My Life as a Teenage Robot

Template:Short description Template:Pp-pc Template:Use American English Template:Use mdy dates Template:Infobox television My Life as a Teenage Robot is an American animated science fiction superhero comedy television series created by Rob Renzetti for Nickelodeon. It was produced by Frederator Studios and Nickelodeon Animation Studio.<ref name=LATimes>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="Frederator">Template:Cite web</ref> Set in the fictional town of Tremorton, the series follows the adventures of a robot super-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.<ref name=Perlmutter>Template:Cite book</ref>

Renzetti pitched the series to Frederator Studios' animated shorts showcase Oh Yeah! Cartoons and a pilot titled "My Neighbor Was a Teenage Robot", which aired on December 4, 1999.<ref name="Frederator" /> 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 network Nicktoons 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.

Overview

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-art sentient 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.

Episodes

Template:Main List of My Life as a Teenage Robot episodes

Production

Template:More citations needed section Rob Renzetti moved from Cartoon Network to Nickelodeon to develop his own ideas as part of Fred Seibert's and Frederator 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 on Family Guy, The Powerpuff Girls, Time Squad, Whatever Happened to... Robot Jones?, and Samurai Jack, Renzetti returned to Nickelodeon to start the Teenage Robot series.

Renzetti made 11 shorts during two seasons as a director on Oh Yeah! Cartoons. Five of these starred two characters called Mina 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, but Nickelodeon 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.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Cancellation

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."<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The series wrapped production in April 2006. Following the series' cancellation, Renzetti returned to Cartoon Network Studios, working on Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends and The Cartoonstitute, before moving on to the Disney Channel to become supervising producer for Gravity Falls. The third season aired on Nicktoons from October 2008 to May 2009, officially concluding the broadcast of the series in the United States.

Broadcast and home media

Nickelodeon premiered My Life as a Teenage Robot on August 1, 2003, at 8:30 PM EST.<ref name=LATimes/><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> 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 the TEENick lineup in 2004 to June 2005.Template: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.<ref>Template:Cite web Schedule for "My Life as a Teenage Robot" on Nicktoons</ref> In the second season, a 48-minute, two-part TV movie titled "Escape from Cluster Prime" (which was nominated for an Emmy in 2006)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> aired.

Since the series' cancellation, reruns continued to air on Nicktoons until April 14, 2013. However, it started airing again on December 13, 2015, lasting until May 15, 2016.Template:Citation needed From March 2021 to January 2022, reruns of the series aired on TeenNick during its NickRewind block.

In 2021, the entire series was available for streaming on Paramount+.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The series was removed from the streaming service on December 19, 2024.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

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.Template:Citation needed As of December 12, 2011, seasons 1, 2, and 3 are available on DVD exclusive to Amazon.com in region 1.Template:Citation needed The full series was released across six discs by Beyond Home Entertainment in Australia on February 5, 2012.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

My Life as a Teenage Robot home media releases

Season		Title	Release date
			Region 1	Region 4
	1	Nick Picks #1	Template:Dts
		Nick Picks #2	Template:Dts
		Nick Picks #3	Template:Dts
		Nick Picks #4	Template:Dts
		Nick Picks: 1–3	Template:Dts
		The Complete First Season	Template:Dts
	2	Nick Picks: Holiday	Template:Dts
		Nick Picks #5	Template:Dts
		The Complete Second Season	Template:Dts
	3	The Complete Third Season
		The Complete Series		Template:Dts
				Template:Dts

Reception

Critical reception

Sean Aitchison from CBR 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."<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Joly Herman of Common 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."<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Awards and nominations

Year	Award	Category	Nominee	Result	Template:Abbr
2004	31st Annie Awards	Outstanding Directing in an Animated Television Production	Rob Renzetti for "Ragged Android"	Template:Nom	<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
		Outstanding Production Design in an Animated Television Production	Joseph Holt for My Life As A Teenage Robot	Template:Nom
			Seonna Hong for My Life As A Teenage Robot	Template:Nom
		Outstanding Voice Acting in an Animated Television Production	Janice Kawaye as "Jenny"	Template:Nom
			Candi Milo as "Mrs. Wakeman"	Template:Nom
	56th Primetime Emmy Awards	Outstanding Individual Achievement in Animation	Seonna Hong	Template:Won	<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
	BMI Awards	BMI Cable Award	Peter Lurye for My Life As A Teenage Robot	Template:Won	<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
			James Venable for My Life As A Teenage Robot	Template:Won
2005	32nd Annie Awards	Best Animated Television Production	My Life As A Teenage Robot	Template:Nom	<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
		Best Production Design in an Animated Television Production	Alex Kirwan for My Life As A Teenage Robot	Template:Nom
		Best Voice Acting in an Animated Television Production	Candi Milo as "Mrs. Wakeman"	Template:Nom
2006	33rd Annie Awards	Best Animated Television Production	My Life As A Teenage Robot	Template:Nom	<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
		Best Character Design in an Animated Television Production	Bryan Arnett for "Escape From Cluster Prime"	Template:Nom
		Best Production Design in an Animated Television Production	Alex Kirwan for My Life As A Teenage Robot	Template:Nom
2007	Golden Reel Awards	Best Sound Editing in Television: Animated	My Life As A Teenage Robot	Template:Nom	<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Other media

Jenny was featured as a playable character in the PlayStation 2, Wii, and Nintendo DS versions of Nicktoons: Attack of the Toybots with Janice Kawaye reprising her role as the character.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Jenny also appears as a playable character in the mobile game Nickelodeon Super Brawl Universe, the fighting game Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl and its sequel,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and the kart racing game Nickelodeon 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.Template:Citation needed One of Jenny's pre-fight lines in Nickelodeon 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 an animated porn parody of My Life as a Teenage Robot created by Newgrounds animator Zone.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Jenny also appears as a character skin for Smite, and was available during a July 2022 event.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

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.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Titled "Alternaversity", the story was written by Renzetti, with illustrations initially by My Life as a Teenage Robot art director Alex Kirwan,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and later by storyboard artist Heather Martinez.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The final chapter released on May 6, 2025.

See also

• Astro BoyTemplate:SndJapanese manga series following an android main character.
• RobotboyTemplate:Snda European cartoon with a similar premise of an android trying to be a normal kid.

External links

• Frederator Studios page
• Template:IMDb title