This is an accepted version of this page
| My Life as a Teenage Robot | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Also known as | Teenage Robot |
| Genre | Comedy Action-adventure Comic science fiction Superhero Animated sitcom Science fiction |
| Created by | Rob Renzetti |
| Developed by |
|
| Voices of | |
| Theme music composer | Peter Lurye |
| Composers | James L. Venable Paul Dinletir[1] |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language | English |
| No. of seasons | 3 |
| No. of episodes | 40[2] (76 segments)(list of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Executive producers | Rob Renzetti Fred Seibert |
| Running time | 23 minutes |
| Production companies | Frederator Studios Nickelodeon Animation Studio |
| Original release | |
| Network | Nickelodeon |
| Release | August 1, 2003 (2003-08-01) – September 9, 2005 (2005-09-09) |
| Network | Nicktoons |
| Release | October 4, 2008 (2008-10-04) – May 2, 2009 (2009-05-02) |
| Related | |
| Oh Yeah! Cartoons | |
My Life as a Teenage Robot is an Americananimatedscience fictionsuperherocomedy television series created byRob Renzetti forNickelodeon. It was produced byFrederator Studios andNickelodeon Animation Studio.[3][4] Set in the fictional town of Tremorton, the series follows the adventures of arobotsuper-heroine named XJ-9 (or "Jenny Wakeman", as she prefers to be called), who attempts to juggle her duties of protecting Earth while trying to live a normal human life as a teenage girl.[5]
Renzetti pitched the series to Frederator Studios' animated shorts showcaseOh Yeah! Cartoons and a pilot titled "My Neighbor Was a Teenage Robot", which aired on December 4, 1999.[4] The short was commissioned to a half-hour series, which premiered on August 1, 2003; after airing its first two seasons, the series was on a 3-year hiatus starting on October 17, 2005 when Nickelodeon cancelled it because of low ratings. The completed third season eventually aired on Nickelodeon's spinoff networkNicktoons from October 4, 2008, until ending its run on May 2, 2009. The series totals up to 40 episodes across three seasons, consisting of 13 to 14 episodes each.
My Life as a Teenage Robot is set in the fictional town of Tremorton and focuses on making lighthearted fun of typical teenage issues and conventions of works relating to teenagers and superheroes. The series follows XJ-9, also known as "Jenny Wakeman" (Janice Kawaye) as she prefers to be called, who is a highly sophisticated state-of-the-artsentient robot girl created by her mother Dr. Nora Wakeman (Candi Milo), an elderly robotics scientist, five years before the series. Jenny is Earth's protector, armed with a wide range of weapons and devices, but simply wants to live the life of a normal teenager. She was preceded in development by eight other models; the season 1 episode "Sibling Tsunami" introduced XJs 1–8.
Jenny's friends are her neighbors Brad (Chad Doreck) and Tuck Carbuckle (Audrey Wasilewski). Brad is outgoing and adventurous, and is the first human friend Jenny makes, while Tuck is Brad's rambunctious younger brother who usually tags along on adventures. Another one of her friends is Sheldon Lee (Quinton Flynn), a somewhat stereotypical nerd who is obsessed with her; Jenny often rejects his romantic advances, but still cares for him as a friend. Being highly skilled in science and inventing, Sheldon has created gadgets and modifications for Jenny, usually very unnecessarily bulky and extravagant, as well as done minor repair work. He also occasionally masquerades as a robot superhero, the "Silver Shell". At Tremorton High School, however, Jenny has a tense, love-hate relationship with Britney "Brit" (Moira Quirk) and Tiffany "Tiff" Crust (Cree Summer), two cousins who are the school's resident popular girls obsessed with fashion and beauty.
Dr. Wakeman often tries in vain to control her creation and keep her daughter focused on protecting the planet Earth. Adding to her trouble is Jenny constantly being dogged by the all-robotic Cluster Empire, whose queen, Vexus (Eartha Kitt), and sometimes Commander Smytus (Steve Blum) or Krackus (Jim Ward), wants her to join their world of robots by force if necessary. Despite it all, Jenny struggles to maintain some semblance of a mostly human life.
The season 2 finale special of the series, "Escape from Cluster Prime", shows that the alien planet is actually a peaceful paradise for every kind of robot. It's also revealed that Vexus has made Jenny out to be a villain because of her constant refusals to join, branding her responsible for destroying the missing components that allow robots to transform, while they are truly hidden by Vexus, to control the population.
| Season | Segments | Episodes | Originally released | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| First released | Last released | Network | ||||
| Pilot | December 4, 1999 (1999-12-04) | Nickelodeon | ||||
| 1 | 26 | 13 | August 1, 2003 (2003-08-01) | February 27, 2004 (2004-02-27) | ||
| 2 | 24 | 14 | December 8, 2004 (2004-12-08) | September 9, 2005 (2005-09-09) | ||
| 3 | 26 | 13 | October 4, 2008 (2008-10-04)[Note 1] | May 2, 2009 (2009-05-02)[Note 1] | Nicktoons (U.S.)[Note 1] | |
 | This sectionneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources in this section. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.(October 2022) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
Rob Renzetti moved fromCartoon Network toNickelodeon to develop his own ideas as part ofFred Seibert's andFrederator Studios'Oh Yeah! Cartoons. At Nickelodeon, he developed a pilot called "My Neighbor Was a Teenage Robot", which was the basis for the series. After brief stints working onFamily Guy,The Powerpuff Girls,Time Squad,Whatever Happened to... Robot Jones?, andSamurai Jack, Renzetti returned to Nickelodeon to start theTeenage Robot series.
Renzetti made 11 shorts during two seasons as a director onOh Yeah! Cartoons. Five of these starred two characters calledMina and the Count and followed the adventures of a rambunctious little girl and her vampire best friend. He hoped that these characters might get their own series, butNickelodeon rejected the idea. Faced with an empty slot where the sixth Mina short was slated to go,Fred Seibert tasked Renzetti to come up with three new ideas. One of these was about a teenage girl whose boyfriend was a robot. After further thought, Renzetti merged the two characters to create Jenny, a robot with the personality of a teenage girl.
In March 2002, Nickelodeon ordered 13 episodes of the series. The series was initially called "My Neighbor Was a Teenage Robot" before settling on its final title.[6]
The show's crew revealed on their blog on October 17, 2005, that the show had been cancelled, and that the third season would be the last: "The executives love the show but the ratings aren't good enough for them to give us more episodes."[7][8] The series wrapped production in April 2006. Following the series' cancellation, Renzetti returned to Cartoon Network Studios, working onFoster's Home for Imaginary Friends andThe Cartoonstitute, before moving on to theDisney Channel to become supervising producer forGravity Falls. The third season aired on Nicktoons from October 2008 to May 2009, officially concluding the broadcast of the series in the United States.
Nickelodeon premieredMy Life as a Teenage Robot on August 1, 2003, at 8:30 PM EST.[3][9] The show was a part of Nickelodeon's Friday night programming block called Friday Night Nicktoons in Fall 2003, and briefly was a part of theTEENick lineup in 2004 to June 2005.[citation needed] The first season ended on February 27, 2004, with "The Wonderful World of Wizzly / Call Hating".
The second season premiered on December 8, 2004, with the Christmas episode "A Robot for All Seasons". Another new episode was not aired until January 24, 2005.[10] In the second season, a 48-minute, two-part TV movie titled "Escape from Cluster Prime" (which was nominated for an Emmy in 2006)[11] aired.
Since the series' cancellation, reruns continued to air onNicktoons until April 14, 2013. However, it started airing again on December 13, 2015, lasting until May 15, 2016.[citation needed] From March 2021 to January 2022, reruns of the series aired onTeenNick during itsNickRewind block.
In 2021, the entire series was available for streaming onParamount+.[12] The series was removed from the streaming service on December 19, 2024.[13]
The episodes "See No Evil", "The Great Unwashed", "Future Shock", "A Robot for All Seasons", "Hostile Makeover", and "Grid Iron Glory" were released on Nick Picks DVD compilations.[citation needed] As of December 12, 2011, seasons 1, 2, and 3 are available on DVD exclusive toAmazon.com inregion 1.[citation needed] The full series was released across six discs by Beyond Home Entertainment in Australia on February 5, 2012.[14]
| Season | Title | Release date | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Region 1 | Region 4 | |||
| 1 | Nick Picks #1 | May 24, 2005 | ||
| Nick Picks #2 | October 18, 2005 | |||
| Nick Picks #3 | February 7, 2006 | |||
| Nick Picks #4 | June 6, 2006 | |||
| Nick Picks: 1–3 | October 17, 2006 | |||
| The Complete First Season | December 12, 2011 | |||
| 2 | Nick Picks: Holiday | September 26, 2006 | ||
| Nick Picks #5 | March 13, 2007 | |||
| The Complete Second Season | December 12, 2011 | |||
| 3 | The Complete Third Season | |||
| The Complete Series | May 16, 2012 | |||
| March 9, 2022 | ||||
Sean Aitchison fromCBR wrote positively of the show stating, "Aside from the look of the show, My Life as a Teenage Robot had a fun premise that made for some great action comedy storytelling, and it definitely holds up [in modern day]. Though the show's depiction of teendom is somewhat outdated, the cliches actually end up working in favor of the humor. Though there's not a lot of story progression throughout the series,My Life as a Teenage Robot is still a whole lot of fun."[15] Joly Herman ofCommon Sense Media wrote more negatively of the show, saying that, "Though it looks cool and has an upbeat energy, the show can be a bit of a drag. Some kids may enjoy it for the mindless entertainment it intends to be, but know that there are much better uses of a free half-hour."[16]
| Year | Award | Category | Nominee | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2004 | 31st Annie Awards | Outstanding Directing in an Animated Television Production | Rob Renzetti for "Ragged Android" | Nominated | [17] |
| Outstanding Production Design in an Animated Television Production | Joseph Holt forMy Life As A Teenage Robot | Nominated | |||
| Seonna Hong forMy Life As A Teenage Robot | Nominated | ||||
| Outstanding Voice Acting in an Animated Television Production | Janice Kawaye as "Jenny" | Nominated | |||
| Candi Milo as "Mrs. Wakeman" | Nominated | ||||
| 56th Primetime Emmy Awards | Outstanding Individual Achievement in Animation | Seonna Hong | Won | [18] | |
| BMI Awards | BMI Cable Award | Peter Lurye forMy Life As A Teenage Robot | Won | [19] | |
| James Venable forMy Life As A Teenage Robot | Won | ||||
| 2005 | 32nd Annie Awards | Best Animated Television Production | My Life As A Teenage Robot | Nominated | [20] |
| Best Production Design in an Animated Television Production | Alex Kirwan forMy Life As A Teenage Robot | Nominated | |||
| Best Voice Acting in an Animated Television Production | Candi Milo as "Mrs. Wakeman" | Nominated | |||
| 2006 | 33rd Annie Awards | Best Animated Television Production | My Life As A Teenage Robot | Nominated | [21] |
| Best Character Design in an Animated Television Production | Bryan Arnett for "Escape From Cluster Prime" | Nominated | |||
| Best Production Design in an Animated Television Production | Alex Kirwan forMy Life As A Teenage Robot | Nominated | |||
| 2007 | Golden Reel Awards | Best Sound Editing in Television: Animated | My Life As A Teenage Robot | Nominated | [22] |
Jenny was featured as a playable character in thePlayStation 2,Wii, andNintendo DS versions ofNicktoons: Attack of the Toybots withJanice Kawaye reprising her role as the character.[23] Jenny also appears as a playable character in themobile gameNickelodeon Super Brawl Universe, thefighting gameNickelodeon All-Star Brawl andits sequel,[24] and thekart racing gameNickelodeon Kart Racers 3: Slime Speedway alongside Mrs. Wakeman, Brad, and Vexus as Chief power ups, with Kawaye reprising her role in the latter three games.[citation needed] One of Jenny's pre-fight lines inNickelodeon All-Star Brawl ("You wouldn't like my brain! It's all circuity and metallic!") was removed from the game due to its association with ananimatedporn parody ofMy Life as a Teenage Robot created byNewgrounds animator Zone.[25][26] Jenny also appears as a character skin forSmite, and was available during a July 2022 event.[27]
On August 1, 2023, in commemoration of the series' 20th anniversary, creator Rob Renzetti began publishing a web story based on the series in his personal newsletter.[28][29] Titled "Alternaversity", the story was written by Renzetti, with illustrations initially byMy Life as a Teenage Robot art director Alex Kirwan,[30] and later by storyboard artist Heather Martinez.[31] The final chapter released on May 6, 2025.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
