Whatever Happened to Robot Jones? (Pilot)

Whatever Happened to Robot Jones? was a short created by Greg Miller for the Cartoon Network that premiered on June 16, 2000 during Cartoon Cartoon Fridays as one of ten contenders for Cartoon Network's Big Pick, the winner of which would become the next Cartoon Cartoon. The short did not win The Big Pick, however it was picked up by Cartoon Network to become a full-length series that premiered in 2002.

Plot
Robot Jones is informed by his parents, Mom Unit and Dad Unit, that he has been put into a human public school that he must now attend. While in math class, he believes that the problems are too easy for him, which results in him getting sent to the principal's office for being condescending to the teacher. Later the same day as all of the school kids are eating lunch, Principal Madman trips on a wire which he later finds out is Robot's charger cable. After finding out it was Robot Jones, he gives him three months detention for tripping him, which angers Robot so much that he starts malfunctioning and firing lasers out of his eyes, setting the room on fire and scaring everyone away. Later, he rants about the humans in the hallway and almost gives up completely on them, until he develops a crush on a girl named Shannon because of her braces, which he designates as "high metal content". He then realizes that humans are not all that bad and that he needs to study them more.

Main Roles

 * Robot Jones
 * Timothy "Socks" Morton
 * Charles "Cubey" Cubinacle
 * Mitch Freeman Davis
 * Lenny Yogman
 * Denny Yogman
 * Shannon Westerburg
 * Mr. McMcMc
 * Principal Madman

Minor Roles

 * Dad Unit
 * Mom Unit

Cast

 * Word98 text-to-voice program (Bobby Block in later airings) - Robot Jones
 * Macintalk's 'Ralph' Voice - Dad Unit
 * Grey DeLisle - Mom Unit, Shannon Westerburg
 * Kyle Sullivan - Timothy "Socks" Morton
 * Myles Jeffrey - Charles "Cubey" Cubinacle
 * Gary LeRoi Gray - Mitch Freeman Davis
 * Josh Peck - Lenny Yogman
 * Austin Stout - Denny Yogman
 * Maurice LaMarche - Mr. McMcMc, Principal Madman

Production Notes

 * When Greg Miller began production on the episode, he was struggling with directing the episode and making multiple errors with storyboarding and sheet timing. Following this, other storyboard artists and sheet timers had to remedy production for the episode before sending the animated cels overseas to Rough Draft Studios in South Korea for it to be animated. As a result, Rob Renzetti took over as director for the series' first season.