Robby the Robot in the context of 'his' appearance as Chuck the Robot in Season 2's Dr. Morkenstein is a replica prop suit of the original Robby the Robot 'character' from the 1950s classic SF movie Forbidden Planet.
'Biography'[]
Robby the Robot originated as a character in the 1956 MGM science fiction film Forbidden Planet. Robby was designed by members of the MGM art department and constructed by the studio's prop department; The design was developed from initial ideas and sketches by production designer Arnold "Buddy" Gillespie, art director Arthur Lonergan, and writer Irving Block. At a reported cost of US$125,000 (equivalent to at least $US1.1 million today) it was, proportional to total budget, one of the most expensive single film props ever created up to that time.
The Robby suit was constructed using a range of materials including metal, plastic, rubber, glass, and Plexiglas. The plastic parts were a pioneering example of the use of the then novel technology of vacuum-forming heated plastic over wooden molds. These parts were made from an early form of ABS plastic with the brand name "Royalite", a material mainly used at the time for making suitcases. The finished Robby stands just over 7-foot (2.1 m) tall and was fabricated in three detachable sections: the legs and lower torso, the barrel-like chest section (which included the arms), and the highly detailed head piece.
To access the suit, the three sections were dismantled and the operator climbed into the legs. The torso was then placed around him, the two sections were secured with internal clips, and the operator was strapped into an internal over the shoulder harness; finally the head was fitted, the internal electronics were connected to external power via hidden cables, and the suit was switched on and ready for filming. This design made it possible to film Robby from any angle and for him to move about and carry out the actions required in a scene, without either betraying the obvious presence of an interior operator or revealing how each got in and out; Robby was operated (uncredited) by stuntmen Frankie Darro and Frankie Carpenter, both actors being of shorter stature.
During shooting, Robby's voice was performed off-camera by an uncredited actor, who spoke lines into a microphone that fed into a voice-actuated circuit connected by a cable running into Robby's foot, up through a leg, and all the way to the neon tubes in Robby's lower headpiece; this device generated a control voltage that synchronized the voicebox's flashing neon tubes.
All appearances of Robby after 1971 used a replica, as the original was retired sold to Jim Brucker and put on display in a southern California car museum the original. The original Robby the Robot was most recently sold by Bonhams Auctioneers in New York on November 21, 2017, for US$5,375,000. Becoming most expensive film prop ever sold at auction. [1]
'Career'[]
After Forbidden Planet which made Robby an SF icon, 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 The Gale Storm Show, The Thin Man, Columbo, The Addams Family, and Lost in Space.
He appeared modified in appearance in episodes of The Twilight Zone and The Man from U.N.C.L.E., Project U.F.O and the movie The Phantom Empire.
He also has a notable cameo in 1984's Gremlins.
Mork & Mindy[]
Robby appears in the Mork & Mindy 2nd season episode Dr. Morkenstein, 'portraying' a character called Chuck, voiced by Roddy McDowall, who a bored Mork makes sentient and then befriends while working as a security guard in the science museum where Chuck is on display. Unfortunately Chuck is old to begin with and almost immediately starts to degrade, causing erratic behavior, in a robotic version of dementia/Alzeheimers. Mork trying to do everything he can to keep him going, and make his days full, before finally having to accept he has to let his new friend go.