#Seth Green celebrates 200 episodes of ‘Robot Chicken’

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“Robot Chicken” co-creators Matthew Senreich and Seth Green.
Courtesy of Adult Swim

“Robot Chicken,” which premiered in 2005, is nearing its milestone 200th on Adult Swim.

Not bad for a stop-motion animated series that began life as “Sweet J Presents” in 2001 on the now-defunct screenblast.com and was even rejected by Cartoon Network — which ultimately reversed course and added “Robot Chicken” it to its nascent Adult Swim lineup.

But Seth Green, who co-created “Robot Chicken” with Matthew Senreich, says “it was just a matter of timing” regarding the show’s 15-year, Emmy-winning run — with no end in sight as it barrels along in Season 10.

“There was no sense of ‘I told you so,’” Green, 46, tells The Post. “When we started our Webisodes in 2000 the internet was still dial-up, and we didn’t have this mass public acceptance of reflecting nostalgically on pop culture. When we first tried to sell the show there really wasn’t a network like Adult Swim. Then, when we were potentially making a deal with Comedy Central, 9/11 happened and that effectively killed comedy across any network for a year.

“It wasn’t like we felt like we were ahead of our time,” he says. “It just seemed that this kind of content couldn’t get a large audience.

“Our aim was very low.”

Green is being modest, since “Robot Chicken” struck an immediate nerve with its quick-hit vignettes and sketches skewering pop culture; a recent episode featured “Mr. Robo Rogers Neighborhood,” Popeye, Bluto and Olive Oyl being made over for the Gen-Z crowd and takeoffs on “The Handmaid’s Tale” and fixer-upper stars Chip and Joanna Gaines renovating “Pee-Wee’s Playhouse.”

As Johnny Carson would say, “That’s weird, weird stuff.”

Green says that his professional relationship with another Seth — MacFarlane — also played a role in launching “Robot Chicken” into the animation stratosphere. McFarlane hired Green to voice awkward teen Chris Griffin on “Family Guy” (he’s played the character since 1999) and they discovered they had a lot in common.

“We really bonded over our shared interest in filmmaking, animation and pop culture,” Green says. “We even lived on the same block for a couple of years. When Seth sold the reruns of ‘Family Guy’ to Adult Swim, they were still a fledgling network dabbling in original content. He told us it ‘could be a good place for that thing,’ which is how he described our show. He’s been an incredible factor in all of this.”

“Robot Chicken” is known for its timely pop culture references. But unlike its animated colleague “South Park” — which can produce a topical episode the week following a headline-grabbing event — the “Robot Chicken” production schedule means that Green, Senreich and the show’s writing team don’t have that luxury.

“The main thing we do is try not to mention something we can’t guarantee will be relevant or recognized in a year’s time,” Green says. “We try to focus on the stickiest stuff in pop culture. There’s a documentary about ‘South Park’ called ‘Six Days to Air’ about how they write an episode so quickly, but we absolutely do not have that ability. ‘Robot Chicken’ is far more involved and labor-intensive and it’s also exactly not our lane — we stay away from romantic relationships or the current pop of the moment.”

The series will, however, make a big deal about its 200th episode, airing July 26.

“The whole episode is about the concept of it being the 200th episode, from start to finish,” Green says. “While it’s still very much an episode of ‘Robot Chicken’ that is true to all of the things we believe are self-evident about the show, it’s focused on the celebration, the acknowledgment and the milestone.”