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My Neighbor Was A Teenage Robot is the original pilot of My Life as a Teenage Robot.

It was produced in 1998 and first aired in the United States as part of the Nickelodeon series Oh Yeah! Cartoons on December 4, 1999[2].


My_Neighbor_was_a_Teenage_Robot-1533334129

My Neighbor was a Teenage Robot-1533334129

My Neighbor was a Teenage Robot (Full Pilot Episode - 1999)

Plot[]

Note: The plot of the pilot episode is basically the same as the first official episode of the series, It Came From Next Door (2002), with some minor differences between the two.

Tuck, while practicing baseball with his older brother Brad, hits a ball that flies through a window in neighbor Nora Wakeman's front door. Brad instructs Tuck to get the baseball back, but when Tuck knocks at the door, a large shadowy figure appears. It turns out to be a friendly robot girl, who smiles and hands him the baseball. However, Tuck is frightened and flees without taking the ball. He is intercepted by Brad, and promptly informs his older brother that he encountered a robot. Ms. Wakeman overhears this conversation, and Brad tries to explain the situation as he confronts her and speaks to her at the door. But Dr. Wakeman brushes him off and claims that she has “never heard about” baseball, and slams the door in Brad’s face.

Dr. Wakeman bursts into Jenny’s room in the attic, and berates Jenny Wakeman (XJ-9) for having left her room and instructs her that she must not encounter any of the human population. Jenny laments that she cannot make friends, and Dr. Wakeman tells her that she will get used to it before leaving Jenny’s room. When Wakeman leaves the room, Brad walks in through Jenny's window and meets her. The two leave and hang out, playing games and chasing ice cream trucks, among other things, while Tuck reluctantly tags along, still untrusting of Jenny.

As Jenny, Brad, and Tuck are enjoying their ice cream, Jenny suddenly gets a warning from her sensors that a planet-destroying meteor is headed toward Earth. She rockets off to destroy the meteor, and dispatches it quickly, but she accidentally took Tuck along with her, as his shirt had got caught on her wings. While Tuck is a bit charred from re-entry, he is impressed by Jenny's abilities and declares her to be "so cool!". Dr. Wakeman oversees this conversation, and decides that giving XJ-9 some time off couldn't hurt. However, the camera pans out to outer space, where several (presumably hostile) spaceships are closing in on Earth.

Quotes[]

(Brad looks at Jenny's window where Jenny looks at Brad)

Nora: XJ9!! (Jenny rushes to her bed, looks at her magazine and Nora opens the door) It seems that some young robot has forgotten the rules of this household. You were designed to be the mobile response unit of the Worldwide Emergency Crisis Control Center! When the Center detects trouble, you are to respond quickly and quietly, and return to your room. Your existence is to remain secret to everyone, especially... (Takes a Teen Nation magazine out of a Popular Robotics magazine) teenagers! Do I make myself clear, XJ-9?

Jenny(muttering) Jenny.

Nora: What?

Jenny: Jenny! I changed my name to Jenny! Remember?

Nora: Ugh!

Jenny: Mom, you just don't understand. Saving the Earth is so... (kicks ball designed like the Earth on the floor) boring! I wanna have friends and hang out like normal teenagers do! Not that anyone would wanna hang out with an ugly heap of metal like me.

(Jenny uses her hand lasers to destroy mirror)

Nora: Oh, Honey, I understand how you feel. Your powers are still developing, and it's bound to be a confusing time. When you get a little older, you'll see things my way. Now, be a good robot and watch your monitors.

Jenny: Yes, ma'am.

Nora: That's my XJ-9.

Jenny: My name's Jenny.


Brad: Hi Jenny, my name's Brad– Whoa, a real life robot!

Jenny: A real life teenager! Mom will deactivate me.

Brad: Cool room!

Jenny: And boys are not allowed in it.

Brad: Okay, let's go outside.

Jenny: I can't leave.

Brad: Come on!

Jenny: Let... (her arm pops off, metal clanking) go!

(Brad falls out of Jenny's house with her arm and Jenny rescues him)

Tuck: (kicking Jenny) Let go of my brother, robot!

Brad: Don't stress it, Tuck. Jenny's cool.

Tuck: Excuse me. We're talking about an evil robot cyborg thingy, not, "Jenny".

Jenny: Uh, guys, I gotta get back now. (Jenny flies off)

Brad: But don't you wanna-- hang out? (Jenny comes back down with an ultimate hard thud Tucker flies off of the ground)

Jenny: Did you say you wanna hang out? With me?

(First Brad rides on a skateboard, then Jenny rides on her skates but Tuck tries to ride on a skateboard then Jenny helps Tuck by giving him a big push that blast him off. then Tuck and Brad are playing with water guns first Tuck shoots Brad, then he shoots Tuck but they shoot Jenny and made her get electrocuted, then Tuck was going to shoot jenny again but Jenny uses a fire hydrant to shoot Tuck. And then Tuck sees the Ice Cream truck but the ice cream went flew then Jenny caught the ice cream truck and bring it back. Brad and Tuck are both eating ice cream except Jenny looks at the ice cream, looks at tuck, then starts eating the ice cream anyway, then rubs her tummy, then looks away, she opens her tummy container pulls out the ice cream out and throws it away.)

Brad: (Off-screen) Hey… what are you doing?

Jenny: Nothing!

Brad: No, your pigtails. They're freaking out.

Jenny: Oh no! That's my remote emergency warning system. It tells me when the world is in life-threatening danger. Let me consult the Crisis Control Center.

Crisis Control Center: Alert, alert! Giant asteroid approaching Earth. Five minutes 'till Earth is destroyed.

Jenny: Oh... If this giant asteroid destroys the Earth, I'll be grounded forever! (Jenny prepares to take off into space) Stand back, boys. (One of the thruster wings grabs Tuck by his shirt)

Tuck: Uh, robot? (Jenny blasts off)

Brad: Tuck, you gotta admit. Jenny's pretty rad. (He looks to notice that Tucker is gone) Tucker?

Changes from pilot to series[]

  • While there are many similarities between My Neighbor Was a Teenage Robot and It Came From Next Door, there are some differences as well:
    • Many of the characters had different designs in 1998 that were altered for the series in 2002:
      • While Jenny's design changed the least, in the pilot she had blue lips, blue hands, sleeves, and a white strip at the bottom of her skirt.
      • Brad also wore a different outfit, including a sports jacket instead of a vest.
      • Tuck had light-brown hair and blue eyes, and wore a different outfit, including an orange baseball cap.
      • Dr. Wakeman’s design was almost all white and pale colors, almost achromatic, instead of her newer, more colorful design in the series.
    • In the short, Brad was voiced by a woman (Melissa Denton) before she was replaced by Chad Doreck in the series.
    • When Nora is seen taking some of the things covering the Crisis Control Center's elements, she takes down a poster presumably for a movie called, "Gigantic", which is a reference to the James Cameron blockbuster, Titanic (1997).
    • Jenny's voice sounds more robotic in the pilot because Janice Kawaye's voice was altered using a computer program. The series proper uses Janice Kawaye's normal, unaltered voice.
    • In It Came From Next Door (2002), additional content was added to make it last for eleven minutes instead of the pilot's six minutes.
    • The series proper had a much more refined art style that would be later replaced into the "tomorrowland"-esque, steampunk-futuristic style of scenario, objects and characters, with plenty of slimlines and designs imagined circa the 1920s as to how the future would be.
    • In My Neighbor Was a Teenage Robot (1998), Dr. Wakeman talks to Brad and Tuck, whereas in It Came From Next Door (2002), she does not speak to them.
    • In It Came From Next Door (2002), Jenny tries to hide from her mom when Dr. Wakeman tells her not to leave her room, but in My Neighbor Was a Teenage Robot (1998), she is sitting on her bed reading a magazine.
    • In My Neighbor Was a Teenage Robot (1998), Jenny was not alerted about the meteor by Dr. Wakeman, but by her sensors.
    • The meteor's class type was not defined in My Neighbor Was a Teenage Robot (1998). In It Came From Next Door (2002), it was defined as a C-class (burns up in the atmosphere) then upgraded to D-class (planet destroyer) because Jenny kicked a hacky-sack onto it.
    • In It Came From Next Door (2002), Tuck actually goes into Dr. Wakeman’s house to get the ball, and finds himself in a dark and spooky lab, where he bumps into Jenny who hands him the baseball. In My Neighbor Was a Teenage Robot (1998), he does not enter the house, and first sees Jenny directly after he knocks on the door, as she comes out to give him the ball.
    • A darkened silhouette of Jenny giving Tuck the ball is shown in It Came From Next Door (2002), whereas in My Neighbor Was a Teenage Robot (1998), she is not shadowed.
    • Brad plays with Tuck in My Neighbor Was a Teenage Robot (1998), while in It Came From Next Door (2002), Tuck plays by himself while Brad reads a magazine, then orders him to retrieve his baseball from Dr. Wakeman’s house when he observes what happened.
    • In My Neighbor Was a Teenage Robot (1998), Brad overhears Tuck's screaming and runs to him while in It Came From Next Door (2002), Tuck runs as he screams until a furious Brad blocks him.

Trivia[]

  • My Life as a Teenage Robot was the third short on Oh Yeah! Cartoons to become a full-fledged series, the first two being The Fairly OddParents and ChalkZone.
  • Dr. Wakeman's white lab coat and the purple gloves looks very similar to the design of the titular character of the cartoon Dexter's Laboratory (1996-2003), who was also voiced by Candi Milo from 2001 to 2003, and Rob Renzetti also worked on for a number of episodes.
  • All characters in this short were voiced by women.
  • On the official 'Teenage Robot Blog', called 'The Teenage Roblog' the character designer of the show, calling himself "wichobot", once mentioned that his wife preferred the original design of Dr. Wakeman, as it was featured in the 'Oh Yeah! Cartoons' short [3]and "hated the design" of Jenny in this short, which resulted in her design change in the original series, because "she reacted so strongly about Jenny that it made us reconsider our decision"

Production Notes[]

  • Although this pilot premiered in the United States on December 4, 1999, it was actually produced in 1998 according to the credits.


Gallery[]

References[]

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