Episode Capsule: [4ACV09] Teenage Mutant Leela's Hurdles

Title: Teenage Mutant Leela's Hurdles
Written by: Jeff Westbrook
Directed by: Bret Haaland
Opening theme promotion: NOW INTERACTIVE! Joystick controls Fry's left ear

Synopsis

When Fry and the Planet Express gang realize that at 161 years old, the Professor has become too crotchety to handle, they decide he needs to be "youth-a-sized". Traveling to an asteroid, they register the Professor at a posh resort where their full-body bath in searing hot tar is guaranteed to turn back the clock. Through a series of unfortunate accidents, the bath covers not only the Professor but also everyone else and all are affected by the treatment. Back at Planet Express, a now 53-year-old Professor tries to keep a now 13-year-old Fry and other kids under control while looking for a way to reverse the effects of the tar treatment. Meanwhile, "the kids" all react to their newfound youth, including Leela, who decides she could have a taste of the childhood she never had as an orphan.

Voice Credits

Starring

Billy West (Fry, Dr. Zoidberg, Prof. Farnsworth)
Katey Sagal (Leela)
John DiMaggio (Bender)
Tress MacNeille

Guest Starring

David Herman
Phil LaMarr (Hermes)
Lauren Tom (Amy)
Dawn Lewis

Also Starring

Maurice LaMarche

Did You Notice…

Leela has a Curious Pussycat backpack? — Marc Wichterich
Leela didn't use the PJ's sewer entry a few meters away this time around? — Marc Wichterich
The Wong Ranch got a slightly more poor looking sign than last time we saw it? — Marc Wichterich
Dwayne the mutant is a teacher now? — Marc Wichterich
Amy was a bit on the heavy side and needed glasses at age 8 but was fine shortly before that? — Marc Wichterich
The Eiffel Tower floats up and down? — Marc Wichterich
Although French is extinct and among humans, gargoyles still know a bit of it? — Marc Wichterich
Hermes resembles Kid of Kid N Play? — Jonah Falcon
Bender has braces? — Jonah Falcon
Farnsworth had an afro at age 37, and a hippie even younger than that? — Jonah Falcon
Zoidberg is a slug, then a trilobyte, then an oyster, then a lamprey, a fish, then an urchin, then a sea anemone, then finally a coral (and ages back into a starfish)? — Jonah Falcon
The picture of an alien eating a child on the cover of "A Child's Garden of Space Legends"? — Cygnus-hime
14-year-old Fry had a mullet? — Cygnus-hime
Zoidberg's voice never even had a slight difference no matter how young he got? — LB
Bender's "Soundwave Mouth" has braces when he is 14? — LB
That for a would-be wild teen, Leela's date outfit wasn't very risque? — Cygnus-hime
That teenage Leela has a poster on her room with musicians who look like the Beatles? — Cygnus-hime
That Leela was looking at Fry all lovey-dovey at the end? (There's hope for them yet!) — Cygnus-hime
That in the tradition of movies like "The Incredible Shrinking Man," the characters diminish at an increasingly faster rate. (For example, Farnsworth de-ages from ten to toddler in a matter of minutes.) — Cygnus-hime
The roof of Planet Express is fixed very quickly after the gargole hunt? Ah the future... — Cybornut
It's extremely easy to lift a manhole cover now? Ah the future... — Jonah Falcon
The father and son gargoyles actually ARE on one of the parapets of Notre Dame? — Jonah Falcon
Bender needs batteries? (I'd guess they were nuclear batteries...) — Jonah Falcon
That for something Farnsworth describes as "just a legend", the Fountain of Aging is extremly easy to locate? — Michael Nissen
The gargoyle said good night in French (bonne nuit) at the end? — KN
All it takes is one drop of sewer cleaner to keep the world's supply of drinking water safe for one day? — Clamps
Young Bender has antenna ears, referring to an early design concept Groening had for him? — Tate
Prof. Farnsworth looks nothing like Cubert, his clone, when he is younger? — Kola
Heather, the spa nurse, is a Neptunian just like Elzar? — Chris
The Planet Express Ship's left blinker is on when Prof. Farnsworth holds up traffic on the space freeway? — Chris
Sal is using iodine to make sewer water clear? — luskan
Planet Express parks in the Disabled parking area? — Tarbi
That people are still dying in the future even though you can become young again by youthasizing? — Tarbi
That Dwight and teen Hermes both looked like they were going to an 80's/early 90's convention? Hermes looks like Kid from Kid and Play (although I personally thought that he looked like a smaller Will from "Fresh Prince of Bel-Air"), and Dwight is wearing a shirt reminescent of the Kente designer line that was popular in the late 80's-early 90's. — Cygnus-hime

External References

Star Trek - Deep Space Nine

A space station similar to the one in Deep Space Nine is destroyed by the Professor. — Marc Wichterich Exorcist, The (movie)
Pazuzu is the name of the demon that possesses Regan McNeil — Jonah Falcon Heaven's Gate (movie)
Leela says "Oh for Heaven's Gate" — Jonah Falcon Fiddler on the Roof (movie)
Fiddler Way Below the Roof — Jonah Falcon 2000 Election
Florida vote-recounting — Jonah Falcon Star Trek (TV Series)
Therapist uses an old Star Trek tricorder — Jonah Falcon Star Trek III (movie)
Zoidberg resembles one of the evolved microbes around Spock's casket — Jonah Falcon Silly Straw
70's fad straw — Jonah Falcon Pac-Man
oil eating bacterium acts like Pac-Man — Jonah Falcon Charlotte's Web
Charlotte's Tholian Web — Jonah Falcon Mr. Potato Head
Bender becomes one — Jonah Falcon Star Trek (TV Series)
Charlotte's Tholian Web — Alan Hamilton The Hunchback of Notre Dame (animated movie)
Friendly Francophile gargoyles — Cygnus-hime Star Trek (TV Series)
The alien on the cover of A Child's Garden of Space Legends looks like a Gorn from "Arena." — Action Jacktion Bender Design
Original design of Bender has two ears/antenna and when he was reverted he has them. — Cybornut Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (cartoon)
Episode Title — PM Indiana Jones & The Last Crusade (movie)
Character undergoes rapid aging, tha ultimately kills him and turn him to dust in a matter of seconds. — Michael Nissen Pac-Man
The Pac-Man death sound was used when Farnsworth turned off the simulation. — Michael Nissen Martin Luther King, Jr High School
A major New York City high school. — Jonah Falcon Kid 'N' Play
Young Hermes has a hairstyle like Kid (Christopher Reid) of that rap duo. — Jonah Falcon Village Voice, The (weekly paper)
The review on the theater marquee references the weekly New York City paper. — Jonah Falcon Star Trek: The Next Generation
In the episode "Rascals" several Enterprise-D personnel are reverted into children. One of them, Ro Laren, reminisces about her lost youth, and how this might be a chance to relive that youth. — Michael Nissen A Clockwork Orange
Ultraporn, in A Clockwork Orange it was Ultraviolence. — Clamps Dune
The three-mouthed worm of the sewers and its noises refer to the great sand worms of Dune.... instead of the three-parted mouth this worm had three mouths. — Athos Futurama Season 2 DVD
In a hidden extra, Amy Wong is shown in a yearbook as being pudgy and pimple-faced in her teen years (poor girl!) — Cygnus-hime Pazuzu
Mesopotamian winged demon from 800 B.C. which was supposed to protect pregnant women. — KK

Futurama References

[4ACV01] Kif Gets Knocked Up A Notch

Amy likes ponies. In this one she got one standing next to her bed on the Wong Ranch — Marc Wichterich [4ACV02] Leela's Homeworld
Leela's parents living in the sewers are properly introduced for the first time. — Marc Wichterich [2ACV01] I Second That Emotion
The mutants in the sewers (including "Dwayne") are introduced in this episode. — Marc Wichterich [3ACV14] Time keeps on slippin'
The time altering chronotons now stuck to the DNA wreak havoc on Earth. — Marc Wichterich [3ACV03] A Tale of Two Santas
Bender talks to himself, pretending to complain, while bending. — Cygnus-hime [2ACV04] Xmas Story
Gee, that Farnsworth just loves to be naked! — Jonah Falcon [3ACV06] Bendless Love
We see Bender's "birth". — Jonah Falcon [4ACV04] Less Than Hero
Leela's father's drinking first appears here. — Brian Bleich

Freeze Frame Fun

Sign in space:

 EASTERN HALF
 OF UNIVERSE
RIGHT 3 LANES
\/   \/   \/

WELCOME TO FLORIDA
official state jokes:
* old people
* walking catfish
* recounts

GUMMER'S
    CAFETERIA
 home
of the
 heat
 lamp

THE
BUBBLING GEEZER
Hot Springs Spa

Botulism can:

  WARM
 CANNED
MUSHROOMS

Sewer cinema:

     FIDDLER WAY
    BELOW THE ROOF
It's crap! * * * * *!!
The village ??????

SEWAGE 
TREATMENT PLANT
   our duty
   is clear

Martin Luther Thing, Jr.
     High School

On the bacterial spew chamber:

    WARNING:
    EXTREME
   BIOHAZARD

The Book:

A Child's Garden of Space Legends
The Fountain of Aging

Bender's steps back:

       One 
   Bending Robot
Batteries not included

   Bending Robot
    Blueprints

Animation, Continuity, and Other Goofs

In "Bendless Love" Bender was born as an adult but here he gets even younger. — Kristi
Inez complains she'll never have a grandchild. What about Kif's tadpoles? Maybe the Wongs don't accept them because it was Leela's DNA that impregnated Kif, but not Amy's. — Phoebe
How could Farnworth fool everybody about his age (as mentioned in "A Clone Of My Own") if a simple reading with the age-gizmo could tell his precise age, within one decimal? — Michael Nissen
Leela shows no effect from being in the Fountain of Aging until after she comes out; she is still a teenager the whole time she is in the pool but isn't an adult again until she emerges. — Cygnus-hime
Farnsworth's clothes age and de-age with him, but the others' outfits only change to loincloths in the Fountain of Aging. — Action Jacktion

Comments and Other Observations

One of the most reliable movie-cliches is that no matter where in Paris the scene is set, you can always see the Eiffel Tower. In the last shot of the gargoyles, what doe you see in the background? The Eiffel Tower! — Michael Nissen
The amount of botulism toxin in the syringe looks way above the lethal dose, unless it was very diluted. — Michael Nissen
Butolinum toxin is used to treat severe muscle spasms, primarily in the arms. So far it might just be in the testing phase I saw it on a news program not 5 minutes ago (aprilt 3rd 2003). — Michael Nissen
Theory about Chronotons: I have a feeling that these little subatomic buggers cause an organism affected by them to revert to a form it took on at a previous point in time, regardless of the DNA patterns affecting its growth. This would explain Fry's mullet, Farnsworth's heinous mustache and 'Fro, the beanie on Bender's head, etc. It might also explain the change in clothing too, but I'm not too sure about that. Zoidy's larval stages: The tar must have seriously screwed up his DNA. At first, I thought that he was just devolving down the evolutionary scale, but his larval stages are all over the animal kingdom - squid, trilobite, lamphrey, sea urchin, octopus, sponge, starfish. The only way that could explain this would be sudden and massive mutation, plus some sort of affect on its neurons, since it's been proven in cell cultures that an organism can change its physical form if developing neurons are stimulated in a certain way. — Cygnus-hime
Life moves in circles. Judging by the professor's clothing and several hippies we see in Futurama, there was another hippie movement in the late 2800's reaching to the year 3000. — Jazz

Original capsule author: Can't Get Enough Futurama <www.gotfuturama.com>