Blasting off onto our screens back in 1999 was Futurama. Another brilliant creation by Mat Groening that was fresh, funny, and perfectly suited for the time. The show exploded and was broadcast in several countries around the world. It has a massive fan base and reruns are still being seen. We just can’t seem to get enough of Fry and the gang as they travel the universe and try their best not to mess up too badly. The show has so much underlying humor related to pop culture and current events that it can be easy to miss. It’s these little nuggets, along with celebrity guest appearances, and a hilariously scientific twist that keeps the fans coming. Here’s our pick of the top four episodes.
Season 4, Episode 18 – The Devil’s hands are idle playthings
Any episode with the robot devil in it was a scream, but this one takes the cake. Fry ends up making a deal with the robot devil and they swap hands. He becomes a skilled holophonor virtuoso and writes an opera about Leela’s life. After a series of hilarious events, the robot devil, now realizing that Fry’s human hands are clumsy and just about useless, tricks Fry into swapping hands again. Fry carries on playing the holophonor for Leela after the disgruntled audience has walked out. Leela and Fry leave holding hands… finally!
Season 4, Episode 1 – Roswell that ends well
The crew is accidentally exploded back to 1947. They crash land at Roswell, New Mexico. They are discovered by the U.S military who capture Dr. Zoidberg and the pieces of Bender. The two unlucky members are taken to the Roswell air base for experimentation. Now hunting for a microwave (not easy to locate in 1947) the crew launches a plan to save Zoidberg and Bender, and return home.
Season 5, Episode 9 – The sting
The crew set off to collect honey from space bees. The plan goes awry and Fry gets attacked by a baby queen bee. The sting goes straight through him and pricks Leela on the other side. Leela can’t come to terms with Fry’s passing and she starts to lose her mind through a twisted series of events. She eventually wakes up from the dream-state coma she has been in for two weeks, caused by the bee sting, to find Fry alive and well.
Season 6, Episode 7 – The Late Philip J. Fry
Fry, the professor, and Bender accidentally travel 7000 years into the future in a forward-only time machine with no way of getting back. The trio decides to keep traveling forward in time until they reach an era when backward time travel has been discovered. Thanks to Bender, they miss the mark and travel through to watch the end of the universe. They then witness the next big bang where a new identical universe is formed. Realizing their luck, the team moves forward to the time when they originally left and accidentally harm their newer selves, settling the time travel paradox. The Late Philip J. Fry.
With 140 episodes in total and four straight to video films, it’s not a lie to say that the show was anything other than successful. The show has been revived twice by fans demanding a comeback and was finally laid to rest in 2013 at the end of season seven.
