The brain trust 2.0.
The Robonic Stooges is a half-hour Saturday-Morning Cartoon from 1978. The show is — well, Exactly What It Says on the Tin. The Three Stooges receive The Six Million Dollar Man treatment in one of the strangest animated adaptations ever. It originally aired as an extra segment on The Skatebirds, but got its own half-hour timeslot, with edited reruns of Clue Club, that lasted 16 episodes. Junk dealers Larry, Curly, and Moe bumble around as crime-fighters with special bionic powers, who get instructions from their exasperated boss, Agent 000.Tropes:
- A.I. Is a Crapshoot: And how. There isn't an episode in the series that disproves it, although in largest part, the Stooges do bring in their criminals. Even 000 is surprised sometimes.
- All Balloons Have Helium: In one episode, Curly inflates himself so he, Larry and Moe can escape a castle where all the exits are locked.
- Animated Adaptation: Of The Three Stooges.
- Brought to You by the Letter "S": L for Larry Fine, M for Moe Howard and C for Curly Howard. And that included the transition sequence (the LMC wipe where each crest opened up and the C shattered to introduce the next scene).
- The Cameo: In another episode, Scooby-Doo appears in a page of a paint-by-numbers coloring book. In yet another, Woofer and Wimper from Clue Club are seen on wallpaper.
- Catchphrase:
- In unison: "Robonic Stooges... awaaaaaayyy!!!"
- Or when Triple 0 appears, any one of them will pipe up, "Oh-oh, it's 0-0-0!"
- Either/Or Title: The final episode was "Stooges, You're Fired." Reference sources have the episode with the Either Or title "The Day The Mirth Stood Still."
- Leitmotif: The Stooges' most used theme song, "Three Blind Mice," is used in the opening titles and sporadically in the episodes when they appear.
- Medium Awareness:
- Zig-zagged in "Jerk and the Beanstalk": The Stooges are faced with dealing with a giant moth, so out at sea, Moe calls for the animators to turn the moth into a giant fish. They turn it into a shark.
- Earlier in the episode, Larry and Curly suggest retirement when they can't get rid of the moth. Moe digresses:
Moe: We haven't failed in thirty-two episodes and we won't fail this time! - Not Quite Starring: Sadly enforced by that time — the last remaining original Stooge died three years earlier. Larry, Curly and Moe are instead voiced, respectively, by Joe Baker, Frank Welker and Paul Winchell.
- "Number of Objects" Title: When the segment broke off from Skatebirds to become a separate show, it was renamed The Three Robonic Stooges.
- Shout-Out: In "Dr. Jekyll and Hide Curly", Dr. Jekyll turns the backs of the Stooges' heads into evil Hydes. Using a chemistry set, they try to make an antidote. On the first try, they turn the backs of their heads into the Marx Brothers.
