Chrys-05

A cheerful and eccentric robotic companion who loves spreading the joys of education. On Calamine Avenue, every day is a new lesson and potentially an exciting field trip. Miss Chrys is equipped with 5 different Color Codes - one for each subject, with a different Cadmium flair!

It’s all so nostalgic.

• Munsell Studios designed Chrys-05 and her different forms all represent different school subjects. Rather than creating different robots for each identity, they wanted a ‘jack-of-all-trades’ character that reflected the interdisciplinary skills of elementary school teachers.
  • Chrys-01 (Cadmium Green) - specializes in English.
  • Chrys-02 (Cadmium Blue) - specializes in Science.
  • Chrys-03 (Cadmium Purple) - specializes in History.
  • Chrys-04 (Cadmium Red) - specializes in Math.
  • Chrys-05 (Cadmium Yellow) - specializes in the joy of learning as a whole.
• Every episode is designed not only to teach its viewers but also to train its teacher. Despite having an extensive database, Chrys-05 is constantly learning from her experiences and developing the algorithms that make her work. Her earliest episodes are notably stilted in comparison to her newest ones.
• Chrys’ perception of conventional colors is somewhat flawed, as her color database stems from Munsell brand crayons. To her, Fozzy Wozzy Furry Wurry is just as legitimate as Brown.
• Her teaching style emphasizes hands-on learning, which is why every episode has a field trip segment.
  • No matter who is teaching the class, Chrys-05 is the school bus driver. Only she possesses a driver’s license, which she shows off in certain episodes (though it’s merely a prop).
  • The field trips take up much of the show’s budget, as whatever can’t be shot on-location involves a fully animated segment. Chrys laments this, as she truly wishes she could take her students on a trip through outer space. And to prehistoric times. And inside of the human body.
• A fundamental part of Chrys’ design is the ability to capture the attention of children. As a result, her body is an assemblage of interchangeable parts, swapped out and updated constantly.
• No one form has a unique intelligence or skillset. The Chrys 01-04 programs only function to change personality and presentation. Therefore, they are all technically capable of the same thing - even if Chrys-05 claims to experience_things_differently when she is in an alternate form.
• It is a common misconception that Chrys is a human in a robotic costume. Even guest stars who work with her seem in disbelief until she demonstrates otherwise by removing her face plate (to their horror).
• Chrys-05 was originally a puppet named Chryssie who lived with other characters on Rainbow Avenue. When the network started going through financial struggles, Jim Munsell, the studio’s founder, introduced the concept of a robotic character, which secured them enough funding to continue airing. The show, now re-named Calamine Avenue, would be the only one from its classic era that survived this low point.
  • Chrys-05 claims to ‘remember’ her time as a puppet, though this is likely just data that was implanted into her code.
  • The original ‘Chryssie’ was based off of her puppeteer. Because her role was no longer needed once the puppet was discarded, she has remained an anonymous figure.
• All of the teaching forms have strong personalities to go with their specialties. Chrys-01 is patient, Chrys-02 is meticulous, Chrys-03 is prideful, and Chrys-03 is temperamental. Chrys-05 herself lacks any such code, as she was the blank slate the other forms were built off of.
• Learning to draw has become Chrys-05’s main hobby. She likes to mimic children on set by using crayons, purposefully disabling functions that allows her to print perfect letters and shapes. Even when she ‘signs’ her name onto fan memorabilia, it resembles a drawing more than a name.
  • She once suggested an Art discipline in the show to accompany the other 4. It was turned down.
• Her Chroma is due to her unique makeup. Top-secret technological advancements allowed a combination of energy (not just electrical) to give her life, making her more advanced than other artificial intelligence.
  • It isn’t as strong as the average person’s, but it is present enough to attract Specters. Her bonding with one supposedly came as a total surprise to the showrunners.
• Eating is technically possible, but the food just enters a storage area that needs to be cleaned afterwards. Regardless, Chrys-05 seems to enjoy it, as well as other faux human activities.
• At the beginning of an episode, Chrys-05 introduces the show and sets up the lesson for the day. Then, she transitions into whatever Chrys is set to teach. However, in recent years, the crew have been having issues getting Chrys-05 to make this transition.
• Recharge is necessary every few hours. Chrys-05 can use an outlet in a pinch - especially during filming - but a system shut-down and restart is required every night.
  • She has an elaborate ‘bedtime routine’ for it, mimicking the human_sleeping_rituals she’s studied.
• The program that makes Chrys-05 function is a tightly held secret. Their team of software engineers has drastically reduced over the years for security reasons, as they’ve supposedly had issues with ‘hackers’.