the default family despite the fact that they don't even like Robot, it gets kinda climatic over them being seperated before Saint Crispy comes down and scolds all of them for argueing on a day like baconmas, Saint Crispy makes them a full course baconmas meal on the exception that they behave and not bicker in which seems to have worked. When all seems well now, Ogo is offered a piece of bacon in which he at first denies due to being allergic to bacon, Saint Crispy however insists on him trying it saying that he's no longer allergic only on baconmas, Ogo tries to piece of bacon only to start having an allergic reaction causing Saint Crispy to fled from the scene. The episode ends with Ogo narrating the aftermath of all that and it cuts to his allergy ridden body as he wishes everyone a happy baconmas/christmas.
This is your typical Christmas themed episode except not really. The parts where Robot and Monster are just really nice to each other and having a good time are really cute and it's always nice to see more of Monster's family in episodes like Lev, parts where they're doing their own things is also really funny and allergy ridden Ogo feels like something straight out of those 2000s edgy newgrounds parody animations. Also Monster is coded/heavily implied to be jewish which is always awesome to see. It's just overall a very sweet and funny christmas episode, only real "complaint" and I say that very lightly is how Gizmo isn't involved, I feel like adding Gizmo would kinda help alleviate the improving relationship dynamic of Robot and Gizmo as this is post the party and just be interesting to see how the others would react and such.
Anger Management - Anger Management is the 18th/35th episode of Robot and Monster. It starts out with Robot and Monster waiting in line at the Makin' Bacon for their bacon coffee, the diner in this episode being ran by Nessie's grand nephew, Scale however it's shown that he's doing his job poorly while being distracted by his music. As Monster tries to make banter with Scale, another person in line ends up getting annoyed by Monster and lashes out at them for taking so long in the line, Robot gets furious over said person's treatment of Monster asking if Monster's even going to do anything about it in which Monster replies that they're simply just expressing their opinion and that it doesn't bother them in the slightest. It cuts to next morning when Robot wakes up but injures their wheel on a broken vase, he asks if Monster was the one who broke it in which they respond that they didn't and if Robot broke it, they both head outside of their apartment only to find the town in complete ruins, while they are concerned over the extreme mess they decide to go back to the Makin' Bacon for bacon coffee. While there, as they question Scales on what happened last night, the same person who got mad at Monster comes back and yells at them once again for taking their seat, Robot attempts to get Monster to stand up for themselves but all they end up doing is apologizing for it. Robot starts getting frustrated over Monster seemingly bottling up their emotions over the ordeal which Monster rejects the idea of saying that it really doesn't bother them at all. While watching tv at home, a news report comes in about the person behind all the wreck last night caught on the security tapes dubbed the "Night Vandal" who's silhouette bares a resemblence to Monster, while Monster is seemingly unphased and just worried about encountering "the Night Vandal" Robot gets more concerned over connecting the dots but dismisses it. As Robot is sleeping, he wakes to a sudden noise and finds that Monster is not in bed, he decides to talk to Ogo about the situation who has cameras everyone around town to find where Monster is, on the Monster cam, it's revealed that Monster was the one behind all the damage and when Robots finds them and ends up getting injured which causes Monster to wake up, Robot comes to the conclusion that they have been sleep raging due to Monster's unexpressed anger, they decide to enlist Monster into anger management to help Monster out. While at the session with Crikey as their teacher, everyone especially Robot manage to carry out their tasks well but Monster falls behind due to not being able to express that they are angry, near the end of the whole thing, Crikey ends up getting Robot and Monster to do a roleplay to get Monster to showcase what they've learned but Monster no matter what still acts polite despite Robot's attempt which causes Crikey to lash out at Monster. While Robot tries to stand up for Monster Crikey only blames him for enabling Monster to not learn anything which after beating Robot up finally gets Monster to confess and express their anger which makes both Crikey and Robot satisfied, Monster then drags Robot out of the session so that Monster can finally "give someone a piece of their mind". They arrive at the Makin' Bacon where it seems like Monster is going to teach the person who kept lashing at them a lesson but it's instead revealed they were angry at Scale's for constantly messing up their coffee request. The episode ends with Monster finally being satisfied with letting out their angry which nearly destroyed the entire Makin' Bacon diner.
This episode has to be one of the best Monster centric episodes in the whole show, focusing more on Monster's character as the general "laid back kinda happy go lucky" type of archetype. I generally don't like it when people see/characterize Monster to be childish or "innocent" to the point of infantilzation or saying that they are dumb cause that's clearly not the case seeing as Monster can be pretty relaxed and logical in most episodes, they just have a very optimist view on life. Seeing Monster struggle to mask their anger and frustrations under the guise that everything is fine and doesn't bother them is a great step to expanding more on Monster's personality and especially to Monster and Robot's bonds to each other. It's nice to see Robot be concerned and stand up for Monster and try to get them to stand up for themselves and seeing how much Monster cares about Robot and him getting hurt causing Monster to end up finally getting angry. It's clear that these two care for each other the most no matter what and it's shown greatly here amongst other episodes delving into their friendship. Overall a very good episode of Robot and Monster, only really sucks this episode got paired with the worst episode in the show (Family Business).
And that concludes my top best rated Robot and Monster episodes, these are really my opinion and I would expand on more episodes but I really don't want to make this section any longer especially cause I still have a lot to touch on so moving on!
What happened to Robot and Monster?
Now past all episodes and content of the cartoon, as I mentioned before this cartoon can easily just be summarized as mediorce, a 2010s nicktoon that never really managed to take off and isn't generally remembered by most audiences. But after being made aware of a 1 hour long insta livestream the creator Dave Pressler did of Robot and Monster's production/the show itself back in 2020 and coming upon other concept art/behind the scenes stuff alongside a Robot and Monster deviantart group, the production of the show started to intrigue me even more. There is just so much to cover from all the concepts and production stuff to Nickalodeon's treatment of the show which kinda starts painting a pretty sad picture, this section I intend to go through it all and create a "hub"/archive of all the stuff I have found so far.
Behind the scenes and concept art production
Now with any cartoon at this point, you'll eventually come across concepts made before or during the production of the show, mostly posted by people who worked on said cartoon. There's quite a lot of concept stuff/general production stuff for Robot and Monster online if you go looking especially with Dave Pressler's livestream where he shows off concept art made for characters or sets in it. There are also a good amount of animatics either of episodes or episodes that were planned to be made. Starting off with the scrapped season 2 the show was going to have (which will be important later when talking about the shows treatment on the channel), before Robot and Monster was cancelled, a season 2 would've been made with a half hour season priemere called the "Blimp Pirates" which would explain the absence of Robot's father, Bricklin who was to be voiced by Bryan cranston. This was all revealed initicially through an email sent to Dave back in 2014 asking about Bricklin's presence and Dave later expanded more on this in the 2020 livestream, so far only a brief storyboard of the episode has been found so far. (link here). Another season 2 episode that never came to be is "Best in Marf" which luckily has a completed animatic/storyboard with voice acting of it, the episode is based around Marf and Robot and Monster trying to enter Marf into a purebread cube competition. (link to it here). Apart from those two storyboards, it was also revealed through dms some other episode ideas made for season 2 (shown below)
As for behind the scenes stuff for the general show/season 1, there is a storyboard online that I believe either was an early draft/version of the episode The Party or Blinking Light before being changed due to plot or an entirely different Crazy Cousin Gizmo centric episode that was cancelled/scrapped (link here) apart from that, there's also just a fuck ton of animatics/storyboards that were made for the episode The Dark Night as it was innitially going to be the show's pilot before being changed and reworked as a regular episode (link to all existing storyboards of the episode down below alongside a video made with what seems to be the original/pilot audio).
Rachel Buechler's storyboard
LuckyPrak's storyboard
Alicia DomÃnguez's storyboard
Lianne Edralin's storyboard
Massimiliano Lucania's storyboard
Aldina C. Dias's storyboard
A school project using the original/pilot audio of the scene
There was also a different version of the main theme song they were going to use before being asked to change it and a longer fuller version of the current theme song
The original unaired theme song that was shown on Dave pressler's livestream
The extended/full version of the current theme song
Apart from all of that, there are also various concept art, soundtrack and general production stuff on Robot and Monster
The official site of the main music producer for Robot and Monster's songs and scores
An animation insider page with Robot and Monster character concepts
The Dave Pressler 2020 Robot and Monster livestream
Dave Pressler's blogspot with some talk/concepts of Robot and Monster
Honarable Mentions
Just stuff that somewhat fit this catergory which I didn't know where to include.
You'll also just be able to find a lot of behind the scenes production stuff for Robot and Monster used in animation reels or porfolios on platforms like youtube, vimeo etc
Other stuff I haven't been able to find available archives/active links on is the Dave Pressler and Curtis armstrong interview podcast back in I presume 2013 and a Harland Williams QnA, only available place where it's discussed is here. There's also some youtube videos where the voice actors in Robot and Monster (most prominent I can think off the top of my head is Harland William and Maurice LaMarche briefly dicussing their roles in the show)
Troubling production and cancellation
It's no suprise that Nickalodean doesn't give a fair chance to cartoons that air on their channel that aren't immediately Spongebob, Fairly Odd Parents or The Loud House popular in ratings and it was especially evident through the 2000s-2010s, most of the times if they're generous enough they'll let the show run for about 1-2 seasons before just booting it over to their sister channel, Nicktoons an at this point graveyard for any cartoon that airs there just before just cancelling/stopping production. Very notorious examples of this can be seen with the treatment of shows like Harvey Beaks, Making fiends, My Life as a Teenage Robot etc, Robot and Monster was no exception to this unfortunately.
Most of the info I am going to comply and show to make a timeline of events of the shows conception and production till it's cancellation is from once again the 2020 livestream and parts of Dave Pressler's own blogspot.
Conception of the show first started all the way back in 2004 and possibly even further after Dave Pressler's experience on working on another animation based show the Save-Ums, the innitial idea being that it would be a "senfield" esc slice of life comedy sitcom that took place in a robot/mechanical centric world, that later changing to include organics. First art of the duo Robot and Monster were of three paintings and a figurine of the two based off the prompt "Totured Friendships"
Through this, Dave Pressler kept making art and sculptures based of this idea till he was contacted by Nickelodean for the oppurtunity to pitch and make a show through his official website. Dave Pressler presented his idea and later teamed up with the writers Joshua Sternin and J.R. Ventimilia to make a pitch bible and present it. Throughout the years of 2007 to 2009/2010 concept art and ideas on characters, environmental sets and episode ideas were made till the show's official greenlighting in 2010. Production for season 1 was soon finished in 2011 with Nickelodean then deciding to order around 14 more episodes for a potential season 2 in august of that year, however due to a new regime/president change after production of the first season was done, news got back that the season 2 would potentially be cancelled in december 2011 and once the new year came around the release for the show just kept getting pushed back and back alongside how in comic con of that year, 2 week before Robot and Monster would finally be aired there was no advertising or such for it there which lead to the suspiscion and comfirmation in november of 2012 that the show was cancelled. There's also possibilities with the show being expensive to produce seeing as Robot and Monster was one of Nickelodeon's first CGI cartoon that wasn't already based off an already existing franchise atleast at the time alongside just generally low ratings of how "mean spirited" or dry the writing/humour was but it was made very clear that even if the show did well the cancellation of the show was inevitably no matter what.
While the show still managed to atleast for it's full first season out and how it really could've been worse, it's still sad to see just the amount of lost potential this show truely could've had especially from it's innitial seemingly darker premise and the cancelled season 2 cause through watching the show while writing can once again be very hit and miss I can see a lot of time and effort went into producing the show from the animation and voice acting and that everyone really did do their best for this show.
If you'd like more insight once again check Dave Pressler's Robot and Monster insta livestream and this one jorunal I found from the Robot and Monster deviantart group which goes into the possible reason for the show's cancellation which is very detailed and even has the creator himself comfirm that a lot of the research done was very accurate. link here
