#robot block

[combustion-man]

Everyone usually asks about RJ, but how Did Mr. Block feel about working on Home on the Range? Or Shrek?

I had no idea what Shrek was when I went in to record my lines. I think it took less than an hour from start to finish. Home on the Range was a little bit more involved, though. I initially auditioned for the movie while it was still under its pre-production title Sweating Bullets. The process was a lot of fun for me and I recall telling jokes to the producers during my line-reads. I think that may have also been my first time at the Disney animation studio? However, while I have clearer memories of my time working on Home on the Range in retrospect I definitely feel a stronger connection to Shrek. I’ve rewatched the movie many more times and personally enjoy it a lot more as an audience member. It is pretty cool knowing that I played a (small) role in creating a movie that went on to have a huge legacy in the industry and broader culture. It’s status as a meme never ceases to amuse me as well.

[combustion-man]

Hi there! Being the huge Robot Jones fan I am, I just had a couple of questions for Bobby! 1. Do you, or did you, have a favorite episode of the show?

2. Do you remember recording lines for any particular episode(s)?

3. Are you, or were you, anything like Robot Jones in real life? Hope I'm not being annoying or bothersome with these questions and I hope you're both having a great day!

No bother at all, thanks for asking!

1. I don’t know that I currently have a favorite episode of the show. While I was recording it, I think my favorite was the season 1 episode “Politics” where Robot runs for class president. I really enjoyed the hall of president’s scene where Robot’s ambitions get the better of him and he fantasizes about becoming the “Ruler of the Cosmos”. I had a lot of fun with the over the top delivery of that line and still sometimes think about it.

2. YES! There were a few episodes where I struggled with my lines and had to go through dozens of takes until we found one that satisfied the production team. I have a couple of those burned into my memory. I don’t recall which episode it was in, but I remember repeating the line “totally with-it” over and over until the words had completely lost their meaning.

3. There are definitely aspects that I have always related to with Robot Jones’ character. I was home-schooled from grades 4-6 and felt like a bit of an outsider when I returned to public school for 7th grade. Just like Robot, I sometimes strained to understand my peers and often retreated into the comfort of analytical thinking and academic work.

[combustion-man]

For Bobby: have you ever met Macintalk in real life? Is there any bad blood between you two?

No bad blood at all.

[combustion-man]

Hi there! I'm a big fan of Robot Jones and I think it's so cool that Bobby is your bf! I just wanted to say how much I loved his worked on the show and preferred his voice even! I hope I'm not being annoying but I just had a question for Bobby: seeing as Robot Jones is a robot, he uses big words/technincal terms and I was just wondering if you had to learn a lot of words for the role and if you had a voice acting coach or a studio engineer go over them with you when you got your scripts.

Bobby here! I think part of the reason I was cast was that I was naturally a bit of a of a know-it-all. One of my favorite pastimes when I was in the waiting room for auditions was going around to the other actors/families and offering to play trivia games where I would quiz them on random facts and world records. I don’t recall needing a lot of special coaching or guidance for the Robot Jones scripts, but the audio engineers would definitely correct me if I stumbled on any pronunciation.

(And you’re not being annoying! Allison loves showing me these questions and I have fun answering them.)

@robotelectrolytejonez

[combustion-man]

yo does bobby have a tumblr too?

Nope, but Allison sometimes shows me posts from here - Bobby

@lesbitch

[combustion-man]

Just wanted to say that I ALSO adore Bobby's voice acting for RJ!! It's my favorite voice for RJ! Hope this makes his day a little better :)

Aww, thank you so much! That totally made my day - Bobby

@toon-alien

[combustion-man]

Hi there! I'm a huge fan of "whatever happened to robot jones?". I was recently looking through the "robot jones" tag on tumblr and saw some asks from other fans about the show and saw that bobby block was your boyfriend. I think that's super cool and I loved his work on the show, prefered it even! I was just wondering, for bobby, if he enjoyed working on the show and what was in like behind the scenes during the production on set?

Hello! Bobby Here -

I’m so glad you enjoyed the show! I was brought in late in the production cycle, so most of the work I did was separate from the rest of the cast. For at least the first season, I would get sent tapes (yes, actual VHS tapes) of the original episodes with the robotic voice along with my script and then go in to the studio already having an idea of what the finished product would look like.

I enjoyed recording for the most part, but some days it required more patience and concentration than 9/10-year-old me was capable of. Our sessions would usually last about 4 hours and I would be alone in the recording booth for most of that time. In moments of down time while the director was reviewing takes and I didn’t really have anything to do, I would tend to fidget with whatever was available on-hand. This usually meant that I was playing with some of the binder clips used to hold my scripts together. The studio engineers HATED this because, if I still had the clips in my hands during a take, they would make clicking noises that would ruin my audio.

Over the course of the show, this eventually turned into a bit of an arms race where I was constantly trying to come up with new ways of smuggling in clips and the production staff were trying to stop me.

It was all in good fun, and for one of the last episodes, I showed up to work in a t-shirt that was covered in about 30 different clips of various sizes clamped to the fabric.

During its initial run the show never really drew in a huge audience, so it’s great to see that even after almost 20 years (!?&%*$#) it still has an active fan following!

@awk0-narwhals