Escape from Robot Island
It was Saturday morning, and, like every Saturday morning, Little Stevie was sitting in front of the tv set.
The 9:30 to 10 am slot was filled with a less than great animated series by the name of Robot Island, about a family struggling to survive in a distant future ruled by robots. It was something of Robinson Crusoe meets the Brady Bunch meets Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. At least, thats what the marketing comittee that wrote it wanted it to be.
Little Stevie loved Robot Island. Every morning, he crawled out of bed, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes with the long sleeves of his Robot Island pajamas, which featured Quin, the father of the robot island family, standing in a heroic fashion, with a group of menacing robots behind him. This was extremely similiar to the sheets, which Stevie had, which showed the entire Robot Island family, including their plucky little robot helper, B12T9. Little Stevie would go to the living room, turn on the TV, and sit about two feet away from it, watching as Quin and family fought their way into, and out of, sticky robo situations with the help of their plucky robo pal, B12T9, and a fair bit of good old human ingeniuty.
However, this morning Robo Island was not on.
It had been cancelled due to low ratings, and Stevie was a bit too young to understand this, or to figure it out on his own.
He just sat there, watching Little Bono’s Magic Little Cooking Elves as they fought their way into, and out of, sticky cooking situations, with the help of their elven pal Curty, and waiting for the tv station to correct it’s mistake.
When ten-o’clock came, and the soap opera started, the one that bored Stevie to tears, he simply turned the TV off.
He went outside, into that bright sunlit air.
Perhaps there was more to life than TV.
Perhaps there was a world outside of Robot Island.
Perhaps, Little Stevie wondered, he could go play softball, or build a tree house, or skin his knees trying to learn to ride the bicycle.
And, Little Stevie did those things, all those wonderful little kid things that TV had deprived him of.
He played baseball and softball and soccer. He joined the Boy Scouts, and became a varsity football player in high school.
He bought a chemistry set and learned about the world of nature and the elements.
Then he built a bomb and exploded that fucking TV network that cancelled his favorite show: Robo Island.
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