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Futurama is an animated American cartoon series (1999-2003) created by Matt Groening (who also created The Simpsons). Set in "New New York City" 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 on Cartoon Network.
The world of Futurama is a fairly cynical version of the future. Unlike past cartoons like The Jetsons, which showed an efficient, clean, happy future, Futurama portrays a much less idealistic view with humans still dealing with many of the same basic problems of the 20th century.
Race issues in the year 3000 are now centered around relations among humans, aliens, and robots, 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. Wheels used in transportation have been made obsolete by hover technology. 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, Soylent Cola ("The taste varies from person to person"), 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:
See also: Timeline of Futurama
Most celebrities from the 20th century, 19th century, and earlier are alive and well in Futurama's world (Ted Danson is an exception), thanks to cloning, head preservation (invented by Ron Popeil), 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.
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 universally pronounced as ax. The expression duh is replaced by guh as an expression of confusion or irritation. Christmas has become Xmas pronounced "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 Latin alphabet, while the second uses a more complex modular addition code. They often provide additional jokes for fans dedicated enough to decode the messages.
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. (A retort to a question with an obvious "yes" answer is "Is the Space Pope reptilian?") 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 do not believe that Robot Jesus was their messiah. "We believe that he was built, and that he was a very well-programmed robot, but that he was not our messiah". Bender is also shown celebrating the festival of 'Robanuka' although it is implied that he invented it in order to get out of work. The crew's doctor, Dr. Zoidberg, also has a Jewish accent, although he receives X-Mas cards from his cousin Zoidfarb.
Over the years, as life began to imitate Star Trek more and more, the sci-fi series evolved into an enormous mainstream cult that swept the world. The destructive nature of its followers ultimately led to its banning by the Earth Government and the execution of its followers "in the manner most befitting virgins" (i.e. being thrown into a volcano), and in the year 3000 even discussing the show is a serious legal offense. (There is no mention of what happend to The Next Generation and the other spinoffs.)
Numerous other galaxies have been colonized or made contact with by the year 3000.
Earth has a unified government under a single President of Earth. At one time the Moon was part of Earth, but at some point in the past the citizens revolted. It is now under the rule of Emperor Al Gore.
The President of Earth in power at the end of the series is the head of Richard Nixon who achieved a third term by stealing Bender's robotic body as "no BODY can be elected more than twice".
Much of the Milky Way galaxy now operates under the Earth government's sphere of influnce although it is not explained if the planets are formally "part" of the Earth. An alien civilization was either discovered on Neptune or colonized it some time before 3000. It now is home to Robot Santa.
Mars has been terraformed to a great degree, and is even home to Mars University, with which several main characters are affiliated. Pluto has also been terraformed, and now houses large penguin colonies.
Many worlds, including Earth, are unified in the Democratic Order of Planets (DOOP). The Professor described it as being "similar to the United Nations... or like the 'Federation' from your Star Trek program." Earth sometimes acts unilaterally without the aid of other DOOP members. The inhabitants of Omicron Persei 8 are frequently engaged in conflicts with DOOP. Not all humans seem to be citizens of the Earth-government, as numerous times humans are seen as slaves or pets to alien races.
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 Philip J. Fry to sneak a bomb into the Brainspawn's main base that would seal them into a pocket-dimension prison.
There is also at least one rogue colony of robots that kills humans on sight (this being Capek 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.
Featured in the series was a bitter conflict between Earth and Spheron 1, which ended in complete victory for Earth.
There's also mention of a war with the Arachnid Homeworld where the resulting silk surplus from the victory lead to a $300 tax refund from the head of Richard Nixon, the ruling President of Earth.
Other planets seen and mentioned on the show include:
Planet Express is the name of the delivery company held by Professor Hubert 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. (In one of the last few episodes of the series, "The Sting", the crew is sent on the same mission that killed the last crew. They actually find the remains of the old Planet Express ship who were actually killed by giant Space Bees while infiltrating their nest to procure space honey; the current crew then succeeds where they failed).
Officially, the ship is helmed by Turanga Leela as captain and pilot, Bender Bending Rodriguez as cook, Philip J. 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.
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. 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.
Phil Hartman was cast as a voice actor on the series, but was killed before production began. Billy West performs the character of Zapp Brannigan in a Hartman-ish voice as a tribute to him. The character Philip J. Fry's first name was also chosen as a way to remember Hartman.
Actual celebrities who have lent their voices to the show include Dick Clark, Beck, Al Gore, Stephen Hawking, Sigourney Weaver, Lucy Liu, Pamela Anderson, and the cast of Star Trek (except for the late DeForest Kelley, and James Doohan's character replaced by 'Welshy' in a parody of the Brady Bunch variety hour where Jan was played by a different actress).
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 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".
Cartoon Network is currently airing the series in syndication.
Another series canceled by Fox Network was Family Guy. Futurama and Family Guy air on Cartoon Network as a one-hour block and have received high ratings. Family Guy's DVD releases have sold so well that, coupled with high ratings, Fox has reversed the series cancellation and resumed production. Futurama has also had strong DVD set sales and ratings success on Cartoon Network; rumor abounds that it may also return to production.
Also, Matt Groening's The Simpsons series has increasingly been making reference to Futurama after its cancelation. In the show, Matt Groening appeared as himself (animated) and was introduced at a convention as the creator of the hit show Futurama. He then signed Bender dolls. Also, in another episode of The Simpsons, a person jumped off a cliff because Futurama was cancelled.
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.
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).
The show is aired on the Cartoon Network after midnight and parental warnings precede the show. Nevertheless, some internet sources have noted that the Cartoon Network has censored Professor Farnsworth's favorite expletive, "Sweet Zombie Jesus!", so that he exclaims "Sweet Zombie [blank]!".
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.
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 August 2004, 18 issues have been released by Dark Horse Comics in the USA. In the United Kingdom, Titan Books has released 12 issues, presenting the stories in a different order from the Dark Horse Comics run.
Note: In reality, there were 4 production seasons, (the DVD releases are based on this original sequence of episodes) but the FOX network broadcast most episodes out of order, and split them into 5 seasons.
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