FUTURAMA: ANTHOLOGY OF INTEREST I (TV)
Summary
One in this satirical animated series set in New York City in the thirty-first century, when aliens rule the earth. In this episode, Professor Farnsworth shows off an amazing new invention: “the Finglonger,” which allows its user to touch things at a distance. He uses it to show the gang another invention, the “What If” machine, which allows one to postulate a theory about their life and see its results. Bender wonders what would happen if he were five hundred feet tall, and in the machine’s explanation, he becomes an undefeatable terror who can destroy cities—although he soon develops a friendship with the lonely Fry, and they attend a Hanson concert together. However, the Professor decides that he must be destroyed, and uses an enlarging ray on Zoidberg to make him equally gargantuan. The two have a fearsome battle and cause excessive mayhem, but in the end, Bender is defeated, much to Fry’s sorrow. As he dies, he laments the loss of his “simple dream” of destroying humanity.
Next, Leela uses the machine to discover what would happen if she were more impulsive. In the machine’s postulation, she learns that Professor Farnsworth has named her his heir, as she is so reliable and uninteresting. Deciding to turn over a new leaf, she pushes him into his pit of maneating anteaters, and he dies. Zoidberg attempts to investigate the crime, although Hermes is sufficiently convinced by the video of the incident, and Leela is forced to messily kill him as well. When Bender discovers what she has done, she destroys him with a microwave, and ends up killing Amy Wong as well for good measure. Zoidberg summons the remaining members of the group together to solve the crime once and for all, although he doesn’t seem to notice Leela disposing of the rest of them one by one. Eventually only Fry is left, and he soon realizes that she is the killer, but she “impulsively” seduces him and he forgets about the murders.
Fry decides to see what would have happened if he had not been sent into the future on New Year’s Eve 1999. He does not fall into the cryonic tank, but he does briefly encounter Leela, Bender and the others, whom he thinks to be monsters. Mr. Panucci is uninterested in his tale, but when Stephen Hawking stops by the pizzeria, he is alarmed by Fry’s claims and has him kidnapped and brought to Al Gore, who commands the Vice Presidential Action Rangers, a gang of super-nerds who protect the time-space continuum. They realize that something has disrupted the universe and theorize that Fry was supposed to die in the incident, and they attempt to kill him. When this fails, they decide that he was meant to be frozen instead, but he smashes the cryonics tube and causes the entire universe to be sucked inside and destroyed, much to the annoyance of the Action Rangers, now trapped in an alternate dimension for eternity. Back in reality, Professor Farnsworth reveals that the entire scenario was merely a projection from the “What If” machine…that would have occurred had he actually invented the Finglonger. Commercials deleted.
Details
- NETWORK: FOX
- DATE: May 21, 2000 7:00 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 0:23:00
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: B:68694
- GENRE: Animation
- SUBJECT HEADING: Animation; Comedy; Science fiction
- SERIES RUN: Fox - TV series, 1999-2013
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- David X. Cohen … Executive Producer, Developed by, Writer
- Matt Groening … Executive Producer, Created by, Developed by
- Eric Horsted … Co-Executive Producer
- Ken Keeler … Co-Executive Producer, Writer
- Lewis Morton … Supervising Producer
- Patric M. Verrone … Supervising Producer
- J. Stewart Burns … Producer
- Bill Odenkirk … Producer
- Jane O'Brien … Producer
- Brian J. Cowan … Producer
- Claudia Katz … Producer
- Eric Kaplan … Co-Producer
- Claudia de la Roca … Co-Producer
- Alex Johns … Co-Producer
- Mili Smythe … Co-Producer
- Gregg Vanzo … Animation Executive Producer
- Richard Raynis … Consulting Producer
- Geraldine Symon … Digital Line Producer
- Eric Rogers … Writer
- Chris Loudon … Director
- Rich Moore … Director
- Christopher Tyng … Music by
- Billy West … Cast, Voice, Philip J. Fry / Professor Hubert J. Farnsworth / Dr. Zoidberg
- Katey Sagal … Cast, Voice, Turanga Leela
- John DiMaggio … Cast, Voice, Bender / Mr. Panucci
- Tress MacNeille … Cast, Voice, IBM Deep Blue
- Maurice LaMarche … Cast, Voice, Narrator
- Al Gore … Cast, Voice, Himself
- Stephen Hawking … Cast, Voice, Himself
- Nichelle Nichols … Cast, Voice, Herself
- Gary Gygax … Cast, Voice, Himself
- Lauren Tom … Cast, Voice, Amy Wong
- Phil LaMarr … Cast, Voice, Hermes Conrad
- David Herman … Cast, Voice, Scruffy
- Kath Soucie … Cast, Voice, Cubert Farnsworth
- Frank Welker … Cast, Voice, Nibbler / Giant Anteaters