# Robot partners and sidekicks **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 18, 2003, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robot-partners-and-sidekicks/182638 "2003-06-18T05:08:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![scr4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@scr4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scr4)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2003, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robot-partners-and-sidekicks/182638/21 "2003-06-18T16:35:01Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Askia \* > \*\*In **Blade Runner** , was Harrison Ford’s character a replicant? \*\* It’s debatable. Or deliberately ambiguous, I guess. The woman (Rachel, I think?) is definitely a replicant, but I don’t know if you’d call her a sidekick. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2003, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robot-partners-and-sidekicks/182638/22 "2003-06-18T17:09:48Z")
Doc Magnus and the Metal Men Johnny Socko Frankenstein Jr, and Buzz ---
**Author:** ![Sock\_Munkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Sock\_Munkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sock_Munkey)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2003, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robot-partners-and-sidekicks/182638/23 "2003-06-18T17:24:35Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Necromancer \* > \*\*There was also Robocop, but he was the main character in those movies, not the sidekick \*\* Robocop was a cyborg so technically his body was his own robot sidekick. Anyone remember Irona the robot maid from the Ritchie Rich cartoon? ---
**Author:** ![firagon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/13edae/32.png) [@firagon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/firagon)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2003, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robot-partners-and-sidekicks/182638/24 "2003-06-18T18:18:11Z")
**GIR** , from Invader Zim. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2003, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robot-partners-and-sidekicks/182638/25 "2003-06-18T18:19:19Z")
Bruce Dern had little robot sidekicks in **Silent Running** , which were the forerunners of R2D2. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2003, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robot-partners-and-sidekicks/182638/26 "2003-06-18T18:31:41Z")
Also, there was a short-lived cop show in the 70’s (a comedy) in which one of the two central characters was a robot. Can’t remember the name of the show. ---
**Author:** ![DreadCthulhu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/db5fbb/32.png) [@DreadCthulhu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DreadCthulhu)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2003, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robot-partners-and-sidekicks/182638/27 "2003-06-18T18:35:57Z")
Mac and CHEEZE??? ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2003, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robot-partners-and-sidekicks/182638/28 "2003-06-18T18:40:28Z")
Don’t forget **Mac and C.H.E.E.S.E.** from _Friends_! > [@](#): > > Joey: Oh, it’s a new TV show. Yeah. I’m up for the part of Mac Macaveli or “Mac.” Yeah, I’m a detective and I solve crimes with the help of my robot partner. He’s a, he’s a Computerized Humanoid Electronically Enhanced Secret Enforcer or-or “C.H.E.E.S.E.” 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![rjung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/45deac/32.png) [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2003, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robot-partners-and-sidekicks/182638/29 "2003-06-18T18:50:27Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Bosda Di’Chi of Tricor \* > The Transformers are robots who have had human sidekicks IMO, only Bumblebee and Spike Witwicky would count; they certainly hung out together often enough. I certainly can’t picture Grimlock having _any_ sort of human sidekick. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2003, 7:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robot-partners-and-sidekicks/182638/30 "2003-06-19T07:28:37Z")
I opened this thread specifically to make sure that Daneel was mentioned. I should have known I could count on ya, **Askia**. And since I just remembered Shatner’s monstrosity called _Tek_, I’m going to have to remind you’uns of it, too :D. Blessedly, though, I don’t remember the characters’ names from it. ---
**Author:** ![Odinoneeye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/97f17d/32.png) [@Odinoneeye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odinoneeye)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2003, 10:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robot-partners-and-sidekicks/182638/31 "2003-06-19T10:43:07Z")
You’re thinking of Holmes and Yo-Yo Spoke, which was mentioned earlier. I know John Schuck played Yo-yo, but I don’t remember the actor who played Holmes. Someone mentioned the Superman robots, but weren’t they retconed out? ---
**Author:** ![E-Sabbath](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e19adc/32.png) [@E-Sabbath](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-Sabbath)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2003, 11:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robot-partners-and-sidekicks/182638/32 "2003-06-19T11:29:54Z")
Psst. Robby is from Forbidden Planet. B-9 is Lost In Space. Twiki and Doc from Buck Rogers (TV)… the dog from Battlestar Galactica… The Superman Robots sort of existed again briefly. ---
**Author:** ![BMalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2003, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robot-partners-and-sidekicks/182638/33 "2003-06-19T12:44:44Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by E-Sabbath \* > \*\*… the dog from Battlestar Galactica… > > \*\* That abomination was called **Muffet** , a robot-copy of a species of pet they called a ‘Dagget’ help me sear the memory from my brain! WHY DO I REMEMBER THIS CRAP!?! ---
**Author:** ![audit1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ed8c4c/32.png) [@audit1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/audit1)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2003, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robot-partners-and-sidekicks/182638/34 "2003-06-20T01:53:38Z")
MY LIVING DOLL. CBS television 1964. Julie Newmar played Rhoda an experimental Air Force Report. She is left in the care of air force psychiatrist. Robert McDonald played by Robert Cummings who must keep secret the fact Rhoda is a robot. One season. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2003, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robot-partners-and-sidekicks/182638/35 "2003-06-20T02:07:17Z")
The robot head from Lexx that existed in a constant state of hysterical infatuation for various members of the crew. Definitely a sidekick worth kicking to the side. Surely ya’ll haven’t forgotten “Frankenstein Jr.” who had the kid as a sidekick, or was the kid’s sidekick. And then there was that movie version of the TV series … what was it called … My Giant Robot or something … ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2003, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robot-partners-and-sidekicks/182638/36 "2003-06-20T03:44:08Z")
What about the creepiest sitcom ever, [Small Wonder](http://www.entertainment-geekly.com/web/general/dec2002/dead_air_smallwonder), in which a robot scientist builds himself not a sidekick, _but a nine-year-old daughter!!_ ---
**Author:** ![Vlad\_Dracul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/50afbb/32.png) [@Vlad\_Dracul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Vlad_Dracul)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2003, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robot-partners-and-sidekicks/182638/37 "2003-06-20T04:17:53Z")
The movie “Runaway” was filled with relatively crude robots doing all sorts of servant-type jobs: housekeeper, assassination weapon, picker-of-bugs-off-of-plants, etc. The androids Ruk, Andrea, and Brown in the Trek TOS episode “What Are Little Girls Made Of?” Thousands of androids on Mudd’s Planet in Trek TOS episode “I, Mudd”. Until they ceased being sidekicks and took over, of course. The Humanoids in Jack Williamson’s “With Folded Hands”. although it’s debatable whether they count as servants or just solicitous overlords. ---
**Author:** ![Odinoneeye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/97f17d/32.png) [@Odinoneeye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odinoneeye)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2003, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robot-partners-and-sidekicks/182638/38 "2003-06-20T04:52:35Z")
Are you thinking of Johnny Socko and his Flying Robot Evil? He always refered to it as Giant Robot. ---
**Author:** ![rjung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/45deac/32.png) [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2003, 8:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robot-partners-and-sidekicks/182638/39 "2003-06-20T08:23:19Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Odinoneeye \* > Are you thinking of Johnny Socko and his Flying Robot Evil? > > He always refered to it as Giant Robot. And IIRC, that was intended as a live-action version of the anime **Gigantor** (already mentioned, I know). More recently, didn’t **Giant Robo** come out in Japan? (If we’re including _anime_ and _manga_ here, we’ll never get done!) ---
**Author:** ![Sublight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2003, 10:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robot-partners-and-sidekicks/182638/40 "2003-06-20T10:05:24Z")
How about the Stepford wives? Not exactly sidekicks, but definitely companions. In the same vein, there’s the title character of **Cherry 2000**. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robot-partners-and-sidekicks/182638.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/robot-partners-and-sidekicks/182638.md?page=3)