Futurama: Don't Fight The Future

So after The Simpsons had earned FOX more money than they could count and transformed the channel into an actual competitor for NBC, ABC, and CBS, Matt Groening was given the chance to create another future classic (no pun intended) for the network. This time, we got Futurama, which told the story of Phillip Fry, a directionless delivery boy at the turn of the 21st century who, due to a freak accident (or was it?) at a cryogenics lab, wakes up on December 31st, 2999. At first glance, the world is a completely different place, but as Fry tries to get acclimated to his new world, he learns just how similar the past and future truly are.

The first two relationships that Fry develops in the new era are with Leela, a one-eyed humanoid with a fast fists and little humor, and Bender, a boorish alcohol chugging robot. These three make up the core group of the core cast (I know that sounds a little confusing); they are the characters featured on every single promotional item, and they make up the focus of many episodes. Other major characters include Prof. Farnsworth, Fry's great-great-great...great-great-great...-great-grand-nephew. The Professor is at least 150 years old, and he is beyond senile, and possibly diabolical. The Professor owns the spaceship the crew uses to make interplanetary deliveries (even in the future, Fry is still a delivery boy), and in episodes that do not involve deliveries, his crackpot inventions and half-baked schemes tend to forward the plot. Hermes Conrad is the Bureaucrat of the office (in the year 3000, Bureaucrat is a paid position, which, sadly, isn't too different from life today). Amy Wong is the airheaded intern whose only purpose is to serve as spare parts for the Professor. Finally, staff physician Dr. John Zoidberg is an anthropomorphic crustacean who speaks like a stereotypical Hasidic Jew.

Throughout the course of the series, the Planet Express crew deal with government inefficiency and corruption in their dealings with Earth President Richard Nixon's Head (20th century figures make appearances as preserved heads in jars, and Nixon exploited a loophole stating that noBODY may hold the office of presidency for more than two terms). They learn that "military intelligence" truly is an oxymoron when they encounter Zapp Brannigan, a Captain Kirk analogue who has received the full "stereotypical Shatner" treatment, and is willing to invade a planet that has no natural resources or strategic advantages, only because everything they believe in goes against what we believe in. The group watches a trashy soap opera featuring an over-acting robot, and racism still runs deep (only now, robots are the disenfranchised class).

I'm pretty sure that Matt Groening said something to the effect of The Simpsons is a fantasy show, while Futurama is real life. Though that sounds crazy if one were to look only at the surface of the two shows, with The Simpsons grounded in the present and Futurama being a crazy sci-fi, there was a much bigger plan at play in Futurama that told an overarching story and had a continuity that served to make an ongoing commentary of our world, as opposed to an episode-by-episode look at society.

Up next: Real life...