The Robonic Stooges

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

The Robonic Stooges was 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. Larry, Curly and Moe bumble around as crimefighters with special bionic powers, who get instructions from their exasperated boss, Agent 000.


Tropes used in The Robonic Stooges include:
  • Animated Adaptation
  • Brain In a Jar: Dr. Brainly's brain.
  • 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 bumper where each crest opened up and the C shattered to introduce the next scene).
  • Catch Phrase: "Robonic Stooges...awaaaaaayyy!!!"
  • 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.
  • No Fourth Wall: 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.
  • Not Quite Starring: Sadly enforced by that time -- none of the original Stooges were alive in 1978.
  • Only Sane Man: Agent 000, though it's very sorely tested.
  • Projected Man: Agent 000
  • 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.
    • 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.
  • Take Over the World: Stock villain motivation, in particular, Professor Cluck.