Episode Capsule: [3ACV20] Godfellas

Title: Godfellas
Written by: Ken Keeler
Directed by: Susie Dietter
Opening theme promotion: PLEASE TURN OFF ALL CELL PHONES AND TRICORDERS

Synopsis

When Bender is accidentally swept away into a space vacuum, he becomes spiritually inclined and makes some devastating decisions. Meanwhile, Fry, Leela and Professor Farnsworth frantically search for Bender as he floats through space, and learns an important lesson from his journey.

Voice Credits

Starring

• Billy West (Fry, Professor Farnsworth, Zoidberg)
• Katey Sagal (Leela)
• John DiMaggio (Bender)
• Tress MacNeille

Guest Starring

• Phil LaMarr
• Lauren Tom (Amy)
• David Herman

Also Starring

• Maurice LaMarche (God)

Did You Notice…

• The skull on the space pirate flag had 3 sockets as the pirates have 3 eyes? — Marc Wichterich
• Two of the three pirate captain's eyes are patched and he has 3 additional wooden legs? — Marc Wichterich
• The Pioneer 10 plaque Bender engraves on his chest is made "prudes-proof"? — Marc Wichterich
• Bender once held Fry dangling from the torch of the Liberty Statue? — Marc Wichterich
• Swiss Army Knifes still exist? — Marc Wichterich
• Rolex either still exists or their watches have a really long life span? — Marc Wichterich
• Bender has tear-inducing feelings? See comments for more on this. — Marc Wichterich
• God is not all knowing? He has no clue where the earth is at first. — Marc Wichterich
• Bender takes the coin out of his back (or lower)? — Marc Wichterich
• Coolio was a president? — Ozan Ayyüce
• The First Amalgamated Church combines Buddhism, Christianity, Islam and Judaism? — Ozan Ayyüce
• Helper has got eyebrows — Cosmic F
• Bender is powered by nuclear energy? — Jonah Falcon

External References

Microcosmic God (Short Story, 1940)

• Scientist Kidder creates his own little race in an aquarium which thinks he's God in this story by Theodore Sturgeon. — Alan Hamilton Twilight Zone - The Little People

• Peter wants to be god over a race of little people he found. — Alan Hamilton The Simpsons - The Genesis Tub

• Lisa becomes god of a little race. — Alan Hamilton Goodfellas (Movie)

• The title of the episode. — Alan Hamilton Star Trek

• Opening promotion tells us to turn off our tricorders. — Alan Hamilton The Nine Billion Names of God

• Written by Arthur C. Clarke. Tibetan monastery uses technology to search for God. They have worked for centuries to write out the nine billion combinations of their letters that could be God's name. Then they buy a computer and a printer and wrap it up in a few months. — Alan Hamilton Budweiser

• Bender lets his little people brew "Lordweiser" — Marc Wichterich Also sprach Zarathustra (Music)

• The piece by Richard Strauss with the drums also known from "2001" is named after Nietzsche's work which also includes the famous line "God is dead". This however was not an intended reference according to Ken Keeler. — Marc Wichterich Men in Black (movie)

• The zoom through the universe at the end of the episode is like that at the the end of the movie. — Daniela Schad Die Blaue Donau (Music)

• "The Blue Danube" in English. This piece by Johann Strauss is also used in "2001". — Alan Hamilton Pioneer Spacecraft

• The drawing Bender scratches into his chest is the drawing used on the Pioneer 10 and 11 spacecraft. http://spaceprojects.arc.nasa.gov/Space_Projects/pioneer/PN10&11.html — Alan Hamilton Polonaise in C Minor (song)

• by Chopin. The piano song played by Bender was actually performed by the episode's writer Ken Keeler himself according to an interview. — Marc Wichterich

Futurama References

[2ACV08] Raging Bender

• Bender was said to have a nose he never wears, now he has ears. — Marc Wichterich [1ACV08] A Big Piece of Garbage

• The smell-o-scope is used again. This time to search for Bender. — Marc Wichterich [2ACV18] The Honking

• The fortune teller gypsy wants to sell Fry false hope this time — Marc Wichterich [3ACV18] Anthology of Interest 2

• Fry uses an arcade video game to shoot at space ships — Marc Wichterich [1ACV12] When Aliens Attack

• The Omicronian Leader Lrr tells Fry to quit asking if Bender is there. — Marc Wichterich [3ACV11] Insane in the Mainframe

• Bender has a Napoleon craze in this episode. In Godfellas a photo of him as Napoleon can be seen. — edeltraut [2ACV05] Why Must I Be A Crustacean in Love?

• Zoidberg's smell glands are overpowering Bender's mild odor. — haleys_comet [3ACV19] Roswell that Ends Well

• The only other time we've seen the ship use its torpedo tubes. — Michael Nissen

• The pieces of Bender picked up by the army is radioactive, and now we learn that Bender has a pile of nuclear materials. — Michael Nissen [2ACV04] Xmas Story

• Fry mentions the incident in this episode when Bender stole blood — Joe25 [2ACV16] Anthology of Interest 1

• Bender being a giant. Malachi is standing near Bender eyes. Bender says "hand over your wallet" to Malachi and asks for Fry's in AoI1. — haleys_comet

Freeze Frame Fun

Malachi's wife's apron:
Metal Lord is my Metal Shepherd

The one commandment:
GOD NEEDS BOOZE

The coin Bender flips:
Heads: Liberty - 2996 (picture of coolio)
Tails: MC Pluribus Unum - Word! (picture of two-headed eagle)

Fry and Leela buy in:
Ed's Hiking Supplies
     & Spelunketeria

Bender's Bible:
The Bible - by Bender - with Malachi

The Porno Theater:
Ezekiel's Nasty House

Sign on Bender's antenna:
Do not disturb

Animation, Continuity, and Other Goofs

• The Statue of Liberty keeps changing what it has in the hand. This time it's the torch again (on a photo). Usually it's a transportation tube — Marc Wichterich
• The dropping bomb sound Bender makes can be heard before he even enters the atmosphere. — Marc Wichterich
• Why does the sack of Swag Bender is holding on to wave? Usually there isn't any substance in the universe like air that could make the bag wave. — Cosmic F
• Why is Malachi hanging "down" when Bender holds him even though there's no gravity? But even IF Bender affected him enough, he would have to "hang" in direction to bender, and not to the bottom of the camera's view angle when Bender turns around. — Cosmic F
• One of Benders tears produces a river so big that he can put his own hand into it. — Cosmic F
• The hole in Bender's head disappears later on — Joe25
• Bender is much too small an astronomical object to obtain an atmosphere. Yet he definitely has one even if the small people could survive without it, Atomic bombs only produces mushroom clouds in a multi-layered atmosphere. — Martin Fink
• The Pioneer spacecraft diagram on Bender's chest also disappears. — Alan Hamilton
• The coin Bender flips out doesn't float off into space. — haleys_comet

Comments and Other Observations

• It's just like Bender to only give the Shrimpkins a single coin for their wealth. — haleys_comet
• Explaining Bender's tear-inducing emotions: His problem with emotions is not that he doesn't have any, but that he's selfish. He just didn't care for Nibbler enough to mourn for his loss without the emotion chip. But Bender has expressed depression in previous episodes (ex. I, Roommate). And even Bender has his limits to his careless attitude towards others. The fact that he labored to build suicide machines for years had bothered him enough to attempt suicide. So Bender does have a conscience, though not one that is strict enough to consider Nibbler's well being. — Phoebe
• The entire episode is what is known as a "parable", a religious fable. — Jonah Falcon
• Writer Ken Keeler won the 55th Annual WGA Award for this episode even though he was pitted against no less than 3 Simpsons ones. — Marc Wichterich

Original capsule author: Can't get enough Futurama <www.gotfuturama.com>