October 14, 2008

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Here’s a Servant Out of This World (Jan, 1956)

Filed under: Movies, Robots — @ 12:10 am
Source: Popular Science ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Jan, 1956
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Here’s a Servant Out of This World
A seven-foot eight-inch robot does its master’s bidding in M-G-M’s new movie, “Forbidden Planet.” Made of plastic and synthetic leather, the robot is animated by electricity. Ears are rotating antennas, and its grillework month hides a loudspeaker.

15 Comments »

1. Ohh, he kinda was the stereotype robot for many years to come.

   Comment by Casandro — October 14, 2008 @ 1:01 am

2. He had an interesting history http://home.pacbell.net/thoemk.....ry-01.html

   Comment by Firebrand38 — October 14, 2008 @ 2:06 am

3. danger danger will robinson!

   Comment by Al Bear — October 14, 2008 @ 2:14 am

4. Great link Firebrand but reading the green-on-black single-spaced text is murder on the eyes. I suggest copying it into an email and changing it to black on white.

   Comment by StanFlouride — October 14, 2008 @ 7:46 am

5. Forbidden planet was probably the first really serious science fiction movie ever made. It’s premise of monsters from the id was IMHO pure genius on the part of the authors. And combined with the remarkable (for that time) special effects that were employed, it was and still is unique.

   Comment by Rick — October 14, 2008 @ 10:39 am

6. While Forbidden Planet was a great movie with a lot of imagination, it was hardly the first serious SF movie. Metropolis, Things to Come, Destination Moon and The Day the Earth Stood Still were all certainly serious SF movies that preceded it. I will say that the parallels between “Planet” and the original Star Trek are too numerous to be coincidence.

   Comment by Scott — October 14, 2008 @ 12:05 pm

7. Hi Scott,

   Yes you are correct about those serious movies preceding Forbidden Planet. With the exception of Destination Moon which was almost a documentary, however, the others mostly dealt with the pathologies of whole societies whereas Forbidden Planet focussed on the beast within the individual. Pretty unique for a sci-fi flick of that time.

   Comment by Rick — October 14, 2008 @ 1:03 pm

8. Would you believe that Robbie was on an episode of The Love Boat?

   Comment by Tracy B. — October 14, 2008 @ 3:44 pm

9. Hi Tracy,

   What could he have been doing on Love Boat . . . unless of course Robbette was also there.

   Comment by Rick — October 14, 2008 @ 4:50 pm

10. Greatest. Science. Fiction. Robot. Ever.

    Comment by rsterling78 — October 14, 2008 @ 10:01 pm

11. Forbidden Planet is perhaps my all time favorite science fiction movie but it was based loosely on the Shakespeare play “The Tempest”.

    Comment by JMyint — October 15, 2008 @ 12:35 am

12. Hi Rick
    I think Robbie was doing data processing related stuff (most likely match making.) The legs were replaced with a wheeled cart.

    Comment by Tracy B. — October 15, 2008 @ 3:44 pm

13. Hi again tracy,

    I only watched Love Boat two or three times, but I sure wish I’d seen that episode. Robbie’s torso attached to a cart. How cool! A preview of R2D2, my other favorite robot (droid . . . whatever).

    Comment by Rick — October 15, 2008 @ 7:19 pm

14. My 50th Anniversary DVD of ‘Forbidden Planet’ included “The Invisible Boy” and an episode of the 1960s TV series “The Thin Man” featuring a non-sapient Robbie as a murder suspect. The DVD included a description of the design and construction of Robbie.
    I don’t know about ‘The Love Boat’, but Robbie appeared in ‘The Twilight Zone’ and ‘Mork and Mindy’.
    Also a brief cameo in ‘Gremlins’.
    Was he in the futuristic but run down museum in the George Pal ‘The Time Machine’?

    Comment by jayessell — October 15, 2008 @ 7:54 pm

15. I still prefer Gort. I think the original “Lost in Space” ruined Robbie-derived robots for me.

    Comment by Toronto — October 15, 2008 @ 10:18 pm

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