Futurama
| Futurama | |
|---|---|
| File:Futurama title screen.jpg The opening title for Futurama. | |
| Created by | Matt Groening |
| Developed by | Matt Groening David X. Cohen |
| Starring | Billy West Katey Sagal John DiMaggio Tress MacNeille Maurice LaMarche Phil LaMarr Lauren Tom David Herman |
| Country of origin | USA |
| No. of episodes | 72 |
| Production | |
| Running time | 22 minutes approx. |
| Original release | |
| Network | FOX |
| Release | March 28, 1999 – August 10, 2003 |
Futurama is an American animated television series that follows Philip J. Fry after he is cryonically frozen at midnight, December 31, 1999 and is defrosted a thousand years later in the year 2999. The series was created by Matt Groening who co-developed the show with David X. Cohen, and produced by The Curiosity Company for the Fox Network, on which it aired from March 28, 1999 to August 10, 2003. On June 22, 2006, it was confirmed that the show would be returning for a run of at least 13 episodes on Comedy Central, to air beginning in 2008.[1]
The name "Futurama" is named after an exhibit from the 1939 New York World's Fair. The exhibit Futurama, designed by Norman Bel Geddes depicted what he imagined the world to look like in 20 years time (1959).
Characters and plot
Futurama centers around seven main characters who work for Planet Express, an intergalactic delivery company, as well as several secondary characters.
Characters
- Philip J. Fry a.k.a. Fry (Billy West) — Fry was cryonically frozen just before New Year, 2000, and revived just in time for New Year, 3000. He got a job with Planet Express because it was owned by his closest living relative, Professor Farnsworth.
- Turanga Leela a.k.a. Leela (Katey Sagal) — Leela is the one-eyed captain of Planet Express' ship. Abandoned at birth, she grew up in an "orphanarium" believing herself to be an alien of an unknown race. She eventually learns that she is, in fact, a mutant.
- Bender Bending Rodriguez a.k.a. Bender (John DiMaggio) — Bender is a foul-mouthed, drinking, smoking, kleptomaniacal, misanthropic robot. Built to bend girders, he followed Fry to Planet Express, where he was given a job. He is also Fry's roommate.
- Professor Hubert J. Farnsworth a.k.a. The Professor (Billy West) — Farnsworth is Fry's distant nephew, though he is somewhere in his 160s and, thus, much older than Fry. He founded Planet Express to fund his mad scientist-like experiments and inventions.
- Dr. John Zoidberg a.k.a. Zoidberg (Billy West) — Zoidberg is a lobster-like alien from Decapod 10, and is the staff doctor of Planet Express. He speaks with an accent most commonly associated with native Yiddish speakers, and is generally disliked by his peers at Planet Express (especially Hermes).
- Hermes Conrad (Phil LaMarr) — Hermes is the Jamaican manager of Planet Express. A proud bureaucrat, he is a stickler for doing everything according to regulations, especially if it involves paperwork and filing.
- Amy Wong (Lauren Tom) — Amy is an intern at Planet Express, though she needs no job, as her parents are extremely wealthy. Born on Mars, she is ethnically Chinese, and prone to frequently using 31st century slang.
Planet Express
Planet Express is an intergalactic delivery company held by Professor Farnsworth to fund his research and inventions. As most of the show's characters are employed for Planet Express, many of the episodes revolve around delivering packages or doing other tasks for the company.
The Professor often makes passing references to the brutal deaths of previous employees; the crew prior to Fry's arrival was said to have been devoured by a space wasp (modified in a later episode to stung to death by a swarm of gigantic space bees instead).
The Planet Express ship is usually captained by Leela, with Bender serving as cook and Fry as delivery boy. Amy, Farnsworth, Hermes, and Dr. Zoidberg accompany/supplement the crew as needed. Sometimes Scruffy the Janitor wanders on board as well. The ship is equipped with an autopilot(seen and heard in Bendless Love, mentioned in How Hermes Requisitioned His Groove Back. It is often mentioned as drunk and incompetent), a huge cargo winch (first used in "Episode Two: The Series Has Landed "), a shipboard artificial intelligence (featured in the episode "Love and Rocket"), and is powered by Dark Matter engines (first seen in "Love's Labours Lost in Space"). In addition, the ship is armed with a single turret-mounted laser cannon first utilized in "When Aliens Attack", and two torpedo launchers first utilized in "Roswell That Ends Well" and also used in later episodes.
Nearly every mission that the Professor assigns his crew is unusually dangerous. However, the ship's hull plating serves as suitable armor to protect the crew, an example of its effectiveness seen in the episode "Love and Rocket", where the ship is able to withstand the full impact of several Omicronian concussion missiles whilst fleeing from the Omicronians, only suffering relatively minor physical damage as a result. Outside the ship however, the crew usually has to rely on their own wits, strengths and/or luck to succeed on their missions.[citation needed]
Relationships
New New York is a callous, anonymous urban environment where it is difficult to form close relationships. The characters often claim not to care about their co-workers, (see episode I Second That Emotion) but when push comes to shove it turns out they do have some affection for each other, even if they often express it in strange ways. For example, when Bender is cursed to murder his best friend, Fry becomes jealous when Bender tries to kill Leela instead of him.
Some episodes involve the characters getting into (usually short-lived) sexual relationships with other characters. Fry's unrequited love for Leela is a reccurring plot device, as well as Amy and Kif's eventual relationship. Friendships like the male bond between Fry and Bender, or Brannigan and Kif, also play an important role. Although the series is mostly filled with light hearted comedy when it comes to romance, Futurama's tone can suddenly become serious when it touches on themes of human relationships and estrangement.
Setting
The setting is first and foremost a backdrop for humor, and the show is not above committing continuity errors if they serve to further the gags. The capabilities of many things vary according to what is most appropriate for the situation at hand.
The visually retro-futuristic world of Futurama is not a utopia but neither is it a dystopia. 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 is very similar to the present in many ways: the same political figures and celebrities that we know today survive as heads in jars (a method invented by Ron Popeil), television remains the primary means of entertainment, the Internet is still slow and filled with pornography ("A Big Piece of Garbage"), problems such as global warming ("Crimes of the Hot"), inflexible bureaucracy ("How Hermes Requisitioned His Groove Back"), and substance abuse ("Hell Is Other Robots") are still pressing issues. This is probably due to human civilization being virtually wiped out and replaced twice while Fry was frozen, along with many other events including various enslavements of humanity and nuclear wars.
Race issues in 3000 are now centered around relations among humans, aliens, mutants, and robots. A common clash between the first two groups is alien immigration plaguing Earth.{see episode A Leela of Her Own} Humans find it hard to treat aliens with respect because of their differences, as is seen with the Decapodians, who probably evolved from something resembling a lobster, and because of various invasions and/or obliterations of Earth's civilization in the past.
A specific issue on Earth is the large population of super-intelligent/super-incompetent robots (homeless robots and orphan children robots, like Tinny Tim); they are generally lazy, greedy and/or surly (with few exceptions, such as the sycophantic super-efficient Robot 1-X), and often unwilling to assist their human creators. Almost all robots are fueled by alcohol-based substances ("Crimes of the Hot"), leading to widespread environmental pollution. Robots are treated as independent beings - indeed only three times in the series are robots referred to as property (in "The Route of All Evil" Hubert refers to Bender as "company property," in "Bendin' in the Wind", when Bender is crippled, Farnsworth is told "You'll have to get a new one", and in "The 30% Iron Chef" the Professor shouts "That's my robot! I own him!"). In fact, over the years robots have developed their own culture, with publications, music, and religion (much of this seems to be similar to African American culture in contemporary society).
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 do not know what a wheel is ("Mother's Day"). Among the robots, spaceships, and floating buildings, Professor Farnsworth introduced many memorable new inventions such as the Smell-o-scope ("A Big Piece of Garbage") and the What-If Machine ("Anthology of Interest I"). Less inspiring 31st century innovations include coin-operated suicide booths, and Slurm, the highly addictive green ooze of questionable origin which is advertised at every opportunity on Futurama, whether in conventional television ads, or on giant blimps flying past in the background. Medical technology has also taken a huge leap, as the maximum lifespan for a human has been increased by at least 40 years from 120 to 160 ("A Clone of My Own"). Professor Farnsworth is one notable example.
Large companies hold a massive amount of power in the year 3000, in particular Mom's Friendly Robot Company, which builds and controls every robot on Earth ("Mother's Day"). Advertising is everywhere ("A Fishful of Dollars"), and people often buy products not knowing or caring what goes into them or who manufactures them - for example, the unrestrained human consumption of the bite-sized "Popplers" which turned out to be alien young ("The Problem with Popplers").
Some of the show's humor comes from passing references to historical events of the past thousand years. For example, in the time that has passed, formerly endangered owls and marmosets have emerged as the primary urban pests, at the expense of rats and pigeons.("I, Roommate," "The Honking") Los Angeles has become a wasteland, with Fry mistaking it for a post-apocalyptic New New York in the year 4000 after believing he had been cryonically frozen for a further 1000 years ("The Cryonic Woman"). Atlanta, after being moved to sea, sinks due to over-development and becomes a "lost city" (a parody of the story of Atlantis); its residents evolve (with the help of caffeine from the Coca-Cola factory) into mermaids ("The Deep South"). In another episode, Pamela Anderson mentions that she won an Academy Award for Baywatch: The Movie, the first ever movie to be filmed entirely in slow-motion ("A Fishful of Dollars").
The suicide booths are not the only sign of a devaluing of human life. Murder is discussed casually, as if there were little or no penalty for it (Hermes: "Could you pick me up a license to kill?" Leela: "Sure. Bare hands or weapons?" Hermes: "Hm. What does piano wire count as?") ("Less Than Hero"). Grievous bodily injuries are shrugged off or treated with a sort of mild uncaring, perhaps in reference to the highly advanced medical technology as well as the general disregard for the lives of others or oneself. This sort of indifference to death and pain may be partly a mockery of the reactionary trend of citing rising crime statistics as a symptom of human life losing its value, partly on account of the failure to take proper precautions or care of themselves because of the availability of medicines and operations, and partly callousness (such as Fry's happy declaration that his organ transplant came from a guy who liked to ride motorcycles).
For a full list of events leading up to the current day in the show, see the timeline of Futurama.
Linguistics
Futurama has created several languages to reflect all the new aliens living on the planet. The first is a simple one-to-one substitution cipher from the Latin alphabet[2]. Creators apparently felt this was too easy, and created a second, more complex modular addition code[citation needed] (officially this is an ancient alien language predating the universe). For translating information, see http://tfp.killbots.com/?p=aa_02. These languages often provide additional jokes for fans dedicated enough to decode the messages, but are generally left to the background and signs.
Futurama's universe also makes several bold predictions about the future of modern languages. In "A Clone of my Own" (and "Space Pilot 3000"), it is implied that French is now a dead language (in the French version of Futurama, German is substituted for French as the dead language), though this is contradicted often (for instance, the Professor's gargoyle Pazuzu speaks French in Teenage Mutant Leela's Hurdles).
English has also evolved slightly from today, but remains comprehensible. The most notable change involves pronunciations, such as ask being said as axe, or library being said as liberry. According to Groening on the DVD commentaries, he intended this to be a satirical comment on the gradual dumbing-down of the English language. Christmas has become X-Mas (pronounced ex-mess), but this is due to the changes in the holiday itself, not necessarily linguistic.
Hebrew also seems to exist in the year 3000 (see "Fry and the Slurm Factory" or "The Cryonic Woman" for examples).
Galactic politics
Earth has a unified government called the United States of Earth, headed by the President of Earth. It seems that various sub-states may have individual leaders, much like the current American system of governors. This world government seems to be quite U.S.-centric as Earth's capital is Washington, D.C. and the flag of Earth looks similar to the Flag of the United States. The two main political parties are the Tastycrats and the Fingerlicans, obvious jokes on the U.S.'s Democrats and Republicans.
In the second season, Richard Nixon is elected President of Earth when he mounts his disembodied head onto a gargantuan, weaponized cyborg body, helping to sway the robot vote in his favor. He remains in this position for the rest of the series. At most times, Nixon's head is carried around by the Secretary of Transportation or the headless body of Spiro Agnew.
Earth's national holiday appears to be "Freedom Day," which is traditionally celebrated by doing whatever one wants without regard to the consequences, as well as nude hot tub parties, and by dancing and chanting, "Freedom, freedom, freedom, oy!"
Numerous other galaxies have been colonized or have made contact by the year 3000. Much of the Milky Way galaxy now operates under the Earth government's sphere of influence, similar to the United States of America's influence on world politics today. Mars has been terraformed to a great degree, and is home to Mars University. The Western Hemisphere of the planet is owned by Amy Wong's family. Earth's moon is still mostly unsettled with the exception of some farms, but has its own amusement park dedicated to the history of lunar exploration.
For a full list of planets in Futurama, see the list of planets in Futurama.
There are occasional inconsistent references to the existence of other dimensions (one episode says that there are only two, another shows the characters travel through at least two dozen).
D.O.O.P. and intergalactic relations
The Democratic Order Of Planets (D.O.O.P.) was founded in 2945 after the Second Galactic War. This organization, which is based on the United Nations, includes Earth and many other worlds, though Earth sometimes acts unilaterally without the aid of other D.O.O.P. members. The inhabitants of Omicron Persei VIII are frequently engaged in conflicts with D.O.O.P. The D.O.O.P. symbol has rotational symmetry.
Earth appears to be in the process of embarking on a long-term campaign to conquer and/or eliminate all worlds/races not allied with it, such as Spheron 1 or Tarantulon VI. This campaign is spearheaded by 25-star General Major Webelos and Captain Zapp Brannigan.
Beginning shortly 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). Fry getting frozen is, in fact, directly related to this war.
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, led by the reptilian Space Pope (Crocodylus pontifex) one tenet of its teachings discourages romantic relationships between robots and humans (featured in "I Dated a Robot", an episode wherein Fry breaks the robot-human love taboo by dating a robot version of Lucy Liu). Oprahism and Voodoo are now mainstream religions (Waltermercadoism is also mentioned in the Latin American version.). The Second Coming took place in the 25th Century, destroying many video tapes, but the repeated mentions of Zombie Jesus suggest that this might not have been an altogether glorious event. Jesus, however, is still held with reverence by many.
Some of today's holidays still exist, but with slightly different mascots. Christmas, now Xmas (pronounced "Ex-mass"), is 'celebrated' with the fear of a giant robotic Santa Claus, who is based on the North Pole of Neptune. He was originally created and programmed by Mom's Friendly Robot Company to judge people, whether naughty or nice, and distribute presents accordingly, but his standards were set so high that he invariably deems virtually everybody naughty (Dr. Zoidberg being among the few exceptions), and attempts to punish them on Christmas Eve with an excruciating death if they are caught outdoors after sundown. Hanukkah is now represented by the Hanukkah Zombie and Kwanzaa by Kwanzaabot.
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 "Bot Mitzvahs". They believe that Robot Jesus was built and that he was a very well programmed robot, but he was not their messiah, and they do not permit Decapodians to attend their functions (presumably because shellfish aren't kosher, although this is a little ironic since the Decapodians are a parody of Jewish stereotypes).
Over the years, as life began to imitate Star Trek more and more, the sci-fi series evolved into an enormous mainstream religious cult that swept the world (while advertising itself as "the sci-fi religion that won't steal all your money"). This caused the "Star Trek Wars" (not to be confused with the "Star Wars Trek," the mass migration of Star Wars fans). The destruction because of the "Wars" ultimately led to its banning by the Earth government and the execution of its followers "in the manner most befitting virgins," i.e., by being thrown into a volcano to the phrase "He's dead, Jim." By the year 3000, even discussing the show is a serious legal offense. Despite this, it is mentioned with no penalties once by Hermes Conrad while describing the Democratic Order Of Planets, again in the episode where the Planet Express crew uses the Internet, and once more in the first episode when Fry says the doors are just like the ones from Star Trek. There is little mention of what happened to The Next Generation and the other spinoffs, but the head of Jonathan Frakes lives on in a glass jar (normally on a shelf directly behind the jar housing the head of Leonard Nimoy). Star Trek: The Pepsi Generation does, however, get an Oscar nomination for best soft-drink product placement. The prison known as Rikers Island is in the series "Commander Riker's Island", and San Francisco's Fisherman's Wharf is likewise known as "Fisherman's Worf".
Sex and mating norms
In many regards, the series takes a "Playboy feminism" view on gender and sexual norms, not unlike the Star Trek television franchise. The seedy world of adult pornography and aphrodisiacs are shown in "Spanish Fry", with an item, seen only briefly in the background of the alien porn shop that could be a dildo, although it is only cryptically referenced on episodes DVD audio commentary. There also does not appear to be much in the way of organized political or religious sexism or homophobia in the future except a degree of male (human and robot) bravado.
In the episode titled "A Taste of Freedom", the lawyer unsuccessfully defending Dr. Zoidberg before the Earth Supreme Court for flag desecration is able to persuade the court to declare that the law banning polygamy is unconstitutional, and quips about how he cannot wait to tell his wives and his husband- booing from the gallery seems to indicate that polygamy and/or homosexuality continue to be relatively unpopular. However, in "Future Stock", Fry casually refers to the "lesbian coven" across the street from Planet Express as a traditional family. In "Kif Gets Knocked Up A Notch" the male alien Kif becomes pregnant, and in "Three Hundred Big Boys" Hermes Conrad's son quips about how he wishes he had two mothers.
A few secondary characters in the series were established as or suspected of being gay; the Neptunian toy makers in "A Tale of Two Santas" were confirmed as being gay on the episodes DVD audio commentary. There has been some speculation as to the sexuality of both Hedonism Bot and The Robot Devil due to their flamboyant mannerisms. While not gay, Bender cross-dressed in one episode for a professional wrestling career and temporarily had a sex change operation in order to compete in the female Olympics. Bender doesn't want anyone to think him and Fry are "robosexuals" in the first episode, so he tells Fry to say that he is Bender's debugger. A deleted scene, available on DVD, established that two of the Amazonian women in "Amazon Women in the Mood" are lesbians. In "The Birdbot of Ice-Catraz", the police robot URL and his human partner Smitty embrace, and thus allow Bender to escape. In the episode "Spanish Fry", Dr. Zoidberg invites Bender to join him and Hermes for "a little 'just friends' spooning." There is also a recurring human character, who is usually used simply as an extra, who speaks and acts in a stereotypically gay fashion. (For example, he is seen as the neighbor in "I, Roommate" who exclaims with a lisp "The TV'th back!" Though not named in the series, in DVD commentaries he is referred to as "Randy.") In "Three Hundred Big Boys," DVD commentary revealed that "Randy" had a subplot in the multiple-storyline episode that had to be cut for time: he and his boyfriend argue over how to spend their tax refunds, which they resolve by tossing both $300 bills into a fireplace, deciding love is more important.
In terms of gender, while some measure of male bravado sexism does seem to still exist in the future, and women are not allowed in the earth's armed forces, there does not seem to be much wide-spread sex discrimination on earth. As was the case with sexual orientation certain worlds may have been more or less committed to the value of equality between the sexes. Aside from the parody of male chauvinism and "men-hating women" in the episode titled, "Amazon Women in the Mood", Zapp Brannigan's sexism and general stupidity was a running gag throughout the series. It is implied in "Bend Her" that there are more than two genders, when Amy says that Bender was "embarrassing them in front of the other genders".
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. Phil Hartman was cast as a voice actor on the series, but he was murdered 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 the DVD commentary reveals 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, Donovan, Al Gore, Stephen Hawking, The Beastie Boys, Sigourney Weaver, Lucy Liu, Pamela Anderson, Bob Barker, John Goodman (as Robot Santa), and the Star Trek cast, in "Where No Fan Has Gone Before". This episode did not include a speaking role for the character of Dr. McCoy, DeForest Kelley, by that time deceased, or James Doohan, who refused to appear.
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. Three remixes of the theme song were produced and used as the main theme in three different episodes. Another remix of sorts, heard over the closing credits of the episode "Hell Is Other Robots", featured the Beastie Boys (guest-starring in the episode) giving shout outs to main Futurama characters set to one of the versions of the theme.) This show is also one of the few animated series to use fully orchestrated original music in almost every episode.
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).
Though Futurama was broadcast in five seasons, 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. The production season forms the basis for the DVD and video sets.
While Futurama was never officially cancelled, Fox decided not to buy a fifth season and the program fell apart soon after.[3]. 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 (recorded months after the episode was taped, and after the show's cancellation), aptly enough, was "Please don't stop playing, Fry - I want to hear how it ends."
Series revival
In October of 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 Adult Swim's current deal.[4] It was cited as the network's largest and most expensive acquisition in their history.
The following spring, on June 22, 2006, Comedy Central announced that 13 brand new episodes were to be produced, to air with the reruns in 2008.[1]
References and referenced
Since Futurama ended , Matt Groening's The Simpsons series has made several references to Futurama:
- "Fraudcast News": The squeaky-voiced teen jumps off a cliff, screaming "Why did they cancel Futurama?"
- "Bart vs. Lisa vs. The Third Grade": Bender appears in one of Bart Simpson's dreams.
- "My Big Fat Geek Wedding": Matt Groening appears as himself (animated) and was introduced at a convention as the creator of the hit show Futurama. He then signs Bender dolls and draws a sketch of Fry for Bart's friend Milhouse.
- "Future-Drama": Bart and Lisa Simpson explore their teenage years with the help of Professor Frink. During this sequence, Homer and Bart drive through a "quantum tunnel" where they shift dimensions temporarily. When they exit, Bender is in the car with them and says, "All right! You guys are my new best friends!" Homer then says, "You wish, loser!" and throws him out of the back of the hovercar, breaking him. The title of the episode itself is also an obvious reference.
- "Missionary: Impossible": Bender is seen as one of the phone operators at the end for PBS.
- "HOMR": In the couch gag, the Simpsons family arrives on the couch in Futurama-like tubes, and Fry (drawn Simpsons-style) comes out of one, replacing Bart. He is quickly sucked back through the tube so Bart can enter.
Similarly, Futurama references The Simpsons. In Space Pilot 3000 we see an appearance from "Blinky" the 3-eyed fish and in A Big Piece of Garbage the crew is sent to destroy a huge ball of garbage. On the surface of the giant garbage ball, Bender finds a pile of Bart Simpson dolls, which says "Eat my shorts" when its string is pulled. Bender eats the shorts of one, then says "mmmm... shorts" imitating the popular mannerism used by Homer. Groening revealed in the DVD audio commentary for this episode that he intended The Simpsons to be a television show in the Futurama universe, and conversely Futurama was a television show in The Simpsons universe, which is somewhat confirmed in the Simpsons episode in which he guest stars.
There is also a reference to Futurama in Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story. Stewie, when walking down the red carpet to the premiere, is stopped by various reporters asking questions. The last reporter asks "Stewie, do you know if Fox has any plans to bring back Futurama?" Stewie then asks "What magazine are you from?" and the reporter replies Entertainment Weekly. Stewie then angrily snaps the reporter's neck, killing him. It should be noted that Entertainment Weekly disparaged Family Guy early in production, leading to the show's animosity towards the magazine.
Post-production presence
Syndicated broadcasts
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. The DVDs were released in Europe first as a test to see if they would sell, and sales were very good on both sides of the Atlantic. Despite the different release dates, the content of the DVDs are identical for both regions.
Unique Development Studios released a video game titled Futurama for the Xbox and PlayStation 2 consoles in August 2003. Critical reviews raised the issue of poor play control and graphic quality, but noted that the game possessed an excellent storyline and voice acting. Due to an extremely small production run, the video game is quite scarce and generally sells for more than most games that are just being released.
Matt Groening's Bongo Comics group is still producing a spin-off series of Futurama comic books. These are currently the only new stories featuring the Futurama characters. There are two sets of comics available, the US series and UK series.
The US series was first published in 2000 and so far consists of 25 issues plus 2 2-part crossovers with The Simpsons. The comics are A5-size and now published 4 times a year.
The UK series was first published in 2002 and so far consists of 33 issues, incorporating the Simpsons crossovers. The comics are of a larger size in the UK, and although the stories are exactly the same as the US comics, they are published in a different order, with some stories published in two parts. See Futurama Comics for more details.
In June of 2006 the creators and voice artists of Futurama created a brief video about the film An Inconvenient Truth featuring Al Gore.[1]
Season details and references
There were four production seasons, but the FOX network broadcast most episodes out of order, and split them into five seasons. The DVD releases are based on the original sequence of episodes.
DVD releases
| Region 1 DVD Name | Release dates | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Region 1 | Region 2 | Region 4 | |
| Volume 1 (13 episodes) | March 25 2003 | January 28 2002 | November 27 2002 |
| Volume 2 (19 episodes) | August 12 2003 | November 11 2002 | May 13 2003 |
| Volume 3 (22 episodes) | March 9 2004 | June 2 2003 | September 24 2003 |
| Volume 4 (18 episodes) | August 24 2004 | November 24 2003 | November 24 2003 |
| Monster Robot Maniac Fun Collection | August 23 2005 | May 30 2005 | August 22 2005 |
- The box sets in Regions 2 and 4 are titled "Season" rather than "Volume".
Credits gags
Opening credits
At the start of each episode, just as the Futurama logo appears on the screen, a caption appears on the bottom of the screen, different in every episode. Some captions include "Coming Soon to an Illegal DVD", "You can't prove it won't happen", "Condemned by the Space Pope", "Krafted With Wuv (By Monsters)". "Available in DoubleVision when drunk" and "Hey, TiVo! Suggest this!". Occasionally, a joke advertisement is displayed as well. The first season also sometimes featured cold openings, which were often short gags or sequences (such as Bender using a car wash-like "Botwash").
A Planet Express Ship then flies through the text, and around a futuristic city. 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, Daffy Duck, Little Lulu, Felix the Cat, The Simpsons and Bosko [2]. During the last episode, "The Devil's Hands Are Idle Playthings", the billboard shows the Futurama billboard inside of it, implying a visual infinite regression. The opening ends with the ship crashing into the billboard and becoming stuck (in "The Problem With Popplers" Leela flies through a billboard to which Fry exclaims "Leela! That's the second billboard you've crashed into this week.").
The opening theme pays homage to the 1967 piece "Psyché Rock" from the album Messe pour le temps présent, a collaboration between a rock band and Pierre Henry, one of the founders of musique concrète and electronic music as a genre.
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Closing credits: "30th Century Fox"
"30th Century Fox" is a variation of the "20th Century Fox" closing logo 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, and Fox repaid the difference [citation needed].
The episode "That's Lobstertainment!" (season 3) reveals that 30th Century Fox is a television and film studio within the Futurama universe. The studio building is shaped like the logo. The spotlights surrounding it are used to blind pilots, so that the resulting plane crashes can be filmed.
Timeline to Revival
- May 22, 2005, the Can't Get Enough Futurama website carried the following unofficial post, attributed to Billy West's discussion board:
Well, I spoke to David X. Cohen [...] and he said that they did have talks with the top guys at FOX and they were extremely impressed with the sales of the Futurama DVDs. The idea was to make a Futurama movie right to DVD and then a 2nd and a 3rd [...]
- July 2005, Billy West seemed to have confirmed a "straight to DVD" Futurama movie on a video blog.
- October 2005, Matt Groening told The Sydney Morning Herald that he "has faith in the relaunch of Futurama." He stated that the Fox Network did not understand the show, and he discussed the possibility of the show's return and a straight-to-DVD movie.
- August 2005, The Internet Movie Database has a Futurama movie page, which claims that the movie will be released in 2007. The IMDb once had a plot summary, but Can't Get Enough Futurama reported that the plot summary was submitted by a user who wished to show that the IMDb would report "unconfirmed rumours." The summary has since been deleted [3].
- January 2006, Variety reported that there have been negotiations to bring back Futurama as a television show, though only a 'limited' amount of episodes may be produced.[5]
- January 19, 2006, Billy West wrote on his message board that four Futurama direct-to-DVD movies will begin production in July or August 2006.
- February 16, 2006, it was mentioned on the British television program This Morning by presenter Paul Ross that Futurama would return, with episodes premiering later this year in the US and next year in the UK.
- March 18, 2006, Billy West wrote on his message board that Futurama would return in 26 episodes for television and that the plan for four Futurama DVD movies, which he previously wrote about, is either delayed or dropped.
And the other good news is that they're doing 26 new episodes of Futurama for TV and we're hammering out the deal now. The original plan was to have the DVDs first but that's no longer the case.
On the next day he retracted his earlier statement with a post on his message board.
I'm sorry I gave inaccurate info on the cartoon. I was told on one end that the TV show was a go but DXC enlightened me (with a hammer) that this was not the case. I think there is a Futurama project as in DVDs but I appearently had bad info. But I do live to give good Futurama news to people. So I must've died or something.
- April 26, 2006, the weekly newspaper The Onion published an interview with Futurama creator Matt Groening. Referring to the rumoured Futurama movies, Groening remarked:
We're going to do four of them, straight to DVD. And as we speak, I'm exchanging e-mails and ideas with David X. Cohen and Ken Keeler, both of whom worked on the show from the very beginning. Right now we're trying to figure out whether to do a giant epic, or separate crazy movies, or what. But I wager that Bender will be featured prominently.
- May 8, 2006, CNN.com reported that a Futurama return was probable. [6] However, Fox's "upfront" presentation for the 2006-07 season made no mention of the show.
- June 20, 2006, Katey Sagal, as a guest on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, stated that Futurama is very likely to return for either 13 or 16 new episodes on Comedy Central, in addition to the DVD movies. She also stated that she had already signed the contract to do voice work in Futurama.
- Also, on Adult Swim, it was announced that Billy West spoke of 3 straight-to-DVD episodes of Futurama which would begin production during the Summer of 2006, hopefully arriving Fall of 2006.
- June 22, 2006, Comedy Central officially announced that they have ordered 13 new episodes of the series. Billy West, Katey Segal and John DiMaggio are confirmed to return for the new run slated to air in 2008.[1] David Bernath, senior VP for programming at the cable network, stated:
We are thrilled that Matt Groening and 20th Century Fox Television have decided to produce new episodes of 'Futurama' and that Comedy Central will be the first to air them. There is a deep and passionate fan base for this intelligent and very funny show that matches perfectly with our audience and it is great that we can offer them not just the existing library, but something they've never seen as well.
See also
- References to Star Trek in Futurama
- Futurama Comics
- Blernsball
- Futurama (video game)
- List of Futurama episodes
References
- ^ a b c Wallenstein, Andrew (June 22, 2006). ""Futurama" gets new life on Comedy Central". Reuters. Retrieved 2006-06-22.
- ^ "Omniglot". Retrieved 2006-06-11.
- ^ "Can't get enough Futurama - "Remember Me after my Death!"". Retrieved 2006-06-12.
- ^ Dempsey, John (October 27, 2005). ""Futurama" in Comedy's future via big deal". Variety. Retrieved 2005-10-27.
- ^ Schneider, Michael (January 3, 2006). ""Futurama" may get a new lease on life". Variety. Retrieved 2006-05-19.
- ^ "TV rumors: ER moving, Futurama returning". CNN. May 8, 2006. Retrieved 2006-05-19.
External links
- Futurama at IMDb
- Futurama fan sites at Curlie
- Can't Get Enough Futurama - Major fan site
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