Futurama

Futurama is an adult animated television series created by Matt Groening, creator of the popular comedy series The Simpsons. It was produced by Matt Groening and David X. Cohen for Fox, Comedy Central and Hulu. The series follows the adventures of a pizza delivery man, Philip Fry, who on December 31, 1999 accidentally stumbles into a cryogenic capsule and awakens a thousand years later. In the United States, the series began airing on Fox from March 28, 1999 until its cancellation on August 10, 2003. Later, it was renewed by Comedy Central and aired on that channel from 2008 to 2013, when the last one aired. episode, titled "Meanwhile".

Futurama also aired on Adult Swim on Cartoon Network from January 2003 until December 2007, when the channel's license expired. It returned in 2007 with the release of four full-length episodes on DVD, which were split into 16 episodes to form part of the fifth season. Comedy Central maintained an agreement with 20th Century Fox to broadcast all long episodes in an episodic format. After the success of DVD sales and thanks to the support of fans, the creators of the series prepared its return in June of 2010, this time, on Comedy Central, bringing this network to historic audience records. The name "Futurama" comes from the 1939 exhibit, "World" New York, designed by Norman Bel Geddes. The exhibit showed the world 30 years in the future.

In April 2013, Comedy Central announced the cancellation of the series.

Futurama will be broadcast on Adult Swim within Cartoon Network beginning December 27, 2021, in an agreement with the FOX network.

In February 2022, it was announced that the series will be revived on Hulu with a 20-episode order expected to premiere in 2023, with most of the main original voice cast set to return; John DiMaggio has yet to join, and is still in negotiations.

Characters and Cast

Main characters

Logo of the shipbuilding company Planet Express, a company in which the main characters of the series work.

Futurama belongs to the sitcom genre; for this reason, the plot revolves around the activities and adventures of the employees of the Planet Express company. Most of the episodes deal with the trio Fry, Leela and Bender, but also with other characters.

Philip J. Fry (Billy West)

Fry is a boy who worked as a pizza dealer, was frozen just before the dawn of New Year's Day of 31 December 1999, awake during the end of the year of 2999. He gets a job at Planet Express, a company owned by his closest relative (his tatara-sobrino), Professor Hubert Farnsworth, where he works as a freight forwarder. As a result of certain measures he takes in the episode "Roswell That Ends Well", he is his own grandfather. He's in love with Leela.

Turanga Leela (Katey Sagal)

She's a young cyclop with a purple peach, and she's the captain of the Planet Express ship. At the beginning of the series he believed that he was an alien orphan, with the desire to know his origins. She later realized she was the daughter of some sewer mutants. Although almost in the entire series, he gave the impression that he did not correspond to Fry's feelings, the truth is that Leela has always been in love with him; at the end of the film "Into the Wild Green Yonder" admits that he loves him and from the sixth season starts a girlfriend with him. His name refers to the musical work of Olivier Messiaen: "Turangalila".

Bender Bending Rodríguez (John DiMaggio)

An alcoholic robot, smoker, egocentric, selfish and thief. It is originally programmed to fold objects. Fry's his roommate. It was manufactured in Mexico. It's addicted to vice, illegal bets and Robopilinguis. Always drink alcohol to stay oxide free. When you stop eating alcohol for a few days, you experience a state of drunkenness. Despite all his bad habits, he's Fry's best friend. His characteristic phrase is "Brink my brilliant metal ass."

Professor Hubert J. Farnsworth (Billy West)

Born on April 9, 2841, Professor Hubert Farnsworth has Fry as a distant relative (his tatara... uncle). Farnsworth founded Planet Express and is a featured inventor. He has his own clone created to be his successor, Cubert Farnsworth.

Dr. John A. Zoidberg (Billy West)

An alien similar to a lobster with tentacles in the mouth, coming from planet Decapod 10 who is self-proclaimed expert in humans, despite his limited knowledge of human anatomy (confuse the heart with the stomach or men with women). Provides incompetent medical care to the crew.

Amy Wong (Lauren Tom)

Amy is an incredibly rich, very beautiful and friendly girl. With her, Planet Express is very likely to have accidents. He is an engineering student at Mars University and heir to the Western Hemisphere of that planet. Born in Mars, though ethnically Asian. His parents are Leo and Ena. It is initially seen as promiscuous, although it developed a long relationship with Kif Kroker. He also had very brief relationships with Fry and Bender. Professor Farnsworth hired her to benefit from the compatibility they share regarding the blood. In the doubling of Hispanoamérica, every time she suffers an accident or falls, she screams HINO Chí Minh referring to the Vietnamese poet and politician.

Hermes Conrad (Phil LaMarr)

A Jamaican bureaucrat with a special gift to archive. He was world champion of limbo in his youth. He's married to LaBarbara and has a 12-year-old son, Dwight.

Secondary and tertiary characters

Zapp Brannigan (Billy West)

Star captain of great renown but absolutely incompetent. In love with Leela, with which he held a sexual encounter in the first season and a second sexual encounter in the sixth season to save the Earth from total censorship. He's coward and obese, though presumptuous and narcissistic. Your ship gets the name of Nimbus. He's enslaved to his assistant Kif and uses wig without anyone realizing it.

Kif Kroker (Maurice LaMarche)

This is Zapp Brannigan's assistant. It is a green alien, looking like an amphibian originating from Anphibios 9. He's Amy Wong's boyfriend. He suffers from a constant harassment of his boss that makes his self-esteem ever lower.

Mom (Three MacNeille)

She owns Mom's robot factory. She had a loving relationship with Hubert Farnsworth. It is shown as a lovable, thick old woman, but it is actually a costume that hides her extreme slenderness. It is petty, grim and often hostile to the protagonists.

Mr. Wong (Billy West and Lauren Tom)

They're Amy Wong's parents, powerful millionaires who own the western half of the planet Mars. Asian though with cowboy outfits, obsessed with their only daughter getting married and grandchildren.

LaBarbara Conrad (Dawnn Lewis)

He's Hermes Conrad's wife and they have a son, Dwight.

Dwight Conrad (Phil LaMarr)

He's Hermes Conrad's son. Cubert Farnsworth's friend.

Cubert Farnsworth (Kath Soucie)

It's Hubert Farnsworth's clone. Created from a wart on her back. He's an obese child with a pork nose, caused by a Farnsworth error by leaving him too much time on the prostate.

Flexo (John DiMaggio)

Robot enemy bent of Bender (in the Leeser of Two Evils episode they maintain a friendship). His appearance is identical to Bender's, except for a little black beard.

Turanga Morris and Turanga Munda (David Herman and Tress MacNeille)

They're a couple of mutants, Leela's parents. They live in the sewers in Old New York.

Nibbler (Mordelón in Spanish) (Frank Welker)

It's Leela's niblonian pet. He was rescued by her before a planetary implosion and taken to Earth at the beginning of the series. Having the size of a domestic cat, it is able to devour animals much bigger than it in a few seconds, and its excrements are known as 'Dark Matter', very valuable since it is used as fuel for spacecraft. Don't be fooled by its charming appearance, Nibbler is actually a highly intelligent being belonging to a race whose task is to keep order in the universe. It is revealed in the chapter "The Why of Fry" that was responsible for the cryogenization of Fry.

Scruffy (David Herman)

It's Planet Express's janitor. Despite working in the same company as the rest of the characters, no one knows him and whenever they ask him who he is he says, "Scruffy the janitor," and when he should work he says "I don't clean anything."

Seymour Asses (Seymour Diera in Hispanic America)

In the chapter "Jurassic Bark" it was a street dog that Fry found a day in the past. Since then it was his faithful pet who always patiently expected him at the Panucci pizza shop. Probably the only one who missed Fry after his freeze but in the "Bender's Great Golpe" movie (Bender's Big Score) appears to have lived with Fry "clonado" for 5 years and then Fry returned in 2012, Seymour was fossilized by Bender's beam. 1000 years later, his fossilized remains were found by archaeologists, exhibited in a museum until Fry recognizes it and tries to clone it. But he finally decides to let him rest in peace for not knowing that he had lived with him because the episode "Jurassic Ladrido" occurred in season 4 and the movie in season 5. In the company of Fry, with the voice of this and the barks of Seymour sang "I'm walking on sunshine".

Mr Panucci (John DiMaggio)

He owns the pizzeria where Fry worked in the century.XX.. In a very bad mood, he treated his employee very badly, and his personal hygiene left much to be desired, where he looks sneezing in the pizza in the chapter "Jurassic Bark" and scratching his back with a salami in the movie "The Great Golpe de Bender (Bender's Big Score)".

Pazuzu (David Herman)

It's Professor Hubert's pet gargola. In the episode "Leela: The Mutant Teen", saves the teacher from being absorbed by the source of old age. At the end of the episode, you can see Pazuzu with his son, who tells him what happened and says "Bonne nuit, bonne nuit to all" (Good night, good night to all).

Frame

Futurama is set during the 31st century, a century filled with technological wonders. With various devices and structures similar to a futuristic design. Global warming, inflexible bureaucracy and substance abuse are some of the themes given in the 31st century, in a world where Earth's problems have become the most common and most extreme. The series shows the prejudices of humans against mutants, who have been forced to live underground in the sewers. The home of the main characters who inhabit the earth is the city of New New York, built on the ruins of present-day New York City, dubbed 'Old New York'.

Numerous technological advances have been made during the 31st century. The ability to keep people alive in preserves was invented by Ron Popeil (who has an appearance in 'A Big Mountain of Junk'), this is used by the writers in order to have some famous character of today. Interestingly, several of the canned politicians were already dead before the arrival of this technology, one of the most prominent examples of this anomaly being Richard Nixon, who died in 1994. The Internet, which has its own digital world (similar to The Matrix or Tron), is slow and largely consists of pornography, pop-ups, and "dirty" chat rooms, although some may include educational material for young people. Television remains a primary form of entertainment. Robots are a common sight, as well as being the main cause of Earth's warming thanks to their alcohol systems. The wheel is obsolete (Fry even seems not to recognize its design), it was forgotten and replaced by flying vehicles and transport tubes.

In Futurama the writers do not make continuity errors, which serve to further the jokes. For example, while in one episode it is said that the former crew of Planet Express were killed by killer bees, later the episode 'The Sting'; it's about one of the new crew members who is also killed by killer bees; Another example of this continuity humor can be seen in the first chapter of the series, in which Nibbler's shadow is observed under the table when Fry falls into the freezer, later in the chapter "The Why Fry" it is seen how Nibbler is the cause of said freezing of Fry. Tomorrowland is used to highlight the science fiction of today.

Culture and society

Earth is depicted as multicultural to the extent that there is a wide range of human, to robotic, and extraterrestrial beings in the series interacting with the main characters. Somehow the future presents itself as more socially advanced. Robots make up the largest "minority" from the series. They are often treated as second-class citizens, while a few wealthy robots are portrayed as members of the upper class. Most robots are self-aware and have been granted freedom and free will. However, in times of crisis, they are forced to serve humans. Many of the robots live in apartments specially built for robots, with rooms the size of a small closet and closets the size of a large apartment. Season 6 episode 12, "The Mutants Are Revolting", sewer mutated humans who were relegated to the sewers by law are legally accepted on the surface.

Religion is still part of society, even though it has changed a lot. The major religions have merged to become one, The religious figures in the series are the Space Pope, the Robot Devil, and the Reverend Preacherbot (although Jesus is still revered). Although very few episodes focus exclusively on the religious changes in the Futurama universe.

Flag of the Earth in the Futurama series.

Earth has a unified government, headed by the President of Earth (from season 2 onwards he is headed by Richard Nixon). The capital of the Earth is Washington DC, since with the war policies of the United States they conquered the entire planet. The flag is similar to that of the United States, only instead of stars it has a representation of the Earth.

The Democratic Order of Planets (ODP or DOOP) is the fictional organization in the Futurama universe, similar to the United Nations and the United Federation of Planets from the Star Trek universe. Numerous other galaxies have been colonized or have made contact in the year 3000. Mars has been colonized and is home to the University of Mars.

The heads of the Presidents of the United States from George Washington to Bill Clinton, and many famous people are placed in jars with a liquid that keeps not only the presidents, but also celebrities alive. These are exhibited in the National Museum of Heads. They are fed fish food since they are in a way underwater.

Language in the series

Each sign of the alien alphabet corresponds to a sign of the Latin alphabet.

Alien alphabets are also used in the series and often appear in the background, usually in the form of scribbles, advertisements, or on warning labels. The former is a simple one-to-one substitution cipher of the alphabet, while that the second uses a more complex and modular addition code. Both often provide additional gags for fans dedicated enough to decode the messages. In addition to these alphabets, the series uses the alphabet.

English has also evolved, but is still understandable. Changes include replacing the word Christmas with Xmas (with the X pronounced as such representing the cross of Christ) and the change of the pronunciation of ask by metathesis to [æks]. Ironically, [æks] represents an ancient pronunciation of the word, with the modern [æsk] being an innovation, so the 31st century sees the word come full circle. The Futurama universe also makes several bold predictions about the future of linguistics. In one episode it is revealed that French is a dead language and that now the official language spoken in France is English (in the French version of the series, German is the dead language). In another episode, an advertisement is seen on the subway that says "Learn Spanglish" so it seems that the mixture of English and Spanish ends up becoming a language of the masses. According to Matt Groening, the series presents the so-called Frozen Gags, which are jokes that cannot be seen with the naked eye, but rather one must pause the episode and look closely at the screen. The many alien-language billboards apparently carry obscene messages, but cannot be read with the naked eye.

Episodes

The series had four seasons at the time of its cancellation. Later, in 2007, they produced four lengthened episodes to create a fifth season. After pressure from the public, it was broadcast again with what would be the sixth season, of new episodes, which premiered on June 24, 2010.

Criticism

The series received critical acclaim. The first season has an 89% approval rating on review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes, based on 18 reviews, an average rating of 8.75/10. The critical consensus reads: "Great news, everyone! Futurama is an inventive, funny and sometimes moving look at the world of tomorrow. Season 5 has a 100% rating, based on seven reviews, and an average score of 8.67/10. The sixth season has an approval rating of 100%, based on 16 reviews, and the average score is 8.31/10. The website's critical consensus states: "Good news everyone! Futurama is as funny and endearing as ever in its sixth season. The final season received a rating of 92%, and an average score of 8.24/10 based on 12 critics.

Awards

Transmission