Many people were introduced to the concept of robot wars by the many different television series which were broadcast in the U.S., U.K., and all over the world.
Beginning in the mid nineties production companies and television networks began to show real interest in the robot wars idea. By 1995 Profile Records and Mentorn had worked out a partnership aimed to bring Robot Wars to UK television viewers. Eventually Profile Records sold the television rights to Robot Wars to Mentorn (despite never having the agreement of the creator Marc Thorpe), and the television series which went on to air seven seasons began showing on BBC 2 in the early months of 1998. The first season, hosted by Jeremy Clarkson and Philippa Forrester, was such a success (garnering two million viewers), that it was renewed continuously – in all, 155 episodes were created and were shown in twenty-six countries.
After the success of the U.S. stadium-based tournaments and the BBC 2 series in the UK, Robot Wars became a worldwide phenomenon which spread into several different versions and shows. Aside from the Robot Wars original series (and it’s two ‘Extreme’ series filmed in the US for the TNN/Spike Network), there was also the Nickelodeon Robot Wars series aimed specifically at children (lasting from August to October 2002); Robotica (a US TV series that aired 2001-2002); BattleBots (a US Comedy Channel series that aired 2000-2002); and the Techno Games (a BBC robot Olympic games series that aired 2000-2003).
Beginning in the mid nineties production companies and television networks began to show real interest in the robot wars idea. By 1995 Profile Records and Mentorn had worked out a partnership aimed to bring Robot Wars to UK television viewers. Eventually Profile Records sold the television rights to Robot Wars to Mentorn (despite never having the agreement of the creator Marc Thorpe), and the television series which went on to air seven seasons began showing on BBC 2 in the early months of 1998. The first season, hosted by Jeremy Clarkson and Philippa Forrester, was such a success (garnering two million viewers), that it was renewed continuously – in all, 155 episodes were created and were shown in twenty-six countries.
After the success of the U.S. stadium-based tournaments and the BBC 2 series in the UK, Robot Wars became a worldwide phenomenon which spread into several different versions and shows. Aside from the Robot Wars original series (and it’s two ‘Extreme’ series filmed in the US for the TNN/Spike Network), there was also the Nickelodeon Robot Wars series aimed specifically at children (lasting from August to October 2002); Robotica (a US TV series that aired 2001-2002); BattleBots (a US Comedy Channel series that aired 2000-2002); and the Techno Games (a BBC robot Olympic games series that aired 2000-2003).