Futurama

This article is about the television series. For the exhibit and ride, see Futurama (New York World's Fair).

Futurama
An opening title for Futurama The opening title screen for Futurama
Genre	Sitcom Comic science fiction
Created by	Matt Groening
Developed by	Matt Groening David X. Cohen
Voices of	Billy West Katey Sagal John DiMaggio Phil LaMarr Lauren Tom Maurice LaMarche Tress MacNeille David Herman Frank Welker Tom Kenny
Theme music composer	Christopher Tyng
Composer	Christopher Tyng
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of seasons	4 (production) 5 (broadcast)
No. of episodes	72 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producers	Matt Groening David X. Cohen Ken Keeler
Running time	22 minutes approx.
Original release
Network	Fox (1999–2003) Comedy Central (2008)
Release	March 28, 1999 – August 10, 2003 (original run) & 2008 - present

Futurama is an Emmy Award-winning animated American sitcom created by Matt Groening, who also created The Simpsons, and developed by Groening and David X. Cohen for the Fox network. The series follows the adventures of a former New York City pizza delivery boy, Philip J. Fry, after he is accidentally cryogenically frozen at midnight, January 1st, 2000, and is revived one thousand years in the future.

In the United States, the series aired from March 28, 1999 to August 10, 2003 on FOX before going out of production. At Comic-Con 2007 it was announced that Futurama will return on November 27th as a full-length DVD release called Futurama: Bender's Big Score, which will be followed by three additional films: The Beast with a Billion Backs, Bender's Game, and The Wild Green Yonder. Comedy Central has entered into an agreement with 20th Century Fox Television to syndicate the existing episodes and air the movies as new episodes in an episodic format.

The name "Futurama" comes from a pavilion at the 1939 New York World's Fair. Designed by Norman Bel Geddes, the Futurama pavilion depicted what he imagined the world to look like in 1959.

Cast and characters

Futurama is essentially a workplace sitcom whose plot typically revolves around the activities and adventures of the employees of the Planet Express delivery company. Episodes will invariably feature the central trio of Fry, Leela and Bender, and storylines centered on the other main characters are common.

• Philip J. Fry (Billy West) — Philip J. Fry was a pizza delivery boy who was cryogenically frozen just after midnight on the early morning of New Year's Day, January 1, 2000, reawakening on New Year's Eve, 2999. He gets a job at Planet Express, a company owned by his closest living relative, Professor Hubert Farnsworth, where he works as a delivery boy. He is — through actions he takes in the episode Roswell That Ends Well — his own grandfather.
• Turanga Leela (Katey Sagal) — Leela is the competent, one-eyed captain of the Planet Express Ship. Abandoned at birth, she grew up in the Cookieville Minimum Security Orphanarium believing herself to be an alien from an unknown race. She later learns that she is a mutant from the sewers.
• Bender Bending Rodríguez (John DiMaggio) — Bender is a foul-mouthed, alcoholic, cigar-smoking, kleptomaniacal, misanthropic, egocentric, ill-tempered robot originally programmed to bend girders for suicide booths. He is Fry's best friend and roommate. He is the ship's chef (though his cooking is terrible) and primarily assists in delivering cargo from ship to planet.
• Professor Hubert J. Farnsworth a.k.a. The Professor (Billy West) — Born April 9, 2841, Professor Hubert Farnsworth is Fry's distant nephew. Farnsworth founded Planet Express to fund his mad scientist-esque experiments and inventions. He clones himself to create a successor, Cubert Farnsworth.
• Doctor John D. Zoidberg (Billy West) — Zoidberg is a lobster-like alien from the planet Decapod 10, and is the neurotic and self-conscious staff doctor of Planet Express. His knowledge of human anatomy and physiology is woefully inadequate. Zoidberg is basically penniless and constantly portrays himself as respected and rich.
• Amy Wong (Lauren Tom) — Amy is an incredibly rich, spoiled, blunt and extremely accident-prone intern at Planet Express. She is an engineering student at Mars University and heiress to the western hemisphere of Mars. Born on Mars, she is ethnically Chinese, prone to frequently cursing in Cantonese, and using 31st century slang. Her parents are Leo and Inez. Although initially portrayed as somewhat promiscuous, she eventually developed a relationship with Kif Kroker.
• Hermes Conrad (Phil LaMarr) — Hermes is the Jamaican accountant of Planet Express. A bureaucrat and proud of it, he is a stickler for regulation. Hermes is also a former champion in Olympic Limbo, a sport derived from the popular dance and similar to the track event of hurdling. He has a wife, LaBarbara, and a 12-year old son, Dwight.

See also: Recurring robot characters, Recurring human characters, Alien characters and Futurama animals

Setting

File:Futurama - The Future.jpg

Fry's first glimpse of New New York City

Futurama is set at the beginning of the 31st century, in a time filled with technological wonders. Various devices and architecture are similar to the Populuxe design. Global warming, inflexible bureaucracy, and substance abuse are a few of the subjects given a 31st century exaggeration in a world where the problems have become both more extreme and more common. In a jab at segregation, for example, the show depicts the human prejudice against mutants as being so great that the latter have been forced to live underground in the sewers. The characters' home on Earth is the city of New New York, built over the ruins of present-day New York City, referred to as "Old New York".

Numerous technological advances have been made by the 31st century. The ability to keep heads alive in jars was invented by Ron Popeil (who has a guest cameo in "A Big Piece of Garbage"), and has resulted in many political figures and celebrities being active; this became the writers' excuse to feature and poke fun at celebrities in the show. Curiously, several of the preserved heads shown are those of people who were already dead well before the advent of this technology, one the most prominent example of this anomaly being Richard Nixon, who died in 1994. The Internet, while being fully immersive and encompassing all senses and seeming to feature its own digital world (similar to Tron or The Matrix), is slow and consists mostly of pornography, pop-up ads, and "filthy" chat rooms, though some of it is edited to include educational material ostensibly for youth. Television is a primary form of entertainment. Robots are powered by alcohol and have free will and emotions. The wheel is obsolete, having been forgotten and replaced by hovering vehicles and a network of large, clear pneumatic transportation tubes. At one point Fry builds a carriage employing wheels, albeit oval shaped and none of the other characters recognize the wheels - although Leela suggests that they would work better if they were round.

Futurama's setting is a backdrop, and the writers are not above committing continuity errors if they serve to further the gags. For example, while the pilot episode implies that the previous Planet Express crew was killed by a space wasp the later episode "The Sting" is based on the crew being killed by space bees instead. The world of tomorrow is used to highlight and lampoon issues of today and to parody the science fiction genre.

Society and culture

Earth is depicted as being multicultural to the extent that there are a wide range of human, robot and extraterrestrial beings shown in the series who interact with the primary characters. In some ways the future is depicted as being more socially advanced than Fry's, and thus the audience's, reality. Other times, the future is shown to have many of the same types of problems, challenges, mistakes and prejudices of the past. Robots make up the largest "minority" in the series. They are often treated like second-class citizens, while a few are depicted as wealthy members of the upper-class. Most robots are self-aware and granted freedom and free-will. However at times of crisis robots may have their free-will removed (having their “patriotism circuits” activated) and forced to serve humans, or to serve in the military in times of war. Many robots live in apartments specially constructed for robots, with rooms the size of a typical coat closet and closets the size of typical rooms. Sewer Mutants are mutated humans who live in the sewers by law. They hold urban legend status and are regarded as fictional by some members of the public.

Religion is still a prominent part of society although the dominant religions have shifted. A merger between the major religious groups of the 20th century has resulted in the First Amalgamated Church, while Vodou is now mainstream. New religions include Oprahism, Robotology, and the banned religion of Star Trek fandom. Religious figures in the series include Father Changstein-El-Gamal, the Robot Devil, Preacherbot, and passing references to The Space Pope. While very few episodes focus exclusively on the religious changes in the Futurama universe they do cover a wide variety of subjects including predestination, prayer, the nature of salvation, and religious conversion.

Earthican flag, "Ol' Freebie"

Earth has a unified government, headed by the President of Earth (from season 2 onwards being Richard Nixon's Head). Earth's capital is Washington, D.C. and the flag of Earth is similar in design to the flag of the United States, with planet Earth displayed in place of the fifty stars.

The Democratic Order Of Planets (D.O.O.P.) is the fictional organization in the Futurama universe which has been compared to both the United Nations and to the United Federation of Planets of the Star Trek universe. Numerous other galaxies have been colonized or have made contact by the year 3000. Mars has been terraformed, and is home to Mars University.

Linguistics

File:Alien decoder.PNG

Alien Language 1 and its equivalent Latin characters.

There are two alternative alphabets that appear often in the background, usually in the forms of graffiti, advertisements, or warning labels. Nearly all messages using alternative scripts translate directly into English. The first alphabet is comprised of abstract characters and is referred to as Alienese, a simple substitution cipher from the Latin alphabet. The second alphabet uses a more complex modular addition code, where the "next letter is given by the summation of all previous letters plus the current letter." They often provide additional jokes for fans dedicated enough to decode the messages . Aside from these alphabets, most of the displayed wording on the show uses the Latin alphabet.

Several English expressions have evolved since the present day. For example, the word Christmas has been replaced with Xmas and the word ask with its archaic form of aks. According to David X. Cohen it is a running joke in the series that the French language is extinct in the Futurama universe, much like Latin is in the present. In the French dubbing of the show, German is used as the extinct language instead.

Hallmarks

Opening sequence

Much like the opening sequence in The Simpsons with its chalkboard, sax solo and couch gags, Futurama has a distinctive opening sequence featuring minor gags. As the show begins, the word "Futurama" is displayed across the screen along with a humorous subtitle (such as "As Seen On TV,", "Bender’s Humor by Microsoft Joke™" or "You Can't Prove It Won't Happen".) Later, after flying through downtown New New York and past various recurring characters, the Planet Express Ship crashes into a large screen showing a short clip from a classic cartoon. These have included clips from Looney Tunes shorts, cartoons produced by Max Fleischer, and even a short section of The Simpsons from a Tracy Ullman episode.

The Futurama theme song was written by Christopher Tyng, and is based on the song "Psyché Rock" by Pierre Henry. Tyng discusses the instrumentation for the Futurama theme in the Season 2 DVD commentary for "The Problem With Popplers."

Recurring jokes and catch phrases

File:Logo 30th century fox.jpg

Futurama's original spoof closing logo for "30th Century Fox", the first time that Fox has ever allowed a TV show to change the name of the logo in the end or any part of a TV show.

Several recurring jokes are used throughout the series. The Professor always announces a dangerous mission or bad news with the phrase "Good news, everyone!" or a slight variation of the line. Bender will often tell someone to "Bite my shiny metal ass" or a variation depending on the current situation. The catchphrase itself is heavily parodied in the episode "War is the H-Word". Whenever Scruffy the janitor is shown, none of the other Planet Express employees seem to know who he is, despite his claims of being a long-time employee and his repeated appearances in the show. The word underpants is almost always used in lieu of the word underwear due to Ken Keeler's belief it is 20% funnier. Amy falls down or slips often throughout the series, and the same soundbite of her scream is used each time. Whenever it is referenced, the state of New Jersey is regarded as a terrible place, and in the episode "I, Roommate", Fry rejects an apparently perfect apartment when it is revealed that it is "technically in New Jersey." The series has owls replacing rats and pigeons as the vermin plaguing New New York. The 20th Century Fox logo at the end of each broadcast is altered to read "30th Century Fox", as it is set in the 31st century. The producers stated that they created the logo themselves when Fox refused to produce a new logo for them, but later were compensated for the amount paid because Fox decided that they liked it. The logo was referenced in the episode "That's Lobstertainment!", when a Los Angeles tour guide points out the movie studio in the shape of the logo; the studio's spotlights are used to blind pilots so FOX cameramen can film the resulting crashes.

Humor

Although the series utilized a wide range of styles of humor, including self-deprecation, black comedy, off-color humor, slapstick, and surreal humor, its primary source of comedy was its satirical depiction of everyday life in the future, and its parodical comparisons of which to the present. Matt Groening notes that from the show's conception, his goal was to take what was on the surface a goofy comedy and show that underneath were "legitimate literary science fiction concepts". The series contrasted "low culture" and "high culture" comedy; for example, Bender's catchphrase is the insult "Bite my shiny metal ass", while his most terrifying nightmare is a vision of an Arabic numeral 2, a joke referencing the binary numeral system.

The series developed a cult following partially due to the large number of in-jokes, most of which were aimed at "nerds". In commentary on the DVD releases, David X. Cohen points out and sometimes explains his "nerdiest joke[s]." These jokes included mathematical jokes, such as "Loew's $\aleph _{0}$-plex" (aleph-null-plex) movie theater, as well as various forms of science humor. For example, Professor Farnsworth complains that judges of a quantum finish "changed the outcome by measuring it", a reference to the observer effect in quantum mechanics. Over its run, the series passed references to quantum chromodynamics (the appearance of Strong Force brand glue), computer science and electronics (two large books in a closet labeled P and NP respectively), and genetics (a mention of Bender's "robo-, or RNA"). The show often featured subtle references to classic science fiction, most often Star Trek - many soundbites are used in the series as homage - but also others, such as the reference to the origin of the word robot made in the existence of a robot-dominated planet named Chapek 9, or the black rectangular monolith labeled "Out of Order" in orbit around Jupiter (a reference to Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey)

Production

Matt Groening began thinking of Futurama in the mid-1990s. In 1997, he enlisted the help of David Cohen, then a Simpsons writer and producer, to assist in developing the show. The two then spent time researching science fiction books, television shows, and films of the past. By the time they pitched the series to Fox in April 1998, Groening and Cohen had composed many characters and story lines. During that first meeting, Fox ordered thirteen episodes. Shortly after, however, Groening and Fox executives argued over whether the network would have any creative input into the show. With The Simpsons the network has no input. Groening explains, "When they tried to give me notes on Futurama, I just said: 'No, we're going to do this just the way we did Simpsons.' And they said, 'Well, we don't do business that way anymore.' And I said, 'Oh, well, that's the only way I do business.'" After negotiations, he got the same independence with Futurama.

Production process

It takes six to nine months to make an episode of Futurama. This long production time means many episodes are worked on simultaneously.

Each episode begins with the writers discussing the story in a group. Then a single staff writer writes an outline and then a script. Once the first draft is finished, the writers and executive producers get together with the actors to do a table read. After this script reading, the writers rewrite the script as a group before eventually sending it to animation. At this point the voice recording is also started and the script is out of the writers' hands.

The animation in Futurama is done by Rough Draft Studios, which Groening insisted be used. Rough Draft receives the completed script and the first thing they do is storyboard it into over 100 drawings. Then they create a pencil-drawn animatic with 1000 frames. From there, Rough Draft's sister studio in Korea puts together the 30,000-frame finished episode. The show is also sometimes animated overseas by Tokyo Movie Shinsha.

Computer generated explosion in Futurama.

CGI

In addition to traditional cartoon drawing, Rough Draft Studios often uses CGI for the fast or complex shots such as during the movement of spaceships, explosions, nebulae, and snow scenes among others. Most of the opening credits are rendered in CGI. The CGI is rendered at 24 fps (opposed to hand-drawn at 12 fps) and the lack of artifacts makes the animation appear very smooth and fluid. CGI characters look slightly different due to spatially "cheating" hand-drawn characters by drawing slightly out of proportion or off-perspective features to emphasize traits of the face or body, improving legibility of an expression. PowerAnimator is used to draw the comic-like CGI.

Broadcast

When it came to deciding when the show would air Groening and Cohen wanted Futurama to be shown at 8:30 Sunday nights, following The Simpsons. The network disagreed, opting instead to show two episodes in the Sunday night lineup before moving the show to its regular time slot on Tuesday. Beginning its second broadcast season Futurama was again placed in the 8:30 Sunday spot, but by mid-season the show was moved again. This time Futurama began airing in the 7 p.m. Sunday timeslot, its third position in under a year's time. Due to the 7 p.m. Sunday timeslot the show was often preempted by sports and usually had a later than average season premiere. It also allowed the writers and animators to get ahead of the broadcast schedule so that episodes intended for one season were not aired until the following season. By the beginning of the fourth broadcast season all the episodes to be aired that season had already been completed and writers were working at least a year in advance.

Ratings

When Futurama debuted in the Fox Sunday night line-up at 8:30 p.m. betweenThe Simpsons and The X-Files on March 28, 1999 it managed 19 million viewers, tying for 11th overall in that week's Nielsen Ratings. The following week, airing at the same time, Futurama drew 14.2 million viewers. The show was then moved to Tuesdays at 8:30 p.m. Futurama's first episode airing on Tuesday drew 8.85 million viewers. Though its ratings were well below The Simpsons, Futurama's first season rated higher than competing animated series: King of the Hill, Family Guy, Dilbert, South Park and The PJs.

When Futurama was effectively cancelled in 2003, it had averaged 6.4 million viewers for the first half of its fourth broadcast season.

Show status

By the fourth season, Futurama was being aired erratically. Its time slot was regularly pre-empted by sports events, making it difficult to predict when new episodes would air. FOX also had not aired several episodes that had been produced for seasons three and four. Although Futurama was never officially canceled, midway through the production of the fourth season, Fox decided to let it go out of production and told the writers and animators to look for new jobs. Fox's decision to stop buying episodes of Futurama led Rough Draft Studios, the animation producers, to fire its animators. Futurama was not included in Fox's fall 2003 lineup.

In January 2003, Cartoon Network began airing Futurama episodes as the centerpiece to the expansion of their Adult Swim cartoon block. In October 2005, Comedy Central picked up the exclusive cable syndication rights to air Futurama's 72-episode run at the start of 2008, following the expiration of Cartoon Network's contract. It was cited as the largest and most expensive acquisition in the network's history.

Future and DVD movies

Template:Future film After the successful revival of the Family Guy series, Futurama co-creator Matt Groening approached 20th Century Fox Television to produce a direct-to-DVD Futurama movie. On April 26, 2006, Groening noted in an interview that co-creator David X. Cohen and numerous writers from the original series would be returning to work on the movies. On June 22, 2006, Comedy Central announced that at least 13 new episodes were to be produced. Comedy Central also confirmed that Billy West, Katey Sagal, and John DiMaggio would return for the new episodes, with a 2008 debut planned.

The first movie, Futurama: Bender's Big Score, is written by Ken Keeler and Cohen, and will include return appearances by the Nibblonians, Seymour, Barbados Slim, Morbo, Robot Santa, the "God" space entity, Al Gore, and Zapp Brannigan. In an appearance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Al Gore confirmed that he would appear as his disembodied head. Cohen has said that Gore would be involved in a storyline which will "show what really determined the outcome of the 2000 Presidential election".

In February 2007, Groening clarified speculation as to whether Futurama had been revived in episodic or feature-film form, saying "[The crew is] writing them as movies and then we're going to chop them up, reconfigure them, write new material and try to make them work as separate episodes." According to Rich Moore the titles of the other three movies are Futurama: The Beast with a Billion Backs, Futurama: Bender's Game, and Futurama: The Wild Green Yonder.

A 5-minute trailer was shown at the 2007 Comic-Con International convention in San Diego on July 28, 2007, to an audience of more than 4,000. All original voice actors still take part in the series, and it will be in widescreen format when released on DVD. After the trailer was shown, the panel, including Billy West, Katey Sagal, John DiMaggio, Maurice LaMarche, and Matt Groening, answered questions from the audience. It was revealed that they are working on 4 DVDs which will later be split into 16 episodes that will air on Comedy Central.

Futurama: Bender's Big Score will be released on DVD November 27th, 2007. It has been animated in widescreen and will be released on both normal and high-definition DVD, though only the former initially. The film will be 20th Century Fox's first carbon neutral release. The carbon impact was actively reduced for the production, manufacturing and distribution phases and carbon offsets were used where necessary.

References to Futurama in popular culture

Futurama is referenced numerous times in Groening's first series The Simpsons. Squeaky Voiced Teen is once seen attempting suicide, jumping off a cliff screaming "Why did they cancel Futurama?". Bender has also had numerous cameos, the most notable in an episode named in reference to Futurama. Fry has also appeared in The Simpsons, during a couch gag.

In An Inconvenient Truth, Al Gore uses a scene from the episode "Crimes of the Hot" during his initial explanation of global warming. The Futurama cast and crew also made an animated faux-trailer for the movie titled A Terrifying Message From Al Gore featuring Gore and Bender. Al Gore was a recurring guest star in Futurama, on which his daughter Kristin Gore Cusack was a regular writer and story editor, and he has said that Futurama is his favorite show.

In an episode of The PJs, Fry's face can be seen on a milk carton as a missing person, referencing Fry's disappearance by being cryonically frozen. This was an act of reciprocation for an advertisement of The PJs etched into a manhole cover in the Futurama episode "I Second That Emotion".

The Planet Express Ship appears in the Dark Horse Comics miniseries Outer Orbit, and the theme from Futurama was heard in the background of a scene on the moon in The Adventures of Pluto Nash. Also, in Alan Moore's "Top Ten" (issue 11), a discolored Fry, Leela, and Bender can be seen in the background of one of the frames. Also, in the Dark Horse Comics series "Star Wars Tales" the top half of Bender can be seen in a scrap metal pile that C-3PO is searching through for parts of R2-D2 (which he mistakenly believes to have been destroyed.)

During the premiere skit in Family Guy's Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story, a reporter on the red carpet asks Stewie Griffin if Fox has any plans to bring back Futurama. Family Guy and Futurama were both animated series on Fox which were canceled and subsequently aired on Adult Swim; at the time of release Family Guy was scheduled to return but Futurama was not. In the Star Wars based sixth season premiere episode of Family Guy, "Blue Harvest", Bender appears in the background of the bar scene.

In the novella The Kingdom of Fife by Irvine Welsh, Futurama is refered to twice.

In the Drawn Together episode "Breakfast Food Killer" the shape of Bender can be clearly seen as the camera pans over a large line of various cartoon characters

In Halo 3 when the I Would Have Been Your Daddy skull is enabled, the phrase "You're pending for a bending," can be heard from a marine.

In The Simpsons Game, the player must fight against Matt Groening who sends copies of Bender and Doctor Zoidberg to fight.

Awards

Wins	Nominations
Annie Awards: Outstanding Individual Achievement for Directing in an Animated Television Production 2000 — Brian Sheesley for episode "Why Must I Be a Crustacean in Love?" Outstanding Individual Achievement for Voice Acting by a Male Performer in an Animated Television Production 2001 — John Di Maggio as Bender for episode "Bendless Love" Outstanding Individual Achievement for Writing in an Animated Television Production 2001 — Ron Weiner for episode "Luck of the Fryrish" Outstanding Directing in an Animated Television Production 2003 — Rich Moore for episode "Roswell That Ends Well" Emmy Awards: Outstanding Individual Achievement in Animation 2000 — Bari Kumar (color stylist) for episode "A Bicyclops Built for Two" 2001 — Rodney Clouden (storyboard artist) for episode "Parasites Lost" Outstanding Animated Program 2002 — "Roswell That Ends Well" Environmental Media Awards: Comedy — TV Episodic 2000 — "The Problem with Popplers" Writers Guild of America Award: Animation 2003 — Ken Keeler for episode "Godfellas".	Annie Awards: Outstanding Achievement in an Animated Television Program 1999 — Futurama. The Curiosity Company in association with 20th Century Fox Television Outstanding Individual Achievement for Writing in an Animated Television Production 1999 — Ken Keeler for episode "The Series Has Landed" Outstanding Achievement in a Primetime or Late Night Animated Television Program 2000 — Futurama. The Curiosity Company in association with 20th Century Fox Television Outstanding Individual Achievement for Directing in an Animated Television Production 2000 — Susie Dietter for episode "A Bicyclops Built for Two". Outstanding Achievement in a Primetime or Late Night Animated Television Production 2001 — Futurama. The Curiosity Company in association with 20th Century Fox Television Outstanding Achievement in an Animated Television Production 2003 — Futurama. The Curiosity Company in association with 20th Century Fox Television Outstanding Music in an Animated Television Production 2004 — Ken Keeler for episode "The Devil's Hands are Idle Playthings" Outstanding Writing in an Animated Television Production 2004 — Patric Verrone for episode "The Sting".	Emmy Awards: Outstanding Animated Program 1999 — "A Big Piece of Garbage" 2001 — "Amazon Women in the Mood" 2003 — "Jurassic Bark" 2004 — "The Sting" Outstanding Music and Lyrics 2004 — The song "I Want My Hands Back" for episode "The Devil's Hands are Idle Playthings" Nebula Award: Best Script 2004 — David A. Goodman for episode "Where No Fan Has Gone Before" Writers Guild of America Award: Animation 2004 — Patric Verrone for episode "The Sting"

DVD releases

Full season releases

DVD Name	Ep #	Release dates			Additional Features
		Region 1	Region 2	Region 4
Volume 1	13	March 25 2003	January 28 2002	November 27 2002	This three disc boxset includes the 13 episodes from production season 1. Bonus features include commentary on every episode, Animatics for "Space Pilot 3000", Deleted scenes, Script/storyboard for "Space Pilot 3000", Featurette, Interactive still gallery (stills & video) and easter eggs.
Volume 2	19	August 12 2003	November 11 2002	May 13 2003	This four disc boxset includes the 19 episodes from production season 2. Bonus features include commentary on every episode, deleted scenes, easter eggs, still gallery/concept art, alien alphabet.
Volume 3	22	March 9 2004	June 2 2003	September 24 2003	This four disc boxset includes the 22 episodes from production season 3. Bonus features include commentary on every episode, deleted scenes, animatics, still gallery/character art, 3D models from rough draft sequences, easter eggs.
Volume 4	18	August 24 2004	November 24 2003	November 24 2003	This four disc boxset includes the 18 episodes from production season 4. Bonus features include commentary on every episode, deleted scenes from 16 episodes, storyboard, character art and "How To Draw" galleries, animatics, 3-D Models, pencil tests, easter eggs.

Note: The box sets in Region 2 and 4 are marketed as "Season" rather than "Volume".

Note: Each of the box sets represent one of the four production seasons of the series. However, Fox spread out the series over 5 television seasons, often airing the series out of production order. Of note: after the production of Futurama was originally canceled, Fox aired the 16 previously unaired episodes, all from production seasons three and four, as a "season 5", running sporadically between November 2002 and August 2003. The box sets restore the episodes to production order.

Compilation release

DVD Name	Ep #	Release dates			Additional Features
		Region 1	Region 2	Region 4
Monster Robot Maniac Fun Collection	4	August 23 2005	May 30 2005	August 22 2005	Contains four episodes, one from each previously released season: "Hell Is Other Robots", "Anthology of Interest I", "Roswell That Ends Well" and "The Sting". New bonus features include an animatic for "Hell Is Other Robots" with commentary, special introductions and an easter egg.

Films

DVD Name	Release dates			Additional Features
	Region 1	Region 2	Region 4
Bender's Big Score	November 27 2007	April 2008	TBA	Contains an all new feature length direct-to-DVD movie. Bonus features include complete commentary, full-length episode of Everybody Loves Hypno-Toad, Futurama math lecture, and promo for An Inconvenient Truth starring Bender and Al Gore.

Futurama in other media

Comic books

Main article: Futurama Comics

First started in November 2000, Futurama Comics is a comic book series published by Bongo Comics based in the Futurama universe. While originally published only in the US, a UK, German and Australian version of the series is also available. Other than a different running order and presentation, the stories are the same in all versions.

Much like the TV series, each comic (bar the US episode #20, see below) has a caption at the top of the cover. For example: "Made In The USA! (Printed in Canada)". Some of the UK and Australian comics have different captions on the top of their comics (for example, the Australian version of #20 says "A 21st Century Comic Book" across the cover, while the US version does not have a caption on that issue). All series contain a letters page, artwork from readers and previews of other Bongo Comics coming up.

The Futurama comics may not be canonical per se, and while they do draw from the Futurama universe, the events portrayed within them do not necessarily have any effect upon the continuity of the show.

Toys, games and figurines

While relatively uncommon, several action and tin figurines of various characters and items from the show have been made and are being sold by various hobby/online stores. When the show was initially licensed plans were made with Rocket USA to produce wind-up, walking tin figurines of both Bender and Nibbler with packaging artwork done by the original artists for the series. The Bender toys included a cigar and bottle of "Olde Fortran Malt Liquor" and featured moving eyes, antenna and a functioning compartment door; it received an "A" rating from Sci Fi Weekly. A can of Slurm cola actually contains a deck of cards featuring the Planet Express crew as the face cards. A two deck pack of cards was also released.

I-Men released two packs of 2.5 inch high figures: Fry and Calculon; Zoidberg and Morbo; Professor Farnsworth and URL; Robot Devil and Bender; Leela and Roberto. Each figure comes with a corresponding collectable coin that can also double as a figure stand.

The collectible releases include a set of bendable action figures, including Lieutenant Kif Kroker, Turanga Leela, and Bender. There have also been a few figures released by Moore Action Collectibles, including Fry, Turanga Leela, Bender, and the Planet Express Ship. Lastly, in late 2006, Rocket USA brought out a limited edition 'super' heavyweight die cast Bender. Another special edition Bender figure was released at the San Diego Comic Con (SDCC) in 2006. The figure was called "Glorious Golden Bender". Bobble bender exists.

Toynami has recently announced new Futurama figures. First wave released in summer 2007. The first series of the Toynami figues will be separated into 3 "waves". Each figure will also come with pieces to assemble the Robot Devil. A video game was produced and promoted in DVD sets.

Video game

Main article: Futurama (video game)

On September 15 2000, Unique Development Studios acquired the license to develop a Futurama video game for the next generation consoles and handheld systems. Fox Interactive signed on to publish the game. Sierra Entertainment later became the game's publisher, and it was released on August 14, 2003. Versions are available for the PS2 and Xbox, both of which use cel-shading technology, however, the game was subsequently canceled on the Nintendo GameCube and Game Boy Advance in North America and Europe.

External links

• Futurama opening gags at Flickr
• Futurama title captions at The Infosphere.
• Futurama Revival at Simpsons Zip
• The Planet Express Employee Lounge Futurama message board.

• Futurama at IMDb
• Template:Dmoz