Futurama (animated series)
Futurama was an animated American cartoon series (1999-2003), created by Matt Groening (creator of The Simpsons), set 1000 years in the future in New New York City. Set in the year 3000, it was introduced on the Fox Network (with a gag end credit of "30th Century Fox"). Futurama now appears in syndication every Mon. through Thurs. on Cartoon Network.
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2 Characters 3 Production 4 Non-broadcast production 5 Season details 6 External links |
The world of Futurama is a fairly cynical version of the future. Unlike past cartoons like The Jetsons, Futurama portrays a much less idealistic view. While the Jetsons showed an efficient, clean, happy future, Futurama's version of the year 3000 shows humans still dealing with many of the same basic problems of the 20th Century, albeit with a different spin.
Race issues in the year 3000 are now centered around Human/Alien relations, with problems such as alien immigration plaguing Earth. Although Earth is now populated by super-intelligent robots, their intelligence has made them lazy and surly, and often unwilling to assist their human creators. Earth's government (now united under a single President of Earth) remains corrupt, and very US-centric (Earth's capital is Washington, DC, the flag of Earth is the Planet Earth and Stripes, and its inhabitants are called Earthicans). Inter-planetary relations are poor, with constant wars and invasions, often poorly planned and fought for stupid reasons.
Despite this, Futurama's world also showcases numerous technological advantages that have been developed by the year 3000. Along with robots, spaceships, and floating buildings, the show also introduced many memorable inventions such as the "Smell-o-scope" and the "What if Machine" as well as less inspiring creations, like coin-operated "Suicide Booths" and "Soylent Cola", and the Finglonger.
Much of the shows humor comes from the way characters make passing references to significant historical events of the past thousand years. Between 1999 and 3000:
Setting
Most celebrities from the 20th century, 19th century, and earlier are alive and well in Futurama's world, thanks to cloning, head preservation, DNA splicing, and various other forms of regeneration. Most commonly they are disembodied heads living in jars. There are two jarred heads of Grover Cleveland, presumably because he was the both the 22nd and the 24th President of the United States. The head of Richard Nixon, atop a giant weaponized robotic body, was elected President of Earth; his 31st century term of office was no improvement on his 20th century one.
Linguistics
Futurama's universe also makes several bold predictions about the future of linguistics. In the first episode, it is revealed that French is now a dead language, and that the primary language of France is now English (although in the French version of the show, German is a dead language rather than French). It appears that English is also the primary language of intergalactic trade and politics.
Within the English language itself, several other drastic changes have taken place; which are used as a consistent convention throughout the duration of the show. The word "ask" is now pronounced as "ax" universally. The expression "duh" is replaced by "guh" as an expression of confusion or irritation. "Christmas", often abbreviated as "Xmas", is pronounced as "ex-mas".
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 English alphabet, while the second uses a more complex modulo addition code. They often provide additional jokes for fans dedicated enough to decode the messages.
Religion
Religion has changed quite a bit since the year 2000. Christianity, Judaism, Islam, 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.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. Robot Jews exist as well, although all we know about them is that they don't believe that Robot Jesus was their messiah.
Over the years, as life began to imitiate Star Trek more and more, the sci-fi series evolved into an enormous mainstream cult that swept the world. The descructive nature of its followers utlimately led to its banning by the Earth Government, and in the year 3000 even discussing the show is a serious legal offense.
Planet Express is the name of the delivery company held by Professor Farnsworth to fund his "research" and "inventions."
The Professor often makes passing reference to the fact that many of his past crews have been brutally killed. The crew prior to Fry's arrival was devoured by a space wasp.
Officially, the ship is manned by Leela as captain and pilot, Bender as cook, Fry as delivery boy. Intern Amy Wong and company physician Dr. Zoidberg join the crew as needed. Bureaucrat Hermes Conrad runs the administrative end of the business. Nearly every mission that the Professor comes up with is dangerous, or quickly degenerates to a suicide mission.
Actors lending their voices to the series include Billy West, Katey Sagal, John DiMaggio, Maurice LaMarche, Lauren Tom, Phil LaMarr, and Tress MacNeille. The theme and incidental music for the show were composed by Chris 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.
Actual celebrities who have lent their voices to the show include Dick Clark, Beck, Al Gore, Stephen Hawking, Sigourney Weaver, Lucy Liu, and the cast of Star Trek (the late DeForest Kelley without a speaking role, and James Doohan's character replaced by 'Welshy').
In 2001, during the show's third season, it was quietly announced that Fox Television was cancelling production of the series. 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 espisode was in no way a clear "conclusion" to the series. Cartoon Network is currently showing earlier episodes in syndication.
In response to the events of the September 11, 2001 attacks against the United States the Fox Television Network and Futurama creator Matt Groening for a short time removed the scene in the show's opening in which the Planet Express ship crashes into a giant television screen. It was felt that this scene would be upsetting and be disturbing to many viewers who had witnessed the head on collision of an airplane into the World Trade Center in New York on live television. Within a month or so after the attacks the scene was reinserted back into the opening.
In Britain the series was picked up by Sky One shortly after its US premiere, and Channel 4 later acquired terrestrial broadcast rights.
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 (and final) on November 24th, 2003.
Unique Development Studios released a Futurama video game for the Xbox and PlayStation 2 consoles in August 2003.
Matt Groening's Bongo Comics group is still producing a spin-off series of Futurama comic books. These are released every two months, and are now the only new stories featuring the Futurama characters. As of February 2004, 16 issues have been released by Dark Horse Comics in the USA. In the United Kingdom, Titan Books has released 9 issues, presenting the stories in a different order from the Dark Horse Comics run.
Characters
Planet Express
Other recurring characters
Production
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; and the third season on March 9, 2004.Season details
External links