Anthology of Interest I
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| Futurama episode | |
| "Anthology of Interest I" | |
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| Episode no. | 29 |
| Prod. code | 2ACV16 |
| Airdate | May 21, 2000 |
| Writer(s) | David X. Cohen Ken Keeler Eric Rogers |
| Director | Chris Louden Rich Moore |
| Opening subtitle | Painstakingly Drawn Before A Live Audience |
| Opening cartoon | "Bosko", cartoon from 1930-1933 |
| Guest star(s) | Al Gore as himself Stephen Hawking as himself Nichelle Nichols as herself Gary Gygax as himself |
| Season 2 November 1999 – December 2000 |
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| List of all Futurama episodes... | |
"Anthology of Interest I" is episode sixteen in season two of Futurama. It originally aired in North America on May 21, 2000. This episode, as well as the later "Anthology of Interest II", serves to showcase three out-of-canon "imaginary" stories, in a manner similar to the "Treehouse of Horror" episodes of Matt Groening's other animated series The Simpsons. This episode is one of four featured in the Monster Robot Maniac Fun Collection.
Contents |
[edit] Plot
[edit] Prologue
Professor Farnsworth invites the employees of Planet Express to see his new invention: the Fing-longer, an index-finger-extending glove. As he tries it out, it activates a TV-like device. When Fry questions the Professor regarding what it is, he explains that it is the What-If machine, a device that allows the user to view a simulation of a short hypothetical scenario after the user asks it a 'what-if' question. The Professor then invites the crew to try out the What-If machine.
[edit] Act 1
Bender jumps at the chance and asks the What-If machine what would happen if he were 500 feet tall. The simulation begins with the giant Bender being built by hundreds of smaller Benders. He flies and crashes onto Central Park and meets with a recently unfrozen Fry. After some friendly frisbee fun, the military is sent to deal with him.
The military's weapons did not hurt Bender at all, but when they shoot Fry, Bender then begins to wreak havoc upon New New York. To combat Bender, the Professor uses his enlarging-ray upon a hapless Dr. Zoidberg, enlarging him, only to see him wreak havoc as well, interrupted only by Bender who isn't pleased with Zoidberg destroying 'his' city. The two then start to fight and Bender finally appears to win by pushing Zoidberg into a stadium of boiling water.
While Bender laughs in triumph, he is distracted by Fry. Then an enraged Zoidberg rises out of the water and snaps off Bender's feet. This causes his impalement on a skyscraper. A tearful Fry admonishes the citizens of New New York City about the tragedy of Bender's death, whose final words lament about his inability to fulfill his purpose, which is to kill all humans. The scenario then ends.
[edit] Act 2
The Professor asks Leela to try out the What-If machine. Leela initially declines, but at the prompting of Fry, Leela decides to ask what would happen if she were a little more impulsive.
The scenario starts at Planet Express, where Leela shows off her new boots bought on impulse, the only difference being a green stripe down the side. The Professor summons Leela to tell her that she is to be made his sole heir as she is so unimpulsive -- only to be kicked by Leela into a pit containing his man-eating anteaters, where he is promptly devoured. As Hermes discovers her role in the death in a video will, she is forced to silence him. She impulsively kills Bender with a microwave in order to keep him from blackmailing her about the deaths and then murders Amy when she insults her.
Zoidberg then summons the rest of the crew in order to solve the murders. While Zoidberg reveals clues, Cubert, Scruffy and even Nibbler attempt to implicate Leela, only to be slain by her. Zoidberg finds a letter from the deceased Bender but is interrupted by Fry who leaves due to boredom, Leela kills Zoidberg as well. When Fry finally figures out the next day that she was responsible, Leela is forced to do something really impulsive: sleep with him to keep him quiet. After she turns off the lights, we hear Fry scream then say "I really like it".
[edit] Act 3
After being told that Bender's scenario would not be done again, Fry asks what would happen if he had not been frozen. The scenario starts with Fry narrowly missing falling into the cryogenic tube, and a rift in the space-time continuum appears, which shows the Planet Express crew in the future wondering what is causing the rift, and Fry horrified at seeing monsters.
The next day, after talking to his boss Mr. Panucci, he came to the attention of Stephen Hawking who arranges for Fry to be abducted. Once abducted, he is introduced to the "Vice Presidential Action Rangers" (led by Al Gore, with Stephen Hawking, Nichelle Nichols, Gary Gygax and Deep Blue), whose task is to protect the space-time continuum, now threatened by the rifts which are caused by "events that are supposed to happen but didn't".
After Fry explains what happened the previous night at the cryogenic facility, the Vice Presidential Action Rangers determine that Fry was supposed to die and try to kill him, only to be proven wrong when another rift appears during the attempted murder. Nichelle Nichols then suggests that Fry be frozen and Gary Gygax gives Fry his +1 mace for protection against drunken robots in the future. Just before Fry is frozen, he smashes the cryogenic tube, causing the universe to collapse into a space-time rift, a form of a Big Crunch. This results in Fry and the Vice Presidential Action Rangers appearing at some other indeterminate dimension which is not part of the universe. The scenario ends with them playing Dungeons and Dragons for the rest of eternity (or at least the first quadrillion years of their imprisonment there).
[edit] Conclusion
After the end of Fry's scenario, the Professor curses the What-If machine for simulating scenarios even he found preposterous and dumped it into the trash can. He then promptly judges the Fing-Longer to be a rousing success and is congratulated by the crew. It is then shown that everything before was just a simulation by the What-If machine when the professor asked what would have happened if he had invented the Fing-Longer, leaving him to lament about the possibilities if he had invented it.
[edit] Cultural references
- Giant Bender's fight with the Giant Zoidberg pays homage to various Japanese monster movies such as Godzilla The scene where Zoidberg rises out of boiling water may also be a tribute to the famous King Kong vs. Godzilla scene.
- Upon giant Bender's death, Fry says, "Good night, sweet prince," as Horatio said after the death of Hamlet in Shakespeare's Hamlet. The line is later used upon human Bender's death in "Anthology of Interest II".
- The book shown in the other dimension is the original Monster Manual from Dungeons & Dragons.
- What If...? was the title of several anthology comic book series published by Marvel Comics which featured hypothetical alterations to the established history of the Marvel Universe, based on a specific point of divergence, such as "What if Spider-Man had joined the Fantastic Four?"
- The music played during giant Bender's flight is Iron Man by Black Sabbath.
- The Giant Bender scenario is similar to the plot of the movie The Iron Giant. The creator of the movie, Brad Bird worked with several of the Futurama writers as an executive consultant on The Simpsons.
- This episode's opening line "Painstakingly Drawn Before A Live Audience" is similar to a joke used in The Simpsons episode "The Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie Show", (Homer asks if the show is going out live, and the voice of Itchy & Scratchy says "Very few cartoons are filmed live, it puts a terrible strain on the animator's wrists") which was written by David X. Cohen, a developer for Futurama.
- The line "I'm a big robot, and I need a big cereal" refers to the Honeycomb cereal commercials aired during the eighties (with "robot" replacing "kid" in this version).
[edit] Goofs
- When shown from the back Scruffy's beard is the original brown color from his previous appearance, but when the camera switches to the front his beard is the white as it remains for the rest of his appearances.
- When Fry climbs up giant Bender who has been impaled on a building, if compared to the windows of the building, Fry appears to be about one story tall.
[edit] Continuity
- When Fry falls back in the chair, narrowly missing the freezing chamber, Nibbler's shadow is notably missing (see "The Why of Fry"). This is not a goof but implies that Fry didn't fall in because Nibbler didn't push him.
- This is the first time that Scruffy is stated to be the Planet Express janitor.
- In "A Clone of My Own" Cubert is born for the sole purpose of becoming the professor's heir; however, he still exists in the what-if scenario where Leela is named as the professor's heir.
- Leela, Bender, Zoidberg and Farnsworth all appear in the temporal rift that opens when Fry doesn't fall into the Cryogenic Freezer, implying that even if Fry hadn't been frozen, Leela and Bender would still somehow have ended up working for Planet Express (or, at the very least, be acquainted with the Professor). Similarly, in Bender's What-If scenario, Leela is seen at the Planet Express building with Farnsworth, Amy and Hermes, indicating that she still ended up connected with them.
- In the Futurama Comics, The Professor eventually would invent the Fing-Longer; it appears in the second issue of the Simpsons/Futurama Crossover Chaos! comic mini-series.
- A sign outside Shea Stadium says Home of the 1969 and 1986 World Champion New York Mets, implying that they never won the title again in the next 1000+ years.
[edit] Production jokes
- Gary Gygax's appearance alongside Al Gore is something of an inside joke since Gore's wife, Tipper Gore, hates Dungeons & Dragons and has been publicly critical of it. Kristin Gore, daughter of the former Vice president wrote for Futurama.
- When rebroadcast during the 2000 Presidential Election fiasco, the tagline at the start of the episode said, "Starring a guy who is kind-of, sort-of our next president, maybe!"
[edit] See also
