TVSquad

A few days before an advanced copy of Robot Chicken Season Two arrived in the mail, I had been watching my Mission Hill DVD. For those who don't know, Mission Hill was the creation of Simpsons writers Josh Weinstein and Bill Oakley. It focused on a college graduate named Andy French, living the typical slacker existence of an aimless college grad. The series aired when I myself was an aimless, slacking twentysomething, so I found the series funny, poignant, and often heartbreakingly real.

I realized while watching it that Adult Swim hasn't had a series with that kind of substance in a long time. Series like Baby Blues and Home Movies have been replaced by weird post-modern fare like Aqua Teen Hunger Force* and the works of Tim and Eric, with very little programming left with any real emotion.

Details are finally being revealed today about the Robot Chicken: Star Wars special that is coming up on June 17th on Cartoon Network. We first heard about it last fall when Adam interviewed Morel Orel creator Dino Stamatopoulos, who shares a studio with Robot Chicken. The news today is that George Lucas and Mark Hamill are both participating. Lucas will play himself and Hamill will play Luke Skywalker. And, as Adam reported late last year, producers Seth Green and Matthew Senreich are actually working with LucasFilm Ltd. to create the 30-minute parody of the Star Wars series. Senreich says it's a dream come true and "How many people can say that George Lucas let them play with his entire Star Wars universe and do Robot Chicken-like things to it?"

I'm really looking forward to this episode. Green and Senreich have pretty much been obsessed with Star Wars and it has appeared in Robot Chicken many times. But- to be able to recreate the entire series with the blessing of The Godfather? Awesome!

By the way, this will be Mark Hamill's second visit to Robot Chicken. He voiced three characters, one of them was himself, in a 2005 episode. Other celebrity voices in the Star Wars special include Conan O'Brien, James van der Beek, Hulk Hogan, Abraham Benrubi, Breckin Meyer, Joey Fatone, and regular Seth MacFarlane.