======================================================================== ============= THE FUTURAMA CHRONICLES ==== EPISODE CAPSULE ============= ======================================================================== Official Title: Fear of a Bot Planet Episode Number: 1ACV05 (#5) First Airdate : Tuesday, April 21st, 1999 (8:30 PM) Written by : Evan Gore & Heather Lombard Co-directed by: Ashley Lenz & Chris Suave Directed by : Peter Avanzino & Carlos Baeze ======================================================================== = Additional tidbits = Opening theme promotion : featuring GRATUITOUS ALIEN NUDITY Opening theme cartoon : "A Corny Concerto" (1943, Warner Bros.) {dga} Subsequent Fox Airdates : 19-Sep-99 21-Apr-99 Nielsen ranking: 3rd in its timeslot (6.7 million) {dga} 19-Sep-99 Nielsen ranking: 5.2% of audience (#64 for the week) MPAA rating : TV-PG-V Length minus commercials : [21:23] ======================================================================== = Foxworld Synopsis = While delivering a package to a planet inhabited by robots, where humans are killed instantly, Bender becomes intoxicated with the robot lifestyle and must choose between becoming a celebrity of sorts or saving his friends' lives. ======================================================================== = Minutiae = - Leela probably didn't notice the impending mini-planet in the ship's path because of her lack of depth perception. And Fry didn't because he's just a dim bulb, so it all makes sense. :-) - Dr. Zoidberg urinates through his chest. {vy} - Apparently, the entire planet of Mars only has one Blernsball team. (Well, maybe there's just a small settlement there, just as Moon has the amusement park and some isolated farms.) {ddg} - Blernsball has the umpire behind an 'external' chest protector, like the American league did a while back. (Since then they all use the National league 'inside' chest protector.) Anyway, it gave them the opportunity to include some sort of plastic hemisphere to look through in the game. {mp} - In the Blernsball game, the batter was out when the fielder touched second base while holding the ball. {ddg} - When the New New York Yankee hit the blern, the Mars pitcher hung his head in an incredibly dejected Charlie Brown-like manner. It was a great touch. {bw} - After the multi-ball aspect of Blernsball, it becomes clear that the stadium has turned into a big pinball machine. {vy} - Speaking of multiball, none of the "multiball" balls are tethered. {ddg} - Only the second blernsman (the equivalent of 2nd base) gets knocked over by the explosion as the guy on the hoverbike scoots by. {vy} - Did anyone catch the 'Ralph Wiggum char' seen in "Space Pilot 3000" in the background of Madison Cube Garden? {pm} - One blernsball fan holds up a sign that says "GLORX 3:16." (See Random Comments) - The planet Chapek 9. Karl Capek (the C should have a little upside- down caret over it, and is pronounced 'ch') wrote the play "Rossum's Universal Robots" in which he created the term "robot." {sv} [The word "robot" is derived from the Czech "robota" meaning "heavy labor." {dga}] - Leela [needs] 2 or 3 minutes to figure out a plan ... which happens to be about the same amount of time taken up by a commercial break. {vy} - Woolworths still exists in 3000. {jk} - They have Woolworths, but they don't have Wal-Marts. {vy} - The "human" in the robot movie had claws. {ddg} - Leela would have needed the second eye for depth perception with the 3D glasses. {hl} - Robots use money. {ah} - Many robots have record players. Not only did Bender release his music "Bender lets loose" only on record, but it went "gold" before the end of the episode! (It's nice to see record players are still around in 3000!) {ah} - When the robot blows the horn to signal "Let the Hunt Begin," it makes the same sound as a Macintosh startup bell (not all Windows users know that). {vy} - How about the elder's eyes being the same colors as the iMacs? {amc} - The robot elder to the far left (opposite "Jimmy") never speaks. - When they are partying, the metal barrel is carved to look like a jack-o-lantern. {aa2} - Did you notice the beer bottles used to make a Robanukah menorah? {jk} ======================================================================== = Parallels to Science Fiction = + "Battlestar Galactica" (movie) - Robots alerted to Leela and Fry's position sound the alarm in a monotone voice similar to that of the Cylons in Battlestar Galactica (either that, or the robots from Disney's "The Black Hole"). {vy} + "Beneath the Planet of the Apes" (movie) - I thought the whole elders thing was a pretty direct reference to Beneath the Planet of the Apes ... am I pointing out the glaringly obvious? {kh} + "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" (1978 movie) - When the robot pointed and made the high pitched wail after discovering that Leela was human, er, not a robot. {rs} + "Rossum's Universal Robots" (1920 play by Karel Capek) - Planet Chapek 9 named after this Czech author, who created the word "robot" for his play. {dga} ~ "The Star Diaries" (novel) - It's the book released in US by Polish science fiction writer Stanislaw Lem. One of the short stories is about Ijon Tichy, a space traveller, who visits a planet of robots -- he has has to use robot disguise, otherwise he'll be killed (these robots hate humans). Ring a bell? {ac2} + "Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope" (1977 movie) - Hermes shows up in the form of a hologram, much like Princess Leia in SW4. {vy} + "War of The Worlds" (movie) - "In the end, it was this harmless sharp stick that brought this terror to an end" or something like that, this is from memory ...) {jb} ======================================================================== = Other References = + "Apple Computers" (commercial) - The scene in which the robots of Chapek 9's "House of Justice" yell suggestions for unfreezing their judge is similar to an old Apple commercial. See "Final Thoughts / Comments" for more details. + "Berzerk" (video game) - When Leela and Frye are spotted, the robots say "Intruder Alert" (and one more phrase, I think) from the classic video game Berzerk. Which also features robots trying to kill humans. {jr} - Not only that, but the robots who spoke these lines *look* just like the robots in Berzerk! Tall blocky bipeds with wide dome heads and eyes that can rotate 360 degrees around - more than a coincidence. {sw} + "Fear of a Black Planet" (movie) - Title: "Fear of a Bot Planet" + "I Was a Teenage Werewolf" (movie) - There's one other movie playing (it's the first poster), "I Was A Teenage Human," which is a take off of the old horror film "I Was A Teenage Werewolf." Compare the poster in the show to the poster for the original movie. {ds2} (Found at ) ~ "Life in Hell" (Matt Groening comic strip) - The rabbit that Bender pulls out of a hat in the picture that Leela and Fry show to the robot construction looks a lot like the rabbit in Matt Groening's comic strip, "Life in Hell." {sam} + Mark McGwire - Miller's on a pace to hit 70 blerns, says Leela. Wonder if he's trying to beat a similar record 1,000 years later. + "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" (movie) - The Pointed stick reference also to Monty Python? Combo with War of the Worlds. {rs} - The scene with the robot elders combines elements of the Knights Who Say Ni & the Three-Headed Monster. The one elder at the end yelling "Silence!" in a high-pitched voice sounds a lot like one of the Knights who say Ni, and the prisoners being allowed to escape while their captors bicker pointlessly is just like the Three- Headed Monster scene. {ms} + "Ol' Man River" (song) - Bender's mocking of Leela copies the line "Tote that barge; lift that pale" from this song in the play "Showboat." The song is sung by slaves, so the line implies that Leela is a slave to her 'space- job.' ~ "Omega Virus" (board game) - ["Intruder Alert"] plays when you enter the room that contains the Virus. {tm} + "Robotron" (?) - Same basic premise: you versus a planet o' robots. {jb} + "Shoeless" Joe Jackson - "Wireless" Joe Jackson. {jk} ~ "Sleeper" (Woody Allen movie) - Mechanical puppy. {hl} + "Tetris" (video game) - The tasks assigned to Chapek 9's "Robots at Work" are quite similar to the simplistic, yet widely popular and much-imitated video game "Tetris." + "TransFormers" (franchise) - Obviously for the two guards that ask the multiple choice question to Leela and Fry. {vy} ~ "Tron" (movie) - Watch the movie, and you'll see those were very similar to the guardians ... {ms2} + Uncle Sam posters - The "I Want You Out" poster on Chapek 9. {dj} ======================================================================== = Freeze Frame Fanaticism = >> Madison Cube Garden teams - NEW NEW YORK YANKEES - MARS GREENSKINS >> Leela's program lineup VISITORS Karis Adler Horsted Verrone Keeler Buras Cohen Kaplan Morton YANKEES Costanza Maris Zork Zork Jr. Qzdjyld {bm3} Lombard Gore Raspberry Jones With Clemens Arm {bm3} (See "Final Thoughts / Comments" for explanations of these names.) >> The slurm sign in the baseball sequence {ah} It says underneath the main sign thusly - "Unaturally Delicious" (I have a zero overscan T.V. - you can see it too if you turn the vert height down.) >> Some Chapek 9 eye candy - I WANT YOU for the ANTI-HUMAN PATROL - GOT MILK? then you're a human and must be killed >> Movie posters outside the theater - I Was A Teenage Human! - Yentiltron - Buff Bot: The Human Slayer - It Came From Planet Earth ======================================================================== = Goofs = - The mini-planet would have to have been moving very quickly in the same direction as the ship, only at a slightly slower pace, because otherwise their ship would have to be moving through space at about 5mph, and that's just ridiculous. - Pigeons have supposedly been wiped out by owls in New New York City, but one appears in plain daylight to attack Hermes' hologram. - A bird flies in Madison Cube Garden, whilst it's a dome. {bd} - Why would an all-robot planet order something through the Earth-based (and human-operated) Planet Express? - How much more vacuum-defying can we take? What is this? Space Cases? {pm} - The metallic tubes Leela wears on her arms change shape a number of times as she gestures with her hands. (Unless you want to say it's made of a new "futuristic" metal.) - It's been mentioned quite a few times that when the robots discovered Fry and Leela were human, they said "Get the humanoid" in true "Berzerk" (ah, the days when it only costs one quarter to play a new video game, and the "ones in the back" gave 2 games for a quarter), but why wouldn't they say "get the humans" if it's humans they hate? ("Because it's not a joke any more, is it?") {ddg} - How did Fry and Leela get inside the movie theater without paying? (Do you think robots use the same currency that we do?) - In the sequence with the mayor robot (behind the podium) the microphone is missing! The "goose neck" holder is there, but it just ends ... (Come to think of it, why would robots need a P.A. system?!) {ah} ======================================================================== = Extended Goofs / Technical Nitpicks = >> What, no metric time? Don Del Grande: Chapek 9 uses a time system of 60 minutes per hour (or 60 whatever they call the number on the right per whatever they call the number on the left), just like on Earth. (They also used the term "five o'clock", so maybe the "founders" used Earth's time system; it was never specified how many hours were in a day.) Aaron Howald: Was I the only one to think that the clock in the robot city should have shown the time in binary code?! One big 32 bit number representing the time ... 10110110111011011011101100000101!!!! One day would be all 0's to all 1's. >> What Would You Like to Plead Today? Tyler McHenry: Aside from the Mac startup sound made by the trumpet, the Judge computer was obviously a Mac, thus the goof: CTRL-ALT-DEL does _not_ work on a Mac, considering that they don't even have ALT keys! Ben Collins: The Mac has equivalent key combinations. To "force quit" a crashed program, hold the Command and Option keys (both unique to the Mac; the Command key is often inaccurately called the Apple key) and press the otherwise useless Escape key. To restart the computer after a system freeze, either press the Restart switch (not on all models), or hold Command and Control (there is a Control key) and press the power switch. At least that's how it's done in Mac OS 7; it may be different for MOS 8. Daniel Kapusta: The "judging" progress thing was Mac-like, but the enclosure was a Macintosh Classic case. It's funny that after 1k years, enclosures haven't made much progress. Jason Barrera: I still say that the robots were too lazy to upgrade their computer systems in 1016 years. Those little Mac Classics are damn durable. Joshua Moore: Actually, I think it was a 128k or 512k. They were the only Macintoshes to sport the notched area around the floppy like the Judge had. But, really, even in real life, when a computer is indisputably Macintosh, there's always someone in a crowded room who will suggest "CTRL-ALT-DEL." :-) >> Slow down, you're rockin' the ship Don Del Grande: The ship managed to maintain a synchronous orbit (one where it is over the same spot on the planet the entire time) despite the fact that there was nobody inside of it to make adjustments. Steven Aaron Monroe: This isn't impossible at all. Satellites can do geosynchronous orbits without human intervention, so we can assume that a spaceship from the year 3000 is able to do the same task, that is, if Leela or Fry commanded the ship to do it. ======================================================================== = Reviews = Dale G. Abersold: The show keeps getting better and better. True, "best episode ever" is a phrase that doesn't carry a lot of weight when only five episodes have aired, but still ... "Best Episode Ever." The show is instantly one of the best-written programs on television, with a wonderful combination of obscure references and more obvious, even scatological gags. I thought "Fear of a Bot Planet" was a true classic. (A+) Jason Barrera: First off, I'd like to say that this was undoubtably the funniest episode I've seen. Bender wasn't just the uncaring bucket of bolts, either, and it really developed him past mere comic relief -- although not enough that he still wasn't Bender. Whoever wrote this episode had/has to be quite a nerd -- and I welcome this brave soul into the flock. (A+) Joe Klemm: If you wonder why Futurama will be back for the 1999-2000 season, this is why. A good storyline mixed with funny jokes and meta-humor (if they only created a talking Bender doll) is what Matt needs to make another hit show, and this episode contains the hilarity of a good story, but it's not as funny as The Series Has Landed. (A-) Haynes Lee: Kind of a dissapointment. Bender's comedic hatred of humans turns too dark. Tonight's episode should have featured more of the secondary characters. What happened to Nibbler? (B-) Paul Melnyk: And people were saying "Family Guy" tried too hard. The "futuristic" adaptations dialouge at the baseball stadium wasn't really that funny. The hot dog joke had me laughing though. The second and third act turned out be good ones. Fry was characterized pretty good, once again, thank god. Bender's anger spree was a bit tacked on, but other then that, a good episode. Leela in handcuffs also boosts the grade (don't ask). (A) Vince Yim: While not as funny as the last, it is still a good effort. Some of the references seem a bit forced, but the early Star Wars 4: A New Hope hologram thing really caught me off guard, especially when they show what really happens to Hermes. (B) Yours Truly: This episode takes the entire standard for the series up a notch. With moments of brilliance like the ones seen time after time here, there may be no stopping this show. (A+) Average Grade: [14/7=2] (A) ======================================================================== = Final Thoughts / Comments = >> Pfft. Cartoons. Joe Klemm: A Corny Concerto is a Warner Bros. short that was made to spoof the success of Disney's Fantasia. In it, Elmer Fudd introduces comical bits set to the music of Tales of the Vienna Woods and the Blue Danube. The clip that appears on the TV screen at the opening is from the Vienna Woods bit, which features Porky Pig hunting for Bugs Bunny. As for the clip, it comes when Bugs tricks Porky and his hunting dog into thinking that a squirrel shot him when in reality he has just put on a bra. >> Take me out to the Blernsball game Dave Antonoff says the man holding the GLORX 3:16 sign was "a nice reference to "Rock'n" Rollen Stewart, the "rainbow wig guy" seen at hundreds of sporting events from 1976 to the late 1980's." He posts the results of a quick search of the web, written by Cecil Adams: "In 1976, looking for a way to make his mark, Rollen conceived the idea of becoming famous by constantly popping up in the background of televised sporting events. Wearing a multicolored Afro wig (hence the nickname "Rainbow Man"), he'd carry a battery-powered TV to keep track of the cameras, wait for his moment, then jump into the frame, grinning and giving the thumbs-up. Rollen figured he'd be able to parlay his underground (OK, background) celebrity into a few lucrative TV gigs and retire rich. But except for one Budweiser commercial, it didn't happen. Feeling depressed after the 1980 Super Bowl, he began watching a preacher on the TV in his hotel room and found Jesus. He began showing up at TV events wearing T-shirts emblazoned with "Jesus Saves"-type slogans and various Bible citations, most frequently John 3:16 ("For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son," etc.). Later accompanied by his wife, a fellow Christian he married in the mid-80s, he spent all his time traveling to sports events around the country, lived in his car, and subsisted on savings and donations. He guesses he was seen at more than a thousand events all told. This brings us to the late 80s. By now Rollen had gotten his 15 minutes of fame and was the target of increasing harassment by TV and stadium officials. His wife left him, saying he had choked her because she held up a sign in the wrong location. His car was totaled by a drunk driver, his money ran out, and he wound up homeless in LA. Increasingly convinced that the end was near, Rollen decided to create a radically different media character. He set off a string of bombs in a church, a Christian bookstore, a newspaper office, and several other locations. Meanwhile he sent out apocalyptic letters that included a hit list of preachers, signing the letters "the Antichrist." Rollen says he wanted to call attention to the Christian message, and while this may seem like a sick way to go about it, it wasn't much weirder than waving signs in the end zone at football games. In any case, no one was hurt in the bombings, which mostly involved stink bombs. On September 22, 1992, believing the Rapture was only six days away and having prepared himself by watching TV for 18 hours a day, Stewart began his last "presentation." Posing as a contractor, he picked up two day laborers in downtown LA, then drove to an airport hotel. Taking the men up to a room, he unexpectedly walked in on a chambermaid. In the confusion that followed he drew a gun, the two men escaped, and the maid locked herself in the bathroom. The police surrounded the joint, and Rollen demanded a three-hour press conference, hoping to make his last national splash. He didn't get it. After a nine-hour siege the cops threw in a concussion grenade, kicked down the door, and dragged him away. About to be given three life sentences for kidnapping, Rollen threw a tantrum in the courtroom and now blames everything on a society that's "bigoted toward Jesus Christ." A cop who negotiated with him by phone during the hotel standoff had a better take on it: "With all due respect, maybe you look at a little bit too much TV." For info on the Rainbow Man documentary, write Sam Green, 2437 Peralta St., suite C, Oakland, CA 94607." Don Del Grande: Aluminum bats are "traditional" in baseball; as far as I know, the only organization that does not allow it is USA's major leagues (and associated minor league systems). I think USA is also the only country where professional baseball players don't compete on the Olympic team - I wonder what would happen if McGwire would show up in Sydney with a metal bat? Benjamin Robinson: While I was watching it, I thought about what some former baseball commissioner called the "Rip Van Winkle" rule. He (the commish) wanted to keep baseball true to its roots so that someone who woke up today from a hundred-year sleep could attend a baseball game today and get the gist of what was going on. Looks like blernsball flunked the Rip Van Winkle rule big time. Aaron Howald: During the baseball sequence, the bird in the communicator sequence should have been an owl!! More owls should have been seen grubbing around on the field ... one of the two hit balls should have stuck an owl out of the air as it was flying by ... after the hit Leela could have marked her score card. The card could have even had an "owl" symbol on it to keep track of the "hits." :*) >> Some call it "Antenna Envy" Vince Yim: Remember ep 3 where Bender can't cut off his antenna because it's like symbolically castrating himself? This is further enforced by the fact that Leela can't understand why he can't do so because "She's not a robot or a man." After cutting off his antenna, Bender says, "I guess I'll have to deal with being half a robot." Then, when the robot cop finds the antenna, he responds with, "You call THIS an antenna?" You don't have to be Freud to figure out what the antenna symbolizes. Anywho, in 1ACV05, after Bender produces a cardboard bucket full of popcorn, he asks "Who wants butter?" And he lowers the bucket of popcorn to his lower torso area and starts pumping the antenna. I dunno ... am I really sick for thinking this? Or did anybody else notice? >> Leela's scorecard In the "Freeze Frame Fanaticism" section, you can see a list of the players on Leela's scorecard during the Blernsball game. Here are some explanations on the names depicted on the card: Dan Taylor: Raspberry is, more than likely, a dig at Daryl Strawberry. Who, when not being arrested for various crimes are battling cancer, has been know to play baseball with the Yankess, among other teams. Chris Tasler: "Maris" is obviously a nod of the hat to Yankees great Roger Maris, who was the single season homer king with 62 in a year, until Mark McGwire topped it last year with 70. Apparently one of the writers is a Yankees fan ... Just thought I'd throw in my two cents. According to James Brown, the names Verrone and Morton come from producers Patrick Verrone and Lewis Morton, Horsted and Keeler are co-executive producers Eric Horsted and Ken Keeler, and Lombard and Gore are writers Heather Lombard and Evan Gore (who wrote this episode). "Jones with Clemens Arm" is an obvious reference to Roger Clemens (who's Jones?), Cohen is executive producer David Cohen, and a contributor named Broke Man tells us that there is a famous player named Costanza. "Zork" is a reference to a videogame franchise of the same name, and pairing him with "Zork Jr." is a reference to Ken Griffey Jr. That leaves five names unexplained ... Karis, Adler, Buras, Kaplan and Qzdjyld. Here are some theories, as well as some alternatives to the ones above ... = Kaplan = Brad Koski: I was thinking -- could this possibly be a reference to Ira Kaplan, guitar player and singer from yo la tengo? YLT did do the Simpsons theme recently, and they are self-professed *HUGE* fans of the show. Just something to think about ... = Costanza = David Antonoff: A reference to "Seinfeld"'s George Costanza, who once worked for the old New York Yankees. = Maris = Daniel Janes: The name of Niles' never-seen wife on the TV show "Frasier." If you have any other explanations, feel free to submit them! >> 'Rama's Universal References Javier Redal expands on a hidden reference: "Chapek 9" would be named after Karel Capek (sometimes I saw writen as "Chapek", these Slavic consonants): "Karel Capek, (1890-1938), Czech novelist, playwright, and theatrical producer, born in Malé Svatonovice, and educated at the University of Prague. Capek was a close friend of the first Czech president, Tomas Masaryk, with whom he worked to preserve the Czech nation after World War I. Simultaneously Capek was an editor for a Prague newspaper, founder and director of the Vinohradsky Art Theater in Prague, and political essayist, playwright, and novelist. Capek is best known for his plays, the most famous of which is R.U.R. (1921; trans. 1923), a dramatic fantasy in which people are dehumanized by the machine age. R.U.R. stands for "Rossum's Universal Robots" and is the source of the English word robot. Capek is also well known for two other dramas: The Insect Play (1921; trans. 1923), known in the U.S. as The World We Live In, a satire that foretells the evils of totalitarianism; and Power and Glory (1937; trans. 1938), an attack on dictatorship. His novels include fanciful romances, science fiction, and a philosophical trilogy. Capek also wrote travel sketches and impassioned political essays." "Capek, Karel," Microsoft (R) Encarta. Copyright (c) 1998 Microsoft Corporation. Copyright (c) 1998 Funk & Wagnall's Corporation. >> Robots: The Quintessential Culture Clash Jason Barrera: Speaking of depth, "Fear of A Robot Planet" worked on a slightly higher level in that it parodied the entire Cold War in 22 minutes or so. The paranioa, the "elders" working behind the scenes, the blind hatred of the opposition, the insanely campy propoganda films, and we can't forget the Show Trails ... The robot movies reminded me of the Soviet propoganda films during the height of the Cold War, when Russian people almost believed that all Americans wanted to kill them and rape their dead daughters. Bender as Hitler/Stalin was a nice touch. Jeff Foster: The episode "Fear of a Bot Planet" has many references, not to specific films or songs, but to general aspects of African American culture. The title is from an album by rap group "Public Enemy." Bender's complaints at the blernsball game, about there being no robot managers and about how only robots ever have to do janitorial work, are references to long-standing similar complaints in the black community. The radical robot separatists echo the radical black separatists in the Nation of Islam, who were active from the time of the NOI's founding to the time a group of orthodox Muslims split off from it in the 1970s. It would have been more funny if the robots had said "Kill humey!" instead of "Kill the humanoids!"; since "Kill whitey!" is an acceptable phrase but "Kill the Caucasians!" is not. >> Post it to ! Put it in the capsule! Hurry! Daniel L. Dreibelbis: In the scene where Leela and Fry were being tried by the Mac Plus judge, and he froze in the middle of judgement, the robots and Fry started yelling out ways to unfreeze him. ("Yank the cord! Type alt-control-delete!") Well, as it so happens, I recently bought myself a Mac, and was finally looking at this CD-ROM called the "1997 Mac Advocacy CD-ROM." On it was a series of commercials Apple had done over the years for the Macintosh. One of the commercials featured a man at some convention making a presentation using a PC laptop when -- sure enough -- it suddenly freezes. And then everyone in the audience starts yelling out different ways to unfreeze it! I found this to be too much of a coincidence to let this pass by. What do you all think? David Antonoff: I wouldn't say it was a coincidence. I think it would be the natural tendency for a group of computer savvy people (or robots) to offer up whatever options they could think of in a time of computer crisis. If anything, the scene from the episode mimicked real life. No great coincidence, but a good read on the technologically advanced segment of society. >> Last, and probably least ... Tukeli Baykent: When Leela and Fry first set foot on Chapek 9, Fry looks into Leela's helmet and mentions how stupid they look. This is probably stretching things too far, but the reflection in Leela's helmet sort of looks like those characters in many Canadian animated shorts ... again, I'm probably digging too deep. =) John McDaid: My theory is that the writers created the term "killamajig" by extension from the name of a fish sandwich in Friendly's (a restaurant chain in the Massachusetts area) called a "Fishamajig." ======================================================================== = Fun Stuff = >> Alien Language #1 sightings TV Guide ad (not in actual episode): "ROBOTS RULE" >> References to Previous Episodes - [1ACV01] Fry's line "My God, it's the future!" cf. "My God, he's become evil!" - [1ACV01] Bender doll says Bender's first words {pm} - [1ACV02] Leela has to convince Fry that something he likes is actually boring (the moon cf. baseball) - [1ACV03] Kill All Humans {hl} >> Fan-made Alternate Titles for this Episode "Bite My Shiny Metal Planet" {ds} "Get Bender" "Night of Bender" {jk} "Planet of the Bots" {hl} ======================================================================== = Voice Credits = >> Starring Billy West ..................... Fry, Professor Farnsworth, Zoidberg, food stand man, Guard 2, "unscrew our lugnuts," bailif, Elders 1 & 4, "precious lugnuts!" Katey Sagal ................................................... Leela John DiMaggio ........................ Bender, "human," Tetris worker >> Guest Starring Tress MacNeille .................................. Wendy, woman robot Phil LaMarr .................................................. Hermes Maurice LaMarche ................... Guard 1, Robot DJ, "even in your movie theaters!", Judge, Elder 2 Dave Herman ..................... Rusty, crummy-looking robot, Mayor, Elder 3 Tom Kenny ...................... Nosy Robot, "Hooray for the humans!" Unknown ......................................... 2 moviegoing robots ======================================================================== = Contributers = {aa2} Andy Andy {jk} Joe Klemm {ac2} Adrian Chmielarz {jr} Jeremy Reaban {ah} Aaron Howald {kh} Kevin Hayes {amc} Andrew McEwan Carty {mp} Mark Poyser {bd} Brad Dugan {ms} Max Silvestri {bm} Broke Man {ms2} Mark Spaeth {bw} Bob Wells {pm} Paul Melnyk {ddg} Don Del Grande {rs} Reagen Sulewski {dga} Dale G. Abersold {sam} Steven Aaron Monroe {dj} Daniel Janes {sv} Steve VanDevender {ds} Dave Sweatt {sw} Sam Worf {ds2} Dave Sarley {tm} Tyler McHenry {hl} Haynes Lee {vy} Vince Yim {jb} Jason Barrera ======================================================================== Futurama and its characters belong to ===== First uploaded: 23-May-1999 FOX. Please do not confuse them with ===== Revision E : 13-Mar-2000 fans of the show, such as the people ===== E-mail me: who contributed to this capsule. :-) ================================= Compiled by Robo Jordan Eisenberg. =================================