The Big Guy and Rusty the Boy Robot (TV series)
Encyclopedia
The Big Guy and Rusty the Boy Robot was an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 animated TV series based on the comic book of the same name by Frank Miller
Frank Miller (comics)
Frank Miller is an American comic book artist, writer and film director best known for his dark, film noir-style comic book stories and graphic novels Ronin, Daredevil: Born Again, Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Sin City and 300...

 and Geof Darrow
Geof Darrow
Geofrey "Geof" Darrow is a comic artist known for his work on books such as Hard Boiled and Big Guy and Rusty the Boy Robot, which was adapted into an animated TV series of the same name.-Character design and Moebius collaborations:...

.

Overview

The animated series, produced by Columbia TriStar Television
Columbia TriStar Television
Columbia TriStar Television was the third name of the television studio Screen Gems, named after its then-current 1991 home video division....

 and Dark Horse Entertainment
Dark Horse Entertainment
Dark Horse Entertainment is a motion picture and television production arm of American comic book publishing company Dark Horse Comics.They also have a sub-label, Dark Horse Indie.-Productions:*30 Days of Night*B&B*Barb Wire...

, aired from 1999 to 2001, and in many aspects is a more mature and established series. Whereas the comic book seems like only an introduction to the robots, the animated series is full-fledged with a strong back story which links the episodes together. The plot and setting of the series is different from the comic book as the whole story is based around New Tronic
Neutron
The neutron is a subatomic hadron particle which has the symbol or , no net electric charge and a mass slightly larger than that of a proton. With the exception of hydrogen, nuclei of atoms consist of protons and neutrons, which are therefore collectively referred to as nucleons. The number of...

 City, a fictional American city clearly modeled after New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

. The series focuses on Rusty, the most advanced robot ever built, with a human emotional grid and "nucleoprotonic" powers. The plan is that Rusty will replace the Big Guy, a massive war robot that is the Earth's last line of defence against all threats alien or domestic. However, Rusty is too inexperienced to stand on his own, so the Big Guy is re-commissioned to teach Rusty the way of trade. Rusty idolizes the Big Guy, regarding him as the best robot ever. In reality, the Big Guy is actually a mindless battle suit piloted by Lieutenant
Lieutenant
A lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer in many nations' armed forces. Typically, the rank of lieutenant in naval usage, while still a junior officer rank, is senior to the army rank...

 Dwayne Hunter, who poses as his chief mechanic. The Big Guy's secret is known only to a few, and many situations involve Lt. Hunter's clever and impromptu excuses to hide the fact from Rusty for two reasons: that the truth could overload Rusty's emotional grid; and Rusty has trouble keeping secrets.

Recurring characters

  • Rusty - Quark's intended replacement for the Big Guy, a robot with real artificial intelligence and powered by nucleoprotons. However, Rusty is far too inexperienced to face the threats that the Big Guy normally handles, so he is relegated to being Big Guy's sidekick and trainee. He idolizes Big Guy but is unaware that his hero is actually a human inside a metal suit. Though immature and impetuous, Rusty does at times give his hero an emotional boost in morale. It's generally unwise to trifle with him; it may take a while, but the boy robot does make evildoers pay. He initially had a bit of a problem of handling the recoil of his nucleoproton blasts, and regularly got knocked down afterwards or shot the wrong target, but after some practice learned to compensate for the recoil. Voiced by Pamela Adlon
    Pamela Adlon
    Pamela Fionna Adlon is a Jewish-American actress, voice actress, and producer. She is sometimes credited as Pamela Segall, Pamela S. Adlon and Pamela Segall Adlon...

    .
  • Big Guy - Designated as the BGY-11, the so-called 'robot' champion of Earth was actually a heavily-armed battlesuit, piloted by Lieutenant Dwayne Hunter. When Quark Industries failed to produce an actual robot with artificial intelligence, the solution was to use a human pilot. As Hunter puts it, the Big Guy was nothing more than a fancy tank. Big Guy is able to fly, possesses great strength and is armed with a variety of integrated weaponry, including the signature fold-out guns in the elbow housings. Unlike Rusty, he is powered by a Cobalt/Thorium G Power Core. Always ready with a patriotic quip, Big Guy's personality is much different than that of his human pilot in real life.
  • Lieutenant Dwayne Hunter - Voiced by Jim Hanks
    Jim Hanks
    Jim Hanks is an American film and television actor, and voice-over artist.-Background:Jim Hanks is the youngest brother of Tom Hanks, but they were not raised together...

    . The Big Guy's pilot to a few, the Big Guy's chief mechanic to the world. Has a crush on Dr. Slate.
  • Dr. Erika Slate - A scientist at Quark Industries, she developed Rusty's human emotional grid and acts like a mother to Rusty. She is one of the few who knows the Big Guy's secret, discovering so by accident when Rusty was looking for a Big Guy fansite and accidentally hacked into confidential files on Big Guy's creation. Voiced by Gabrielle Carteris
    Gabrielle Carteris
    Gabrielle Anne Carteris is an American actress known for her role as Andrea Zuckerman on the early seasons of the 1990s television series Beverly Hills, 90210.-Personal life:...

    . In one episode when Hunter is down, she pilots the Big Guy herself.
  • Dr. Axel Donovan - Voiced by Stephen Root
    Stephen Root
    Stephen Root is an American actor. He is best known for his comedic work on the TV sitcom NewsRadio, in the film Office Space and as the voice of Bill Dauterive and Buck Strickland in the animated series King of the Hill...

    . President of Quark Industries, a robotics firm. He is a caricature of capitalistic greed and moral cowardice. He often provides comic relief
    Comic relief
    Comic relief is the inclusion of a humorous character, scene or witty dialogue in an otherwise serious work, often to relieve tension.-Definition:...

    .
  • Jenny the Monkey - A monkey who talks and usually sits on Dr. Donovan's shoulder while making fun of Quark's scientists and employees. She has a keen sense of self-preservation.
  • Jo, Mack, and Garth - The Big Guy's pit crew. They serve on the aircraft carrier
    Aircraft carrier
    An aircraft carrier is a warship designed with a primary mission of deploying and recovering aircraft, acting as a seagoing airbase. Aircraft carriers thus allow a naval force to project air power worldwide without having to depend on local bases for staging aircraft operations...

     S.S. Dark Horse, which acts as Big Guy's base and stores his airship
    Airship
    An airship or dirigible is a type of aerostat or "lighter-than-air aircraft" that can be steered and propelled through the air using rudders and propellers or other thrust mechanisms...

    . When Rusty gained a new body and became Rus, Mack became his chief mechanic and was replaced by a by the book one. Mack and Rusty didn't get along well, but Mack rescued him after he was captured and gave him an improvised body to complete his mission. Afterwards Rusty rejoined Big Guy and Mack rejoined Big Guy's team.
  • General Thornton - A U.S. Army general who heads the government's BGY-11 Commission, that created the Big Guy. He helps keep the Big Guy's secret from Rusty and the others. His voice actor is R Lee Ermey.
  • The Squillacci Empire - Squid-like tentacled aliens who make crop circles, attempt to experiment on cows
    Cattle mutilation
    Cattle mutilation is the apparent killing and mutilation of cattle under unusual or anomalous circumstances...

     and other stereotypical alien actions. Their attempts to conquer the Earth have been repeatedly thwarted by the Big Guy. It is later revealed that, if not for the Big Guy, the Squillacci Empire would have ruled the earth. They once tried to conquer Earth during the Revolutionary War but were thwarted by Big Guy and Rusty. The battle was responsible for the crack in the Liberty Bell.
  • Earl: The E.P 327. Early prototype of Rusty. Has an underdeveloped emotion grid and follows orders literally. Initially brought back online by Rusty for him to have a friend, but after he goes too far and blows the Big Guy's head off, Rusty fights him and manages to decapitate him and remove his powerpack. Later reactivated to download information with Rusty and ordered to follow Rusty's orders. Succeeds in his mission, but malfunctions when Rusty gives him an impossible order (to go hide in a corner when they were in a round room). This causes him to reset and go into defense mode, ignoring Rusty's commands. Once again Rusty is forced to decapitate him.
  • Legion Ex Machina - Latin
    Latin
    Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...

     for "Many from the Machine", they are an enigmatic group of six very advanced robots who aim to destroy humanity and create a robot-heaven of "Robotopia." Their whereabouts and origin are unknown, yet their robotic design and function are very similar to the Big Guy. This presents an intriguing hook that ties the episodes together, with clues to their origin and their creator being revealed one by one. Ironically, they were created by the same man who originally led Big Guy's design. The show ended on a cliffhanger
    Cliffhanger
    A cliffhanger or cliffhanger ending is a plot device in fiction which features a main character in a precarious or difficult dilemma, or confronted with a shocking revelation at the end of an episode of serialized fiction...

    , where it is discovered that there is a seventh Legion Ex Machina that Big Guy and Rusty have yet to defeat. Even though they have different outer bodies all Legion Ex Machina have the same AI and the same Exoskeleton. Gilder was the only exception as he still had his emotion grid but otherwise identical to the other members. With the exception of Gilder, all Legion Ex Machina members were voiced by Clancy Brown
    Clancy Brown
    Clarence J. "Clancy" Brown III is an American actor and voice actor. He is known for his roles in live action as The Kurgan in the cult classic film Highlander, Byron Hadley in the award-winning The Shawshank Redemption, Brother Justin Crowe in HBO's critically acclaimed Carnivàle, and Career...

    .


The Seven members are:
  • #1: The leader of the group. He was the first of the legion to come online and can create complex tactics very quickly. He also has no remorse about executing his own brothers should they be inefficient. He perished in the final battle at the lab, thrown against and disintegrated by a powerful force field used to contain Big Guy and Rusty after being blasted by Big Guy's gun fired by his own creator.
  • #2/3: Since they both lacked emotions they are nearly identical other than their looks. They often agree on the same things that usually contradicts #1. They are completely loyal to #1 and would respect him, although they are always seen as equals. #3 was destroyed when Big Guy pushed him and his combat armor into an acid-filled cauldron with the help of Rusty. #2 was destroyed by Rusty who dragged him into the blades of a gigantic fan which tore him to pieces.
  • #4: The only one to develop an emotion grid. #4 temporarily switched personalities and knowledge with Rusty, leading to his childish behavior in the episode. He would be captured by Rusty when their minds completely switched and later placed in a toy robot when Dr. Donovan's nephew, Pierre, stole his brain. He tried to contact the Legion only to find that he is to be executed. He would then try to fry the entire area by creating a nuclear fusion meltdown. Dr. Slate defused the reactor and Big Guy activated his defense mechanism, destroying #4's brain.
  • #5: The first Legion member to meet the Big Guy. He was very similar to #2 and #3. He took over a munitions factory and was destroyed when Big Guy threw him into liquid nitrogen, freezing him solid. Rusty then shattered him, destroying him completely and somewhat annoying Big Guy as they could have studied him.
  • #6: Also known as Dr. Gilder, #6 was the only member whose emotion grid was fully intact. However his emotions are highly exaggerated and are considered by his peers as a weakness. He was sent to Quark Industries as a spy to gather blue prints and information on various Quark staff. He was first portrayed as a shy, weak scientist but was soon revealed as a Legion Ex Machina member. His emotions also changed to a sadistic killer. His exoskeleton was destroyed when it was dropped into a grinder. His brain was destroyed when Big Guy tried to access his memory files and triggered a self defense program, detonating itself. He is the first to be destroyed and also gave the protagonists some clues on how to destroy Legion Ex Machina members (see #4's demise above).
  • #7: Alluded to in the series finale, presumably still at large.


The Legion's creations:
  • Argos: Two robots created by the Legion. The first was used as a weapon to attack the Legion's enemies. It was the first encounter with the Legion and it tried to turn Big Guy and Rusty over to the Legion's side but they refused. Powered by nucleoprotons and destroyed by Rusty when tricked into taking his overloading powerpack. Remains scrapped by the Legion at #6's orders. The second was a several stories tall version. This one was so powerful it could take the best Big Guy and Rusty could hit it with and come out without a scratch. Due to Big Guy and Rusty getting its left hand, it was missing a hand. Inside the hand was a 500 megawatt Vortex Cannon. Was sent out to get New Tronic City's Micro Fusion Generator to power a new assembly line for Legion robots. Was destroyed by Joe who fired the Argo's own Vortex Cannon into it once Rusty retrieved the firing mechanism in the left wrist.
  • Bad Guy: A fully robotic clone of Big Guy also known as the BGY-11X. Created to take Big Guy's place to infiltrate the military and Quark. It fights it out with Big Guy who proves to be no match for it although both robots take heavy damage in the fight. It is destroyed when it goes to use a massive cannon to destroy Big Guy and Lt. Hunter fires Big Guy's hand into the cannon, blocking the shot and causing an explosion that destroys Bad Guy.
  • Lt. Hunter Clone: A robotic clone of Lt. Hunter sent to kidnap him and wipe out his mechanics and Doctor Slate. Discovered when it starts attacking. Is destroyed by Rusty who throws it into a helicopter propeller causing it to fall off Quark and crash into Donovan's new limo.


Dr. Neugog - Voiced by Tim Curry
Tim Curry
Timothy James "Tim" Curry is a British actor, singer, composer and voice actor, known for his work in a diverse range of theatre, film and television productions. He currently resides in Los Angeles, California....

. Dr. Neugog is a recurring villain in the series (in that he appears twice). In his first episode debut, Dr. Neugog (or just simply "Neugog" as he is called later) was a scientist working at Quark Industries who studied telepathy and the inner workings of the mind. Neugog created a machine known simply as the "Dynamo", which was designed to read the mind of whoever it was homed onto. Neugog attempted to impress the board of directors by reading the mind of a board member. At first, the machine fails miserably, and leaving Neugog merely guessing at what the board member was thinking. Determined not to fail, Neugog shifts the power of the Dynamo up as high as it can go. This appears to be successful, as he is able to read the board member's mind (telling him about his thought to put lotion on a rash he has because its "itching him like crazy!"). However, during the success, a spider falls into the machinery and mutates Neugog into a huge, spider-like monster with an oversized brain that actually protrudes from the back of his head. He gains the power to devour brains from living people (by use of a long, tentacle-like proboscis that emerges from his second mouth), also gaining all the knowledge they possess. When Neugog "feeds", the victim is put into a sort of comatose state where he or she is unable to speak, move, or think, just repeatedly uttering the same sounds "Duh, Guh, Uh". Neugog also gains the ability of telepathy along with an almost infinite bank of knowledge.

The series ran for 26 episodes on Fox Kids and featured, amongst others, the voice of Pamela Adlon
Pamela Adlon
Pamela Fionna Adlon is a Jewish-American actress, voice actress, and producer. She is sometimes credited as Pamela Segall, Pamela S. Adlon and Pamela Segall Adlon...

 credited as Pamela Segall as the voice of Rusty, and character actors R. Lee Ermey
R. Lee Ermey
Ronald Lee Ermey is a retired United States Marine Corps drill instructor and actor.Ermey has often played the roles of authority figures, such as his breakout performance as Gunnery Sergeant Hartman in Full Metal Jacket, Mayor Tilman in the Alan Parker film Mississippi Burning, Bill Bowerman in...

 and M. Emmet Walsh
M. Emmet Walsh
Michael Emmet Walsh is an American actor who has appeared in over 100 film and television productions.-Life and career:Walsh was born in Ogdensburg, New York, the son of Agnes Kathrine and Harry Maurice Walsh, Sr., a customs agent...

. A line of toys based on the show was produced by Bandai
Bandai
is a Japanese toy making and video game company, as well as the producer of a large number of plastic model kits. It is the world's third-largest producer of toys . Some ex-Bandai group companies produce anime and tokusatsu programs...

, which can sometimes be found on eBay
EBay
eBay Inc. is an American internet consumer-to-consumer corporation that manages eBay.com, an online auction and shopping website in which people and businesses buy and sell a broad variety of goods and services worldwide...

 along with ephemera surrounding a brief promotional tie-in with Burger King
Burger King
Burger King, often abbreviated as BK, is a global chain of hamburger fast food restaurants headquartered in unincorporated Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States. The company began in 1953 as Insta-Burger King, a Jacksonville, Florida-based restaurant chain...

.

Cast

  • Pamela Segall as the voice of Rusty / Jo
  • Jonathan Cook as the voice of The Big Guy
  • Gabrielle Carteris
    Gabrielle Carteris
    Gabrielle Anne Carteris is an American actress known for her role as Andrea Zuckerman on the early seasons of the 1990s television series Beverly Hills, 90210.-Personal life:...

     as the voice of Dr. Erika Slate
  • Jim Hanks
    Jim Hanks
    Jim Hanks is an American film and television actor, and voice-over artist.-Background:Jim Hanks is the youngest brother of Tom Hanks, but they were not raised together...

     as the voice of Dwayne Hunter
  • Stephen Root
    Stephen Root
    Stephen Root is an American actor. He is best known for his comedic work on the TV sitcom NewsRadio, in the film Office Space and as the voice of Bill Dauterive and Buck Strickland in the animated series King of the Hill...

     as the voice of Dr. Axel Donovan
  • Kathy Kinney
    Kathy Kinney
    Kathy Kinney is an American actress and comedian. She gained considerable popularity in the late 1990s for playing Mimi Bobeck, the outrageously made-up, flamboyantly vulgar, and vindictive nemesis of Drew Carey on the sitcom The Drew Carey Show...

     as the voice of Jenny the Monkey
  • Kevin Michael Richardson
    Kevin Michael Richardson
    Kevin Michael Richardson is an American actor and voice actor who currently stars as Cleveland Brown, Jr. in The Cleveland Show...

     as the voice of Garth
  • M. Emmett Walsh
    M. Emmet Walsh
    Michael Emmet Walsh is an American actor who has appeared in over 100 film and television productions.-Life and career:Walsh was born in Ogdensburg, New York, the son of Agnes Kathrine and Harry Maurice Walsh, Sr., a customs agent...

     as the voice of Mack
  • R. Lee Ermey
    R. Lee Ermey
    Ronald Lee Ermey is a retired United States Marine Corps drill instructor and actor.Ermey has often played the roles of authority figures, such as his breakout performance as Gunnery Sergeant Hartman in Full Metal Jacket, Mayor Tilman in the Alan Parker film Mississippi Burning, Bill Bowerman in...

     as the voice of Gen. Thorton

Additional voices

  • Kevin Schon
    Kevin Schon
    Kevin Schon is an American voice actor, producer, and energy entrepreur with extensive credits in nearly every area of voice work. Voiceover was his second career, begun in 1992 in Los Angeles, after 10 years as a Senior Advisory Systems Engineer for IBM, where he developed and taught Design...

  • Jennifer Hale
    Jennifer Hale
    Jennifer Hale is a Canadian-born American actress and singer best known for her voice over work in video games like Grandia II, the Mass Effect trilogy, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Tales of Symphonia, the Metroid Prime trilogy, the Metal Gear Solid games, Brütal Legend, and Disney's...

  • Dee Bradley Baker
    Dee Bradley Baker
    Dee Bradley Baker is an American voice actor. He is noted as his long-running-role as Klaus Heissler in American Dad! and other various characters including Squilliam Fancyson in the hit TV series SpongeBob SquarePants, Nightcrawler in X-Men: Legends and Marvel: Ultimate Alliance...

  • Nancy Cartwright
    Nancy Cartwright
    Nancy Campbell Cartwright is an American film and television actress, comedian and voice artist. She is best known for her long-running role as Bart Simpson on the animated television series The Simpsons...

  • Maurice LaMarche
    Maurice LaMarche
    Maurice LaMarche is an Emmy Award winning Canadian-American voice actor and former stand up comedian. He is best known for his voicework in Futurama as Kif Kroker, as Egon Spengler in The Real Ghostbusters, Verminous Skumm and Duke Nukem in Captain Planet and the Planeteers, Big Bob Pataki in Hey...

  • Victor Brandt
    Victor Brandt
    Victor Brandt is an American actor mostly known for his voice-over performances.Brandt was born in Los Angeles, California. He has appeared as an actor in several classic shows such as Star Trek, Mission Impossible and T.J Hooker...

  • Sherman Howard
    Sherman Howard
    Howard Lee Sherman is an American actor.-Theatre:In 1989 he appeared at the Kentucky Shakespeare Festival in Louisville, Kentucky. He played the title role in Hamlet and Malvolio in Twelfth Night...


Episodes

Aired from: September 1999 to March 2001 26 eps FOX 30 min stereo closed captioned

1st Season 1999
Ep. Prod.
code
Air Date Episode Title
1- 1 101 18 Sep 1999 Creatures, Great and Small
1- 2 102 25 Sep 1999 Out of Whack
1- 3 103 2 Oct 1999 The Inside Scoop
1- 4 104 9 Oct 1999 Birthday Bash
1- 5 105 16 Oct 1999 The Reluctant Assassin
1- 6 106 23 Oct 1999 Really Big Guy


2nd Season 2001
Ep. Prod.
code
Air Date Episode Title
2- 1 112 30 Jan 2001 Little Boy Robot Lost
2- 2 113 2 Feb 2001 The Bicameral Mind
2- 3 108 Feb 2001 The Inside Out
2- 4 109 Feb 2001 Moon Madness
2- 5 110 Feb 2001 Wages of Fire
2- 6 111 Feb 2001 The Big Boy
2- 7 114 Feb 2001 World of Pain
2- 8 107 Feb 2001 Sibling Mine
2- 9 115 Feb 2001 Blob, Thy Name Is Envy
2-10 116 Feb 2001 Donovan's Brainiac
2-11 117 Feb 2001 Patriot Games
2-12 118 Feb 2001 Harddrive
2-13 119 Feb 2001 5000 Fingers of Rusty
2-14 120 Feb 2001 The Champ
2-15 121 Feb 2001 Sickout
2-16 122 Feb 2001 Nephew of Neugog
2-17 123 Feb 2001 The Lower Depths
2-18 125 1 Mar 2001 Double Time (1)
2-19 126 2 Mar 2001 Double Time (2)
2-20 124 5 Mar 2001 Rumble in the Jungle
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