Chuck the Robot is an antiquated, basic robot on display at the Boulder Science Exhibit, that a bored Mork rebuilds and reprograms to give him not only sentience but the ability to feel emotions. He is played by Robby the Robot and voiced by Roddy McDowall, in the Season 2 episode Dr. Morkenstein
About Chuck[]
Working as a night watch man on the exhibit, a bored Mork confesses to Mindy that to pass the time he's reprogrammed an old robot to play games and talk with. He always wins, Mork observes of the Robot. Mindy gently but firmly warns him he shouldn't be fooling around with the exhibits, but Mork thinks no one cares about the Robot but him.
While Mork is playing Poker with Chuck who he's already taught to swear in Orkan. Chuck thanks Mork for programming him for consciousness, but Mork tells him it's no big deal, he was kind of lonely and needed someone to talk to. But Chuck says something strange has happened. He tells him that after Mork left yesterday, he experienced a condition that seemed to necessitate Mork's presence. Smiling, Mork explains that Chuck missed him. Chuck points out that that is impossible, Robots only function by logic, they have no emotions. Mork points out, that as an Orkan he used to feel the same way, but now he's up to his ears in Emotions.
Chuck admits to being jealous of the new robot XLG-15, Chuck explaining it's because he is new, and technologically perfect, while he is going to be dismantled next week due to Metal fatigue, saying they say that old robots like him need to be destroyed. As they start to play a game of I Spy, Chuck reveals the very human emotion of wanting to live, to sing, dance and shake his booty!
On his return home to the apartment Mork finds Mindy asleep on the couch and both of them are shaken when the door is knocked on and then smashed through, Chuck having followed Mork home. Freaked out by the unintentionally destructive robot, Mindy tells Mork Chuck needs to go back before he's missed, but Chuck informs her that the Exhibit is closed till Monday, no one will miss him over the weekend. Mork pleads with her again, telling her he'll be the perfect house guest, he doesn't eat, he doesn't sleep, he won't smell after three days, and only uses the bathroom to change his oil.
As she starts to waver, Chuck suddenly starts to recite 'Mary had a little Lamb' before tailing off into garbled nonsense. When he declares that in 1492 Columbus invented the Cotton Gin, Mindy starts to realize what bad shape he's in, especially when she asks Chuck how long it's been happening, and he asks her has what been happening? Chuck tells Mork he's well enough for someone whos rusting away, who Geritol with Iron won't even help. Mindy feeling bad for him, asks if there's anything they can do to help. And Chuck tells her he wants to find out what life is all about. He has feelings and he wants to use them, before he announces that Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President and inventor of The Continental. Mindy's look softens further, saying she never thought she'd feel sorry for a robot, but Chuck asks her not to feel sorry for him, just help him make his last days meaningful. He wants to feel useful.
Mork organizes for him to make an appearance at the Deli to entertain people and drum up business for Remo. And it initially goes well, before Chuck's circuits start malfunctioning again and he gives wrong and insulting answers to the group. As Chuck gets more and more disorientated by the crowd yelling and cat calling, Mork shows a rare example of his losing his temper out of worry for his friend's state.
He and Mindy return Chuck to the museum, and it's clear that Chuck is slowly sliding into dementia and towards the end of his life span. Deeply upset, Mork wants to try and do more work on him to keep him alive, though it will remove his emotions, and Mindy prevails on him, as hard as it is to not do so as it's only prolonging the inevitable and leaving him suffering. Chuck too, in one of his final lucid moments requests that Mork does nothing, that he would rather keep his emotions and die 'alive' able to call Mork 'friend', which is his last word to Mork as he shuts down for good, leaving a grieving Mork.