Seth Green

Star Wars inspires parody

Robot Chicken homage to debut tonight, co-creator Green says

Seth Green made his name playing Oz, the slacker lycanthrope on Buffy The Vampire Slayer, but he’s made his reputation as a player in young Hollywood, spending more time behind the scenes than in front of the camera while working as voice talent on Family Guy and producing the furiously paced stop-motion animation skit show Robot Chicken for the Cartoon Network.

One of the network’s Adult Swim standbys, it’s a junk culture fanatic’s fever dream, featuring collectible action figures contorted into humiliating situations, and it has reached its creative apex with the debut of the show’s half-hour Star Wars tribute episode, airing here tonight on Teletoon. The special features running gags like the one that ponders who cleans up all those bodies that fall down ventilation shafts in the Death Star, and imagines George W. Bush in a light-sabre duel with a Darth Vader-esque Abraham Lincoln (voiced by Hulk Hogan).

As pop culture obsessions go, Star Wars is only marginally more acceptable than Star Trek, say, though Green insists their relentless ripping of George Lucas’ movie franchise is inspired by a fan’s devout respect.

“I think people take Star Wars very seriously,” he says on the phone from Los Angeles, “because for anyone who was alive and attentive when it came out, it was very revolutionary, and if you were a kid when it came out, it spoke to you in a way that things since haven’t been able to, except by imitating it. So for me Star Wars is just a touchstone of entertainment. It’s a fantasy action story with cool sci-fi and inventive monsters and space things, but it’s all really about people and fighting for what you believe in and fighting for love and trouble with family and that’s what makes it so fascinating. I don’t have any hatred for Star Wars, but with anything that I love, I’m hyper-attentive to it, and can’t help but point out things that are inherently silly or strange or funny.”

One of Green’s running roles these days is as Vincent Chase’s nemesis on Entourage, a sly tribute to his role as a well-connected player in young Hollywood, with an impressive Rolodex that has seen an amazing cast of voices spoof themselves on Robot Chicken, including George Lucas, who plays himself, and Mark Hamill, whose involvement in the show long predates voicing Luke Skywalker on the Robot Chicken Star Wars episode.

“We’ve had some real stunners,” Green agrees. “Billy Dee Williams just came in to do some Lando work, that was pretty amazing. Burt Reynolds and Dom DeLuise came in and got in the booth together and did Cannonball Run outtakes for us. I had Don Knotts and Phyllis Diller do a Scooby Doo bit for it. I had Gene Simmons and David Hasselfhoff singing the Beastmaster musical together. That’s the best thing — Matt (Senreich), my partner and I, sometimes we look at each other and laugh that this is actually happening in our real lives.”