Robby the Robot

For Robert the Robot, see Fireball XL5.
Robby the Robot in a first-run movie poster for Forbidden Planet. (The lurid presentation does not accurately reflect the character in the film.)
Robby the Robot in a scene from Forbidden Planet

Robby the Robot is a fictional character and science fiction icon who first appeared in the 1956 film Forbidden Planet. He made a number of subsequent appearances in science fiction movies and television programs, usually without specific reference to the original film character.

Precursors of the name

The name "Robbie the Robot" (spelled with an "ie") had appeared in science fiction before Forbidden Planet. In a pulp magazine adventure The Fantastic Island (1935), the name is used for a mechanical likeness of Doc Savage used to confuse foes. The name is also used in Isaac Asimov's short story "Robbie" (1940) about a first-generation robot designed to care for children. In "Tom Swift on The Phantom Satellite" (1956), it is also the name given to a small four-foot robot designed by Tom Swift Jr, the boy inventor in the Tom Swift Jr science fiction novel series by Victor Appleton II.[1]

Forbidden Planet

Robby the Robot originated as a character in the 1956 film Forbidden Planet. He is a 7-foot (2.1 m) tall robot whose "mouth" is a monochromatic blue light organ, synchronized to his synthetic voice, its band of curved tubes located directly below his transparent conical "face" dome. He walks on mechanical legs.

The illusion of a real robot was created by a suit operated from inside by an uncredited stuntman Frankie Darro; his voice was provided in post-production by actor Marvin Miller. Robby was created by MGM’s prop department;[2] the initial design was sketched by Arnold "Buddy" Gillespie, refined by production illustrator Mentor Huebner, and then turned into reality under the direction of mechanical designer Robert Kinoshita.[3]

Forbidden Planet is about a crew from Earth who land their starship, the C57-D, on the planet Altair IV, ruled by the mysterious Dr. Morbius. Robby is a mechanical servant that Morbius has designed, built, and programmed using knowledge gleaned from his study of the Krell, a long extinct race of highly intelligent beings that once populated Altair IV. The film’s plot has been loosely compared to William Shakespeare’s play The Tempest (1610), with the planet Altair IV standing in for Shakespeare’s remote island and Dr. Morbius for Prospero. In this context Robby is analogous to Ariel, a spirit enslaved by Prospero.

Robby exhibits artificial intelligence, but has a distinct personality that exhibits a (possibly unintentional) dry wit. He is instructed by Morbius to be helpful to the Earthmen and does so by synthesizing and transporting to their landing site 10 tons of "isotope 217", a light-weight though effective replacement for the requested lead shielding needed to house the C57-D’s main stardrive to power an attempt to contact Earth base for further instructions. Morbius programmed Robby to obey a system of rules similar to Isaac Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics as expressed in I, Robot (1950).[4] One of the laws is a rule against harming or killing humans; this becomes an important plot point near the conclusion of the film when Robby refuses to kill the Id monster. The robot recognizes that the invisible creature is an alter ego/extension of Dr. Morbius. Hollywood purposely, and misleadingly, depicts Robby in film’s advertising posters as a terrifying adversarial creature carrying a seductively posed unconscious maiden, but no such scene is in the film and doesn't reflect in any way Robby's benevolent and intelligent character. Robby only carries one person during the movie, the Earth starship's Dr. Ostrow, when he is mortally wounded near the end of the film.

Later appearances

Robby the Robot at 2006 San Diego Comic Con

The robot quickly became a science fiction icon in the decades that followed and was reused or recreated in multiple TV shows. Robby was reused by MGM in The Invisible Boy (1957) and then made several further appearances in other films and TV shows during the next few decades; these include episodes of My Little Margie, The Thin Man, Columbo, The Addams Family, and Lost in Space where he battles The Robot. While Robby's appearance was generally consistent, there were exceptions, such as the Twilight Zone episode "Uncle Simon" (1962), in which he was given a slightly more human "face." At other times, Robby usually retained the moving parts inside his transparent dome, although the details of his "brain" and chest panel were sometimes altered; in an episode of The Man from U.N.C.L.E., only Robby's head dome was used as part of a regeneration machine. Robby also appeared in the Mork & Mindy second season episode "Dr. Morkenstein", this time representing a character called Chuck (voiced by actor Roddy McDowall) whom Mork befriends while working as a security guard in the science museum where Chuck is on display.

Robby has made few appearances after the 1970s, but he does make a cameo appearance in Gremlins (1984); he can be seen standing in the background and speaking some of his trademark lines. He was also featured in a 2006 commercial for AT&T.

Robby the Robot was inducted into the Robot Hall of Fame in 2004.

Fate of the original "Robby" suit

In 1971 the original 1956 Robby the Robot was sold to Jim Brucker and put on display at his Movie World / Cars of the Stars Museum, near Disneyland in Buena Park, California, where he was often vandalized by visitors. Robot historian Fred Barton was commissioned to restore Robby to his original 1956 state while the robot was still on display at the museum. Barton used original duplicate replacement parts made for the Forbidden Planet suit by MGM's prop department. It was, however, in a desperate condition once again several years later. The museum closed its doors in 1980, and Robby, along with his vehicle, original MGM spare parts, and shipping containers were sold to William Malone. Malone noted that Robby had once again fallen into a state of disrepair. Having built the first ever replica of Robby in 1973, Malone was able to carefully restore the robot prop to its original condition using additional spare parts which the original builders had stocked in Robby's stage cases some 25 years earlier.[5] The original Robby the Robot remains in Malone's collection as of 2015.

Replicas

Fred Barton built a second Robby replica which appeared at the 1974 Star Trek Convention in Los Angeles. Barton continues to produce Robby props and other 1:1 robot replicas. His recreations are currently on display at the Experience Music Project and Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame in Seattle, Washington, and at the Metreon entertainment complex in San Francisco; other Robby replicas are on display in various venues. Full-sized, remote-controlled Barton robot props are available from Hammacher Schlemmer or ordered directly on-line from Fred Barton Productions; the company manufacturers various 1:1 film and TV robot reproductions under license, aimed at the growing science fiction film collectors' market. Robby has also become a popular subject of collector tin toy and plastic robot reproductions and model kits.[6]

Cultural references

In games

In television

Multiple episodes of The Simpsons parody Robby the Robot:

List of appearances

See also

References

Notes

  1. ↑ Appleton II 1956, pp. 116–117.
  2. ↑ "Robby, the Robot." The Robot Hall of Fame, June 29. 2011. Retrieved: January 10, 2015.
  3. ↑ Hagerty 2008
  4. ↑ Kreiter, Ted. "Revisiting The Master Of Science Fiction." The Saturday Evening Post, Volume 276, Issue 6, p. 38. ISSN 0048-9239.
  5. ↑ Bohus, Ted. "Interview With Bill Malone." Monsters411.com. Retrieved: April 10, 2015.
  6. ↑ "The Genuine 7 Foot Robby The Robot." hammacher.com. Retrieved: January 10, 2015.
  7. ↑ "Lost in Space: War of the Robots Episode Summary." TV.com. Retrieved: January 10, 2015.
  8. ↑ "Night Stalker Ad." tomheroes.com. Retrieved: January 10, 2015.
  9. ↑ Robby the Robot at the Internet Movie Database

Bibliography

  • Appleton II, Victor. Tom Swift And The Phantom Satellite. New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1956. ISBN 978-0-00162-220-3.
  • Hagerty, Jack. The Saucer Fleet. Livermore, California: Apogee Books, 2008. ISBN 978-1-894959-70-4.
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