HAPPY BIRTHDAY PAULIE
December 6, 2018 11:38 AM Subscribe
The bizarre, touching story behind Rocky IV's robot butler "Designed, controlled and voiced by Robert Doornick, the founder of US company International Robotics, the robot has had a more successful acting career than many of his fellow cast-members. Known as Sico, it is the first non-human member of America’s Screen Actors Guild."
Rocky IV robot scene
Family Guy's Rocky IV robot scene
Rocky IV robot scene
Family Guy's Rocky IV robot scene
toured with James Brown
I assume that was all a tie-in with Rocky IV, since Brown's appearance in the movie was likely responsible for giving him his first Top 40 hit since the 1970s.
posted by Strange Interlude at 12:00 PM on December 6, 2018 [2 favorites]
I assume that was all a tie-in with Rocky IV, since Brown's appearance in the movie was likely responsible for giving him his first Top 40 hit since the 1970s.
posted by Strange Interlude at 12:00 PM on December 6, 2018 [2 favorites]
I guess the Reagan dinner invite was probably somehow tied to Rocky IV too, given the movie's theme of all-American muscle/grit vs. cruel, godless Soviet super-science.
posted by Strange Interlude at 12:04 PM on December 6, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by Strange Interlude at 12:04 PM on December 6, 2018 [1 favorite]
Until seeing the pictures in the article, I would have sworn with 100% certainty that I remembered this robot being clearly and obviously inflatable, like a pool toy with motors hooked up to it.
posted by the phlegmatic king at 12:36 PM on December 6, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by the phlegmatic king at 12:36 PM on December 6, 2018 [1 favorite]
Its head looks like it was scavenged from Black Manta's spare armor closet, which designwise is a huge point of favor in my book. I rate this 80s robot 5 out of 5 floppy disks.
posted by prize bull octorok at 12:46 PM on December 6, 2018 [7 favorites]
posted by prize bull octorok at 12:46 PM on December 6, 2018 [7 favorites]
Oh man I loved this movie so hard as a kid.
When I was in college, I was part of a group who would play music at the campus coffeehouse. We had some recurring "bands," but just as often we would mix and match instrumentalists/singers and create new groups. The great joy of making a new combination was the opportunity to give ourselves a fresh name.
One of the one-and-done groups was named Happy Birthday Paulie, to both my great joy (that it existed at all) and my great envy (that I wasn't a part of that combo).
posted by AgentRocket at 12:48 PM on December 6, 2018 [1 favorite]
When I was in college, I was part of a group who would play music at the campus coffeehouse. We had some recurring "bands," but just as often we would mix and match instrumentalists/singers and create new groups. The great joy of making a new combination was the opportunity to give ourselves a fresh name.
One of the one-and-done groups was named Happy Birthday Paulie, to both my great joy (that it existed at all) and my great envy (that I wasn't a part of that combo).
posted by AgentRocket at 12:48 PM on December 6, 2018 [1 favorite]
Is the robot canon in the Creed universe?
posted by Artw at 1:18 PM on December 6, 2018 [7 favorites]
posted by Artw at 1:18 PM on December 6, 2018 [7 favorites]
So I don't need to watch any of this, is it "Sicko" or "Psycho"?
posted by Joe in Australia at 1:29 PM on December 6, 2018
posted by Joe in Australia at 1:29 PM on December 6, 2018
As a James Brown hype man, that robot was no Danny Ray.
posted by The Card Cheat at 3:32 PM on December 6, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by The Card Cheat at 3:32 PM on December 6, 2018 [2 favorites]
Damn that intro music is non-more-80's-movie
It's also disturbingly close to the ghost sex song in Ghostbusters.
posted by GuyZero at 4:57 PM on December 6, 2018
It's also disturbingly close to the ghost sex song in Ghostbusters.
posted by GuyZero at 4:57 PM on December 6, 2018
Wait, the music I'm thinking of is from the post-trap-shutdown scene, not the ghost sex scene.
Carry on
posted by GuyZero at 4:58 PM on December 6, 2018 [1 favorite]
Carry on
posted by GuyZero at 4:58 PM on December 6, 2018 [1 favorite]
Is the robot canon in the Creed universe?
Yes but he gets no screen time, as in Rocky V he's elected to the Galactic boxing commission.
posted by condour75 at 7:06 PM on December 6, 2018
Yes but he gets no screen time, as in Rocky V he's elected to the Galactic boxing commission.
posted by condour75 at 7:06 PM on December 6, 2018
Rocky IV's robot scene sounds like a wormhole into the 19A0s, the lost decade located sometime in what we recall as the early 80s; a world in which everymen in angular new-wave haircuts and plaid work shirts watch hoversports on projection TVs.
posted by acb at 4:15 AM on December 7, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by acb at 4:15 AM on December 7, 2018 [1 favorite]
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The robot has guest-starred in Days of Our Lives, entertained Ronald Reagan at a White House dinner, toured with James Brown...
oh my god
posted by The Card Cheat at 11:51 AM on December 6, 2018 [4 favorites]