Old-school stop-motion animation along with bench marked, fast-paced sketches in the fashion of the old "Laugh-In" television show, mixed in with about as much pop-culture as you can muster and you have yourself the ingredients that make up the show "Robot Chicken".  The show was created by Matt Senreich and Seth Green who all also executive produce.

Each show runs about 12 minutes and incorporates action figures that are facsimiles of the actual original figures that had been sold in retail stores. But the original figures are limited in motion to how they can be animated. It’s the job of the show’s puppet builders to modify some dolls or to create them from scratch.

Matthew Senreich began interning with Marvel Comics at the age of 16 building his experience and skills that eventually landed him a job with Wizard Entertainment.

Rising through the ranks at Wizard gave opportunity for Matt to become editor for their toy and action figure magazine – ToyFare.  A prominent feature in ToyFare is called Twisted Mego Theatre where action figures are photographed and then manipulated into a comic strip format where the emphasis is poking fun at the very fandom the magazine represents.

One of the fans of Toyfare is a big comic book fan, avid toy collector and actor Seth Green. With this knowledge Senreich had the opportunity to interview Green for the magazine which led to their current friendship.

Some time after Green was going to be a guest on Late Night with Conan O'Brien. Green came up with an idea for a stop-motion action/adventure segment featuring toys modeled after himself and Conan O'Brien. He called Senreich and asked for his involvement. While the Conan project was being worked on, Sony heard of the idea approaching Green and Senreich about creating content as promotional material for their Screenblasts.com website and software suite. In 2001, "Sweet J Presents" was launched twelve miniature episodes on the now defunct website Screenblast.com setting the stage to what would soon introduce Robot Chicken.

With the experience and a nice resume piece Green and Senreich shopped their stop motion action figure show around for two year eventually pitching it to the Cartoon Network where they picked up the show for their "adult swim" line-up.

Robot Chicken remained unnamed well into the production process, as many of the names the creators suggested were turned down due to various copyright and legal reasons.  According to the website IMDB (Internet Movie Database), over 60 titles were considered for the show which include "Junk in the Trunk", "ADD TV", "Gold Dust Gasoline", "Toyz in the Hood", "Vegetable Fun Fest", "S&M Presents".  A name was finally derived from a menu item from a Chinese restaurant Seneich and Green had frequented while writing the new series. "Robot Chicken" was described on the menu as "tender chunks of chicken breast fried in a light batter and cooked in a sweet and pungent sauce."

With the show's theme song composed and performed by Les Claypool, it shows mad scientist named Fritz Huhnmorder ("Hühnermörder" is German for "chicken murderer") bringing back to life a regular chicken that had been hit by a car.  The chicken is brought back as an undead, cyborg like monstrosity who is strapped to a chair by Huhnmorder and forced to watch the short action figure films that are what make up the rest of the show.

Step one comes brainstorming, pitching the story ideas, and getting a written script.  Once the script is approved the show’s sets need to be built and everything needs to be fabricated - every set, every character, every piece of clothing needs to be either found or made.

There is also a big pool of celebrities who have done voice-overs for the characters.  There’s Green himself who is probably best known for portraying Dr. Evil’s son in the Austin Powers movies.  Other voices have included Hulk Hogan, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Ashton Kutcher, and scores of others.

A simple search at YouTube will allow you to watch many of the skits or individual episodes.  Keep in mind this is a part of what is called the "Adult Swim" lineup over at the Cartoon Network so viewer discretion is advised.