Top 25 Episodes of the Original Run Pt. III

Previously on Century 31:

1. Fry was brainwashed into believing he was a robot and would eventually rescue the crew from a hostage situation.

2. A new bureaucrat ran operations at Planet Express while Hermes worked through an identity crisis at the forced labor camp on Spa 5, the sauna planet. Everyone's favorite Jamaican bureaucrat would organize the master in-pile and recover Bender's downloaded brain during an entertaining emergency sort-and-file.

3. A strange miracle cream that Dr. Zoidberg purchased from a travelling salesman gave two of the crew members superpowers when administered. With Bender, they would go on to form a crimefighting trio and, when Leela's parents were taken captive, a crime-committing trio in order to make the save.

4. The crew found themselves stranded on a planet inhabited by gigantic Amazonian women and a full-fledged battle of the sexes was launched. The men (excluding Bender and later Kif) found themselves on the receiving end of an interesting method of torture/death...and were, uh, "rescued" at the last minute.

5. The crew won an all-access tour of the Slurm factory on the planet Wormulon and discovered the seedy underbelly of exactly how the highly addictive beverage was manufactured (Rest in peace, Slurms MacKenzie...)

And now, without further ado Century 31 presents The Top 25 Episodes of the Original Run, Part III-#15-11.

15. (1ACV09)-HELL IS OTHER ROBOTS
Original Airdate: May 18, 1999
Writer: Eric Kaplan

Frequently regarded by fans as a favorite from the first season, Hell is Other Robots is a time-tested favorite and still ranks among the 15 best from the original run. The show opens with a Beastie Boys concert at Madison Cube Garden (The Beastie Boys actually cameo as themselves...well, two of them anyway. Adam "King Ad-Rock" Horovitz made an appearance voicing both himself and fellow Beastie Adam "MCA" Yauch). The set at the concert included a performance of "Intergalactic" (surprise, it's a show spoofing Science Fiction) and an acapella version of "Sabotage", a stroke of comedic genius that helps the episode endure today.

Following the concert, Bender meets up with an old friend and the two go to a run-down dive to partake in a new hallucinogenic trend called "jacking on", where robots essentially mainline electric currents. After developing an addiction that sees him endanger the crew and siphon electricity from the neon sign at the Temple of Robotology (his rock bottom), Bender seeks religion from the same temple and its mass leader, Reverend Lionel Preacherbot, swearing off all carnal deviations in the process.

The new pious Bender starts to wear on the crew and their attempts to bring out the sleaze in their friend lands him in the grips of the Robot Devil and Robot Hell (as it happens, Robot Hell is in New Jersey-go figure...) After being tormented by up-tempo singing and dancing (and being placed on the line in a critical fiddle contest...), Bender is eventually wrestled away from the Robot Devil by our heroes, at which point he vows never to be too good or too evil again, just to be himself. To see a clip from this episode, click on the above title link.


14. (3ACV07)-THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STUPID
Original Airdate: February 18, 2001
Writer(s): Dr. Jeff Westbrook (story and teleplay) and David X. Cohen (story)

Fry is the most intelligent being on the planet. A frightening (and in any other instance, unlikely) prospect, no? As it happens, an ancient race called the Brain Spawn has gone on a spree destroying a string planets with their stupefaction rays (they're like flying televisions, as Leela later observes) and Earth is next on their agenda. The Brains successfully attack Earth instantly making all inhabitants incomprehensibly stupid, yet somehow Fry is unaffected. Leela's pet Nibbler escapes the planet with no time to lose, taking Leela with him to his home planet. Once there, we find that Nibbler is a member of an another ancient race that has waged unceasing war against the Brain Spawn since the beginning of time.

The Nibblonians explain that Fry is unaffected because he lacks the Delta Brain Wave, an aspect of the mind that the Brain Spawn are manipulating to stupify their victims. So somehow, with an inferior brain, Fry has managed to elude the Spawn, making him of superior mind in this one instance. It's up to Fry to outsmart the Brain Spawn by battling the Big Brain at the Public Library (where else would a giant "brain" be?) through a series of classic literature and banish the Brain Spawn from the planet.

The episode tells a great story and introduces us to a perennial favorite tertiary character, The Hypnotoad (OBEY OR ELSE) and the final line uttered by the Big Brain in Fry's twisted world of plot holes and spelling errors? Classic. Click on the title link above to see the scene I'm referring to.

13. (3ACV09)-THE CYBER HOUSE RULES

Original Airdate: April 1, 2001

Writer: Lewis Morton

Let me count the ways in which this episode "rules", so to speak:

1. A reunion at Leela's old orphanarium gives another chance to look in on the decrepit, yet humorous conditions that the orphans have contended with for years.

2. Bender adopts 12 of said orphans for the benefit of goverment stipends.

3. Tom Kenny's portrayal of Dr. Adlai Atkins is so white bread that it actually becomes hilarious.

4. To avoid being stigmatized as a cyclops, Leela undergoes surgery to get a second eye (it doesn't function, but she looks "normal" for once). A true friend, Fry is the only one his disapproves of the corrective surgery.

5. The episode itself won an award for "Positive Portrayal of the Handicapped".

What more do you want from an episode? Click on the title link above to see a scene from this one.

12. (1ACV01)-SPACE PILOT 3000

Original Airdate: March 28, 1999

Writer(s): Matt Groening (his only writing credit of the original run) and David X. Cohen

Every great show has to start somewhere. Not only did this episode lay the ground work for what the show has become and its enormous following (surpassing 10 million fans on Facebook and being brought back from the brink twice by DVD sales, rerun views, and fan petitions), but the smart brand of comedy was evident right from the beginning. Bender makes the observation that the Head Museum is free on Tuesdays (someone did their research, as it happens, December 31, 2999 IS a Tuesday).

Want further proof that this series was off to something special? Mr. Spock himself, Leonard Nimoy cast his vote of confidence by making a cameo as himself in the pilot. Welcome to the World of Tomorrow! To view a clip from the epic first episode click the title link above.

11. (4ACV04)-LOVE AND ROCKET

Original Airdate: February 10, 2002

Writer: Dan Vebber

There were enough references to 2001: A Space Odyssey in this episode to satiate any nerd's appetite. But in true Futurama fashion, the references only made the episode's humor level jump that much higher. Tasked with delivering candy hearts across the galaxy (we find that the secret recipe is bone meal and earwig honey...probably), the crew finds themselves caught in the midst of a romantic saga between Bender and the Planet Express Ship (voiced by Sigourney Weaver of Alien, and now Avatar fame).

Bender chooses the inopportune time of a battle with the Omicronians, who have a hair-trigger for war (this time it was over the concept of "Wuv", click the link above to see what I'm talking about) to tell the ship that their relationship is over. Naturally, this sends the ship into a psychotic spiral where she threatens to destroy the crew by plunging into a quasar and compressing them to a quantum singularity. While attempting to shut down the ship's control panel, Fry notices that Leela's oxygen tank is emptying rather quickly (the ship had previously shut off the oxygen to the ship). In an act of selfless heroism, Fry redirects his oxygen into her tank and the relationship angle advances a little further. Just an excellent episode all around. A must-watch episode for any Futurama shipper (a fan who finds themselves rooting for Fry and Leela as a couple).

Next time, we'll break into the Top 10 Episodes of the Original Run. Don't Miss It!

Until Next Time Futuramists!

Photo Credit to The Infosphere and Google Images.

Top 25 Episodes of the Original Run (Pt. II)

Previously on Century 31, I introduced the list for my top 25 episodes of Futurama's original run from 1999-2003. Here's a list of things that ensued:

1. Al Gore attempted to save and Fry effectively destroyed the universe.

2. Zapp Brannigan went to war with a planet he knows nothing about (by the way, the military surgeon sounds A LOT like Hawkeye Pierce from M*A*S*H)

3. The Professor's What-If Machine took us on a tour of Bender as a Human, the world as a large-scale video arcade, and the Wonderful World of Oz...through the eyes of our crew, that is.

4. Fry traveled through time as the combined result of a collapsed supernova and placing metal in the ship's microwave (entirely his fault) and despite his best efforts, killed his own grandfather and became his own grandfather as a way of correcting the disruption of causality.

5. Bender went on tour with Beck and staged a benefit concert for broken robots, only to go from disabled to able-bodied against his will, which morphed an honest gesture into yet another Bender-contrived scam.

Now that that's out of the way, I now present part II-episodes 20-16


20. (3ACV11)-INSANE IN THE MAINFRAME
Original Airdate: April 8, 2001

After being framed by at the bank by Roberto (David Herman), a sociopathic robot and an old friend of Bender's (go figure), Bender and Fry are sent to a robot insane asylum (the asylum for humans has been full ever since the judge ruled that being poor was a mental illness...) Fry initially tries to convince officials at the asylum that they've made a mistake and admitted a human to the robot asylum, but he is roundly ignored. As a defense mechanism to the fear of being paired with a later incarcerated Roberto as his roommate, Fry hypnotizes himself into believing that he's legitimately a robot.

This serves as a major inconvenience to the rest of the crew after Fry is released from the asylum and deemed "cured". That is until Bender and Roberto escape from the asylum and the law by taking shelter at Planet Express. Once there, Roberto takes the entire crew hostage. Meanwhile Fry, still thinking he's a robot, rises to confront Roberto and suffers a nasty gash in his arm during the face-off. However, since Fry is a "robot", he is impervious to the blow and successfully averts the hostage situation and dispatches Roberto to the authorities.

When it comes to secondary and tertiary characters, first impressions are everything. A good first performance by a new character can lead to additional cameos in later episodes. This episode made the character of Roberto a home run with fans of the show. Click the title link to see a scene from this episode.


19. (2ACV11)-HOW HERMES REQUISITIONED HIS GROOVE BACK
Original Airdate: April 2, 2000

When it comes to writing original songs in an unusual meter and rhythm for a very brief time window in a 22-minute episode, there may be none better than Futurama writer and Co-Executive Producer Ken Keeler. Don't believe me? Just click on the title link for this episode and prepare to be wowed. Keeler has written musical numbers for a slew of episodes in the series original run, including "The Bureaucrat's Song" (heard above), "The Elves have rescued Xmas Day" (In episode 3ACV03-"A Tale of Two Santas") and "Leela: Orphan of the Stars/I Want My Hands Back" (from the original series finale, episode 4ACV18-"The Devil's Hands are Idle Playthings").

In this particular episode Hermes, the crew's Jamaican bureaucrat Grade 36 is placed on paid vacation )the ultimate penalty...) when his trashed office fails to pass inspection (another direct result of a Bender-related scam gone awry). In his place steps Morgan Proctor (Nora Dunn), a bureacrat Grade 19 who is immediately smitten with Fry upon discovering his slobbish manner (she's surrounded by neat freaks all day at the Central Bureaucracy).

The crew becomes suspicious when Fry starts receiving a number of benefits at work and as Bender discovers the truth, Proctor downloads his brain onto a disk and sends it to Central Filing to prevent him from spilling the secret. The crew then goes on a mission to recover his brain from the Central Bureaucracy and red-tape hilarity (hilarity?) ensues. With the help of Dr. Zoidberg, Hermes, who returns from vacation at what turns out to be a forced labor camp and assists the crew in recovering Bender's brain. Proctor is dismissed by the head bureaucrat after discovering she only stamped an important document four times when she should have stamped it five times to make the document official (see? red-tape hilarity...)


18. (4ACV04)-LESS THAN HERO
Original Airdate: March 2, 2003

C'mon, who doesn't love a good superhero story? (well, assuming that the franchise isn't pushed to a fourth or fifth sequel...)

After constructing a Super Collider bought from Pi-KEA (complete with six missing pieces), exhausted Fry and Leela visit Dr. Zoidberg, who supplies them with "genuine" miracle cream that he purchased from a travelling salesman (clearly our staff physician was duped).

After treating their sore joints, the duo is mugged while returning the super collider (it exploded mere minutes after construction), and discover that they're not only unfazed by his attempted assault, but are equipped with abilities that defy physical norms. Back at Planet Express, the two find the disclaimer on the back of the "miracle cream" that warns that super powers may occur in humans.

Soon after, Bender swindles his way into making the group a crimefighting trio. The three soon find themselves in the employ of the mayor, and fending off the cities greatest threats, most notably the Zookeeper, who attacks aided by a pack of highly trained animals.

After Leela uncharacteristically blows their cover to her parents (SPOILER ALERT: stay tuned for episodes 10-6), the Zookeeper pursues bigger game and abducts them as collateral to coerce the superheroes into recovering the Museum of Natural History's greatest artifact, which he was thwarted from taking in an earlier theft. The heroes are forced to commit the theft without the aid of the "miracle cream", whose supply had since been depleted and turn over the artifact to recover Leela's parents in rather anticlimactic (but hilarious) fashion. To see the uneventful exchange, click the title link above.

17. (3ACV01)-AMAZON WOMEN IN THE MOOD
Original Airdate: February 4, 2001

In what may be Zapp Brannigan's finest comedic performance in the series, The Commander/General/Captain/etc. counsels his Lieutenant Kif Kroker after Kif professes his love for Amy, the Planet Express resident engineering student. After Brannigan discovers that Amy has a business connection to Leela, he arranges a double date at Le Palm D'Orbit a ritzy orbiting restaurant.

Brannigan guides Kif into a flurry of social faux pas that sours the atmosphere and ultimately crashes the restaurant into an unfamiliar planet while attempting to fly home. After giving away their position, Zapp and the others are soon imprisoned by the planets inhabitants, a species of enormous Amazonian women.

Fry and Bender attempt a rescue, but are later imprisoned themselves. The battle lines are drawn for a battle of the sexes as the imprisoned men are given the tour of the planet, casting chauvinist barbs at the Amazonian women's basketball team, among others.

The Amazonians reveal that they're being commanded by a "Femputer" (voiced by the late Bea Arthur), who is displeased with the men's presence on her planet. After learning of their sexist indiscretions, Femputer sentences them to an unusual method of death (click title link above for more). It's up to Bender to distract Femputer and enable the women to free the men. This episode is widely considered by the Futurama fan base to be among the funniest episodes of the original run.

16. (1ACV13)-FRY AND THE SLURM FACTORY
Original Airdate: November 14, 1999

One part Soylent Green, One part a certain classic Gene Wilder family movie about factories, and 100 percent Futurama, This was one of the first season's early indicators that this show was in for a hugely loyal fan following. Fry succumbs to a highly addictive beverage called Slurm (origins and secrets unknown, but soon to be revealed) and goes on a mission with Bender to find a golden bottle cap hidden in a select can of Slurm (is the premise beginning to sound familiar yet?) After accidentally swallowing the bottle cap, Fry claims his prize, an all-access tour of the Slurm bottling plant on the planet Wormulon. Only it's not quite as all-access as it seems on the surface.

Upon further examination, the crew discovers the hideous underbelly of the factory, finding that the secret ingredient of Slurm is in fact waste product from an intergalactic space slug. Don't say you weren't warned...

The episode appeals to all demographics, there's enough gross-out humor to please the kids, there's enough smart humor to merit an appearance on the list. Eleven, nearly twelve years later, the early episodes such as this one still stand up very well against some of the newer episodes of today's so-called "top-rated" television programs.

Stay tuned, episodes 15-11 are next on the block. Rankings to come soon...

Top 25 Episodes of the Original Run (Pt. I)

Speaking as a Futurama fan, it will likely take some time before I can truly step back and analyze the newer episodes based on how they rank in comparison with the original 72 episodes that ran from 1999-2003.

Analyzing the four movies released from November 2007 to February 2009 is another battle. Do I rank them based on the movie as a whole or do I rank each of the four episodes from each movie on an individual scale?

In the meantime, while I sort this mess out, allow me to present to you my personal ranked list of the 25 Best episodes of Futurama's original run.

Will there be disagreements? Other opinions? Will someone supply their input into why they think a particular episode is better or worse than the other? or will someone inevitably complain that their favorite didn't make the list? I'm counting on it. I'm presenting this list in five installments, so here's Numbers 25-21:


25. (2ACV16)-ANTHOLOGY OF INTEREST I:
Original Airdate: May 21, 2000

Following the format set in place by The Simpsons' Treehouse of Horror episodes, Futurama initiated The Anthology of Interest Series with three humorous stories, each individually centered around one of the show's three primary characters. The Professor has invented a "What-If" machine that will field any "what if" theoretical question that is presented to it.

In this episode, we find out what would transpire were Bender to be 500 feet tall and we discover that if Leela was slightly more impulsive, she'd be apt to go on a killing spree at the crew's expense. Both amusing non-canon anecdotes, but it's the third story that most fans tend to recognize. Fry asks the machine what would happen had he not fallen into the cryogenic tube and arrived in the 31st century. Aside from the fact that this episode is one of the series funniest anyhow, it has enough to get into my Top 25 on star power alone.

In the third skit, Fry discovers that had he not fallen into the tube, a rift would have opened in the space-time continuum, rupturing the fabric of causality and threatening the very universe. It's at this point that Al Gore (played by the then Vice President himself), and his crew of Vice Presidential Action Rangers, comprised of Professor Stephen Hawking (himself) Nichelle Nichols of Star Trek (herself) and every power-geek's dream, Dungeons and Dragons' creator Gary Gygax (himself) corner Fry, beat him senseless with tennis rackets and abduct him in an attempt to amend the rift. Due to Fry's shortsightedness, they fail and ultimately the universe is destroyed with Fry and the others left floating in limbo. They resolve to play Dungeons and Dragons until the end of time.

This episode laid the foundation for each to reprise their roles in later episodes. Professor Hawking and Nichols have both since made a second cameo and Al Gore has reprised his own role three times since. What makes this episode even more remarkable is that it was recorded during Vice President Gore's presidential campaign, and even in the most tense of times, the Vice President managed to put on a very amusing performance. Click the title link above to see a scene from this episode.


24. (2ACV18)-WAR IS THE H-WORD
Original Airdate: November 26, 2000

Any episode featuring Zapp Brannigan is immediately a candidate for this list. Put Zapp Brannigan in the middle of a war with an enemy he knows nothing about (he's invading for the sake of invading) and put Fry and Bender in his platoon after they unwittingly register for the military to get a discount on gum. Add drop dead impersonations of Henry Kissinger and Alan Alda (as Hawkeye Pierce of M*A*S*H) from voice actor Maurice LaMarche and you have a winning formula for the episode by all accounts. Click the title link above to see a scene from this episode.


23. (3ACV18)-ANTHOLOGY OF INTEREST II
Original Airdate: January 6, 2002

For synopsis, see ANTHOLOGY OF INTEREST I. This time around, Bender finds out what would happen if he were human, Fry turns the world into a large-scale video game, and Leela plays Dorothy in Matt Groening's favorite movie of all time, The Wizard of Oz. Groening confessed that he had The Wizard of Oz in mind when conceptualizing each characters role in his own show. Click the title link above to see a scene from this episode.


22. (3ACV19)-ROSWELL THAT ENDS WELL
Original Airdate: December 9, 2001

A supernova collapses and sends the crew through a time rift to Roswell, New Mexico in 1947. Despite his best efforts to keep him alive, Fry unwittingly steers his grandfather onto a bomb testing range and kills him. Through a disgusting, yet humorous twist of fate, Fry ends up meeting with his grandmother and in essence becomes his own grandfather. It won an Emmy, so I'm not the only one that thinks it deserves to be on this list. If that isn't enough to hook you, nothing will. Click the title link above for a scene from this episode.


21. (3ACV13)-BENDIN' IN THE WIND
Original Airdate: April 22, 2001

Bender + Beck + A benefit concert for broken robots + Bender as a broken robot + Bender realizing he's not actually broken + Trying to put on the concert anyhow to the factor of scamming broken robots out of $14,000 of charity money= Yet another Top 25 Episode. Beck put on a very humorous, self-deprecating performance in this episode. Click on the title link above to see a scene from this episode.

During the next blog post, I'll rehash Episodes 20-16. Stay Tuned...

Episodes to Look for This Summer

Most Futurama fans now know that when Futurama was renewed in June 2009, they were picked up for 26 brand new episodes, the first thirteen of which aired between June 24 and November 21 last year. The second half of the episode order was announced on February 3 to begin airing with the first episode of the new season, "The Silence of the Clamps" on June 23 at 10 p.m. on Comedy Central.

The following are the thirteen episodes that fans can look for this summer. The premise of select episodes have been described in minor detail, so fans can contemplate what to expect from these episodes for the next few months:

6ACV14-The Silence of the Clamps (Originally titled, "Bend on a Wire" airing June 23, 2011):

Bender witnesses a crime committed by the Robot Mafia and enters witness protection.

6ACV15-Mobius Dick (airdate unknown: Presumably either June 23 or June 30, 2011)

The crew encounters a dangerous four-dimensional space whale.

6ACV16-Law and Oracle

Fed up with his go-nowhere job, Fry joins the police force.

6ACV17-Benderama

The Professor invents a machine that takes in any object and creates two half-sized copies. Tasked with folding a series of sweaters replicated by the machine, Bender looks for a shortcut to lighten the workload and replicates himself using the machine. This very quickly gets out of hand and before long there are trillions of increasingly smaller copies of Bender creating further copies until they threaten to consume all matter on Earth.

6ACV18-The Tip of the Zoidberg

This functions as an origin episode. The fans will finally learn the secret of how Professor Farnsworth first met Dr. Zoidberg.

6ACV19-Ghost in the Machines

After Bender dies, his software takes on a ghostly existence.

6ACV20-Neutopia

The crew crash-lands on a planet where gender is unknown.

6ACV21-Yo Leela Leela

No episode description available, but the episode title is an obvious parody of Yo Gabba Gabba!

6ACV22-Fry am the Egg Man

No description available, episode title is a parody of the lyric "I am the egg man" in the Beatles' song "I Am the Walrus".

6ACV23-All the Presidents' Heads

The episode sees Fry licking George Washington's head and it sending him on a "trip" back to the Revolutionary War. Richard Nixon (voiced by Billy West) will also play a role. It is being speculated that the other crew members will also go on their own respective "trips" to other presidential eras.

6ACV24-Cold Warriors

This episode is being kept heavily under wraps. Only the episode's title and it's writer (Dan Vebber) have been announced. The title could be a reference to "Cold Warrior" a Cold War-era magazine that Fry's father was seen reading in Episode 3ACV04-"The Luck of the Fryrish".

6ACV25-Overclockwise

No description available.

6ACV26-Reincarnation (originally titled "Resurrection")

Season Finale, presumed to be the Series Finale (unless the information Katey Sagal relayed is true and the show has been picked up for another season). The show will follow their traditional "Anthology of Interest" three-minisode format and will re-envision the series in three different animation styles: Black and white Fleischer style (think Steamboat Willie), low-resolution video game style, and anime action style.

As with anticipated finales that came before, "The Devil's Hands are Idle Playthings" and "Into the Wild Green Yonder", Co-Executive Producer Ken Keeler has been tasked with writing this episode.

There you have it fans, let the speculation commence. Remember, the second half of Season 6 or 7 (depending on how you interpret it) begins Thursday, June 23 at 10 p.m. on Comedy Central

Credit to The Infosphere (http://theinfosphere.org/), The Futurama Point (http://slurmed.com/) and Can't Get Enough Futurama (http://www.gotfuturama.com/) for episode information.

It's Gonna be Fun on the Bun...In Space...

This news came across the wire on Thursday courtesy of Vulture at nymag.com by way of TLZ Futurama Madhouse (futurama-madhouse.net) and other related sites:

Futurama voice actress Katey Sagal told Vulture last weekend that Futurama has been ordered for another season again that would presumably begin in either Summer of Fall of 2012.

Sagal, who voices the show's lead heroine Leela, conceded, "I don't know if I'm supposed to say that yet. But it just did." Sagal's comments may have been a tad premature, but Vulture insiders insist that her comments are likely not far from the truth. Fans looking to read the entire brief can follow the link here.

In other new episode news, Vulture also reports that the second half of what Comedy Central is calling season 7 of the show (the first half airing last summer) is set to begin again with "The Silence of the Clamps" on Thursday, June 23 at 10 p.m. on Comedy Central.

The next blog post will feature a list of the remainder of Season 7's episodes as well as the premise for select episodes.

Welcome to the World of Tomorrow!

Good News Everyone!

I've arranged for my blog to be dedicated to Simpsons' creator, Matt Groening's second prime time creation, Futurama!

What's Futurama, you ask? Allow me to fill you in on twelve years of ups and downs in a matter of paragraphs...

On March 28, 1999, The FOX Network introduced the world to Futurama, a program created and produced on the heels of the huge commercial success of The Simpsons, by Groening and then-Simpsons writer David X. Cohen.

The show introduced us to Philip J. Fry (voiced by Billy West, who fields at least four major speaking roles on the show) a shiftless, 25-year-old pizza delivery boy, who unwittingly falls into a cryogenic freezer tube on New Year's Eve 1999 and wakes 1000 years later in 30th Century New New York (a city built on the ruins of the 20th century metropolis).

As Fry explores his new surroundings, he encounters Leela (Married With Children and Sons of Anarchy's Katey Sagal), a sexy, yet sensitive kickboxing mutant (initially presumed to be an alien) and Bender (John DiMaggio), an alcoholic, profane and sardonic robot programmed for the very purpose that his name implies.

Dissatisfied with his permanent future career assignment (and later finding out that Leela and Bender are equally dissatisfied with theirs), the trio encounter Fry's distant great nephew (several times removed), Professor Hubert J. Farnsworth (West); a rickety, quavering, 160-year-old crackpot known for both his scientific accomplishments as his batty demeanor. Farnsworth offers the three runaways positions with Planet Express, the intergalactic delivery crew he instituted to fund his scientific research. The series would continue to follow the misadventures of the entire Planet Express crew, rounded out by Hermes Conrad (Phil LaMarr), the fiscally responsible Jamaican Bureaucrat assigned to Planet Express, Amy Wong (Lauren Tom), the Professor's socially privileged Chinese Martian Engineering Student and Dr. John Zoidberg (West), a lobster-like alien with absolutely no knowledge of the human anatomy despite his position.

Other voice actors featured prominently on the show are MADTV's David Herman, Simpsons' voice actress Tress McNeille and occasional Simpsons' voice actor Maurice LaMarche, each of whom have been known to voice upwards of twelve different minor roles at a time.

The series continued during it's original run until August 10, 2003 when the FOX network neglected to order further episodes, halting the show's episode tally at 72. The reruns ran in syndication on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim until January of 2008, where the reruns were then sold to Comedy Central. Comedy Central then earned the rights to air the four direct to DVD movies ordered by 20th Century FOX.

The spike in DVD sales and increase in demand from the show's loyal fanbase drove Comedy Central to order 26 brand new episodes of the series in June 2009 that aired starting in June 2010. The second 13 episodes are scheduled to air beginning in Summer of 2011. Due to the overwhelming fan demand, Futurama became one of the latest in a very short list of shows that have been renewed following initial cancellation. Most of the writing staff from the show's initial run (which included no fewer than 3-4 Harvard graduates) have returned for the second run. Their intelligent humor and writing are another large contributing factor to the show's return to television.

Through this blog, I hope to relay my knowledge of this excellent show, spark debates/discussions, relay show-related headlines from other fan sites and produce personalized lists and rankings to open up the floor for discussions and disagreements among fans of the show.

Until the next post, Welcome to the World of Tomorrow!