Episode Capsule: [1ACV03] I, Roommate

Title: I, Roommate
Written by: Eric Horsted
Directed by: Bret Haaland
Opening theme promotion: AS SEEN ON TV
Opening theme cartoon: "Baby Bottleneck"

Synopsis

Fry is such a slob that he is forced to move out of the Planet Express offices. But friendship makes for strange bedfellows when he moves in with Bender and discovers the nuts and bolts of living with a robot.

Voice Credits

Starring

Billy West (Fry, Farnsworth, Dr. Zoidberg, Smitty, underwater landlord)
Katey Sagal (Leela)
John DiMaggio (Bender, URL, Randy)

Guest Starring

Tress MacNeille ("Bachelor Chow" lady, Monique, Hattie, "fatass")
Lauren Tom (Amy)
Phil LaMarr (Hermes, New Jersey landlord)
Maurice LaMarche (AMC announcer, Calculon, AMC priest)

Did You Notice…

that instead of pigeons or rats the city is over-run with owls? — Dave Hall
that Fry snores? — Dave Hall
people are sitting and eating off of the very same table fry slept on?
that Hermes says water consumption has tripled, but the chart shows it has only doubled? — Steev Hayes
that the chart shown on the viewing screen is not computer generated but rather a picture of a chart? — Dave Hall
that we've seen more nudity so far on Fry than Leela? Boo! — Steev Hayes
anyone can shutdown the rocket ship's engines from the outside? — Dave Hall
Fry not wearing Nike shoes anymore? — Mark Poyser
Fry eats his Bachelor Chow cold while the commercial appears to be showing steam emanating from it? — Dave Hall
the monster truck wrestling ring has red, white, and blue ropes? — Joe Klemm
The United States has still not fully implemented the metric system. — Haynes Lee
the token human in the Robot soap opera? — Dave Hall
Bender has a lighter built into his left hand? — Dave Hall
that the apartment numbers in Robot Arms Apartments are written in binary and Bender's one being 36 (decimal) which in ASCII is "$"? — James Dean
heptopi inhabit the sea? [{SH} explains: "The squid has 7 tentacles, being somewhat appropriate in a world where humans have four fingers.] — Mark Poyser
New Jersey is still a bad place to live in?
rent control still exists?
Fry "knew" where the closet is in the new apartment? — Dave Hall
Calculon's autograph is stolen from 'Mary'? — Reznic de Bergerac
Bender is sitting on their home-made beanbag chair later in the episode?
Bender drinks the entire 6-pack he went to get on the way home? — Reznic de Bergerac
Dr. Zoidberg claps by snapping his claws open and closed?
the landlady's eyes are slightly misaligned, i.e. not looking in exactly the same direction?
there is still a choice between cable and satellite TV service? — Haynes Lee
Amy is rooting for Calculon's evil twin? — Dave Hall
both times Amy slips, you can see the banana peel fly into the air briefly? — Steev Hayes
that Amy must have crawled out of the apartment after slipping a second time? — Joe Klemm
the antennae is supposedly a robot's equivalent of his 'manhood.' Strange how they're openly displayed on the tops of their heads like that. (Do robots reproduce with their antennae?)
Leela tells Bender to look her in the eye?
Bender slams his chest plate shut before running out of the room? — Dave Hall
Bender's chest cavity hangs open while he goes on his "non-bender," which may symbolize his dishevelment?
Bender sweats oil under his armpits? — Dave Hall
the owls in the alley Bender is in? — Joe Klemm
Fry has apparently gotten fatter throughout this episode, as we can see the bottom of his belly sticking out of his shirt?
it took a [robot] soap opera to get Fry and Bender back together? — Dave Hall
the cop holds Bender's antenna with pinky extended? — Dave Hall
Amy only has three lines in this episode? — Dave Hall
Bender has an extra button to erase parts of his memory? — fo0bar
This is the third episode in a row in which Bender has done his "flame belch"? — Jesse Barboza

External References

57 Channels (and Nothin' On) (song)

Fry says "40,00 channels and only 150 of them have anything good on." which is a reference to this Bruce Springsteen song. — Darrel Jones All My Children (TV Series)
"All My Circuits" is obviously a parody on this popular ABC soap opera out of the 70s. — Regular Joe Bigfoot (monster truck)
One of the monster truck wrestlers. — Joe Klemm Happy Days (TV series)
Fry saying "aay" like the Fonz. — Haynes Lee
fixing the TV with a hit. — Reznic de Bergerac Lost weekend (movie)
Bender, going through withdrawal, is assaulted on all sides by neon images of "Boring Lecture Tonight" and "Church Revival." (See Freeze Frame Fun for a complete list.) This is a reference to the movie "Lost Weekend" from 1945. Of course, Ray Milland was tempted by neon signs of "Beer" and "Bar" and "Tavern" while trying to stay sober. — Joe Klemm The Odd Couple (TV series/movie)
Fry and Bender loosely reenact the show's theme with the same music and add a twist to the 'cigarette-on-the-floor' bit. The Persistence of Memory (painting)
Bender bends an alarm clock as a nod to the melted clocks of this painting by Salvador Dali. Relativity (lithograph)
It's not the first time a Groening comic spoofs this picture. 'The Big Book of Hell' shows Bongo falling up and down the stairs. — Krishna Sethuraman
The physics-defying room full of staircases that the crew see on their apartment hunt is similar to this famous picture by M.C. Escher. Secret (antiperspirant)
Their slogan is "Made by a woman, for a woman." Replace "woman" with "robot" and you have the RoboFresh slogan. Andy Warhol
Someone is copying this artist's style and applying it to cans of Slurm in the next millennium. Or Andy's Head is still around. The Wizard of Oz (movie)
Remark about Bender's heart. — Haynes Lee
His 'dream', 'and you were there' type statement. WWE
Monstertruck wrestling announcer sounded suspiciously like Vince McMahon from the World Wrestling Federation WWE. — Reznic de Bergerac Isaac Asimov (author)
Do Robots dream? Yes they do, of killing humans. I have to wonder if that wasn't a tribute to Asimov where energy of killing a human is processed through dreams. Very clever. — Daniel Tropea
Title "I, Roommate" is a reference to the novel "I, Robot". Flight of the Phoenix (movie)
"As this shocking graph indicates, our water consumption has tripled in the last month." — Mark Poyser Star Trek (movies/TV series)
When the lady closed her cell phone, it made the Star Trek 'communicator' sound. — Nick Zielinski Red Dwarf (TV show)
In the episode "Kryten," the robot Kryten is a sanitation droid who only finds happiness in cleaning dishes and washing clothes, except his secret passion is watching the soap opera "Androids." It is a lot like "All My Circuits" in the way that it is a parody of a real, 20th century soap opera ("Neighbours") and the way that all the plots are similar to 20th century soap operas except they are given a robot twist. — Pete Escott

Futurama References

[1ACV01] Space Pilot 3000

Fry and Bender meet in a confined space. — Haynes Lee
Underground mutants idea.
Olde Fortran malt liquor returns. — Reznic de Bergerac [1ACV02] The Series Has Landed
Bender's fantasy of killing all humans. — Reznic de Bergerac
Amy is shown to be a klutz when slipping on a banana peel. (recurring theme) — fo0bar

Freeze Frame Fun

Fry's breakfast:

    NEW!

       BACHELOR
           CHOW

    NOW WITH FLAVOR!

Signs:

   FOOD-O-MAT

   ROBOT
   ARMS
   APTS.

RAA apartment numbers:

   Bender: 00100100           (36)
   Across the hall: 00100001  (33)
   To the right: ??100100     (??)
   To the left: 00111001      (87)

Newspaper ads:

                          Underwater
                            Living
                        at its Finest
      Unique
   Architecture.
     Must See
    to Believe.
                         Suspiciously
                          Fantastic
                          Apartment.

Autographed picture from Calculon

    To [Mary]      <-- "Mary" is crossed out
        Bender

    My biggest fan!
             Love,
        Calculon

Sign inside the new apartment

   10 HOME
   20 SWEET
   30 GOTO 10

Bender's itinerary for the night:

   NO LIQUOR                        PUBLIC
    LICENSE                         [book]
                                    LIBRARY

   BIBLE
   STUDY                            BORING
   2NITE                               G
                                       E
                                       O
                                       L
     WATER                             O
   FOUNTAIN                            G
       :                               Y
   : .                              LECTURE
   :...

Animation, Continuity, and Other Goofs

The front side of Planet Express looks different than from 1ACV02 (window direction, street light, height). — Dave Hall
The Planet Express ship changes directions during the morning meeting. — Dave Hall
The table that Fry slept on changes shape and size during the meeting; it even spouts that "thingy" in the middle. — Dave Hall
One of those magical vacant chairs materializes next to Prof. Farnsworth. — Dave Hall
The emergency shut down button open only appears when Leela pushes it. — Dave Hall
Bender's cigar doesn't appear in the wide inter. shot of Food-O-Mat. — Dave Hall
The jerk sitting behind Bender at the Food-O-Mat did not show up until Bender's jerk speech. — Dave Hall
The curtain that hangs over the wall TV in the new apartment vanishes during the home warming party. — Dave Hall
In the other rooms on Fry's floor, the TVs go out while Bender is on that floor, but in Fry's room, the TV only goes out when Bender enters the room. — Steev Hayes
If Bender's antenna can retract why couldn't he simply retract it while he's in the apartment? Not good enough? — Dave Hall
Bender's shadow shouldn't be projected on the inner wall of his 'apartment' if he's standing on the other side of the light bulb.
Fry says Bender got carpeting, but there is none at the end of the episode. — Steev Hayes
How could each robot have its own "closet" if the rooms are so close to each other? — Jeremy Michael Gallen
In Bender's closet, you'll notice a half-open door in the right wall. It seems to be a sliding door (possibly an automatic one) that looks like the entrance to a small closet. My question is, "Why is there a closet in the closet?" I mean, there's no real reason for this if the room is intended to be a closet. — Justin Thomas Cass
The numbering of the Robot Arms Apartments is in 8 bit binary. That would allow for a maximum of 256 apartments. Either they go up with the bits as needed or got some extra coding for the story, because it sure looks like there should be more than 256 apartments in this huge building.
The basic code seen does not produce "Home Sweet Home", but rather "Home Sweet Home Sweet Home Sweet Home ..." as the goto in line 30 is unconditional. It's partly the joke though.
Hermes does not move his lips when he says "we'll bill you for the couch". (DVD commentary reveals that this line was added at the last moment.) — fo0bar

Comments and Other Observations

"All My Circuits" ... amazing that All My Children changed its name like that. Also, soap operas being alive in the year 3000, I am amazed that through 2 alien attacks and the destruction of society shows like that could survive. Well, at least no one was named Erika Kane. — Daniel Tropea
Although not all that imaginative, the name "Calculon" might come from "The Cyberiad" by Stanislaw Lem. (ISBN 0-380-0517-4), Page 181: "In terror all the courtiers, degenerals and medical assistants rushed out to find some way to rejuvenate the royal person; at last they summoned the great Calculon himself, a sage of infinite wisdom. He came before the King and asked: 'What is it that Your Royal Highness wishes?'" — Darwin
Did anyone pick up the line about the female robot being Metric? Could Robot society have different social/religious branches being made up of metric and nonmetric? Sort of like today with the push towards the metric system. — Daniel Tropea
On rent control: Rent control is a system of regulating the rent of an apartment. This system was found in New York from World War II to 1997. It was dropped due to the idea that it had actually caused a real estate crisis in New York City. Under the old rent control system, the apartment rent would stay at the current price for the next owner. Now, when people move out of an apartment now, prices are regulated by free market guideline. Apparently, New New York has developed a new rent control system. — Yuri Dieujuste
On New Jersey: New Jersey must still be unattractive to most people. I guess after 1,000 years it is still a pain to get to New York by mass personal tube transit or hover car from New Jersey. — Yuri Dieujuste
Leela sounded too much like Peggy Bundy in this episode. Especially when she was telling Fry what to do. It wasn't just her voice but how she said it that I kept expecting her to say Al. Please let them not turn Leela into Peggy Bundy. — Daniel Tropea
I'm not sure, but I think when the robots are digging in the field for Bender's antenna is a reference to when the police were searching for John Wayne Bobbit's 'missing piece.' — Mike DeMers
When the police look for Bender's antenna, and the human picks it up, the other (robot) policeman says in a bit of a black-guy kind of voice, "You call that an antenna?" Perhaps making fun of the common perception about how endowed various ethnic groups are. — Mark Poyser
Opening theme promotion AS SEEN ON TV is removed from DVD release. Wierd censorship. — digitalk

Original capsule author: Futurama Chronicles, compiled by Jordan Eisenberg