Futurama 

Philip J. Fry, a pizza delivery boy, is accidentally frozen in 1999 and thawed out on New Year's Eve 2999.

Creators:

David X. Cohen, Matt Groening

Stars:

Billy West, John DiMaggio, Katey Sagal

Top Rated TV #244 | Won 6 Primetime Emmys. Another 24 wins & 56 nominations.

Cast

Series cast summary:
Billy West	...	Philip J. Fry / ... 124 episodes, 1999-2013
Katey Sagal	...	Turanga Leela / ... 124 episodes, 1999-2013
John DiMaggio	...	Bender / ... 124 episodes, 1999-2013
Tress MacNeille	...	Linda / ... 124 episodes, 1999-2013
Phil LaMarr	...	Hermes Conrad / ... 117 episodes, 1999-2013
Lauren Tom	...	Amy Wong / ... 115 episodes, 1999-2013
Maurice LaMarche	...	Morbo / ... 114 episodes, 1999-2013
David Herman	...	Scruffy / ... 107 episodes, 1999-2013

Storyline

Philip J. Fry is a twenty-five-year-old pizza delivery boy whose life is going nowhere. When he accidentally freezes himself on December 31, 1999, he wakes up one thousand years in the future, and has a chance to make a fresh start. He goes to work for the Planet Express Corporation, a futuristic delivery service that transports packages to all five quadrants of the universe. His companions include the delivery ship's Captain, Leela, a beautiful one-eyed female alien who kicks some serious butt, and Bender, a robot with very human flaws.

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Plot Keywords:

alien | robot | delivery boy | future | doctor | 

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Taglines:

1000 years in the making!

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Genres:

Animation | Comedy | Sci-Fi

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Certificate:

TV-14

Details

Official Sites:

Comedy Central [United States] Hulu

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

28 March 1999 (USA)

Also Known As:

Doomsville

Filming Locations:

New York City, New York, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

The Curiosity Company, 20th Century Fox Television, Fox Television Animation

Technical Specs

Runtime:

22 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Dolby Digital (seasons 6-)

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

In Greek mythology, Hermes was the messenger of the Gods. This makes the name appropriate for someone who works for a delivery company.

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Goofs

Leela's biological father is a mutant; one of his traits is that when he speaks his mouth appears to run vertically and open horizontally, whereas it is the opposite for a "normal" person. The problem with this is that he goes back to having a normal, human-looking mouth when not speaking.

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Quotes

Galaxy: When you do the right thing, people won't know if you've done anything at all.

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Crazy Credits

Occasionally, before the opening credit sequence begins, the show will be "sponsored" by a futuristic sponsor advertisement. For example, "Futurama is brought to you by Glagnar's Human Rinds." The show always begins with a parody of the "Transmitted in SAP" type of show disclaimers when the title "Futurama" appears. For example, "As Seen on TV" or "Present in BC (Brain Control) Where Available".

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Alternate Versions

The series was cancelled after season 5, but was revived several years later on a different network. First, the 4 direct-to-DVD movies that had been made following the cancellation were split into 4 episodes each and shown as 16 episodes forming season 6. The "season 6" listed here was shown as season 7, and the "season 7" listed here was shown as season 8. After that, in syndication and some streaming services like Netflix and Hulu, the split-up movies were still labelled as season 6, but the following 2 seasons were themselves split into 4 seasons of 13 episodes each, and called seasons 7 through 10. Each of the 4 parts split from a single movie had its own credits with unique features, such as the 1930s cartoon and the slogan at the end of the opening credits, were new and different for each episode.

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Connections

Referenced in Hewy's Animated Movie Reviews: Wreck It Ralph (2012)

User Reviews

All hail, the NEW king of animated series.

While the later episodes of The Simpson's have suffered, Futurama has matured, far more quickly than the Simpson's did, into a fantastic work of animation.

The similarities between the Simpson's are obvious and not to be ignored. A show as good as The Simpson's was is ripe for theft and Futurama, the brainchild of Matt Groening, borrows well from the former show. Bender is the Homer Simpson, devoid of responsibility, yet, as this lack of responsibility is placed in a robot, we do not have to feel anger at his wayward ways.

Leela is the far less annoying Marge. Less annoying for the simple facts. A) She has something resembling a personality, something that Marge definitely suffered from. and B) You can listen to her speak without wanting to kill yourself.

Fry however grounds the show with the emotional base that made the Simpson's great. A Pizza delivery boy from the 20th century transported forwards in time 1000 years into a world that he knows nothing about. While our imaginations might find it a little too easy coming to terms with the future and all the few new inventions that go with it (Perhaps a nod to how poor an inventor Farnsworth is that there seems nothing overly unusual about this future), we forgive this minor blip and embrace Groening new world vision.

As with The Simpson's, Groening has given us a host of superb background characters. Zoidberg the lobster Doctor, Amy daughter of money, Hermes the Jamaican limbo champion who keeps the business together and of course Zap Brannigan, the genius of lacklustre. All of these characters are easily the match of Chief Wiggum, Smithers, Krusty, Frink, etc.

Groening, clearly by taking the best writers from the Simpson's with him when he jumped ship, has done the impossible and found an animated series that is superior to the unsurpassable Simpson's. Groening's world is a good one. And so is his show.