Futurama

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sci-fi cartoon genius

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Futurama is an animated American cartoon 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 year 3000, it was introduced on the Fox Network and received airplay between March 28, 1999 and August 10, 2003.

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 December 31, 2999 and finds himself in New New York City. Fry's attempt to escape from his now-mandatory job assignment as a delivery boy ends when he is hired on at Planet Express, a small intergalactic package delivery company run by his distantly descended nephew. 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. As such, the show is as much a testament to the creativity of the writers as it is a story of Fry and his colleagues.

Planet Express is a delivery company held by Professor Farnsworth to fund his "research" and "inventions". It is revealed later in the series that Farnsworth thought of the company as a form of cheap labor, "like a family."

The Professor often makes passing references to the fact that many of his past crews have been brutally killed (Leela, as the new captain, is obliged to sign waivers making sure Planet Express will not be held accountable if she should die of "sonic diarrhea", among other things). The crew prior to Fry's arrival was said to have been devoured by a space wasp, although in the episode "The Sting", the crew is sent on the same mission that killed the last crew and finds the old Planet Express ship whose crew was killed by giant space bees while attempting to gather space honey.

The Planet Express ship is helmed by Leela as captain and pilot, Bender as cook, and Fry as delivery boy. Amy and Dr. Zoidberg join the crew as needed. Hermes oversees operations and human resources in the company. The ship has an autopilot and a shipboard artificial intelligence, which may be separate entities. Nearly every mission that the Professor gives to his crew is dangerous or quickly degenerates to a suicide mission.

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he 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, and problems such as global warming, inflexible bureaucracy, and substance abuse are still pressing issues.

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. A specific issue on Earth is the large population of 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.

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 Parabox. Less inspiring 31st century innovations include coin-operated Suicide Booths (said in the show to have been in business since 2008) and Soylent Cola (The taste "varies from person to person").

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 the year 4000 after believing he had been cryogenically frozen for a further 1000 years.

The suicide booths are not the only sign of a devaluing of human life, despite their popularity. Murder is discussed casually, as if there were little or no penalty for it. ("Where's Fry?" "Well, I didn't kill him. Professor?" "No, I've been busy!") 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 malaise to death and pain may be equal parts mockery of the reactionary trend of citing rising crime statistics as a symptom of human life using its value, the attitude of some to not take proper precautions or care of themselves because of the availability of medicines and operations, and the attitude of "If it didn't happen to me, I don't care" (such as Fry's happy declaration that his organ transplant came from a guy who liked to ride motorcycles).

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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 as the dead language rather than French).

English itself has also evolved from today; however, it still remains comprehensible. These changes include the disuse of the word Christmas in favor of Xmas (with the X pronounced) and the pronunciation of ask metathesizing to "aks". Ironically, "aks" represents an earlier 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.


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 Zapp Brannigan, a conceited, self-absorbed 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, DC and the flag of Earth looks like the Flag of the United States, but with an image of the Earth (with the US 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 of America 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 T. Agnew. At the end of Futurama's last episode, however, the Robot Devil drags Nixon's head back to Hell, so the status of his presidency is now in question.

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!".

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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 the Second World War). This organization, described by 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 8 are frequently engaged in conflicts with DOOP.

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 Čapek 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.

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 Fry to sneak a bomb into the Brainspawn's main base that would seal them into a pocket dimension prison.


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. Oprahism and Voodoo are now mainstream religions. (Waltermercadismo is also mentioned in the Latin American version.)

Some of today's holidays still exist, but with slightly different mascots. Christmas, now Xmas, 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 Co. 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 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 a very well built 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. (It is mentioned with no penalties, however, once by Hermes Conrad while describing the Democratic Order Of Planets, and again in the episode where the Planet Express crew uses the Internet.) 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.

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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 died 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, Sigourney Weaver, Lucy Liu, Pamela Anderson, and the Star Trek cast, in "Where No Fan Has Gone Before". (This episode did not include DeForest Kelley, by that time deceased, or James Doohan, who refused to appear; in a parody of the Brady Bunch Variety Hour, in which Jan was played by a different actress, his character was replaced by 'Welshy'.)

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. 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, aptly enough, was "Don't stop playing, Fry... I want to see how it ends". At the title screen of this episode, though, the words "See You On Some Other Channel" were shown.

Several television stations are currently airing the series in syndication. In the United States, Futurama can be seen on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim, usually playing adjacent to another (once) cancelled series, Family Guy. 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. In Britain, the series was picked up by Sky One shortly after its US premiere, and Channel 4 later acquired terrestrial broadcast rights.