"Seth Green screened some of the original webisodes for me while we were filming Without a Paddle in New Zealand and said if the show sold I could do some voices," Benrubi says. "And I've been doing the voices of some of the greatest characters ever created -- in a delightfully irreverent way!"
"When Seth and Matt created the initial short film that would eventually lead to what is now 'Robot Chicken,' they asked me to do some voices for them," Meyer adds. "I've been doing them ever since.
During Season 2, Meyer also joined the writers' team to help create some rather memorable Star Wars sketches. "In Season 2, I wrote (with Doug Goldstein) the 'Emperor Phone Call' sketch which became a popular online clip," Meyer recalls. "Then we heard that employees of Lucasfilm loved it and that the master himself, George Lucas, had seen it and liked it. After that, Matt and Seth used some Jedi mind trick to convince Lucasfilm to let us make a whole half hour show dedicated exclusively to Star Wars. We were all pretty giddy about it."
Meyer has written for "Robot Chicken" for the past two seasons as well as being one of the Robot Chicken:Star Wars writing staff members. Fans might also remember Meyer when appeared with Green and Senreich at this year's Celebration IV as well as on the writer's panel.
When Benrubi found out that the Star Wars special had been approved only one thing kept going through his head. "I GET TO VOICE DARTH VADER!" Benrubi recalls.
As with other "Robot Chicken" shows the writing team would gather in a room for brainstorming sessions. "The writers would all jot down ideas throughout the day and after lunch we'd pitch our individual ideas to the group and see what made people laugh," Meyer explains. 'It's a pretty brutal process and you need some thick skin for it. Everything was fair game and the best part was we got to delve into the lesser known characters from the series like Zuckuss or Ponda Baba. I must admit I am the least Star Wars savvy of the writers. I mean, as a kid I owned the Ponda Baba action figure but to me he was just Walrus Man and Zuckuss was....well, Zuckuss was the figure I never bought."
The biggest obstacle for the team involved making sure the ideas were fresh and funny. "The main goal was to make our sketches original," Meyer explains. "The Star Wars films have been around for so long and have been parodied or spoofed so many times that our challenge was to come up with funny ideas that you hadn't seen before. I think there's only one really obvious gag we have in the show I wrote about Luke and Leia, but it needed to be said!"
"The funniest stuff for me was the Admiral Ackbar sketch we came up with," Meyer says. "There were two sketches that seemed doomed to be passed on but then we did the Ackbar voice in the room and everyone just started laughing and the sketches were saved."
Out of all the segments in the Star Wars special, the skit that started it all -- 'Emperor Phone Call' -- is still Meyer's favorite. "Doug and I still fight over credit, which to me is the ultimate compliment because we're both so proud of it," Meyer laughs. "I think on my gravestone it will say, 'Here lies Breckin Meyer, he wrote the phrase: What the hell is an Aluminum Falcon?!'"
