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Robby the Robot is a fictional character and science fiction icon who first appeared in the 1956 film Forbidden Planet. He made a number of subsequent appearances in science fiction movies and television programs, usually without specific reference to the original film character.
The name "Robbie the Robot" (spelled with an "ie") had appeared in science fiction before Forbidden Planet. In a pulp magazine adventure The Fantastic Island (1935), the name is used for a mechanical likeness of Doc Savage used to confuse foes. The name is also used in Isaac Asimov's short story "Robbie" (1940) about a f
Robby the Robot is a fictional character and science fiction icon who first appeared in the 1956 film Forbidden Planet. He made a number of subsequent appearances in science fiction movies and television programs, usually without specific reference to the original film character.
The name "Robbie the Robot" (spelled with an "ie") had appeared in science fiction before Forbidden Planet. In a pulp magazine adventure The Fantastic Island (1935), the name is used for a mechanical likeness of Doc Savage used to confuse foes. The name is also used in Isaac Asimov's short story "Robbie" (1940) about a first-generation robot designed to care for children. In "Tom Swift on The Phantom Satellite" (1956), it is also the name given to a small four-foot robot designed by Tom Swift Jr, the boy inventor in the Tom Swift Jr science fiction novel series by Victor Appleton II.
Robby the Robot originated as a character in the 1956 film Forbidden Planet. He is a 7-foot (2.1 m) tall robot whose "mouth" is a monochromatic blue light organ, synchronized to his synthetic voice, its band of curved tubes located directly below his transparent conical "face" dome. He walks on mechanical legs.
The illusion of a real robot was created by a suit operated from inside by an uncredited Frankie Darro; his voice was provided in post-production by actor Marvin Miller. Robby was created by MGM’s prop department;[2] the initial design was sketched by Arnold "Buddy" Gillespie, refined by production illustrator Mentor Huebner, and then turned into reality under the direction of mechanical designer Robert Kinoshita.[3]
Forbidden Planet is about a crew from Earth who land their starship, the C57-D, on the planet Altair IV, ruled by the mysterious Dr. Morbius. Robby is a mechanical servant that Morbius has designed, built, and programmed using knowledge gleaned from his study of the Krell, a long extinct race of highly intelligent beings that once populated Altair IV. The film’s plot has been loosely compared to William Shakespeare’s play The Tempest (1610), with the planet Altair IV standing in for Shakespeare’s remote island and Dr. Morbius for Prospero. In this context Robby is equatable to Ariel, a spirit enslaved by Prospero.
Robby exhibits artificial intelligence, but has a distinct personality that exhibits a (possibly unintentional) dry wit. He is instructed by Morbius to be helpful to the Earthmen and does so by synthesizing and transporting to their landing site 10 tons of "isotope 217", a light-weight though effective replacement for the requested lead shielding needed to house the C57-D’s main stardrive to power an attempt to contact Earth base for further instructions. Morbius programmed Robby to obey Isaac Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics as expressed in I, Robot (1950).[4] One of the laws is a rule against harming or killing humans; this becomes an important plot point near the conclusion of the film when Robby refuses to kill the Id monster. The robot recognizes that the invisible creature is an alter ego/extension of Dr. Morbius. The film’s poster misleadingly depicts a fierce-looking Robby carrying an abducted maiden, but no such scene is in the film. Robby only carries one person, crewman Dr. Ostro, when he is mortally wounded near the end of the film.
The robot quickly became a science fiction icon in the decades that followed and was reused or recreated in multiple TV shows. 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 My Little Margie, The Thin Man, Columbo, The Addams Family, and Lost in Space where he battles The Robot. While Robby's appearance was generally consistent, there were exceptions, such as the Twilight Zone episode "Uncle Simon" (1962), in which he was given a slightly more human "face." At other times, Robby usually retained the moving parts inside his transparent dome, although the details of his "brain" and chest panel were sometimes altered; in an episode of The Man from U.N.C.L.E., only Robby's head dome was used as part of a regeneration machine. Robby also appeared in the Mork & Mindy second season episode "Dr. Morkenstein", this time representing a character called Chuck (voiced by actor Roddy McDowall) whom Mork befriends while working as a security guard in the science museum where Chuck is on display.
Robby has made few appearances after the 1970s, but he does make a cameo appearance in Gremlins (1984); he can be seen standing in the background and speaking some of his trademark lines. He was also featured in a 2006 commercial for AT&T.
Robby the Robot was inducted into the Robot Hall of Fame in 2004.
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