Bad Robots | |
---|---|
Also known as | Bad(ish) Robots (pre-watershed edition) |
Genre | Comedy |
Created by | Nathan Eastwood |
Written by |
|
Directed by | Paul Routledge |
Voices of | |
Country of origin | United Kingdom |
Original language | English |
No. of series | 2 |
No. of episodes | 12 |
Production | |
Running time | 35 minutes |
Original release | |
Network | E4 |
Release | 11 November 2014 – 29 September 2015 |
Bad Robots is a British television prank show that originally aired on E4 from November 2014. [1] Made by Objective Productions, the show centres on a fleet of seemingly defective and even mischievous machines, devices and robots produced by the fictional TezCorp Industries. Unsuspecting members of the public were filmed using these everyday machines, resulting in practical-joke and hidden-camera laughs.
Bad Robots was commissioned for Comedy Blaps (Channel 4's vehicle for piloting comedy) in late 2013. The pilot was written and performed by Lee Kern, who played a prototype version of the show's primary robot, "BOT". [2] The show was subsequently commissioned for a full series of 6 episodes, to air on E4.
The series was created by Nathan Eastwood, directed by Paul Routledge, and written and produced by Ben Spiteri. Lee Kern wrote the sequences featuring "BOT". Motion graphics for the series were created by Compost Creative. A host of comedy talent provided voices for the machines, including Lee Kern as "BOT", Sir Michael Gambon, Simon Greenall, Rob Delaney, Terry Mynott, Diane Morgan and Tom Allen.
The first episode drew an average audience figure of 338,000.[ citation needed ]
Series | Start date | End date | Episodes |
---|---|---|---|
1 | 11 November 2014 | 16 December 2014 | 6 |
2 | 25 August 2015 | 29 September 2015 | 6 |
Model No. | Machine | Voice Over (unconfirmed*) | No. episodes |
---|---|---|---|
TEZ1 | BAD ROBOT | Sir Michael Gambon | 12 |
TEZ#002 | Digi-Photo-Matic photo booth | Matthew Holness | 7 |
TEZ#003 | Frank and Send postage machine | Tom Allen | 4 |
TEZ#004 | Non-Stop Radio | N/A | 2 |
TEZ#005 | Hotel BOT | Lee Kern | 1 |
TEZ#006 | Cimema BOT | Lee Kern | 1 |
TEZ#007 | Charge-O-Matic mobile phone charger | Annabel Raftery | 2 |
TEZ#008 | Tourist Information Machine | Nico Tatarowicz | 5 |
TEZ#009 | Cab BOT | Lee Kern | 1 |
TEZ#010 | Con-Struct-A-Bear | Dave Benson-Philips | 3 |
TEZ#011 | Reception BOT | Lee Kern | 1 |
TEZ#012 | Audio Tour Guide | Simon Greenall* | 1 |
TEZ#013 | Bouncer BOT | Lee Kern | 1 |
TEZ#014 | Maxwave Microwave | N/A | 1 |
TEZ#015 | Takeaway BOT | Lee Kern | 1 |
TEZ#016 | Floor Buffer with autobuff mode | Matthew Holness* | 2 |
TEZ#017 | Nails Babez manicure machine | Matthew Le Tissier* | 1 |
TEZ#018 | Tezbrowze web browser | Matthew Holness* | 1 |
TEZ#019 | TezToys: Yank It! | Rob Delaney | 1 |
TEZ#020 | British Language Test | Simon Greenall* | 2 |
TEZ#021 | Vet BOT | Lee Kern | 1 |
TEZ#022 | Self-Serving Chocolate Fountain | Matthew Le Tissier* | 2 |
TEZ#023 | Border Control BOT | Lee Kern | 1 |
TEZ#024 | S.A.L.Y (Survey - Analysis - Learning - You) survey machine | Ross Kemp | 2 |
TEZ#025 | Career BOT | Lee Kern | 1 |
TEZ#026 | DNA Testing Machine | Simon Greenall* | 1 |
- | British Roadways Centre: 2014-2015 Theory Test | Terry Mynott* | 4 |
- | Change Machine | Rob Delaney | 1 |
- | Digi-e-Card booth | Felicity Montagu | 1 |
- | Dog motorbike kids' rides | N/A | 2 |
- | Hear 2 Stay hearing test machine | Rob Delaney | 1 |
- | London Global Money Exchange machine | Adam Buxton | 2 |
- | Optical Prime eye test machine | Simon Greenall* | 3 |
- | Parking Ticket Machine | Terry Mynott* | 3 |
- | Power roller with automatic painting assistant | Rob Delaney | 1 |
- | Quiziemodo Pub Quiz Machine | Matthew Holness | 8 |
- | Simple Samples | Kelly-Anne Lyons | 5 |
- | Speak & Search shopping companion/reference index | John Hopkins | 7 |
- | Tandalous spray tanning booth | Diane Morgan (S01)/Vikki Stone (S02) | 2 |
- | Tez Tees golf ball dispenser | Matthew Le Tissier* | 1 |
- | Tezcorp Alarm System | Rob Delaney | 1 |
- | Traffic Sign | N/A | 2 |
- | Water Cooler | N/A | 1 |
Mystery Science Theater 3000 is an American science fiction comedy film review television series created by Joel Hodgson. The show premiered on KTMA-TV in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on November 24, 1988. It then moved to nationwide broadcast, first on The Comedy Channel/Comedy Central for seven seasons until its cancellation in 1996. Thereafter, it was picked up by The Sci-Fi Channel and aired for three more seasons until another cancellation in August 1999. A 60-episode syndication package titled The Mystery Science Theater Hour was produced in 1993 and broadcast on Comedy Central and syndicated to TV stations in 1995. In 2015, Hodgson led a crowdfunded revival of the series with 14 episodes in its eleventh season, first released on Netflix on April 14, 2017, with another six-episode season following on November 22, 2018. A second successful crowdfunding effort in 2021 produced 13 additional episodes shown on the Gizmoplex, an online platform that Hodgson developed which launched in March 2022. As of 2023, 230 episodes and a feature film have been produced as well as three live tours.
BattleBots is an American robot combat television series and company. The show is an adaptation of the American Robot Wars competitions hosted in the mid–late 1990s by Marc Thorpe, in which competitors design and operate remote-controlled armed and armored machines designed to fight in an arena combat elimination tournament. The same competitions inspired the British TV program Robot Wars, which acquired the name in 1995.
GamesMaster is a British television programme which originally aired on Channel 4 from 1992 to 1998. In 2021, it returned for a new series on YouTube and E4. It was the first UK television programme dedicated to video games.
Kevin Eldon is an English actor and comedian. He featured in British comedy television shows of the 1990s including Fist of Fun, This Morning with Richard Not Judy, Knowing Me, Knowing You with Alan Partridge, Big Train, Brass Eye and Jam. In 2013, Eldon appeared in his own BBC sketch series It's Kevin. He has also appeared in minor speaking roles in the HBO series Game of Thrones.
Charlton Brooker is an English writer, television presenter, producer and satirist. He is the creator and co-showrunner of the sci-fi drama anthology series Black Mirror, and has written for comedy series such as Brass Eye, The 11 O'Clock Show, and Nathan Barley.
Robert Darren Popper is a British comedy producer, writer, actor, and author, best known as co-creator of the mock BBC documentary Look Around You, and creator of Channel 4's sitcom Friday Night Dinner. He also wrote the books The Timewaster Letters, Return of The Timewaster Letters and The Timewaster Diaries under the pseudonym Robin Cooper.
8 Out of 10 Cats was a British comedy panel show that aired from 3 June 2005 to 17 January 2021. It was first broadcast on Channel 4 from 2005 to 2015, then More4 from 2016 to 2017, and finally E4 from 2017 to 2021. The show was hosted by Jimmy Carr; the final series' team captains were Rob Beckett and Katherine Ryan.
Lime Pictures, formerly known as Mersey Television, is a British television production company, founded by producer and writer Phil Redmond in the early 1980s. It produces drama and entertainment shows for the international market, including Hollyoaks, The Only Way is Essex, Geordie Shore and Free Rein.
Balls of Steel is a British television comedy game show hosted by Mark Dolan. Dolan's special guests perform stunts and hold their nerve during hidden camera set-ups in the presence of celebrities or the British public.
Kayvan Novak is a British actor and comedian. He co-created and starred in the comedy series Fonejacker (2006–2008) and Facejacker (2010–2012), winning the BAFTA Television Award for Best Comedy in 2008.
Fonejacker is a British sketch comedy programme broadcast on E4 featuring a series of prank calls involving a number of different characters performed by British Iranian television actor Kayvan Novak. It first appeared in May 2006 and became a full series in 2007.
The Inbetweeners is a British coming-of-age television teen sitcom, which originally aired on E4 from 2008 to 2010 and was created and written by Damon Beesley and Iain Morris. The series follows the misadventures of suburban teenager William McKenzie and his friends Simon Cooper, Neil Sutherland and Jay Cartwright at the fictional Rudge Park Comprehensive. The programme involves situations of school life, uncaring school staff, friendship, male bonding, lad culture and adolescent sexuality. Despite receiving an initially lukewarm reception, it has been described as a classic and amongst the most successful British sitcoms of the 21st century.
Celebrity Juice was a British television comedy panel game broadcast on ITV2 between 24 September 2008 and 15 December 2022. The show was written and presented by Leigh Francis in the role of his alter ego Keith Lemon. The format for the series was first suggested in 2007, after the final series of Francis’s Channel 4 sketch show Bo' Selecta!. ITV approached him to create a show featuring Lemon, and after the success of the five-part series Keith Lemon's Very Brilliant World Tour, the channel commissioned Celebrity Juice. The original premise of the show was to see which team knows most about the week's tabloid news stories, although later series focus more on the comedy factor of the participating celebrity guests and games involving them, rather than discussing the week's news.
The Pilot Show is a British TV comedy show written and created by Paul Garner. Commissioned by E4 and subsequently airing on Channel 4 in 2004, the show duped celebrities and members of the public into appearing on what they believed were pilots for real TV shows. Over 30,000 British men applied to be on a new reality show called 'Lapdance Island' only to discover that it was in fact a hoax for The Pilot Show.
The Ricky Gervais Show is a comedy animated series produced for and broadcast by HBO and Channel 4. The series is an animated version of the popular British audio podcasts and audiobooks of the same name, which feature Ricky Gervais, Stephen Merchant along with colleague and friend Karl Pilkington, talking about various subjects behind the microphone. The TV series consists of past audio recordings of these unscripted "pointless conversations," with animation drawn in a style similar to classic era Hanna-Barbera cartoons, presenting jokes and situations in a literal context.
Jessica Amy Knappett is an English comedian, actress, and writer. She is the creator, writer, executive producer, and star of the E4 sitcom Drifters, and appeared as Lisa in The Inbetweeners Movie.
Drifters is a British sitcom created by Jessica Knappett. It stars Knappett, Lydia Rose Bewley, and Lauren O'Rourke. Drifters follows the lives of cousins Meg and Bunny and their friend Laura (O’Rourke) who live in Leeds following their graduation from university. E4 broadcast four series, between 2013 and 2016.
Thomas Michael Gillan Gutteridge is a British television director, producer and executive. He was formerly Chief Executive of FremantleMedia NA, having previously been founder and Chief Executive of Mentorn, from 1985 to 2001. In 2016 he was appointed Executive Producer of the television series BattleBots, which, after two seasons on ABC, in 2018 moved to the Discovery and Science Channels. He started his career as a BBC journalist.
GameFace is a British sitcom created by, written by and starring Roisin Conaty. The pilot aired on Channel 4 on 23 April 2014. The first series began on E4 on 12 October 2017 and ended with the second series on Channel 4 on 14 August 2019. The show followed Marcella's (Conaty) life as she takes life coaching and attempts to find acting work.