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This is the second volume of Futurama, which collects episodes from Seasons 2 and 3.
The Main Characters
Futurama has 7 main characters, broken up into 4 main characters, and three other minor main characters. The whole shebang is based on Fry, the slacker Gen X-er from 1999 who wakes up a millennium later and doesn’t know what to do in the new world. He ends up working with a strange bunch of ‘toons. There’s Professor Farnsworth, the crazed, senile scientist and also Fry’s great, great great (great……………) nephew. Leela, a one eyed-purple haired woman/alien with an attitude, joins them. Also there is Bender, a foul-mouthed, beer-swigging robot. To round out the strange cast of misfits is Zoidberg, an octopus like alien who is a physician, Hermes Conrad a Rastafarian man who works is a bureaucrat, and Amy Wong, Farnsworth’s intern who is also from a very rich family.
The Setting
New York City in the year 3000.
The Plots
---Disc One---
1) I Second That Emotion (22:32)
Originally Aired: 11/21/99
Bender has a problem with Nibbler and the huge can opener that is used to open his food. Nibbler bites Bender but breaks a tooth and its off to the vet for him. We see on from the rings on his teeth that he’s five and Leela throws a party for him. Bender is a bit upset at all the attention Nibbler is getting. Bender can’t take it anymore when Nibbler eats the cake he made so he flushes Nibbler down the toilet. Leela is heartbroken and the rest of them are shocked that Bender has no feelings. They put an emotion chip on him so Bender can feel what Leela feels. He flushes himself down the toilet to find Nibbler and the rest of the crew go to help him. They go to the sewer and see a community of underground mutants. They mutants are actually nice until they find out that Leela was the one that unleashed El Chupanibre (Nibbler) upon them. They want to make a sacrifice of an untainted virgin and Leela offers herself. They say she can’t do because they’ve seen Zap’s webpage. The real monster shows up (its not Nibbler) and Leela must fight her feelings (which are transmitted to Bender) to stop the monster. This had some really funny moments (The Zap comment was hilarious) which made this a keeper.
2) Brannigan, Begin Again (22:32)
Originally Aired: 11/21/99
Leela, Fry and Bender must deliver a pair of over-sized scissors to the new DOOP headquarters for their ribbon-cutting ceremony. Zapp Brannigan is there and arrests Fry and Leela for having the scissors and interrogates them on his ship. He should be cutting the ribbon but instead uses a laser to cut the ribbon from his ship. Of course, Zapp messes up and destroys the new headquarters. Zapp is put on trial and is found guilty. He is stripped of his captain title and discharged, as is Kif. They have hit rock bottom (with their Midnight Cowboy reference) and come crawling back to Leela for a job at Planet Express. Brannigan and Kif start working there and Brannigan actually incites a mutiny where Leela is overthrown as captain. Brannigan has a plan to attack a neutral country to show he’s a hero again. He fails, and Leela has to save the day, but lies when at court so Zapp doesn’t have to work with them anymore. There was a funny running gag with Zapp wearing a girdle, much like William Shatner did on Star Trek but the rest of the episode didn’t feature too many laughs.
3) A Head in the Polls (22:33)
Originally Aired: 12/12/99
Bender and Fry watch “The Scary Door,” an obvious Twilight Zone reference. Lella comes in and makes them change the channel to a political debate. Leela and the Professor decide to get everyone to register to vote. They see all the different parties (some of which were hilarious) and return home. While watching the news we see there was an accident on Titan and due to the accident, titanium prices are soaring. Bender sells his body (since its 40% titanium) and revels in his money. He goes to the hall of presidents and Nixon says that life sucks without a body. Bender goes back to buy his body but it’s already been sold! It seems Nixon bought it and is now running for president. Bender, Leela and Fry go to Watergate to get the body back and after Nixon says some stupid things, Bender records it and blackmails him to get his body back. It seems that Nixon wins the election anyway and has a super robot body now. This was really a funny episode, with tons of gags and jokes that carried it from start to finish.
4) Xmas Story (22:33)
Originally Aired: 12/19/99
The gang is at a ski lodge for the winter and take in all the sights, including stand-up from Conan O’Brien’s head. They have a Charlie Brown skating reference that Bender ruins by smashing into the ice. Fry is ready to celebrate Christmas but things have changed. It’s no longer called Christmas, it’s Xmas now and Christmas trees are now pine trees since evergreens have been extinct for over 800 years. They each get their Xmas notes, except Leela, who is bummed about it. Fry decides to forgo the fact he’s dejected and buy Leela a gift. He goes out but learns he has to be back by sundown otherwise the killer robotic Santa Claus will kill him. Bender, in his Xmas cheer, pretends to be a bum so he can get free liquor at the homeless shelter. Leela learns that Fry went out to get her a gift and goes out to get him. They end up running into Santa Claus and having to run for their lives! They run into Bender while fleeing and eventually heading back home. Zoidberg eventually makes the save and they celebrate Xmas with an Xmas song. This was a fun look at what Xmas could be like in the 30th century.
5) Why Must I Be a Crustacean In Love? (22:31)
Originally Aired: 02/06/99
The gang heads to the gym (since Fry and Bender are getting fat) and start exercising. Unfortunately, Zoidberg goes absolutely insane (almost like roid rage, zoid rage even?) and the Professor finds out that he has too much male jelly (sperm) and its mating season. Zoidberg needs to go into his homeworld to find a mate. He goes and no one wants to mate with him. So Fry teaches Zoidberg that he needs to pretend to love someone to find a mate. Of course, when the object of Zoidberg’s affection finds out that Fry wrote the notes, she starts pursuing Fry! Zoidberg walks in on Fry getting it on with the woman (though Fry tries to stop) and Zoidberg challenges him to a fight to the death. They end up fighting but the crowd leaves and mates, then dies. Zoidberg goes on with his life and the episode is over. This had some funny things, especially with Fry talking about how to get women.
---Disc Two---
6) The Lesser of Two Evils (22:35)
Originally Aired: 02/20/00
A new amusement park opens called Past-O-Rama, where 20th century New York comes alive. There are so many funny things here, including a tablet that hasn’t been deciphered yet (a New York Parking sign). Of course, looking 1000 years into the past shows vast inconsistencies, like Gerald Ford making cars. Someone confuses Fry for an employee there as well, and he takes a car from one of the displays. He ends up crashing, into a robot that looks exactly like Bender. This robot, Flexo, is just a massive pain in the ass and just completely annoys Fry to no end. Things get worse when Professor hires Flexo to help protect an atom that will cause the place to go bankrupt if stolen. Bender, Flexo and Fry must guard this atom in separate 8 hour shifts but Fry spends Flexo’s whole shift watching him, then he has to watch it himself. Of course, Fry falls asleep and Flexo steals the atom. The gang searches for Flexo and the whole mess leads to a massive fight between Flexo and Bender, with it being revealed that Bender stole the atom. Flexo gets arrested anyway in a pretty funny ending. I loved the Past-O-Rama stuff and that really made the episode for me.
7) Put Your Head On My Shoulders (22:32)
Originally Aired: 02/13/00
The crew buys a car, with Amy acting stupid again. Valentine’s Day is coming up and Fry asks Leela out on a date. Fry heads out with Amy for a ride in her car, and they end up stuck when they run out of gas. They end up hooking up and when they tell everyone about it, Bender gets the idea to start a dating service (after he finds out pimping is illegal) and gets a lot of clients. Fry and Amy enjoy a relationship until Fry starts acting crazy and thinking Amy is becoming too smothering (which she isn’t). Fry tries to end it with Amy but doesn’t get a chance when the car they are in crashes into a iceberg. Zoidberg was with them and puts Fry’s head on Amy’s body. Looks like Fry has to spend time with Amy anyway. Fry breaks up with Amy anyway, while attached to her body, and she starts seeing other people. Leela looks to Bender’s dating service for a date. Bender’s dating service is a bust but Leela ends up helping Fry in the end. This is the second time a romance is hinted between the two. There’s a nice payoff to Bender’s ass at the end of the episode, too. Really good one here.
8) Raging Bender (22:34)
Originally Aired: 02/27/00
Bender and the gang head to the theater where Bender annoys the robot in front of him. Bender causes this guy to fight him and it turns out this robot was a champion robot fighter. Bender is cornered and the robot slips scoring a knockout for Bender who is promptly hired to the ultimate robot fighters. Bender gets in his first fight and wins! It seems that URC is a scam and the most popular robot always wins! This leads to a bunch of robot villains that anyone who has seen wrestling can recognize. They do the most dastardly heel acts to keep Bender popular. Of course, Bender starts losing popularity and faces a huge killing machine. Bender is told he either takes the fall or be killed. Bender starts getting beat up (in hilarious slow-mo farm), but Leela finds out the robot Bender is fighting is robot controlled by Leela’s old sensei. Leela starts fighting him and it’s some great animation with the TV screen of the robot in the back mimicing the sensei’s fighting. Leela ends up beating him but Bender loses anyway when the robot falls on him. Excellent episode, full of great animation and laugh-out-loud moments.
9) A Bicyclops Built for Two (22:33)
Originally Aired: 03/19/00
The gang takes a trip through cyberspace (and its as funny as you can imagine, with lots of porn and ads everywhere). Fry even plays a video game with himself as the main protaganist! He kicks ass in it, of course. While in cyberspace, Leela meets another cyclops! Fry shoots him down though and Leela thinks her opportunity is gone to meet another cyclops. They head out on a delivery and when Leela gets an email from him, she dumps the package (popcorn) and goes to visit him, and learns all about their people. Leela learns she was shot out in a rocket when the planet was about to be hit by a rocket (like Superman) and the guy left, Al, was cleaning a pool and was the lone survivor. After learning that they are what’s left of the race, Leela makes love with Al and Al starts being very controlling. This leads to a fantastic Married with Children spoof (where Leela has hair like Peg Bundy and Al has his hands down his pants). It turns out that this Al is not all he’s cracked up to be, he’s actually a shapeshifter. Fry and Bender save the day for Leela and they see Al’s real form, a grasshopper. This was a very good episode showing some nice depth to Leela.
10) A Clone of My Own (22:32)
Originally Aired: 04/09/00
Professor is brought to his university to celebrate his 150th birthday! Farnsworth just gets depressed and looks to name a successor. So he unveils to them all his clone, Cubert. Cubert tells Farnsworth what a failure he is so Farnsworth reveals that he is really 160 years old, the age when you are taken away to the Near Death Star. The crew, including Cubert, goes to rescue Farnsworth. Cubert is way too scientific in his thinking and just points out everything wrong with everything. He learns in the end that to be a scientist he must use his imagination. I enjoyed this episode, especially Cubert’s annoyingness.
---Disc Three---
11) How Hermes Requisitioned His Groove Back (22:31)
Originally Aired: 04/02/00
Hermes gets a letter from the Central Bureaucracy and is excited by an opportunity to be inspected tomorrow and get his promotion to grade 35. The other gang plays a poker match that night, Bender cheats, and runs into Hermes office. It gets destroyed and his inspection that day goes terribly wrong. He doesn’t get promoted and is given the worst possible sentence, a paid vacation. While gone, his inspector, Morgan Proctor (voiced by Nora Dunn) takes over and gets very turned on by Fry’s messiness. They share a forbiden office romance than none can know about. Of course, Bender finds out about it so Proctor takes out his memory chip and sends to the bureaucracy. The gang goes after it and all seems hopeless until Hermes comes back from his vacation (on a slave planet no less, thanks to Zoidberg) and goes through all the cannisters in five minutes (through song and dance of course) and goes through the whole thing. Hermes finished two seconds early and is demoted to Grade 38. He points out a mistake from Morgan and is promoted to 37 again. I liked the character of Proctor and her attitude with Fry, the song was pretty good, and the whole episode was very seemless in getting from one point to the other.
12) The Deep South (22:32)
Originally Aired: 04/16/00
Hermes sends a request for a pet license for Nibbler but they send a mandatory fishing license instead. Hermes wears the worst bathing suit ever seen in animation. The gang fish for about 5 minutes and it isn’t terribly interesting until they catch a super big mouth bass and they have to escape into the ship as they are being brought under. They land on the bottom of the ocean and head out to get food where Fry sees a mermaid. No one believes him, though. The mermaid, Umbrial (voiced by Parker Posey), finds Fry and the two fall in love. The gangs finds Fry and the mermaids. The mermaids are from the lost city of Atlanta! The history books, well the song by Donovan, show that the city moved into the ocean as an island until it went under water. The gang leaves but Fry wants to stay. Fry eventually leaves when he learns that sex won’t work between the two and gets to the ship as its leaving. He jumps on the hook Bender laid before but eaten by the giant fish. Bender catches the fish and Fry falls out and the whole saga is over. This was a pretty boring episode.
13) Bender Gets Made (aka Bendfellas) (22:32)
Originally Aired: 04/30/00
Bender gets to meet his favorite chef, Elzar! Of course, Bender irritates Elzar and causes Leela to get blinded by some spices. She has to wear an eyepatch now for a week. Elzar feels bad and brings them all over to his restaurant. Of course, he charges them at the end of meal and when they can’t pay they are arrested. Bender starts working for Elzar in order to pay off the debt. He ends up waiting the robot mafia and gets involved with them! He goes to Little Bitaly to deliver some numbers and then goes on a heist with them. Of course, the heist is to steal some cigars from the Planet Express. Bender helps them steal the cigars but stops them from killing the crew and rejoins them. He quits the mob and gets away scot free. The funny parts made this worth it (Bender at the show, Fry eating Bender’s food) and it showed a new side to Bender.
14) Mother’s Day (22:34)
Originally Aired: 05/14/00
Mother’s Day is a bit different in the future. This is a day when robots celebrate their creator, Mother. It turns out that Mother really hates Mother’s Day. She has something devious in mind, using her control over robots to take over the Earth and make her the supreme overlord. She feels this upset with Mother’s Day ever since Professor dumped her 70 years ago and broke her heart. So Professor needs to get back with Mother in order to get the device from her bra that will stop the robots. So he succeeds and finds he actually cares for her. When Mother finds out it was all just a ruse she rejects him. The robot war has ended, and the gross half-naked 150 year olds are finally off my screen.
15) The Problem With Popplers (22:31)
Originally Aired: 05/07/00
The crew has no food for their journey home but find some great delicacy on another planet. They stuff their faces with it and bring an incredible amount back home. They call them popplers (instead of Bender’s suggestion, tasty-cles). They sell a bunch of them and it is even picked up by the guy who runs Fishy Joe’s. Of course, the Planet Express guys start boycotting them when Leela learns they are intelligent creatures! Lrr shows up again and says they are eating the babies from their planet so they will start eating us, first the firemen and then the math teachers. Zap Brannigan reaches a conclusion with the aliens, they will only eat one human, the first human that ate their young. Of course, its Leela. So they try to dupe Lrr by feeding him an ape until the hippie we’ve seen this issue shows up and spills the beans on the trick. Leela is saved by the Poppler she didn’t eat. The hippie gets eaten by Lrr and the crew learns an important lesson. It isn’t right to eat some things. They dine on pig, veal and dolphin. This had a lot of funny scenes and was throughouly enjoyable.
---Disc Four---
16) The Anthology of Interest I (22:35)
Originally Aired: 05/21/00
This would be the finale of Season 2. Farnsworth has made a what if machine where you ask it a what if question it shows a brief video of it. Bender asks, “What if He was 500 feet tall?” We see an awesomely animated Bender flying to Earth and making friends with Fry and having fun (while Mmm-Bop plays) but Bender ends up killing a lot of humans. The Planet Express crew enlarges Zoidberg to battle Bender and they have an awesome fight sequence using all the NYC landmarks. Bender ends up dead. It is now Leela’s turn for the machine, asking what if she was more impulsive. She actually kills the Professor Hermes finds a will showing Leela killing professor so she kills Hermes next, then Bender, then Amy, then Cubert, then some random dude (Scruffy the janitor), then Nibbler, then Zoidberg. She gets even more impulsive and sleeps with Fry. Yeesh! That’s impuslive! Fry then asks what if he never came to the future. This rips the fabric of space and time and he sees Bender, Leela, Farnsworth and Zoidberg and tells his boss about it, who doesn’t believe him. He runs into Stephen Hawking and tells him his theory and he is kidnapped, by Al Gore no less as well as his friends, Nichelle Nichols, Deep Blue and the inventor of Dungeons and Dragons. Fry’s what if led to the destruction of the whole universe. This was just an awesome episode, with an awesome reveal at the end.
17) War is the H-Word (22:35)
Originally Aired: 11/26/00
Bender and Fry are pissed they don’t get a 10% discount on 40-cent gum like the soldier in front of them. So they sign up for the Army and get their discount cards but before they can even leave and buy gum and quit the Army, war is declared. Leela stows away on the ship (impersonating a man since women aren’t allowed to join the arm) to protect Fry and Bender. No one knows it is Leela and Zap has a weird attraction to who he thinks is a man. Fry even mentions to him (Leela) that he has a thing for a cyclops he works with. They end up battling a huge bunch of bouncing balls and Bender sacrifices himself to save the troops and Fry hides in cowardice and is depromoted to Kif’s assistant. Nixon, who is helping Brannigan with the war, sends Bender on a peace mission with Henry Kissinger. Leela and Fry find out that there is actually a bomb inside of Bender and he will detonate at the meeting with the brain balls! Brannigan says he will destruct after he says his most used word (and they show his Top Ten a la Letterman), ass. They end up saving the world, after Bender declares it part of the US and they lived happily ever after. The first act was pretty good but after that it went downhill pretty quickly.
18) The Honking (22:35)
Originally Aired: 11/05/00
Bender finds out that one of his relatives died, his uncle Vladimir. They go to his funeral and Bender gets his castle! It turns out this castle is haunted by robots! Bender is chased by the old Windows logo as the rest of the gang finds out what’s going on. An old modem is projecting these improperly buried robots into the castle. Bender runs out of the castle and is run over by a wild car. It appears to be some sort of werewolf and Bender is now infected, turning into a car at night and running people over. Some fortune teller says that Bender will kill the person closest to him and Fry is pissed when he changes to the werecar and tries to kill Leela! They need to break the curse and head back to where Bender was infected to destroy the original werecar. They learn he wasn’t the original werecar and head around the world looking for the original. They finally find him and dispose of him, and Bender is back to normal. Pretty decent and funny episode here. I should note this was actually the Season 3 premiere.
19) The Cryonic Woman (22:25)
Originally Aired: 12/03/00
Bender and Fry decide to take the Planet Express for a sping and unknowingly bring the whole building along with them! See, Leela had tethered it with the unbreakable diamond anchor! They fly around the world, destroying all types of landmarks, and the building is destroyed. Leela, Bender and Fry all get fired. Leela implants the career chips back into Fry and herself and goes to get her old job back. It turns out she put the wrong chip in her hand and she’s a delivery boy now, and Fry is working at the cryogenic plant. Fry unfreezes people, including Pauly Shore. Fry then gets a huge shock when he unfreezes his old ex-girlfriend, Michelle! Michelle’s life went downhill after Fry left. The two start their romance over again but Michelle is freaked out by the future. She convinces Fry to freeze themselves for another 1,000 years. They freeze themselves and wake up in a barren wasteland! They meet a band of rebel kids and Fry challenges their leader for rule of the land. The kids mother picks him up, Fry ends it with his girlfriend and he regrets leaving the year 3000. He ends up in Hollywood and is shocked to see Fry and Leela. Fry wasn’t really frozen for 1000 years, he was only frozen for two days. Everything that was weird is chalked up to it being LA. I thought this was a fun episode, from Fry’s ex showing up to showing Hollywood as a barren wasteland.
Volume 2 Review
I don’t know if I enjoyed Volume 2 more than Volume 1. Volume 1 was much shorter (only 13 episodes) but they were some very high quality episodes. This collection shows a more well-rounded view of Futurama, though. More characters were introduced, more of the secondary cast had episodes devoted to them (Zoidberg, Hermes, Farnsworth, etc) and in general I thought the story-telling was much tighter. Volume 1 is a great introduction to this new world and Volume 2 had the job of expanding upon that and it really did its job in that regard. There were 19 episodes and they can’t all be winners but the hits far outnumber the few misses in the collection. Futurama fans will love this collection, or even Matt Groening fans. Anyone who has complaints about the world we live in will love the social commentary and the spin that Fry puts on what he went through 1000 years ago and the jokes like that are boundless. This is a really smart series and this is one that all the geeks and nerds will love (like me) but anyone can appreciate.
DVD Features
A) Extras
---Disc One---
1) Why Must I Be A Crustacean in Love? Animatic(21:42)
This is a great feature. You get the entire episode, with full voice-over work, but instead of standard animation you get the animatics. It’s missing the orchestration but its great to see how an episode gets from this to the final animated form.
2) Deleted Scenes
---A) I Second That Emotion (0:23)
Bender screams for help from the sewer and Professor, in the tub, hears him and turns off his hearing aid, the Deaf Defier.
---B) Brannigan, Begin Again (1:20)
There are _ scenes here. Bender drinks at a bar, accidentally drinking the leader of the water nation seen in My Three Suns. Fry, Bender and Brannigan deliver pillows in the world of different gravity. Zapp takes a quiz where he should be a delivery boy and not a captain.
---C) A Head in the Polls (0:19)
This is a scene of Bush chiding Fry for not rocking the vote. Fry says he was more of a VH1 guy.
---D) Xmas Story (1:40)
Amy runs into the crew and Bender says she’ll be getting a call from his lawyer. Amy hopes she does because she slept with him last night. Bender gives booze to a kid, then charges him for it, Conan O’Brien’s head does stand up, Conan is then frozen solid but Leela doesn’t help, Professor gives Fry a Christmas card and Rev. Lionel Preacherbot gives a sermon which touches Bender.
---E) Why Must I Be A Crustacean in Love? (0:34)
Fry makes fun of Zoidberg. Leela asks why Bender is so interested in sex if he can’t reproduce. It’s for the perversion. There’s also a small clip of Zoidberg going crazy in the gym.
3) Audio Commentaries
---A) I Second That Emotion
Matt Groening, David X. Cohen, Rich Moore, Bret Haaland, Patric M. Verrone and John DiMaggio appear on this commentary together. They tell me the airdate so I don’t have to look it up, and they marvel that the voice of Bender was Shaggy from Scooby-Doo. John talks about the womanly scream he did as Bender and does it on the commentary. Commentary was alright for the 22 minutes it was.
---B) Brannigan, Begin Again
Matt Groening, David X. Cohen, Rich Moore, Lewis Morton, Brian Sheesley, Christopher Tyng and Billy West recorded this commentary together. Lewis wrote the episode and mentions the chess scene was a Star Wars reference and because of that, he was invited to Skywalker Ranch to think of ideas for marketing. The others joke he’s responsible for Jar-Jar Binks. They note that doop spelt upside down is doop. Billy West does some great voices. They talk about being burned out since this is their fourth commentaries and joke about the odd angles in the ship. The guys were right, they were audibly wiped. Still it’s not a bad commentary.
---C) A Head in the Polls
Matt Groening, David X. Cohen, Rich Moore, Bret Haaland, J. Stewart Burns, Scott Vanzo, Billy West and John DiMaggio recorded this commentary together. They joke about Claudia Schiffer being in the cartoon and how much it pays off having a supermodel in cartoon, and only her head at that. Decent commentary.
---D) Xmas Story
Matt Groening, David X. Cohen, Rich Moore, Peter Avanzino, Paul D. Calder, Bill Odenkirk and John DiMaggio recorded this commentary together. David mentions he took over for Conan after he left the Simpsons for his own primetime gig and says Conan left a note welcoming him and mentioning some funny things, like which corner to urinate in. They mention they have a second Christmas episode sitting on the shelf because they thought this was a little dark and the one on the shelf way too dark for 7:00pm. They note this was never meant to be on at 7:00pm. Fun commentary.
---E) Why Must I Be a Crustacean In Love?
Matt Groening, David X. Cohen, Rich Moore, Eric Kaplan, Brian Sheesley, Paul D. Calder and John DiMaggio appear on this commentary. They talked the whole time but really didn’t have anything interesting to say. This was rather dull.
---Disc Two---
1) A Bicyclops Built for Two Storyboards
I didn’t go through it all but incredibly there were over 300 storyboards for this episode. It’s all there if you want to see it but it was just too much for me to go through.
2) Deleted Scenes
---A) The Lesser of Two Evils (0:14)
The police take away Flexor and read him his rights.
---B) Put Your Head on my Shoulders (0:23)
The salesman continues to sell the car to Amy. Amy and Leela show they are bubbleheaded girls.
---C) Raging Bender (1:00)
Granny watches the fight in one scene, then screams at them. Leela explains to Fry that movies now are interactive. This was a good scene.
---D) A Bicyclops Built for Two (1:14)
Professor assumes that Leela is pregnat and Zoidberg says he is a knit wife. Al sees Leela in a wedding dress and makes fun of her ass. Fry was the flower girl and Bender is the maid of honor. There’s a final scene of kids playing stickball with guys selling things in the street. I don’t know where this one was supposed to go in the episode.
---E) A Clone of My Own (1:34)
The crew gets a signal from the Near Death Star and Bender talks to the robot. The whole thing was tedious and not too funny. There is a scene of the plane landing on a car, one of Amy and his rival telling a really bad joke. That one was funny.
3) Audio Commentaries
---A) The Lesser of Two Evils
Matt Groening, David X. Cohen, Rich Moore, Eric Horsted, Peter Avanzino and John DiMaggio recorded this commentary together. Cohen mentions that he came up with the design for one of the robot strippers (the one that spins around) and corrects I think John about the electrons flying around the atom. They spent a lot of time watching the episode and not really commenting on it. They call the ending mild, which is about how this commentary went.
---B) Put Your Head on my Shoulders
Matt Groening, David X. Cohen, Rich Moore, Ken Keeler, Billy West and John DiMaggio recorded this commentary together. Billy and John are fun together, boomboxing over the opening. They joke that no one is actually watching the commentary. David mentions that Hg’s Feul in the show is a joke to Hg being the chemical symbol for Mercury. David talks about a Discrete Math joke which I got right away since I’m a Math teacher. There is an interesting discussion on how they got Fry’s head on Amy. Decent commentary.
---C) Raging Bender
Matt Groening, David X. Cohen, Rich Moore, Lewis Morton, Ron Hughart, Christopher Tyng, and Billy West recorded this commentary together. They talk about a math joke in the beginning of the episode. I just really couldn’t get into this commentary for some reason. It was very dull.
---D) A Bicyclops Built for Two
Matt Groening, David X. Cohen, Rich Moore, Eric Kaplan, Susie Dietter, John DiMaggio, and Billy West recorded this commentary together. They talk about the great animation in this episode and it is really quite good. This is the first appearance of Alien Code #2. They lament that the geeks on the web are themselves, and the nerd Fry cooks was David X. Cohen. This was a very entertaining commentary.
---E) A Clone of My Own
Matt Groening, David X. Cohen, Rich Moore, Patric M. Verrone, Scott Vanzo and John DiMaggio recorded this commentary together. They guys explain that they got the idea for Cubert based on drawings from Groening and deciding right away it would be a clone. They created him on the show to point out all the logic mistakes the fanatics were but they decided it would just be annoying and the idea was dropped after this episode. This was an informative commentary.
---Disc Three---
1) Futurama Video Game Trailer (2:09)
This is a pretty lengthy trailer to a video game. It starts like a regular Twentieth Century Fox trailer would. The graphics look very primitive based on what we are now accustomed to. It looks fun, though, and if I ever found it really cheap somewhere for X-Box, I would buy it. The characters are voiced by the regulars which is nice.
2) Deleted Scenes
---A) The Deep South (0:23)
The crew is asleep on their plane while Leela fishes.
---B) Bender Gets Made (0:22)
Bender tells Tinny Tim he is quitting the mob. Tinny tells him that the Mob will hunt him down and melt him. Bender changes his identity and reveals he rewrote his serial number. That should’ve been in the episode.
---C) The Problem With Popplers (0:17)
Lrr complains about to his wife in Honeymooners fashion.
3) Audio Commentaries
---A) How Hermes Requisitioned His Groove Back
Matt Groening, David X. Cohen, Rich Moore, Bill Odenkirk, Paul D. Calder and John DiMaggio recorded this commentary together. This was actually a B-story (for Hermes being in the slave camp) but then decided to make it the focus of the story. They say that Hermes original name was Dexter but they changed it to Hermes, the name of Matt’s typewriter (Hermes Rocket) and Rocket was the inspiration of Futurama. Furthermore, Hermes’ last name is from a street David lived on. This was an informative and entertaining one, one of the best on the collection.
---B) The Deep South
Matt Groening, David X. Cohen, Rich Moore, Bret Haaland, J. Steward Burns, Scott Vanzo, Billy West and John DiMaggio recorded this commentary together. I didn’t really pay attention but what I heard wasn’t too interesting. The commentary, like the episode, wasn’t too good.
---C) Bender Gets Made
Matt Groening, David X. Cohen, Rich Moore, Eric Horsted, Peter Avanzino and John DiMaggio recorded this commentary together. David and Matt discuss a story that inspired this episode, where they went to a restaurant where the cook would, “take care of them,” and they got stuck with a $3500 meal. That was the only real interesting thing mentioned in this commentary. The rest of the time they just sort of laugh at their own jokes.
---D) Mother’s Day
Matt Groening, David X. Cohen, Rich Moore, Lewis Morton, Brian Sheeshley, Christopher Tyng, and Billy West recorded this commentary together. I was working on another review at the time but usually anything interesting will pop out and I will hear it, but this didn’t have anything too good. They do talk about Dungeons and Dragons a lot. Take a pass on this commentary.
---E) The Problem With Popplers
Matt Groening, David X. Cohen, Rich Moore, Patric M. Verrone, Billy West and Christopher Tyng recorded this commentary together. They mention that they won some environmental awards. They talk about where the name popplers comes from and its relation to the Star Trek episode, The Trouble With Tribbles. They ask about what shows still use full orchestration, which they do, and the Simpsons is one, as is Family Guy, which they don’t mention. Tyng mentions an instrument they have used in TV which hasn’t been used since the 50’s. It’s a type of drum.
---Disc Four---
1) Still Gallery/Concept Art
This is a self-navigation through some, you guessed it, stills and concept art. It deals with characters seen in this collection (Al Gore, Cubert, the various robots and aliens, etc). There are about 40 images. My favorites were the ones of the creators in ‘toon version.
2) Alien Alphabet
This is a still showing the alien alphabet used this season.
3) International Clips (2:48)
There are four languages shown: French (0:41), Italian (0:41), Portuguese (0:43) and Spanish (0:43). The scene shown deals with Farnsworth putting the emotion chip on Bender and tuning it to Leela’s feelings, as seen in the episode, “I Second That Emotion.” It’s interesting to hear the voices they picked for the different characters.
4) Alien Advertisements
There are four alien advertisemens here: Arachno Spores (0:10), Glagnar’s Human Rinds (0:11), Molten Boron (0:09) and Soylent Chow (0:12). The first three were shown as lead-ins to various episodes in the season, so it’s nothing really new. The fourth one wasn’t in any episode and featured a dog (sounding like Scooby-Doo) talking about the dog food.
5) Deleted Scenes
---A) The Honking (1:08)
Bender is scared that he’s turning into a werecar and that a car is trying to kill him. A second scene sees Leela and Fry leaving from work. Fry is going to see a homeless guy. The third scene sees the butler to Bender’s uncle getting nothing and crying over his death.
---B) The Cryonic Woman (0:49)
Fry asks to join their society and and getting cut out of their chair. Fry and Michelle go out to eat on the asteroids. Fry has a slug sandwich and Michelle is hit by some shooting stars.
6) Audio Commentaries
---A) The Anthology of Interest I
Matt Groening, David X. Cohen, Rich Moore, Ken Keeler, Billy West and John DiMaggio recorded this commentary together. They spend most of the time just watching the episode but they do have a good time talking about Al Gore being in the episode and the scream he did. The good stuff was during the last anthology, the rest was filler.
---B) War is the H-Word
Matt Groening, David X. Cohen, Rich Moore, Eric Horsted, Ron Hughart and John DiMaggio recorded this commentary together. They say the first half of the show is inspired by Starship Troopers (the book) and the second act is inspired by Mash. They talk about showing this at the Comic Con and that they show a wider view which showed Brannigan nude and seemed like it had some pieces showing that would be cut off and there was a big gasp from the crowd.
---C) The Honking
Matt Groening, David X. Cohen, Rich Moore, Ken Keeler, Susie Dietter, John DiMaggio, and Billy West recorded this commentary together. David says the binary code actually means something and he says that those who know binary will get it. The others try to get him to say the answer. I do know binary and I know that (after doing the work) that the binary in the episode is 666, the sign of the beast.
---D) The Cryonic Woman
Matt Groening, David X. Cohen, Rich Moore, Bret Haaland, J. Stewart Burns, Scott Vanzo, Billy West and John DiMaggio recorded this commentary together. They really have nothing to say, they mostly watch the episode. They mention the fact this is almost like a sequel to the first episode. They also mention Michelle is voiced by Sarah Silverman. They say this episode ends Season 2 which is odd. Not too good of a commentary and the disc ended on a bad note.
B) Audio/Video
The audio is presented in Dolby Surround and works well based on what we’re given. There aren’t too many cartoons that sound this well. The video is fullscreen and works well. The colors are very vivid, there are no compression lines that some cartoons have, and the CGI looks amazing.
C) Liner Notes
The packaging on this set is awesome. There is a slipcase with Fry and Amy on the front and Leela on the back with a see-through panel on both sides. Sliding out of that is another case that is like the average background with a bunch of stuff going on. There are four slim DVD cases with covers that when combined make one picture. There was also a page stuck on the back with the basic info and each clear case has liner notes on the back, and episode/chapter listings on the inside case opposite the CD. You also get a Fox DVD catalogue.
D) Easter Eggs
The theme here for the Easter Eggs are the high school pictures of those associated with the making of Futurama.
---Disc One---
1) Matt Groening
From the main menu go to “I Second That Emotion.” Highlight “Home” then hit down to highlight the third eye on Nibbler. Press enter to see the characters from their high school yearbook, as well as Matt Groening.
---Disc Two---
1) David X. Cohen
Go to, “The Lesser of Two Evils,” from the main menu and highlight “Play Episode.” Hit left to highlight the atom crown and hit enter.
2) Eric Kaplan
Go to, “A Bicyclops Built for Two,” from the main menu and highlight “Play Episode.” Hit left to highlight the pentagram and hit enter.
---Disc Three---
1) Bill Odenkirk
Go to, “How Hermes Requisitioned His Groove Back,” from the main menu and highlight “Scene Selection.” Hit right to highlight the diskette and hit enter.
2) Patric Verrone
Go to, “The Problem With Popplers,” from the main menu and highlight “Play Episode.” Hit up to highlight the poppler and hit enter.
---Disc Four---
1) Eric Horsted
Go to, “War is the H-Word,” from the main menu and highlight “Home.” Hit down to highlight the Bender remote and hit enter.
2) J. Stewart Burns
Go to, “The Cryonic Woman,” from the main menu and highlight “Play Episode.” Hit left to highlight the I Hate Mondays sign and hit enter.
Overall Review
I have to point out one big negative. The last two episodes on Disc One (X-Mas Story and Why Must I Be a Crustacean in Love) would not play on all my DVD players save one. Even the one it played on was skipping a bit. Weird. I don’t know if it was just my disc but I managed to see them so I really didn’t care. I think it is only with the discs I have since it doesn’t seem like a problem in the reviews I have read so this won’t affect the rating at all. One thing that annoys me about these sets (and the Simpsons one too) is the lack of a “play all” feature. You can’t just pop these in and watch a run of 5 episodes by clicking one button. I think that would add to the enjoyment and would make these nice to just sit and watch with friends without needing to reach for the remote every 22 minutes. Other than those quibbles this is really a complete collection. The deleted scenes are a nice addition, the animatic version of the episode was awesome and for the most part the commentaries (on every episode no less) were very good. There’s a lot of content for you to go through if you want any more on these episodes. That makes it a recommended collection in my eyes and one that is rated very highly in terms of content, the quality of the sound and video and the great episodes on here.
Overall Rating
9.5
10.0 Perfect
9.0-9.5 Near Perfect, Highly Recommended
8.0-8.5 Really good disc, Recommended
7.0-7.5 Good DVD, Mildly recommended
6.0-6.5 Above Average DVD. Mildest of mild recommendations
5.0-5.5 Decent all around disc, but catch it on TV
4.0-4.5 Great Movie but horrible DVD
3.0-3.5 Horrible movie but great DVD
2.0-2.5 There’s at least some merit to this DVD, but not much.
1.0-1.5 Horrible DVD, don’t even bother
0.0-0.5 Worst DVD ever
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