Futurama
Futurama is an animated United States cartoon series (March 28, 1999-2003) created by Matt Groening (who also created The Simpsons). Set in "New New York City" in the year 3000, it was introduced on the Fox Network (with a gag end credit of "30th Century Fox" - see below). Futurama now appears in syndication on Cartoon Network in the US, Sky One and Channel 4 in the United Kingdom and TeleToon in Canada.
Setting
The world of Futurama is a somewhat cynical version of the future. Unlike past cartoons like The Jetsons, which showed an efficient, clean, happy future, Futurama portrays a less idealistic view with humans still dealing with many of the same basic problems of the 20th century. The show's vision of the future bears a striking similarity to the present; present-day political figures and celebrities survive as heads in jars, television remains the primary means of entertainment and issues from global warming and inflexible bureaucracy to substance abuse remain a problem.
Race issues in the year 3000 are now centered around relations among humans, aliens, and robots. A common clash between the former two is alien immigration plaguing Earth. A specific issue on Earth, is that it is largely populated by super-intelligent/super-incompetent robots (such as homeless robots and orphan children robots, like Tinny Tim), they are generally lazy and surly, and often unwilling to assist their human creators. Earth's government (now united under a single President of Earth) remains corrupt (Richard Nixon's preserved head is elected President of Earth at one point in the series) and very US-centric (Earth's capital is Washington, DC, the flag of Earth looks like the Flag of the United States only with an image of the Earth where the stars are today, and its inhabitants are called Earthicans). Inter-planetary relations are poor, with constant wars and invasions, often poorly planned and fought for stupid reasons.
Despite this, Futurama's world also showcases numerous technological advantages that have been developed by the year 3000. Wheels used in transportation have been made obsolete by hover technology, to the point that 31st century characters don't know what a wheel is. Along with robots, spaceships, and floating buildings, the show also introduced many memorable inventions such as the Smell-o-scope, What-if Machine and the Parabox as well as less inspiring creations, like coin-operated Suicide Booths, and Soylent Cola ("The taste varies from person to person").
Much of the shows humor comes from the way characters make passing references to significant historical events of the past thousand years. Between 1999 and 3000:
- Cows, anchovies, poodles, and pine trees become extinct.
- Spotted Owls are the primary household pests, surpassing rats and pigeons.
- The Loch Ness Monster is real, as he has published a book mentioning Bigfoot.
- Bigfoot is real also, still living an elusive life in the Northwest.
- The Second Coming of Jesus occurs in 2443, but apparently has little effect on society other than resulting in the destruction of most video tapes. Professor Farnsworth often exclaims "Sweet zombie Jesus!" which may be related.
- Earth is repeatedly invaded by various foreign planets (one of these invasions resulted in the destruction of "Old" New York City, probably some time before the 23rd century).
- Al Gore becomes the first "Emperor of the Moon".
- For a period of time in the 21st century, cyborgs enslaved humanity.
- The speed of light has been increased to allow very fast travel around the Universe while staying within the laws of physics, yet electromagnetic waves (such as those used for TV broadcasts) from before this era still travel at the slower speed.
- Uranus is renamed Urectum in 2620 (in an attempt to get rid of "that stupid joke" forever).
- At least 40 more amendments to the United States Constitution are passed, including the 67th Amendment which protects witnesses from testifying if they believe it may result in their lungs being ground into hamburger patties.
- Global Warming did occur but it was cancelled out by Nuclear Winter.
See also: Timeline of Futurama
Most celebrities from the 20th century, 19th century, and earlier are alive and well in Futurama's world (Ted Danson is an exception), thanks to cloning, head preservation (invented by Ron Popeil), DNA splicing, and various other forms of regeneration. Most commonly they are disembodied heads living in jars. There are two jarred heads of Grover Cleveland, presumably because he was the both the 22nd and the 24th President of the United States. The head of Richard Nixon, atop a giant weaponized robotic body, was elected President of Earth; his 31st century term of office was a failure.
Linguistics
Futurama's universe also makes several bold predictions about the future of linguistics. In the first episode, it is implied that French is now a dead language, and that the primary language of France is now English (although in the French version of the show, German is a dead language rather than French).
English itself has also evolved from today, however it still remains comprehensible. These changes include:
- Christmas is now pronounced Xmas
- ask is now pronounced aks (a reference to modern ebonics)
- The sound duh, used to express exasperation, has been joined by the sounds guh, buh, spluh and other similar sounds.
- The songs "Happy Birthday" and Santa Claus is Coming to Town" have been replaced with modern counterparts.
The show also often makes use of a pair of alien alphabets in background signage. The first is a simple one-to-one substitution cipher from the Latin alphabet, while the second uses a more complex modular addition code. They often provide additional jokes for fans dedicated enough to decode the messages.
Religion
Religion has changed quite a bit since the year 2000. Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism have all merged into one Amalgamated Church. There is some form of Space Catholicism (despite Jesus' Second Coming already having occurred), led by the reptilian Space Pope (Crocodylus pontifex) and based upon a platform of discouraging love between robots and humans. (A retort to a question with an obvious "yes" answer is "Is the Space Pope reptilian?") Oprahism and Voodoo are now mainstream religions.
Robot religions exist as well, with the most popular being the quasi-Christian religion of Robotology, which has its Hell located in an abandoned New Jersey amusement park, presided over by the crafty Robot Devil. Robot Jews exist as well, although all we know about them is that they hold functions to celebrate a robot becoming a "Bot Mitzvah" and do not believe that Robot Jesus was their messiah. "We believe that he was built, and that he was a very well-programmed robot, but that he was not our messiah." Bender is also shown celebrating the festivals of 'Robannukah', 'Robanzaa' and 'Robamadan', although he admits that he invented these in order to get out of work.
Over the years, as life began to imitate Star Trek more and more, the sci-fi series evolved into an enormous mainstream cult that swept the world. The destructive nature of its followers ultimately led to its banning by the Earth Government and the execution of its followers "in the manner most befitting virgins" (i.e. being thrown into a volcano) (this is also a joke referring to the fact that Star Trek always introduced a new minor character (thus a "virgin") when a crew member was to die during an episode. This is supported by the guards throwing the Star Trek followers into the volcano saying "He's dead Jim" as Leonard McCoy would say in the television series), and in the year 3000 even discussing the show is a serious legal offense. There is little mention of what happened to The Next Generation and the other spinoffs, but the heads of Jonathan Frakes and Leonard Nimoy live on in glass jars. "Star Trek: The Pepsi Generation" does, however, get an Oscar nomination for best soft-drink product placement
Galactic politics
Numerous other galaxies have been colonized or made contact with by the year 3000.
Earth has a unified government under a single President of Earth. It seems that the various sub-states may have prime ministers and similar leaders as well as the current American system of governors, as Bender (see below) has in his possession the arm of the Prime Minister of Norway, complete with career chip. The political parties are organized fairly closely to the American system of two main parties and smaller "third parties". The main parties are the Tastycrats and the Fingerlicans, a reference to the current Democrats and Republicans. Other identified parties include:
- The Green Party (For peoples whose skin is green, apparently, but also involved in environmental actions)
- The Bull Space Moose Party
- The Brain Slug Party (favoring unreasonably huge subsidies to the Brain Slug Planet)
- One Cell, One Vote (A party most likely fighting for the rights of single-celled organisms)
- Dudes for the Legalation of Hemp
- The National Ray-gun Association, a reference to or continuation of the National Rifle Association
- People for the Ethical Treatment of Humans, a reference to PETA
- The Voter Apathy Party, in which no member may be "excited" about any party function
- Rainbow Whigs
- Antisocialists
At one time the Moon was part of Earth, but at some point in the past the citizens revolted. It is now under the rule of Emperor Al Gore. Apparently, Earth is also in the process of embarking on a long-term campaign to conquer and/or eliminate all other worlds/races not allied with it. This campaign is spearheaded by 25 star general Zapp Brannigan.
The President of Earth in power at the end of the series is the head of Richard Nixon who achieved a third term as "no BODY can be elected more than twice". Nixon is shown at times being carried by the Secretary of Transportation or the headless body of Spiro T. Agnew. After stealing Bender's robotic body which was taken back, Nixon's head is mounted on a gargantuan cyborg body. At the end of the Futurama's last episode, however, the Robot Devil drags Nixon's head back to Hell, so the status of his presidency is now somewhat in question.
Much of the Milky Way galaxy now operates under the Earth government's sphere of influence. An alien civilization was either discovered on Neptune or colonized it some time before 3000. It now is home to Robot Santa.
Mars has been terraformed to a great degree (it is now the home of many wealthy socialites), and is even home to Mars University, with which several main characters are affiliated. Pluto has also been terraformed, and now houses large penguin colonies.
Earth's moon is still mostly unsettled, but houses a standard amusement park which is the sole tourist attraction. The rest of the moon is mostly uninhabited, with the exception of some farms, as a deep South joke. One farmer wears a hat saying "The Moon Shall Rise Again".
Many worlds, including Earth, are unified in the Democratic Order of Planets (DOOP). Hermes Conrad described it as being "similar to the United Nations... or like the 'Federation' from your Star Trek program." Earth sometimes acts unilaterally without the aid of other DOOP members. The inhabitants of Omicron Persei 8 are frequently engaged in conflicts with DOOP.
Since a matter of years after the Big Bang, an eternal war has been waged across space between the Nibblonians (Nibbler's race) and the Brainspawn (evil floating giant brains with telekinetic and telepathic powers). The war recently made its final end when the Nibblonians used Philip J. Fry to sneak a bomb into the Brainspawn's main base that would seal them into a pocket dimension prison.
There is also at least one rogue colony of robots that kills humans on sight (this being Capek 9, a reference to Karel Capek who coined the term robot). A planet named Arrakis exists, a tip-of-the-hat to Frank Herbert's Dune novels.
Featured in the series was a bitter conflict between Earth and Spheron 1, a planet inhabited by giant, bouncing balls. One of the conditions for peace with Earth involves: "Bouncing of the 3rd degree, then bouncing of the 5th degree, followed by bouncing of the 2nd degree."
A victorious war with the Arachnid homeworld of Tarantulon VI resulted in a silk surplus, which in turn led to a $300 tax refund from the head of Richard Nixon, the ruling President of Earth.
Other planets seen and mentioned on the show include:
- Trisol, a desert planet with three suns and apparently water-based inhabitants
- The Neutral Planet, where everything is gray, the official motto is "Live free or don't", and the officials have "no opinions one way or the other".
- The hollow planet, Vergon 6 (mostly destroyed in the year 3000)
- Sicily 8, the mob planet
- Ebola 9, the virus planet
- Cineplex 14, the movie theater planet
- Cannibalon, the cannibal planet
- The Planet of the Moochers
- Fantasy Planet, where everyone's fantasies come true
- Hovering Squid-world 97a, home to (apparently) the universe's only other Philip J. Fry in existence on December 31st, 1999
- Amphibios 9, Kif Kroker's home world, where he gives birth to his children.
- Eternium, homeworld of the Nibblonians, the most ancient race in existence (the race was already 17 when the universe was created), at the exact center of the universe. When we see the planet on screen, the subtitle appears, "Inconcievable dimensions not shown."
- Decapod 10, Dr. Zoidberg's native planet
- The Brain Slug Planet, home of the brain slugs, a race that controls other intelligent beings by attaching to their heads (they also seem to devour their hosts' brain matter)
- Eden 7, which Zapp Brannigan successfully carpet bombed
- DogDoo 7, located at the edge of the universe (a joke involves the crew being tricked by two boys into going to the made-up planet of DogDoo 8, only to return a week later to report that "the universe ends after DogDoo 7!").
- Osiris IV, a planet heavily influenced by the apparently space-faring Egyptians, for a period ruled by Bender in the position of Pharaoh.
- Amazonia, a planet inhabited by giant women.
- Wormulon, a planet famous for the production of a "deliciously addictive" (actual slogan quote) soft drink called Slurm (which seems to refer to the real-world Surge brand).
Several parallel universes are known to "Earthicans" by the year 3000. One can be seen just beyond the Edge of the Universe viewing area, in which everyone seems to look the same, albeit dressed in cowboy gear. Others were created (or perhaps just gateways to them) by Professor Farnsworth in boxes. In the first creation, the people looked and acted rather similar to the residents of our universe, but with different-colored hair, clothes, and in Bender's case, body primer. The only major differences are that the results of coin tosses are always the opposite of what they are in our universe; thus Leela is married to Fry and Hermes nearly tosses the box containing the Professor's first universe (in which the rest of the gang is trapped) into the Sun. Other universes are rather more bizarre; in one, no one has any eyes, in another, everyone is a robot, in another, time seems to still be in the ancient Roman era, in another, everyone is a bobble-head toy version of themselves, in another everyone is a leprechaun, in another, pirates, in another, perhaps octopi, in another, hippies, and in yet another, the atmosphere is cold enough to freeze one in ice.
Planet Express
Planet Express is the name of the delivery company held by Professor Hubert Farnsworth to fund his "research" and "inventions."
The Professor often makes passing reference to the fact that many of his past crews have been brutally killed. The crew prior to Fry's arrival was devoured by a space wasp. (In one of the last few episodes of the series, "The Sting", the crew is sent on the same mission that killed the last crew. They actually find the old Planet Express ship whose crew were actually killed by giant Space Bees while infiltrating their nest to procure space honey; the current crew then succeeds where they failed).
Officially, the ship is helmed by Turanga Leela as captain and pilot, Bender Bending Rodriguez as cook, Philip J. Fry as delivery boy. Intern Amy Wong and company physician Dr. John Zoidberg join the crew as needed. The ship has an autopilot and a shipboard AI, which may or may not be separate entities. When Professor Farnsworth enabled the ship's AI to become female, Bender started dating it immediately, forcing the crew to disable it in a manner very similar to the deactivation of HAL 9000 in 2001 A Space Odyssey when he inevitably dumped her. The same auto-pilot was once promoted to Pilot, and Leela was demoted to co-pilot. Bureaucrat Hermes Conrad runs the administrative end of the business. Nearly every mission that the Professor comes up with is dangerous, or quickly degenerates to a suicide mission.
Characters
- Philip J. Fry ("Fry") (Voiced by Billy West) - was "accidentally" cryogenically frozen just after New Year, 2000, and thawed out in time to usher in the year 3000. Something of a misfit in the 20th century, he adapted to 31st century life with ease after finding employment outside the field of pizza delivery and taking up residence in Bender's closet at the Robot Arms .
- Turanga Leela ("Leela") (Katey Sagal) - a one-eyed mutant from New New York's sewers. She is the most disciplined member of the Planet Express delivery team and serves as the ship's captain. For most of the series she believed she was an orphaned alien, and desired to learn of her origins.
- Professor Hubert Farnsworth (Billy West) - Fry's great-great-...-great grand-nephew who runs Planet Express. In his 160's, he peers through cokebottle glasses, has bad posture and frequently forgets who or what he was talking about. Has a long-standing rivalry with colleague Professor Wernstrom.
- Bender Bending Rodriguez ("Bender") (John DiMaggio) - a foul-mouthed, hard drinking, misanthropic robot (catchphrase: "Bite my shiny metal ass!") built in America's heartland of Mexico. He frequently violates the Three Laws of Robotics. The only thing he fears is an industrial-size electric can opener.
- Hermes Conrad (Phil LaMarr) - a Jamaican grade 36 Bureaucrat with a flair for filing. He is also an Olympic Limbo-er. He manages Planet Express delivery business, and his responsibilities include paying bills, giving out legal waivers, and notifying next of kin. In direct contrast to most stereotypes of Jamaicans, he is an uptight workaholic, a stickler for doing everything according to regulations, and frequently admonishes the staff for not working hard enough. The character was originally named "Dexter" who did not sport a Jamaican accent; this was changed after the first few episodes were recorded.
- Dr. John Zoidberg (Billy West) - a lobster-like alien from planet Decapod 10 who (as a self-proclaimed expert on humans) provides incompetent medical care for the crew, at one point saying to Fry, "Young lady, I am an expert on human physiology, so pick a mouth and open it!". He is strongly disliked by Hermes Conrad and lives below the poverty line. Zoidberg combines features of several sea creatures, scuttling sideways like a crab, producing ink like an octopus or squid, and creating pearls in his digestive tract like oysters.
- Amy Wong (Lauren Tom) - an intern at Planet Express (supposedly kept around because she shares the professor's blood type) and heir to half of Mars. Her parents, who constantly pester her about the lack of grandchildren, came to own half the planet through colonial exploitation of gullible natives. On the show, Amy is known for being somewhat shallow and ditzy, and for her overuse of futuristic 31st century slang. She also tends to dress provocatively, frequently being the person on screen wearing the least clothing. When aggravated, she occasionally starts cursing in Chinese.
Futurama also features a number of minor recurring characters.
Production
Futurama takes its name from a General Motors exhibit at the 1939 New York World's Fair which depicted future technologies. Also demonstrated at that World's Fair was Philo Farnsworth's vacuum tube television; Professor Farnsworth is named after him.
Actors lending their voices to the series include Billy West, Katey Sagal, John DiMaggio, Maurice LaMarche, Lauren Tom, Phil LaMarr, and Tress MacNeille. The theme and incidental music for the show were composed by Christopher Tyng. The original theme song for the show was to be the 1960s electronic music recording "Psyche Rock" by Pierre Henry, but the inability to license the track for the show led Tyng to compose a theme strongly reminiscent of it. Two remixes of the theme songs were produced and used as the main themes in two episodes.
This show is also one of the few animated series to use fully orchestrated original music in almost every episode.
Phil Hartman was cast as a voice actor on the series, but was killed before production began. Some believe Billy West performs the character of Zapp Brannigan in a Hartman-ish voice as a tribute to him (hence why Zapp looks so much like Hartman's Simpsons character, Troy McClure), but it is revealed in the DVD commentary that West's version of Zapp's voice is actually unchanged from the way he did it originally in auditions. The character Philip J. Fry's first name was originally going to be Curtis. It was changed to Philip as a way to remember Hartman.
Celebrities who have lent their voices to the show include Dick Clark, Beck, Al Gore, Stephen Hawking, Sigourney Weaver, Lucy Liu, Pamela Anderson, and the cast of Star Trek (except for the late DeForest Kelley, and James Doohan's character replaced by 'Welshy' in a parody of the Brady Bunch variety hour where Jan was played by a different actress).
In 2001, during the show's third season, it was quietly announced that Fox Television was cancelling production of the series. While Futurama ended after its fifth broadcast season, there were actually only four production seasons. Due to numerous preemptions and other schedule shuffles, Fox had enough new episodes backlogged for another full year of shows. These delays account for the difference in Fox's broadcast season number and production season number. (Note: the production season forms the basis for the DVD and video sets.) The 72nd and final episode, called "The Devil's Hands Are Idle Playthings", aired in the USA on August 10, 2003. With this episode, the fifth television season (fourth production season) and the whole series ended. The episode was not a true series finale however, and though many plot issues were resolved in the last season, the final episode was in no way a clear "conclusion" to the series—the last line of dialogue, aptly enough, was "Don't stop playing, Fry... I want to see how it ends".
Cartoon Network is currently airing the series in syndication.
Futurama and Family Guy (another series shown on Fox and subsequently canceled) both air on Cartoon Network as a one-hour block and have received high ratings. Family Guy's DVD releases have sold so well that, coupled with high ratings, Fox has reversed the series cancellation and resumed production. Futurama has also had strong DVD set sales and ratings success on Cartoon Network; rumor abounds that it may also return to production.
Also, Matt Groening's The Simpsons series has increasingly been making reference to Futurama after its cancelation. In the show, Matt Groening appeared as himself (animated) and was introduced at a convention as the creator of the hit show Futurama. He then signed Bender dolls. Also, in another episode of The Simpsons, a person jumped off a cliff because Futurama was cancelled. There is even a Simpsons episode in production for Season 16 called "Future-Drama."
At the end of the episode "Missionary: Impossible", there is a group of people taking pledges to keep Fox alive. In the group, Bender is seen taking pledges, as well as Hank Hill from King of the Hill, Rupert Murdoch, Luke Perry, Fox Mulder and Dana Scully from The X-Files, and Thurgood Stubbs from the cancelled claymation series, The PJs. Betty White is seen turning off a tv with the Family Guy logo on it, calling it "crude, low-brow programming." In the episode "Bart vs. Lisa vs. the Third Grade", Bender appears in a dream of Bart's.
Even though there were no official words on the revival of the show, there were rumors of it since the news of Family Guy being revived. These rumors had so far proven untrue, to the dismay of the fan-base.
Similarly, Futurama references The Simpsons. In an early episode of Futurama, the crew are sent to destroy a huge ball of garbage in space by placing a bomb on it. Bender finds a Bart Simpson doll which says "Eat my shorts" when its string is pulled. Bender eats the shorts, then says "mmmm... shorts".(It should also be noted that this signifies that the Simpsons and Futurama exist as cartoon series in each other's continuity.)
In response to the events of the September 11, 2001 attacks against the United States, the Fox Television Network and Futurama creator Matt Groening for a short time removed the scene in the show's opening in which the Planet Express ship crashes into a giant television screen. It was felt that this scene would be upsetting and be disturbing to many viewers who had witnessed the head on collision of an airplane into the World Trade Center in New York on live television. Within a month or so after the attacks the scene was reinserted back into the opening.
In Britain the series was picked up by Sky One shortly after its US premiere, and Channel 4 later acquired terrestrial broadcast rights.
Many of the spacecraft and backgrounds appearing in Futurama were made using 3D computer graphics. The scenes were first painted by hand and then implemented in 3D. This way, camera movements provided a perfect geometry of the environment and characters (for example, at the beginning of the series when the camera flies around the Planet Express building).
The show is aired on the Cartoon Network after eleven o' clock and parental warnings precede the show. Nevertheless, some Internet sources have noted that the Cartoon Network has censored Professor Farnsworth's favorite expletive, "Sweet Zombie Jesus!", so that he exclaims "Sweet Zombie [blank]!".
Non-broadcast production
In the USA (DVD Region 1), the first season of Futurama was released on DVD on March 25, 2003; the second season on August 12, 2003; the third season on March 9, 2004; and the fourth (and final) on August 24, 2004.
In Europe (DVD Region 2), the first and second seasons were both released in 2002; the third season was released on June 2, 2003; and the fourth on November 24th, 2003.
Unique Development Studios released a video game titled Futurama for the Xbox and PlayStation 2 consoles in August 2003.
Matt Groening's Bongo Comics group is still producing a spin-off series of Futurama comic books. These are released every two months, and are now the only new stories featuring the Futurama characters. As of August 2004, 18 issues have been released by Dark Horse Comics in the USA. In the United Kingdom, Titan Books has released 12 issues, presenting the stories in a different order from the Dark Horse Comics run.
Season details
- Futurama season 1 details
- Futurama season 2 details
- Futurama season 3 details
- Futurama season 4 details
- Futurama season 5 details
Note: In reality, there were four production seasons (the DVD releases are based on this original sequence of episodes), but the FOX network broadcast most episodes out of order, and split them into five seasons.
Credits gags
Opening credits
During the final shot of the opening credits, a billboard screen appears in view, upon which the executive producer credits appear. Just before they do, a clip from a classic public domain cartoon is shown on the screen. A number of classic cartoon stars have been featured on the billboard, including Koko the Clown, Betty Boop, Bugs Bunny, Porky Pig, Little Lulu, Felix the Cat, and Bosko [1].
Closing credits: "30th Century Fox"
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"30th Century Fox" is a variation of "20th Century Fox" listed in the end credits. Fox initially rejected the idea of show creator Matt Groening, who sponsored the design of the logo by himself. Later, it became popular, with Fox embracing and taking some credit for it.
The episode "That's Lobstertainment!" reveals that 30th Century Fox is a television and film studio within the Futurama universe. The studio building is shaped like the logo. The floodlights surrounding it are used to blind pilots so they crash, producing exciting documentary footage.
See also
External links
- Can't get enough Futurama fansite. Probably the most extensive coverage of any new Futurama information as well as the home of fan-contributed semi-open source episode capsules and guides.
- Episode List, sortable and with episode rankings.
- Futurama Madhouse, oldest active fansite (formerly The Leela Zone).
- The Futurama Point, The Best Futurama Stuff: Futurama Info, Futurama Media, Futurama PC Downloads and more (The second oldest Futurama website).
- The Neutral Planet: Futurama In Words, with transcripts for most episodes.
- IMDB - Futurama
- Demonstration of the Hypnotoad's powers
- Some of the cast
- Futurama at the Big Cartoon DataBase
- Futurama πk – Mathematics in the Year 3000