Line #121 Trivia/Futurama


1	!![[WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}} The show]]
2	[[index]]
3	* [[TheOtherDarrin/{{Futurama}} The Other Darrin]]
4	[[/index]]
5	----
6	* AccidentallyCorrectWriting:
7	** A coffee enema is something that sounds highly unlikely, but [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coffee_enema it's actually been done for quite some time]].
8	** The Klingon Embassy being pink was intended as a joke, contrasting the ProudWarriorRace with a stereotypically girly pink embassy. However, in WesternAnimation/StarTrekTheAnimatedSeries, Klingons did wear pinkish-purple uniforms.
9	* ActingForTwo:
10	** Most of the main cast play multiple characters, though Creator/BillyWest, Creator/JohnDiMaggio, Creator/MauriceLaMarche, Creator/DavidHerman, and Creator/TressMacNeille are the most frequent. In fact, the only one who plays a single character is Creator/KateySagal as Leela.[[note]]Unless you count the alternate universe Leelas in "The Farnsworth Parabox" and the robot Leela in "Rebirth".[[/note]]
11	** In the Latin American Spanish dub, Creator/EdsonMatus voiced both Fry and Professor Farnsworth from season 5, 6, and 7.
12	* AdoredByTheNetwork: Creator/AdultSwim treated the show well throughout its original run on the block from 2003 to 2007, and even treated it well for a while when it once again returned in 2021, but by mid-2022, they only aired the show at 4am, and by 2023, the show only airs at 4am on weekends. This is due to Adult Swim using these hours to instead air more reruns of ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill''.
13	* AlanSmithee:
14	** "[[Recap/FuturamaS6E2InAGaddaDaLeela In-A-Gadda-Da-Leela]]" was written by "Carolyn Premish", and "[[Recap/FuturamaS8E3HowTheWestWas1010001 How the West Was 1010001]]" was written by "Nona di Spargement". Both are pseudonyms for regular writer-producer Ken Keeler. In the 2022 L.A. Comic Con panel, Patric M. Verrone mentioned that How the West Was 1010001 was written by Keeler, with crew member Corey M. Barnes later confirming on Reddit that "Carolyn Premish" was Ken Keeler as well.
15	* BannedEpisode: "[[Recap/FuturamaS3E3ATaleOfTwoSantas A Tale of Two Santas]]", the third produced episode in season 3, was scheduled for broadcast in December 2000 but banned due to violence. The episode did eventually air in December 2001, but was never shown again, outside of the rare Comedy Central reruns and the DVD release. It's now available on various streaming platforms.
16	* BeamMeUpScotty: Though Zoidberg does say "Why not?" often, at no point does he or anyone in the series say, "[[MemeticMutation Why not Zoidberg?]]" He did, however, say it in an [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOyMEcXdwRo advert]] for the ''Futurama'' DVD box set ("If you're going to spend your cash on something, why not Zoidberg?").
17	* CastTheRunnerUp: Creator/JohnDiMaggio originally auditioned for Farnsworth. This turned out to be a boon as he regards Bender as his StarMakingRole.
18	* TheCastShowoff:
19	** Creator/JohnDiMaggio's beatboxing skills pop up a few times, specifically as short-lived character Noticeably F.A.T. from "[[Recap/FuturamaS3E4TheLuckOfTheFryrish The Luck of the Fryrish]]" and in two ''Futurama'' openings (from "[[Recap/FuturamaS4E17SpanishFry Spanish Fry]]" and "[[Recap/FuturamaS4E6BenderShouldNotBeAllowedOnTelevision Bender Should Not Be Allowed on Television]]") where the theme song is remixed with Billy West's vocals and John [=DiMaggio=]'s beatboxing.
20	** As do Creator/KateySagal's lovely singing abilities, even though [[IronyAsSheIsCast she voices a character whose singing voice ranges from "ear-splittingly awful" to "competent, but nothing special"]].
21	* ChannelHop:
22	** From Creator/{{Fox}} to Creator/ComedyCentral to Creator/{{Hulu}}. Reruns went from Creator/AdultSwim then to Comedy Central to {{Creator/Syfy}}, although Comedy Central still owns a portion of the show's broadcast rights. This is largely due to Comedy Central financing the direct-to-DVD films and the last two seasons alongside Fox.
23	** In November 2021, Syfy lost the show’s broadcast rights. Later that same month, the series began airing on Creator/{{FXX}}, and in December 2021, against all odds... the series returned to Adult Swim, with the former channel sharing syndication rights. The show also initially left Comedy Central right before returning to [as], which led many to believe that they too lost the show's broadcast rights. However, the series returned to Comedy Central on May 2, 2022, while also remaining on ''both'' FXX ''and'' Adult Swim, thus debunking this belief.
24	* CharacterOutlivesActor:
25	** Happens to [=DeForest=] Kelley / Dr. [=McCoy=]. In "Where No Fan Has Gone Before", the main cast of ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' voice themselves, except for James Doohan and Kelley. While Doohan had simply said he wasn't interested, Kelley had died. As such, Kelley's likeness appears but has no speaking lines.
26	** James Doohan may have been uninterested due to his suffering from Alzheimer's disease. Terminal RedShirt "Welshy" was created (complete with Welsh accent) to be his substitute.
27	** Another example: Colleen, Fry's polygamous love interest from the second [[TheMovie movie]], "Beast with a Billion Backs", who was voice by the sadly departed Creator/BrittanyMurphy. In the story, Colleen was last seen fully engaged in a relationship with Yivo, the planet-sized tentacly creature from AnotherDimension, which gateway was closed off by the end, sealing her status as "presumably still living there with [[InsistentTerminology shklim]] and not going to make any new appearances".
28	** Though he technically hadn't begun the role yet, Creator/PhilHartman was scheduled to voice Zapp Brannigan. After Hartman's murder, the role of Zapp Brannigan was given to Billy West. Fry was renamed Philip in his honor.
29	* ColbertBump: Those not up on classic punk rock were introduced to Music/BlackFlag when their song "TV Party" was featured in "[[Recap/FuturamaS4E6BenderShouldNotBeAllowedOnTelevision Bender Should Not Be Allowed on Television]]".
30	* CreatorBacklash:
31	** A heavily downplayed case; While the cast and writers are still very proud of the widely-praised "Godfellas" episode, Matt Groening has gone on record that he finds people constantly messaging him [[EveryoneIsJesusInPurgatory with what they thought was the symbolic takeaway of the episode]] to be rather exasperating, and has even claimed that he and the other writers "are comedians, not preachers", and so their religious beliefs should not be taken as the "end-all" concerning the episode.
32	** In an AMA, David X. Cohen admitted he thought "In-a-Gadda-da-Leela" went too far, finding the plot "a bit rapey" and wondering if it hurt Zapp's character in hindsight.
33	* CreatorDrivenSuccessor: To ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'', sharing a lot of the same creatives between the two shows, though Groening and Cohen went out of their way to make sure the show wasn't just "[[RecycledWithAGimmick The Simpsons IN SPACE]]". ''The Simpsons'' was largely based on tropes and ideas from the 50s and 60s having a fairly anachronistic portrayal of suburbia and the American nuclear family, based on Groening's youth. ''Futurama'' on the other hand deals with a more grown-up early adult and mid-20s world and deals with office culture, workplace and corporate control, and the changes that technology can bring to society. The tenor of ''The Simpsons'' is that it stays essentially the same despite the passing of many real-world decades and updating of cultural references, the tenor of ''Futurama'' is that the future is constantly in flux and keeps changing and nothing can be taken for granted.
34	* CreatorsFavorite: Matt Groening's favorite character? The Hypnotoad.
35	* CreatorsFavoriteEpisode: In a 2001 interview with [=Sci-Fi=] Weekly, executive producer David X. Cohen mentioned that "Roswell That Ends Well" is one of his favorite episodes out of the whole series. Similarly, Matt Groening has heaped praise upon "Godfellas" and has outright described it as one of the best episodes of the whole show.
36	* CreatorsPest:
37	** Apparently, Matt Groening has said that the Hyperchicken is his least favorite character.
38	** Series director Peter Avanzino describes H.G. Blob as "a pain in the ass to draw."
39	* CrossdressingVoices: Creator/KathSoucie as Cubert and Creator/TressMacNeille as Tinny Tim. For men voicing women, we have Phil Hendrie as Frida Waterfall (as per the tradition of Waterfall family members being voiced by him) and Creator/MauriceLaMarche as the Crushinator.
40	* {{Defictionalization}}:
41	** You can now buy [[http://www.amazon.com/Futurama-2013-Wall-Calendar-Groening/dp/0062115278/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1354389279&sr=1-1&keywords=futurama+calendar+2013 The Women of Planet Express calendar]] from "[[Recap/FuturamaS6E20Neutopia Neutopia]]".
42	** The spray-on bikini top (as seen in "[[Recap/FuturamaS1E12WhenAliensAttack When Aliens Attack]]") is at least being tested out first to see if it's physically possible.
43	** [[http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/11/14/245254291/denvers-smell-o-scope-targets-marijuanas-skunky-scent Somebody apparently invented a smelloscope, and it's being used to target marajuana users in Denver]].
44	* DevelopmentGag: In "[[Recap/FuturamaM2TheBeastWithABillionBacks The Beast with a Billion Backs]]", Farnsworth and Wernstrom use a robot called the Pocket Pal for a demonstration. In the show's pre-production stages, the Pocket Pal was supposed to guide Fry by explaining several aspects of the 31st century to him, and thus function as a tool for the audience to understand the show's setting better.
45	* DiedDuringProduction: Following Music/{{Coolio}}'s death in September 2022, producer David X. Cohen confirmed that he had recorded lines for the episode "I Know What You Did Next Xmas". The episode was [[InMemoriam dedicated to him]].
46	* DVDCommentary: As in ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'', there's a commentary for every episode, and Matt Groening is on all of them ([[OverlyNarrowSuperlative which makes him the likely world record holder for "most appearances on commentaries"]]). Each usually has five or six commentators, and starting in volume 5, they average out to eight, always including Groening, David X. Cohen, Creator/BillyWest, and Creator/JohnDiMaggio, along with writers, producers, directors and other cast members. The commentaries are known for often being as funny as the episodes, with the voice actors doing random bits as their characters.
47	* EditedForSyndication: A few examples:
48	** "[[Recap/FuturamaS1E1SpacePilot3000 Space Pilot 3000]]" had a part where a man told the Tube Transport System to take him to "JFK Jr. Airport". Because of JFK Jr.'s mysterious death involving a plane crash, the destination was changed to "Radio City Mutant Hall" (this was even done on the [=DVD=] release, except for the animatic seen on the special features; if you live in the UK or Australia, the "JFK Jr. Airport" line is still used).
49	** Most of the imported FOX episodes that now air on Creator/ComedyCentral have parts cut for time reasons rather than content (much like ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons''), though there was one odd case: On the episode "[[Recap/FuturamaS4E6BenderShouldNotBeAllowedOnTelevision Bender Should Not Be Allowed on Television]]", after Hermes asks him, Cubert, and Dwight where they got the things for their swinging party, Tinny Tim's line, "From Bender, my good jerkwad" was changed to "From Bender, my good meatbag."
50	** The Comedy Central version of "[[Recap/FuturamaS3E7TheDayTheEarthStoodStupid The Day The Earth Stood Stupid]]" had Bender's line "Hey, let's all join the Reform Party!" changed to "Hey, let's all join the Tea Party!". The Netflix streaming cut and the DVD has the Reform Party line.
51	** On two episodes ("[[Recap/FuturamaS2E12TheDeepSouth The Deep South]]" and "[[Recap/FuturamaS2E13BenderGetsMade Bender Gets Made]]"), the Professor twice yells "Holy (or Sweet) Zombie Jesus!" This line was heard when it aired on FOX ([[ScrewedByTheNetwork if any viewer managed to see it on that channel]]), on Comedy Central, on the [=DVD=]s, and on Netflix. However, the former reruns on TBS' short-lived "Too Funny to Sleep" cartoon block and Cartoon Network's Creator/AdultSwim line-up mutes out the "Jesus" in "Holy (or Sweet) Zombie Jesus!"[[note]]At the time, there was a (fairly hypocritical) BS&P rule stating that "Oh my God" and its variants (i.e. "Oh God" or "Oh, dear God!" or even "Oh, Lord" and "Good Lord!") are okay, but "Oh, Jesus!" "Christ!" or "Jesus Christ!" is going too far.[[/note]]. As "Jesus" was no longer banned by BS&P on Adult Swim when it returned to the network in 2021, the lines have now aired uncensored.
52	** Following the Norway terrorist attacks in July of 2011, the scene in "[[Recap/FuturamaS2E19TheCryonicWoman The Cryonic Woman]]" where Bender has an arm that used to belong to the Prime Minister of Norway was changed (on most syndicated free-TV airings) to once belonging to a chainsaw juggler. The Netflix American feed once had the "Prime Minister of Norway" cut of the episode, but when they added the last season of the show and rearranged the episodes by broadcast order, the "Chainsaw Juggler" version was used instead. The [=DVD=]s have the original "Prime Minister of Norway" screen. The "Chainsaw Juggler" version is also the cut on Hulu.
53	** The Australian airing of the "[[Recap/FuturamaS3E9TheCyberHouseRules The Cyber House Rules]]" cuts out the part where Bender stomps on a baby basket left outside Planet Express, thinking it's a real baby (it was actually a recorded invitation to the Cookieville Minimum Security Orphanarium Reunion).
54	** [=PickTV=] in the UK and New Zealand edits out a lot of uses of the word "bastard", and the episode "[[Recap/FuturamaS2E10ACloneOfMyOwn A Clone of My Own]]" was edited to remove Bender's line "No we don't, you little bedwetter!" after Cubert tells Leela that robots are good at keeping secrets.
55	** The Hulu run of the series cuts references to Hulu in the intro after the third episode in countries where it is on Creator/DisneyPlus's Star/More Entertainment or Star+ instead.
56	* ExecutiveMeddling: See "{{Uncanceled}}" below to learn of how badly this show has been screwed over.
57	* [[HeyItsThatSound Hey, It's That Sound!]]: Plenty, for instance the sliding doors use the same sound as the ones in ''Franchise/StarTrek''.
58	** The episode "[[Recap/FuturamaS2E10ACloneOfMyOwn A Clone of My Own]]" features the sound of the Scout Speeders from ''Film/ReturnOfTheJedi'' used in a chase scene.
59	* FakeNationality: The American-born Creator/BillyWest voiced the Asian Leo Wong and the Indian Ipji prior to the Hulu run. Leo was later recast with the Chinese-American voice actor Feodor Chin for said run.
60	* LifeImitatesArt: Remember Amy's spray-on bikini? [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ScvdFeh1aOw They're working on that.]]
61	* LongRunners: Its 160 episodes aired in 1999-2003, 2007-2009 (as straight-to-DVD movies, later recut for TV), 2010-2013, and finally 2023, putting the franchise's age at 24 years, of which it was active in 11 of them.
62	* MemorialCharacter: Fry's first name, Philip, is in honor of Creator/PhilHartman, who was set to play Zapp Brannigan before he was murdered.
63	* MutuallyFictional: ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' and ''Futurama'' play with this in the TV show, with Creator/MattGroening's cameos on each being the creator of the other.
64	** Also, in the ''Simpsons'' episode "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS10E9MayoredToTheMob Mayored to the Mob]]", Üter wears a ''Futurama'' shirt. In an episode of ''Futurama'',[[note]]Season one's "A Big Piece of Garbage.[[/note]] Bender eats the shorts off a Bart Simpson doll (an early 1990s one that had a blue shirt instead of an orange-red one).
65	** This was put aside for "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS26E6Simpsorama Simpsorama]]", the ''Simpsons'' episode [[{{Crossover}} featuring]] the ''Futurama'' protagonists.
66	* OfficialFanSubmittedContent: Suggestions for the episode titles for the German dub of season 2 were collected on de.rec.tv.futurama. And yes, several of them were actually used. They never did something like this again, however.
67	* OutOfOrder: Only a quarter of the show's episodes were aired in intended sequence in both the Fox and Comedy Central runs. Just take a look at [[http://theinfosphere.org/Episode_Listing_(broadcast_order) the broadcast order]] and compare it to [[http://theinfosphere.org/Episode_Listing_(branded_order) the production order]]. The main regions of the scrambling are broadcast seasons 3 through 5 (which are a jumble of production seasons 2 through 4), as well as broadcast season 8 (the second half of production season 6). This creates the occasional continuity problem: "Anthology of Interest II" features Dwight before his proper introduction in "The Route of All Evil," "Leela's Homeworld", in which Leela finds out the truth about her parents, ended up airing ahead of several episodes produced beforehand, and "Jurassic Bark" contains a moment of {{Foreshadowing}} for "The Why of Fry", which is only a few episodes later in production order but several months later in broadcast order. To make matters more confusing, Hulu uses the broadcast order, so the seasons that premiered on Hulu are marketed as Seasons 11 and 12, despite their actual production codes designating them Season 8 and 9.
68	* TheOriginalDarrin:
69	** After being replaced for Seasons 5, 6, and 7, most of the original cast of the Latin American Spanish dub of the show came back for Season 8.
70	** The French dub is infamous for doing this trope more than once:
71	*** The first four seasons were dubbed in accordance with the American broadcasting order, which resulted in Fox airing those seasons as five seasons instead. The French dub for the first three of those five seasons featured Creator/AlexisTomassian as Fry, Creator/BlancheRavalec as Leela, Bernard Tiphaine as Bender and Zoidberg, Jean-Pierre Moulin as Farnsworth, Julie Turin as Amy, Lionel Melet as Hermes and Zapp, and Michel Lasorne as Kif (just to name a few).
72	*** The next two seasons were dubbed at a different studio, with everyone except Tomassian, Moulin, and Melet being replaced by other voice actors. Those two seasons featured Mélody Dubos as Leela, Hervé Caradec as Bender, Patrick Pellegrin as Zoidberg, Jessie Lambotte as Amy, and Creator/GilbertLevy as Kif.
73	*** For the DirectToVideo movies, the original cast came back. However, Tomassian decided to not reprise his role as Fry, [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere preferring to leave the dubbing studio]] because of both the poor translation of the dialogues and the fact they only had one day to do the dub for each of these movies when it should have required at least two days and a half. As a result, he was replaced by Laurent Mantel.
74	*** For Seasons 6 and 7, Tomassian came back as Fry. While Moulin and Tiphaine continued to voice Farnsworth and Bender respectively, Dubos, Pellegrin, Lambotte, and Lévy came back to replace their respective predecessors once again. Also, Éric Missoffe took over as both Hermes and Zapp.
75	*** For the Hulu revival, the cast of Seasons 6 and 7 was retained. However, Tiphaine retired in 2018 due to suffering from Alzheimer's disease and subsequently passed away in 2021. As a result, Caradec once again became the voice of Bender. Also, Michel Dodane returned to reprise his role as the Robot Devil, whom he hadn't voiced since the character's FirstAppearance in Season 1.
76	* TheOtherMarty: A particularly tragic example: the role of Zapp was created for Creator/PhilHartman (who insisted on auditioning for it, and "just nailed it" according to Creator/MattGroening), but he was murdered before he could complete his first episode. The role then went to Creator/BillyWest, who gave Zapp a distinctly Hartmanesque smarmy voice as tribute.
77	* PermanentPlaceholder: The Hypnotoad's trademark droning sound [[note]]named "Angry Machine"[[/note]] was originally a placeholder, but it sounded so bizarrely ''wrong'' that they kept it in.
78	* PopCultureUrbanLegends:
79	** There was a long-standing rumor that the opening sequence had to be changed after the September 11th attacks to remove the Planet Express ship crashing into the video billboard (as a lot of references to terrorism, buildings exploding, people panicking, and shots of the World Trade Center towers in comedic and dramatic movies and TV shows were subject to censorship during that time). This never happened.
80	** In the second half of 2020, people started claiming that one of the CouchGag taglines said "All time travel to the year 2020 is strictly prohibited". While the show has had plenty of moments that ended up being HilariousInHindsight, this particular one was [[https://www.cbr.com/futurama-title-caption-warning-dangers-year-2020/ proven to be a hoax]].
81	* ReferencedBy: Click [[ReferencedBy/{{Futurama}} here]].
82	* RefittedForSequel: The original idea for Season 4's "Jurassic Bark" was that it would focus on Fry's mother and his struggle to bring her BackFromTheDead. It was deemed too depressing and it was instead changed to being about his dog Seymour. However, in the show's final season, the episode "Game of Tones" would focus again on Fry's family from the past and have his mother take a prominent (and heart-wrenching) role in the narrative.
83	* SameContentDifferentRating: The series was originally rated TV-PG on Fox and Adult Swim, with the only episodes to receive a TV-14 rating during the show’s original run being "A Fishful Of Dollars", "A Tale of Two Santas" and "Spanish Fry" (while "My Three Suns", "When Aliens Attack", "A Bicyclops Built for Two", "Mother's Day", "Amazonian Women in the Mood", "A Taste of Freedom", and "Kif Gets Knocked Up a Notch" also received that rating when they aired on Adult Swim). However, the series began using a TV-14 rating for every single episode when it moved to Comedy Central in 2008, and kept it on every episode for its reruns on Syfy and in local broadcast syndication. When Syfy and Comedy Central lost the show’s broadcast rights in November 2021, the TV-PG episodes that weren’t already re-rated during the show's first Adult Swim run had their original rating restored for the show’s broadcasts on Creator/{{FXX}}, as well as its modern [as] airings.
84	* ScienceMarchesOn: While it's pretty clear that they really take a lot of Artistic License on science, they actually add ''tons'' of accuracy in there. One that was intended to be at least somewhat accurate at the time was when the crew went to Pluto, and it was shown as having only one moon. As of 2012, five moons have actually been detected around Pluto, but around the time when the episode was made, only Charon was known.
85	* ScrewedByTheNetwork:
86	** In spite of ''Futurama'' having some of the strongest early legs of almost any animated show on Creator/{{Fox}} (its pilot debuting with 19 million viewers), Groening, Cohen, and many other producers of the show have discussed that Fox execs were never particularly confident in it, giving the show [[InvisibleAdvertising little promotion]] and subjecting it to terribly inconsistent time slots throughout its initial run. It finally settled into the 7:00PM time slot on Sunday night, which stifled ratings due to it [[UsefulNotes/SportsPreemption constantly being preempted]] by UsefulNotes/NationalFootballLeague games that ran over their allotted time. Groening has also explained that working with Fox caused such hassle that they ended up approaching each season after the first like it was their last, as Fox's blatant indifference led to months and months of silence following a season's completion before they would get a renewal notice. ''Futurama'' was never even truly cancelled after season 4 -- Fox simply never gave the go-ahead for more episodes and left the entire property to gather dust. You can probably understand why the first joke of "[[Recap/FuturamaM1BendersBigScore Bender's Big Score]]" is an extended TakeThat against the "Box Network".
87	--->'''[[http://www.gotfuturama.com/Futurama/News/1048070863,81998,/Groening_bashes_FOX_Network.html Matt Groening]]''': The fans loved [Futurama], but they couldn't find it. It never got promoted. [[SendingStuffToSaveTheShow The fans delivered a petition with 130,000 signatures]] and there was no reaction from Fox. We won the Emmy for best animated show a few months ago and I didn't even get a begrudging phone call from anyone at Fox. That's a dark company that they can't even make a fake phone call.
88	** Matt Groening unveils [[ShowWithinAShow Futurella]] at Comic Con. Opening music starts, title appears, '''CANCELLED'''. Groening then comments on how Fox has streamlined the process.
89	** The uncancelled series never aired on Malaysian terrestrial TV- [=TV3=], the terrestrial broadcaster, ended the show on ''The Devil's Hands Are Idle Playthings''. This was also the last adult-oriented cartoon to be dropped from the channel.
90	** In the UK, Creator/{{Channel 4}} treated it well at first, airing the first 2 seasons at 6pm, afterwards it was relegated to overnights, with some episodes being shown as late as ''2am''. The fourth season was moved to a slightly better slot on Saturday mornings before they got rid of the show for good.
91	* ScheduleSlip: The original run on Fox had a seriously erratic schedule, resulting in several episodes from season 3 airing in season 4.
92	* TheShelfOfMovieLanguishment
93	** Although season 3 wrapped up production in 2001, the later episodes of season 3 that aired in 2002 all bare a 2001 copyright (with the exception of "A Leela of Her Own" which was produced in 2002).
94	** The entirely of season 4 was produced in 2002, but most of the season didn't air until 2003.
95	* SpoiledByTheMerchandise: A set of odd egg-shaped pins of various characters was promoted at San Diego Comic-Con 2023 shortly before the Hulu revival released. This is a tie-in to the egg toy segment of "[[Recap/FuturamaS8E9ThePrinceAndTheProduct The Prince and the Product]]", the ninth episode of that season. One of the pins resembles the baby Fry egg that only appears at the very end of that segment.
96	* SimilarlyNamedWorks: The show shares its name with an album by Music/BeBopDeluxe, which itself is named after the guitar brand.
97	* StarMakingRole: Creator/JohnDiMaggio himself said that it wasn't until he started voicing Bender that his voice acting career really took off. Beforehand he was a stand up comic and bit TV actor.
98	* TechnologyMarchesOn:
99	** Bound to happen with any long-running show that makes joking comparisons to technology of the time. One of the most glaring examples would be in "[[Recap/FuturamaS1E12WhenAliensAttack When Aliens Attack]]" when the crew were unable to find a VHS of a show called 'Single Female Lawyer' (due to most [=VHSs=] being damaged during the second coming of Jesus). No more than a year after the episode aired, [=VHSs=] were pretty much overshadowed by the superior DVD format, and a decade after that, most TV shows can be easily found online in one format or another (legally or otherwise).
100	** Doubly the case for the computer programming jokes, which are all in the BASIC language. It was popular when the writers were growing up, but had long since been eclipsed by languages like C, Java, and Python by 1999.
101	** Also happens with cell phones. In one episode, Amy's phone is comically tiny, since in the real world at the time, cell phones had just become mainstream and were getting smaller each year. During TheNewTens, however, touch screens on phones have become popular, and since bigger screens are easier to manage, cell phones have gotten ''larger''.
102	** The beginning of "[[Recap/FuturamaS2E9ABicyclopsBuiltForTwo A Bicyclops Built for Two]]" involves poking fun at America Online, with Prof. Farnsworth alluding to taking years to connect and then later claiming he needs the phone line free. Broadband high-speed Internet that doesn't rely on telcom networks became increasingly prevalent throughout the 2000s and the dial-up Internet memes of olde quickly faded with their time. Also the gang visits some chat rooms where users discourse in real time, even though such things eventually gave way to more asymmetrical online communication forms such as forums and instant messaging platforms (first on PC then moving onto mobile devices by way of SMS and eventually full text messaging).
103	** "[[Recap/FuturamaS8E5RelatedToItemsYouveViewed Related to Items You've Viewed]]" portrays an Alexa parody as taking over the universe, and Mom not caring because it is making her billions. Ironically, [[https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2022/11/amazon-alexa-is-a-colossal-failure-on-pace-to-lose-10-billion-this-year/ Alexa was a massive loss leader for Amazon the year before this episode]], and the future for standalone voice assistants in general looks very dim, turning this idea into {{Zeerust}} (though the actual Amazon-as-a-monopoly parody was still quite relevant).
104	* TransCharacterCisActor: Hermaphrobot the transgender woman is voiced by the cisgender Creator/JohnDiMaggio.
105	* UnCanceled: Once upon a time in 1999, FOX had been giving the show an inconsistent airing time after season one, and the show was frequently pre-empted by football games. Once, they didn't even bother with the football game and just ran commercials for 10 minutes where the first act should have been. For obvious reasons, this led to disappointing viewer turnout and ratings, despite the pilot episode ("Space Pilot 3000") being ''the'' highest rated premiere in the history of the FOX Network. Soon, it was announced that FOX had cancelled the show after "[[Recap/FuturamaS4E18TheDevilsHandsAreIdlePlaythings The Devil's Hands Are Idle Playthings]]", which was written to serve as a potential GrandFinale.\
106	\
107	Reruns soon went to Creator/CartoonNetwork's Creator/AdultSwim line-up,[[note]]Along with ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'', which was also canned after three seasons of mediocre ratings.[[/note]] and the episodes actually got more viewers than the first-run episodes on FOX now that the show had a consistent time slot and no pre-emptions. The season set [=DVD=]s added to ''Futurama'''s popularity, as people now got the chance to see what they were missing without the inconveniences of television (commercials, slot changes, and pre-emptions). Because of this, Matt Groening and his crew for ''Futurama'' created four direct-to-DVD movies (''Bender's Big Score'', ''The Beast with a Billion Backs'', ''Bender's Game'', and ''Into the Wild Green Yonder''), which were again designed to serve as a potential SeriesFinale if no other channel wanted to pick up the show or if Matt Groening decided to quit (''Into the Wild Green Yonder'' ended with [[spoiler:everyone in the Planet Express Ship flying into a wormhole, with heavy implications that they're never going to come back to Earth]]). Creator/ComedyCentral also starting airing the movies and the regular series episodes after Matt Groening turned down the chance to have the show renewed on Cartoon Network and Cartoon Network lost the syndication rights to the show in 2007. Comedy Central subsequently ordered new episodes of the show.\
108	\
109	Despite complaints about the Comedy Central episodes being inferior to the FOX episodes for whatever reason the fanbase has, ''Futurama'' enjoyed a good four years on Comedy Central. However, the good times were not to last. In April of 2013, it was announced that Comedy Central was pulling the plug on the show, making the episodes in the second half of the show's seventh season (tenth, if you go by broadcast history) the final episodes ever aired (the final episode "Meanwhile"[[note]]Which focused on Fry using time travel to finally propose to Leela.[[/note]] aired on September 4, 2013). In 2022, it was [[https://variety.com/2022/tv/news/futurama-revival-hulu-1235176203/ announced]] that the show would be revived yet again for 20 episodes on Creator/{{Hulu}}.
110	* UnfinishedEpisode:
111	** There was supposed to be an OriginsEpisode for Scruffy the Janitor in the final season of the first revival.
112	** The writers loved the character of Barbados Slim so much that there were plans for a MusicalEpisode focused on him, but the series' first cancellation put an end to that idea.
113	* ViewersAreGeniuses:
114	** Turanga Leela is named after the ''Turangalîla Symphonie'' -- a piece of orchestral music by Olivier Messiaen. If you knew of the piece or of the composer without having to check Google, you are either a devoted classical music fan or an academic (or both).
115	** Lots of jokes rely on the viewers being smart enough to understand it, especially the math, engineering, and science jokes, which most viewers wouldn't get unless they were in college or taking Advanced Placement high school classes.
116	* WhatCouldHaveBeen: [[WhatCouldHaveBeen/{{Futurama}} Has its own page]].
117	* WordOfGay: According to executive producer Bill Odenkirk in the commentary of the Season 3 DVD set, all of Robot Santa's elves are gay. Odenkirk said this in response to questions on why all of the elves were holding hands with others of the same sex.
118	* WordOfGod:
119	** Bender's DoAnythingRobot capabilities are due to accidentally being electrocuted in the first episode. He never dreamed of doing anything but bending girders beforehand.
120	** Other perpendicular universes are found, each with its own distinctive quirk--a world of hippies, Romans, bobbleheads, robots, people who [[EyelessFace never had eyes]] who nevertheless know what "seeing" is, etc.
121	** Zoidberg's appetite, according to producers, includes there being only three things that Zoidberg dislikes: fluorescent light bulbs, brown crayons, and tofu.
122	* WorkingTitle: The series was originally named ''Aloha Mars!'', though it also had the working title of ''Doomsville'' at one point. These titles, among many others, were rejected until the network and creative team were satisfied with the final choice.
123
124	!!The Comic
125	* NoExportForYou:
126	** The UK version got cancelled at the end of 2013 due to catching up with the US originals. The next issue would've used content from the issue still on sale in the Us, and the following one would've overtaken the source! However, this means that the US issues 69 onwards will not be reprinted in the UK unless they get re-released as trade paperbacks.
127	** The Australian version followed the publishing schedule of the original US version, but ceased publication in 2011 after issue 47.
128
129	!!The Game
130	* RoleReprise: All of the characters in-game are voiced by their actors from the show. This includes Creator/BillyWest as Fry, the Professor and Zoidberg, Creator/KateySagal as Leela, Creator/JohnDiMaggio as Bender, Igner and Sal, Creator/TressMacNeille as Mom and Linda, Creator/MauriceLaMarche as Morbo, Walt and Destructor, Creator/DavidHerman as Larry and Creator/FrankWelker as Nibbler.
131	* SerendipityWritesThePlot: Reportedly, Creator/PhilLaMarr and Creator/LaurenTom were excluded from the game due to budgetary restrictions. Thus, Hermes and Amy [[DemotedToExtra do not play a major role in the story]], with Hermes only appearing in one level (where he is under the control of a brain slug and thus doesn't talk) and Amy being absent altogether.
132	* SeriesFauxnale: The game, according to writer David X. Cohen, was intended to be the canonical finale for the series, which at the time had been canceled with no hint of renewal. With the PowerTrio being KilledOffForReal in the ending, obviously it's no longer canon.
133
134	!!Other stuff
135	* TheMovie ''Bender's Game'' practically canonizes Walt, Larry and Igner's ages when Nibbler says "It was 36 years ago... now" when Mom started drilling for Dark Matter with the intention of selling it. With their ages being only a couple of years apart and Igner being unborn and only just conceived at the time (Mom didn't appear pregnant in flashbacks)...
136	** She had to have been pregnant (but not showing) in the scene where she leaves Farnsworth, because we know who Igner's father is.
137	** Walt is approximately 39, Larry 37, and Igner 35.

Context Trivia / Futurama