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Animated version of the opening sequence
Futurama is an American animated television series created by Matt Groening (creator of The Simpsons) and David X. Cohen (also a writer for The Simpsons). Set in "New New York City" in the 31st century, it was introduced on the Fox Network and received airplay between March 28, 1999 and August 10, 2003. It is currently in syndication on the Adult Swim segment of Cartoon Network in the United States, on Teletoon in Canada, on Channel 4, Sky One, Sky Two and Sky Three in the UK, and on Fox8 and Network Ten in Australia (previously aired on the Seven Network).
The series begins with Philip J. Fry, a New York City slacker and pizza delivery man, who is cryogenically frozen by accident on New Year's Eve, 1999. He is defrosted one thousand years later on New Years Eve, 2999 and finds himself in New New York City. Fry thinks he has a chance at a new life, only to get himself permanently assigned a career as a delivery boy. Fry's attempts to escape from his now-mandatory job assignment end at Planet Express, a small intergalactic package delivery company run by his distantly descended nephew, where he is hired on as a delivery boy. The series covers the adventures of Fry and his colleagues as they travel around the universe making deliveries on behalf of Planet Express.
The futuristic time frame allowed the show's writers to be creative with their humor by introducing ideas and events from pulp science fiction of the mid 20th century into the series.
Characters and plot
Futurama centers around seven main characters who work for Planet Express, as well as several secondary characters.
Characters
- Philip J. Fry a.k.a. Fry (Billy West) - Fry is a pizza delivery boy, cryogenically frozen at the beginning of the New Year, 2000 and revived just in time to usher in the year 3000. He seeks out his closest living relative, Professor Farnsworth, who employs Fry as a delivery boy at Planet Express. Much of the show revolves around Fry's attempts to adapt to the 31st century and his interaction with his friends, the rest of the staff of Planet Express.
- Turanga Leela a.k.a. Leela (Katey Sagal) - Leela is the captain of Planet Express's ship and usually the most disciplined member of the Planet Express crew. Orphaned at birth, she grew up believing that she was an alien of an unknown race, but is revealed later in the show to be the child of outcast sewer mutants who left her at a minimum security orphanarium to give her a better life. She spends much of her time rejecting Fry's attempts to win her heart, although numerous hints were given that she would eventually give in.
- Bender Bending Rodriguez a.k.a. Bender (John DiMaggio) - Bender is a foul-mouthed, drinking, smoking, shoplifting, kleptomaniac, misanthropic robot built in "America's heartland": Tijuana, Mexico. Built to bend girders, he abandoned his job while he was helping Fry to escape. His antenna made contact with an electric circuit and altered his programming.
- Professor Hubert Farnsworth (Billy West) - Farnsworth is Fry's great-great-...-great grand-nephew who started Planet Express to fund his mad scientist-like experiments and inventions. In his 160s, he wears comically thick glasses, has bad posture, and frequently forgets to whom or about what he is talking. His catchphrase of "Good news, everyone!" is usually followed by horrible news. He also had the catchphrase "but I am already in my pajamas" in the first few episodes, but this was abandoned.
- Dr. John Zoidberg a.k.a. Zoidberg (Billy West) - Zoidberg is a lobster-like alien with questionable eating habits from Decapod 10 and the staff doctor of Planet Express. Although a self-proclaimed expert on humans, he constantly provides incompetent medical care and mistakes Fry for a woman when they first meet.
- Hermes Conrad (Phil LaMarr) - Hermes is the Jamaican manager of Planet Express. An ex-olympic limboer and a bureaucrat and proud of it, he is a workaholic and a stickler for doing everything according to regulations, especially if it involves paperwork and filing, or if it involves a requisition to a beat.
- Amy Wong (Lauren Tom) - Amy is an intern at Planet Express, and the Professor keeps her around since she has the same blood type as him. She is also heir to half of Mars, constantly pestered by her parents about their lack of grandchildren. She is clumsy and prone to overusing 31st century slang (ex. "Splah"). She was born on Mars, but she is ethnically Chinese, and curses in Cantonese at various points during the episodes.
Planet Express
Planet Express is a delivery company held by Professor Farnsworth to fund his "research" and "inventions."
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, while another was stung to death by a swarm of gigantic bees.
The Planet Express ship is helmed by Leela, with Bender serving as cook and Fry as delivery boy. Amy and Dr. Zoidberg accompany the crew as needed. The ship is equipped with an autopilot and a shipboard artificial intelligence. In addition, the ship is armed with dual laser cannons and a torpedo launcher featured in Roswell That Ends Well when the ship assaulted the army base in Roswell, New Mexico. Nearly every mission that the Professor assigns his crew is unusually dangerous.
Setting
Fry's first glimpse of New New York City after being defrosted.
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, problems such as global warming (although this was revealed to be canceled out by a nuclear winter), inflexible bureaucracy, and substance abuse are still pressing issues. This is probably due to human civilization being wiped out and replaced twice while Fry was in stasis, 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, and robots. A common clash between the former two is alien immigration plaguing Earth. 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 obliterations of Earth 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 surly (with the exception of the sycophantic super-efficient Robot 1-X), and often unwilling to assist their human creators. Almost all robots are fueled by alcohol based substances, leading to widespread enviromental pollution. Robots are treated as independent beings - indeed only twice in the series are robots referred to as property (in The Route of All Evil Cubert refers to Bender as "company property," and in The 30% Iron Chef the Professor shouts "That's my robot! I own him!"). In fact, over the years robots have devolped their own culture, with publications, music and religon (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. Among the robots, spaceships, and floating buildings, Professor Farnsworth introduced many memorable new inventions such as the Smell-o-scope, the What-if Machine, and the Finglonger. Less inspiring 31st century innovations include coin-operated Suicide Booths (said in the show to have been in business since 2008) Soylent Cola (the taste "varies from person to person"), and Slurm, the highly addictive green ooze secreted by a termite-esque Queen (revealed in Fry and the Slurm Factory). Slurm is advertised at every opportunity on Futurama, whether in conventional television adverts, or on giant blimps flying past in the background.
Large companies hold a massive amount of power in the year 3000, in particular Mom's Friendly Robot Company, which builds and controls almost every robot on earth. Advertising is everywhere, and people often buy products not knowing or caring what goes into them or who manafactures them - for example, the unrestrained human consumption of "Popplers" which turned out to be alien young.
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. Los Angeles has become a wasteland, Fry mistaking it for New New York in the year 4000 after believing he had been cryogenically frozen for a further 1000 years. Atlanta, after being moved to sea, sinks due to overdevelopment and becomes a "lost city" (a parody of the story of Atlantis); its residents evolve (with the help of Coca-Cola's caffeine) into mermaids. 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.
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 ("Could you pick me up a license to kill?" "Sure. Bare hands or weapons?" "Hm. What does piano wire count as?"). 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
Fry and Bender having a drink. The
Slurm poster in the background features "Alien Language 1," which reads "drink" when translated.
Futurama's universe also makes several bold predictions about the future of linguistics. In A Clone of My Own (and Space Pilot 3000), it is implied that French is now a dead language, and that the official language spoken by the French will then be English (in the French version of Futurama, German is substituted for French as the dead language).
English itself has also evolved from today, but still remains comprehensible. These changes include the disuse of the word Christmas in favor of Xmas (with the X pronounced, as in "ex-mas") and the pronunciation of ask metathesizing as "aks". Ironically, "aks" represents an earlier Saxon pronunciation of the word, with the modern "ask" an innovation, so the 31st century sees the word coming full circle.
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 (officially an ancient alien language predating the universe). They often provide additional jokes for fans dedicated enough to decode the messages.
Galactic politics
Earth's flag, "Old Freebie," being presented on Freedom Day.
Richard Nixon's head is just visible on the podium in front of the flag.
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 America's influence on world politics today. Apparently, Earth is 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 Major Webelos Zapp Brannigan, a conceited, self-absorbed, trouserless individual who makes regular appearances throughout the series.
Earth has a unified government called the United States of Earth headed by a single President of Earth. It seems that various sub-states may have prime ministers and similar leaders, much like the current American system of governors. This world government seems to be quite US-centric as Earth's capital is Washington, D.C. and the flag of Earth looks like the Flag of the United States, but with an image of the Earth (with the U.S. visible) where the stars are today. Citizens of Earth are called Earthicans.
The organization of political parties in Futurama is similar to the American two-party system with a number of third parties. The two main parties are the Tastycrats and the Fingerlicans, whose names sound similar to the current American parties, the Democrats and Republicans.
Despite having been elected President of the United States twice, the head of Richard Nixon is elected President of Earth by exploiting the fact that his old body is not being elected, and Earthican law only stipulates that no body can be elected more than twice. Nixon buys Bender's robotic body from a pawn shop to serve as his new body. After the Planet Express crew manages to retrieve it, Nixon's head is mounted on a gargantuan, weaponized cyborg body, helping to sway the robot vote. At times, Nixon's head is carried 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 tubbing parties, and by dancing and chanting, "Freedom, freedom, freedom, oy!"
Mars has been terraformed to a great degree (it is now the home of many wealthy socialites), and is home to Mars University. The Western Hemisphere of the planet is currently owned by the Wongs, parents of Planet Express intern Amy Wong.
Earth's moon is still mostly unsettled with the exception of some farms, but houses an amusement park (heavily parodying Disney theme parks even to the motto: "The Happiest Place Orbiting Earth"), and is the sole tourist attraction. Citizens of the 31st century have lost all knowledge of the lunar landing, mistaking Ralph Kramden of The Honeymooners for a typical 20th century astronaut due to his common phrase, "One of these days, Alice. Bang! Zoom! Straight to the moon!"
For a full list of planets in Futurama, see the list of planets in Futurama
DOOP and intergalactic relations
The Democratic Order Of Planets (DOOP) was founded in 2945 after the Second Galactic War (a parallel to the United Nations' founding in 1945 after World War II). This organization, described by Prof. Farnsworth and Hermes as being "similar to the United Nations... or like the 'Federation' from your Star Trek program", includes Earth and many other worlds. Earth sometimes acts unilaterally without the aid of other DOOP members. The inhabitants of Omicron Persei VIII are frequently engaged in conflicts with DOOP. The DOOP symbol has rotational symmetry.
Despite the existence of DOOP, interplanetary relations are poor, with constant wars and invasions, often poorly planned and fought for foolish and unnecessary reasons.
The series featured a bitter conflict between Earth and Spheron 1, a planet inhabited by giant, bouncing balls. 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.
There is also at least one rogue colony of robots that kills humans on sight (this being Chapek 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. The universe ends after Dog Doo 7. At the edge of the universe, one can witness the alternate cowboy universe. It is unknown if it's possible to travel between these universes freely.
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). The war recently made its final end when the Nibblonians used Fry to sneak a bomb into the Brainspawn's main base that would seal them into a pocket dimension prison.
Religion
The logo of the First Amalgamated Church, featuring symbols of several present-day religions.
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) and based upon a platform of discouraging love 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.).
Some of today's holidays still exist, but with slightly different mascots. Christmas, now Xmas (pronounced "Ex-miss"), is celebrated with the fear of a giant robotic Santa Claus, who is located on 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 everybody naughty (except for Dr. Zoidberg), and attempts to punish them on Christmas Eve with an excruciating death if they are caught outdoors after sun-down. 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 a robot becoming a "Bot Mitzvah". 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 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. 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.
Gender and sexual norms
In many regards, the series takes a "Playboy feminism" view on gender and sexual norms, not unlike the Star Trek television franchise. While the series never address the legal or ethical status of birth control or abortion, 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 its 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 warhero 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 husbands - booing from the gallery seems to indicate that polygamy and/or homosexuality continue to be relatively unpopular. Likewise 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 or suspected of as 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 flamboyent mannerisms. While not gay, Bender cross-dressed in one episode for a professional wrestling career and temporary had a sex change operation in order to compete in the female Olympics. A deleted scene, available on DVD, established that two of the amazon 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".
In terms of gender, while some measure of male bravado sexism does seems 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 "women-hating men" in the episode titled, "Amazon Women in the Mood", Zapp Brannigan's sexism and general stupidity was a running gag throughout the series.
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, 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 (Doohan's Star Trek character, Scotty, is mentioned in the episode by the other cast members as having been replaced by a character named "Welshie" for reunion specials in the 21st Century; in true Star Trek fashion, Welshie is killed by an alien force, as was the long-spoofed custom to kill the "Red-shirt" crew members.)
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 (who 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).
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 (recorded months after the episode was taped, after the show's cancellation), aptly enough, was "Please don't stop playing, Fry - I want to hear how it ends."
Since Futurama's cancellation, Matt Groening's The Simpsons series has made several references to Futurama:
- Fraudcast News: The high squeaky voice 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.
- In more than one episode of The Simpsons, Bender appears as a cardboard cut-out in the window of the comic book store.
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" 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 the Family Guy movie. 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
Futurama now appears in syndication on many networks. They are as follows:
- In the United States on:
- Cartoon Network - On October 28, 2005, Comedy Central announced that it had signed a multi-year deal to broadcast the series, paying a reported $400,000 each for all 72 episodes, presumably beginning when Cartoon Network's broadcast rights end in 2007.
- TBS Superstation
- In Australia on:
- Fox 8
- Network Ten - Only picking it up in 2005 several years after the Seven Network, who first had the rights to broadcast, stopped showing the series due to ratings issues.
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 23 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 28 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. See Futurama Comics for more details.
Season details and references
- Main article: List of Futurama episodes
Note: 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 Region 2 are entitled "Season" rather than "Volume".
Credits gags
Opening credits
An opening caption sample
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", "Dancing Space Potatoes? You Bet!", "Condemned by the Space Pope", "Krafted With Wuv (By Monsters)" 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 [1]. 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 one episode Leela flies into 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.
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, 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 spotlights surrounding it are used to blind pilots, so that the resulting plane crash can be filmed.
Possible revival
Even though there were no official words on the revival of the show, there have been rumors of it since the news broke that Family Guy was being revived. On 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 [...]
In July 2005, Billy West seemed to have confirmed a "straight to DVD" Futurama movie on a video blog. Several months later, 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 possiblity of the show's return and a straight-to-DVD movie. 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 [2]. In 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 [3].
On 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.
On 16th February 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.
On March 18, 2006, Billy West wrote on his messageboard 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 messageboard.
- "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 DVD's but I appearently had bad info.But I do live to give good Futurama news to people.So I must've died or something."
There has been no official word from Fox about a return of Futurama.
There are two petitions for the shows return one with just over 10,000 names[4] and another with over 150,000[5]. Such petitions rarely have any effect on network decisions and the numbers are often artificially inflated but they do demonstrate the strong fan reaction to the show's cancelling.
See also
External links
Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:
- Major Fan-Sites (this is not a complete fansite listing; only a short listing of sites with useful information unavailable elsewhere.)
