======================================================================== ============= THE FUTURAMA CHRONICLES ==== EPISODE CAPSULE ============= ======================================================================== Official Title: I Second That Emotion Episode Number: 2ACV01 (#14) First Airdate : Sunday, November 21st, 1999 (8:30) Written by : Patrick M. Verrone Directed by : Mark Ervin ======================================================================== = Additional tidbits = Opening theme promotion : MADE FROM MEAT BY-PRODUCTS Opening theme cartoon : 1943's "Fresh Hare" {ms} 21-Nov-99 Nielsen ranking: 8.8 million households (#41 for the week) 12-Mar-00 Nielsen ranking: 4.3 million households (#89 for the week) Length minus commercials : [21:18] MPAA rating : TV-PG-L Executive Producer credit: Seperate ======================================================================== = Foxworld Synopsis = Professor Farnsworth installs an empathy chip in Bender, forcing him to feel human emotion. After Bender flushes Nibbler -- Leela's beloved pet -- down the toilet, while showing no sign of remorse, the insensitive robot is programmed to receive Leela's emotional frequency. Overcome by sadness, Bender sets out on a mission to find Nibbler and save him from the dangerous depths of the sewers, where mysterious inhabitants lurk. ======================================================================== = Minutiae = - Glagnar's Human Rinds are a coucasian flesh color. - The alien in the commercial for Glagnar's human rinds has four arms, but only uses two of them. {thw} [Well, he _is_ holding the bag with one of them ... ] - It looks similar to the aliens that counted down to the new millennium in 1ACV01. - The floor under the can-opener has diagonal yellow stripes, like a no-parking zone. - One of the bars on the patio railing has bandage wrapped around it. - Nibbler is actually sitting still for his birthday. - Nibbler closes all three eyes when his hat is pulled over his third one. {thw} - The Planet Express refrigerator contains Calculon's Own salad dressing, orange juice, various grade bird eggs, and Third & Third & Third milk. - Next to the dart board in Fry and Bender's apartment, there is a dart stuck in the wall. - After Bender leaves to eat a bucket of ice-cream, a giant Slurm billboard is seen outside Planet Express. This appears in almost every subsequent episode, but it is brand-new here. - One rung in the ladder that leads down from the manhole is broken. - Almost every building in the mutants' village is a dry-cleaner's. - At the end, the far billboard is displaying a Got Protoplasm ad. ======================================================================== = Parallels to Science Fiction / Other References = + "Beneath the Planet of the Apes" (movie) - Our man Heston discovers a race of mutant humans living in the bombed out future-sewers of New York City. They also workship a huge atomic bomb, as seen in last night's episode. {rs} + Harlem Globetrotters {jk} - Bender whistling "Sweet Georgia Brown" {hl} while spinning his head at the tip of his fingers and doing dance steps is this group's trademark stunt. + Newman's Own (salad dressing) - Calculon's Own parodies this delicious salad dressing by Paul Newman. {jb} + "The PJ's" (TV show) - The pothole cover that Fry and Leela remove before entering the sewer displays the face of Thurgood Stubbs -- just like in the opening sequence of this show. ~ "Star Trek: Generations" (TV show) - Data finally installs his emotion chip and says "Holy sh*t!" {hl} ~ "Superman: The Movie" (1978) (duuh ... ) - Probably just a coincidence, but some lines in this episode recall dialogue from a scene set in Lex Luthor's subterranean Metropolis headquarters. The contrast between what lies on a glamorous aboveground vs. what lies below must be appealing to joke writers: Lex Luthor: Miss Teschmacher, how many girls do you know who have a Park Avenue address like this one? Eve Teschmacher: Park Avenue address? Two-hundred feet below? {es} ~ "The Tick" (TV show) - The whole trip into the sewer system was reminiscent of the Tick episode where Tick and Arthur go into the sewer to save the city. {lf} - Episode 31: "The Tick vs. Filth." I should also mention that Sewer Urchin is present, leading them. {re} ======================================================================== = Goofs = - Beginning with this episode, a few minor changes have been made to the Planet Express building. Aside from being more consistent in its surroundings, it now sports a metallic window covered with a tin gate and a drop-off slot in the corner opposite the big-screen TV, the emergency shower stall has been replaced by an interesting new gadget with a cross in the center, and there is now a large Slurm billboard outside. There are probably more to find for those who care to. - Bender didn't seem to be affected by the magnet in the can opener. {ddg} [His survival chip probably has a higher priority than his inhibition chip, so the magnet overriding it would have little effect. {lf}] [If so, then neither has a higher priority than his patriotism circuit. - ed] - Bender has his head cut open by the can opener, but the cut only shows up when Fry asks if he's alright. {thw} - In the waiting room, the space between the tree and the cat-owner is very small, but it appears to be much longer when the doctor calls his next patient. - The vet must have shaped his own tooth into the shape of a fang for Nibbler. {thw} - The egg carton inside the refrigerator moves when Bender goes to get a couple of eggs. - I wonder how Bender cooked those HUGE bottom layers. They'd never fit in side his chest cavity. {pt} - It's hard to believe that on his birthday, Nibbler actually managed to avoid attention long enough to wander into the kitchen alone. - The room adjacent to the TV room was a hallway in 1ACV12. The crew carries Bender, Fry and the couch through it in 1ACV03, and Farnsworth passes through it in 1ACV06 (while rambling about a race of atomic supermen) and 1ACV07 (before explaining the crew's mission). Nibbler later has a pet-door under it in 2ACV03 and it leads to Professor Farnsworth's laboratory (which is actually on the floor below) in 2ACV06. I highly doubt it's a bathroom. - When Bender carried Nibbler into the bathroom, the door only had one sliding piece, but from here on, it has two. - Amy gladly went to the back seat of Armando's car for coffee, even though she later says that she hates it in 2ACV07. {dm} - Outside Fry and Bender's apartment, there are stars at the very bottom of the window, where the city should be seen. - The dart in the wall of Fry and Bender's apartment disappears. - Where does Bender plan on finding his bucket of ice-cream? 1ACV03 shows nothing but a wall in that corner. (Maybe the 'squeaky' robots next door moved out and they joined apartments. Or closets. But this can't be true, either -- in 2ACV11 that's the corner where Fry eats and sleeps.) - How did Bender succeed in flushing his torso down the toilet? - The mutants in the sewers celebrate Christmas and Easter -- even though [2ACV04 reveals that Chistmas is a changed holiday]. (Of course, the mutants' society could have been living underground so long that the holiday's change never reached them.) {bc} - Dwayne's line, as it appears in the captions, is actually " ... then I suppose you also _don't_ believe in El Chupanibre." Notice the extra "don't." This is how the line should read, since otherwise it makes no sense. - Directly after Bender drops Nibbler and runs away screaming, you can see him standing motionless behind Fry -- even as the sound of his scream is still heard (faintly). - Why can't Nibbler just eat El Chupanibre, like he did to the animals in 1ACV04? - When Leela picks up Nibbler, her shirt becomes magically untorn. In fact, this is the second time Leela's clothing has miraculously changed itself -- in 1ACV07, Leela's jacket went from buttoned to unbuttoned in an instant. What, are we to assume that this is some sort of (snicker, snicker) MAGIC tanktop? {jb} ======================================================================== = Extended Goofs / Technical Nitpicks = >> It'd take some kind of genius to complain about continuity Don Del Grande: According to his fang, Nibbler is five -- but five what? Five revolutions of what was his home planet around its sun? How long is that in Earth years? Larry Finkelstein: That would depend on the distance to the star it orbited. Since the tooth grew a new layer every year, then the planet must have distinctive seasons, so animals would respond to 'years'. That implies 1. an elliptical orbit, 2. a tilted axis (like Earth) or 3. it orbits a multiple star system. Or some combination of them. I would also guess that Nibbler's species hibernates and grows the new tooth layer while sleeping. This could be a possible episode, Nibbler doesn't wake up one morning and Leela freaks out. >> No way out? Don Del Grande refutes this hypothetical complaint: "If Fry's book said the only way out was through the small pipe, how did they get out, anyway?" It shouldn't be that hard for Bender to extend his legs high enough to reach any manhole cover, then give Fry and Leela a lift up (presumably, the book assumed the reader didn't have a robot along). Larry Finkelstein: The map in the book would be very complicated and 3D. Fry, who couldn't count 5 rings, probably couldn't read it properly. ======================================================================== = Reviews = Nate "Bender" Burch: Ah, Bender ... I challenge anyone to come up with any character funnier on TV today. It's gotten to the point where all he has to do is speak and I laugh. Anywho this episode was Bender at the top of his game. The first act was full of great jokes, and Bender flushing nibbler was one of the greatest things I've ever seen. How could it get any funnier you ask? Why give Bender an empathy chip so he feels what Leela feels, comedy ensues! All the jokes in this episode were very fresh and original, the kind only a really talented writer can come up with. The ending lost a bit of momentum (this isn't a saturday morning cartoon, we don't need a weekly action sequence), but could hardly take away from the excellent first two acts. (A+) Eric Sansoni: An ideal Futurama episode: The sci-fi concepts are not just decoration but foundation, the tone is playful without relying on simple parody, and character development drives everything. The series' 3rd major focus on a gross-out concept may be ill-advised, but here the irony of the characters tolerating things fairly well makes it funnier. Nibbler and a bizarre female mutant are memorable, while comments about Zapp's web page and a mutant's philosophical musings make for hilarious moments. The show has likened men to robots before, but this time Bender is a revelation. Both fascinating as a robot and satirically stinging as a caricature of the insensitive male, his complexity is unlocked like never before. (A) "Spacer2000": This episode started good and it stayed that way, much to my dismay and gladness. It was good -- not a hysterical classic. The Nibbler-down-the-toilet was funny and Leela's soft side showed. The "PJ's" reference was silly. :-) Only a few times did it slow down to average, so I give it a: (B+) Yours Truly: I thought it was disappointing as the first true Season Two episode. While the animation and characters have become more defined, the humor seemed to pack little punch. The plot, however, was excellent in its use of heavy themes and in covering such large ground with such a tight story. As a whole, it seems to come with all the trademark qualities of Futurama, minus the jokes. (B-) Average Grade: [13/4=3.25] (A-) ======================================================================== = Final Thoughts / Comments = >> Amusing Title Sequence Musings Mike Smith: The cartoon is 1943's "Fresh Hare." You're lucky if you find a public domain tape, since the firing squad ending is shocking! It makes as if "Northwest Hounded Police" was banned by Wal-Mart! Daniel L. Dreibelbis: Actually, "Fresh Hare" is on the "Bugs Vs. Elmer" videotape MGM/UA put out a few years ago (I have a copy). It's order number M201767. (Actually, the short "The Big Snooze," also on the same tape, is even more shocking -- Bugs takes a sleeping pill overdose to get into Elmer's dream, and later dresses Elmer in drag and puts him on a streetcorner surrounded by zoot-suited wolves! ("HOOWWWWLLLL old is she?!") ) >> Gotta catch 'em all Joe Klemm: Virtual Pets was a Japanese fad that hit America in 1997. Users would have a keychain-size device which would contain a computer creature. The people who have virtual pets were to raise them the same way you raise a regular pet. The craze had a short period of popularity, then quickly died down just before Pokemon hit America. However, one type of Virtual Pet device, Digimon, has found another way to gain success in the USA thanks to the Anime series that airs on Fox. >> We know who the real crooks are -- all those copyright infringers! Don Del Grande: "(Roger) Ebert's Little Movie Glossary" (reprinted as "Ebert's Bigger Little Movie Glossary") has a name for the all-too common singing of a birthday song that's not "Happy Birthday": "Jolly Bornday." Usually, it's done because royalties have to be paid if "Happy Birthday" is used (I know Michael Jackson owned the rights at one time, but I think he sold them when he sold the rights to the Beatles songs), but it may just be a spoof of that as I would assume Fox could afford the royalties. Pat Livingston: Actually, the rights to 'Happy Birthday' are owned by the family of the lady who wrote the song. The last time I heard (which was approx. 1-2yrs ago) two sisters held the rights to the royalty. They receive about $5.00 each time it is used professionally. They still manage to rake in 10 to 30 grand a year, even though most production companies try to screw them by using "For He's a Jolly Good Fellow." Also, considering the rampant syndication of shows, they feel the 'paperwork' is too much hassle (yeah, right). Benjamin Robinson: According to what I read in the papers, "Happy Birthday" will become a public domain song in 2002 (or thereabouts). The two copyright owners have only a short time before rake in all that royalty dough. >> Let's Go Internet 1900 Marie Hicks: Fry is navigating [the sewers] with a guide book called "Let's Go Sewers 3000." Let's Go is a guide book company run and researched by Harvard undergrads. The writer behind this gag was probably a Harvard alum -- especially since a few minutes later, Fry tells Leela that the guide book says the only way out of the sewer is through a tiny pipe that a hamster could barely squeeze through. "Don't worry -- it widens after about a mile." This is typical Let's Go form -- their guides have a notorious reputation for leading you into the worst situations, like rat-trap hotels populated by crack smugglers and "popular sites" that ceased to exist years before. David S. Chesler provides this URL to teach us more: . >> Haynes Lee's Folklore Alert! False: There are alligators inhabiting the sewers of New York City. See BTW, gators have pointy snouts while crocs have rounded snouts. True: Sewer rats can come into the house and bite one's behind while on the potty True: Pet snakes have been known to escape through the toilet plumbing. (It happened to wrestling's Jake "The Snake" Roberts' python in Toronto.) Also ... in New York City, there has been subculture communities of homeless people dwelling in disused subway tunnels. In other countries street kids have also been known to live in sewer tunnels. There is also a song called "People of the Subway" by Kansas. Robert Muldoon provider a snippet from "UNEXPLAINED!": "They (alligators) got there when baby alligators purchased as pets (they were sold as often and as cheep as candy in the 30's in Florida to tourists) were dispatched down toilets. Though the rumor (of alligators in sewers) was circulated most wildely in the 1960's, in March 1935 and June 1937 both live and dead alligators were recovered (from the Bronx River)." In the years afterward, NYC sewer workers asked for protection from the creatures. >> El Chupatrivia "DalGoda" : It's a play on "El Chupacabra" (Translation: Goat Sucker) a legendary beast that stalks livestock (sometimes people) in South America and now Mexico (even Miami sightings). An episode of The X-Files brought the myth to the mainstream. Do a web search for it or for "x creatures," mythic beasts or "Mongolian Blood Worm" (I'm serious about the last one). Frederick J. Barnett Jr.: It was also featured on a segment of Dexter's Laboratory. It turns out Dexter created the creature to scare Dee Dee away from his lab. For a while I thought it was just something they did for DL, until I heard about this legend on another show. (It wasn't "The X-Files" -- I don't watch that). David Antonoff: BTW, concerning the Futurama version, Chupanibre, there is no 'nibre' in Spanish. Not in 1999, anyway. One can only assume that over the next millenium a new species will be discovered, quite possibly in a Hispanic nation. >> Last, and probably least Timothy Henrick Wille-Jørgensen: No wonder Zoidberg thinks Nibbler is talented to be able to hold a spoon. It requires a certain breed of crab-lobster-monster to hold a spoon in those pincers ... Brian Corvello: Due to the ease with which he makes the cake, Bender has apparently become a much better cook between now and "My Three Suns." "DalGoda" : Third & Third & Third would probably be a fraction better than Half & Half. :) Remember Arch Duke Chocula! Timothy Henrick Wille-Jørgensen: Bender's limbs actually interchange -- he can connect his leg to his arm socket and still make it work. Also, I think it's funny that Bender is so hideously unhuman that he can't figure out where to put his arms and legs without a manual. I realize it's to make the comedy timing work, but Leela's reaction to the mutants is pretty weird. It's Dwayne's low E string that breaks -- it's usually the last one to break. Anyway, he should be able to play just fine with the remaining five (I played guitar without a high E string the whole first year). Dave B.: When Fry, Leela and Bender were in the mutant crowd, I saw two cyclops that have a close resemblance to Leela. When [Raoul] was singing about [El Chupanibre], Leela was on the far right side of the screen and the cyclop couple that might be her parents was on the far left. Could these be her long lost parents? If they are, does that mean Leela is a Mutant? ======================================================================== = Fun Stuff = >> References to Previous Episodes - [1ACV01] O'Zorgnax's Pub - [1ACV01] Bender's arms fall off -- he groans - [1ACV01] Underground NNYC seen - [1ACV05] Miniature Bender figurine (sold to bots cf., on the cake) - [1ACV06] Someone says "Ritzy" (first Amy, now Fry) - [1ACV10] Bender's internal CPU helps him cheat at a game - [1ACV13] Moon Maggot looks like the Slurm Queen >> Fan-made Alternate Titles for this Episode "Down in the Dumps" "Goodbye Mr. Empathy Chip" {hl} "Hello Gutter, Good-Bye Nibbler" {es} ======================================================================== = Voice Credits = >> Starring Billy West ........................ Fry, Zoidberg, Farnsworth, Doctor Katey Sagal ................................................... Leela John DiMaggio ................................................ Bender Tress MacNeille ....................................... Linda, Vyolet >> Also Starring Maurice LaMarche .................................... Calculon, Raoul >> Guest Starring Phil LaMarr ............................. "Glagnar" announcer, Hermes Dave Herman ............................................. Vet, Dwayne Lauren Tom ...................................................... Amy Frank Welker ................................................ Nibbler