Futurama 1 [DVD] [1999] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC]

Obviously, with 'Futurama' being made by Matt Groening, the same creator of probably the most popular animated show in the world, 'The Simpsons', expectations were high for 'Futurama'. It had to be an instant hit, and I have to say it's not as popular as 'The Simpsons', but it is definitely worth watching, and the first season is definitely worth buying.

1. Space Pilot 3000
A 25-year-old pizza delivery boy named Fry spends New Year's Eve 1999 lamenting his lame existence. That night, he accidentally freezes himself in a cryogenics lab and awakens at the dawn of the year 3,000! With the past 1,000 years behind him, Fry decides to make a fresh start. He tracks down his great-great-great-great (etc.) nephew, Professor Farnsworth, and gets a job with his intergalactic delivery service. With the help of his two new friends, a beautiful one-eyed alien named Leela and a degenerate robot named Bender, Fry prepares for the ride of his life in this bizarre new millennium.

2. Episode Two: The Series Has Landed
When one of his first deliveries takes him to the moon, Fry can hardly contain his excitement. For the others, it's just a routine trip, but Fry is shocked to discover a giant lunar theme park! He convinces Leela to go exploring and search for the original moon-landing site, but their excursion soon becomes a matter of life or death! Meanwhile, Bender puts the moves on a moon-farmer's daughter and suffers the consequences!

3. I, Roommate
Everyone is sick of Fry so he has to get his own apartment. He decides to become Bender's roommate. The only catch is that Bender's apartment has a volume of 2 cubic meters. Fry convinces Bender to look for a better place, they get a new apartment, only that Bender's antenna interferes with the TV reception (a thousand years and televisions still use plain antenna? some things never change). Fry prefers to stay in his apartment instead of going back to Bender's, but Leela convinces him to. When Fry asks where to put his stuff, Bender suggests the closet, which is big enough for Fry to live.

4. Love's Labors Lost in Space
On a mission intended to save endangered animals on a collapsing planet, Leela and the crew run into legendary starship captain Zapp Brannigan. A self-proclaimed ladies man, Zapp sees Leela as a potential new conquest. When the captain refuses to aid the animal rescue, Leela and her crew try to leave Zapp's starship. But Zapp throws Fry and Bender in jail, and summons Leela to his "Lovenasium." They ultimately escape and arrive on the doomed planet, where Leela finally finds love - with a cute, and very useful, creature named Nibbler.

5. Fear of a Bot Planet
At Madison Cube Garden watching a blernsball game, Bender complains about the poor treatment of robots. They're only there to clean up, polish the balls or water the fields. They never get any respect. Later, Bender must deliver a package to a planet inhabited by murderous robots that kill humans on sight. He discovers a robotopia - a land where the robot is king! However, when Leela and Fry are captured, Bender must choose between protecting his celebrity status or saving his friends.

6. A Fishful of Dollars
A thousand years is a long time to save up money, and Fry's savings account has been racking up interest. When Fry discovers just how much - over 4 billion dollars - Fry goes a little overboard. After completely redecorating the apartment, splurging on expensive spa days and treating his friends to innumerable luxuries, Fry discovers the ultimate expense. Anchovies. This rare delicacy as been extinct for years, and Fry must battle the evil conglomerate known as Mom, plus Pamela Anderson Lee's head in a jar, to get them!

7. My Three Suns
The crew visits an arid planet in the Galaxy of Terror distinctive for it's three suns and liquid alien inhabitants. Fry, after delivering a package under the scorching heat, quenches his thirst with a bottle of cool blue liquid. Fry soon finds out he drank the planet's royal leader and is named the new emporer. Fry abuses his newfound power, even appointing Bender second in command, until the aliens retaliate and the real battle for power begins.

8. A Big Piece of Garbage
A big piece of garbage that was released a thousand years ago is now on the way to Earth to destroy it. After Fry, Leela and Bender fail on placing a bomb on it, the city has to build another big piece of garbage, yet that may be a problem since trash doesn't exist in year 3000.

9. Hell is Other Robots
Bender becomes addicted to electricity, so his sins make him go to robot hell. Since he is condemned to live there for eternity, it's up to Fry and Leela to save him from Beelzebot, the robot devil.

Campy and hilarious cartoon by Matt Groening, creator of The Simpsons. Futurama makes fun of politics, other movies, people, TV, advertising, social concerns, environmental issues, religion, se$x, and everything both touchable and untouchable.

The combination of in-your-face one-liners and tongue-in-cheek humor is as good as it gets for an evening of enjoyable escapism. The entire premise of the show is that Philip J. Fry, a pizza delivery boy, was accidentally frozen back in 1999 and reawakened in the year 3000. He goes to work for his great nephew, Professor Hubert J. Farnsworth, who's 150 years old and senile.

Katey Sagal was the perfect choice for the voice of Leela, a feisty spaceship captain with one eye and a purple ponytail. Wherever she goes, Leela really kicks hinder. Bender is a foul-mouthed girder-bending robot who becomes Fry's friend, and who must drink alcohol to charge his batteries. There Hermes the Jamaican accountant, Amy the intern, and Dr. Zoidberg, the giant lobster physician. (he also eats everything in sight)

Because it's a space cartoon, the creators are not bound to any kind of realism, which is good. Some of the creatures and situations in the series really showcase the sick and twisted minds behind the show, freeing Groening from the restrictions of The Simpsons and allowing his darker side to soar. Nothing is too sacred to take advantage of in this comical and entertaining series. Also, watch for the quips at the bottom of the screen during the opening credits, very similar to Bart writing on the chalkboard during the opening theme of The Simpsons.

Volume One is the first season of this show, and although still hilarious, you can see the growing pains as episode by episode the characters develop more fleshy personalities and the show settles into its campy niche. What I didn't like about the DVD set (other than being only three discs) was the fact that there was no "Play All" option available. You have to start each episode individually. On the plus side, each episode has an audio commentary available, subtitles, and a few other extras like deleted scenes and gallery options.
Here is a quick rundown of what's in Volume One:

Disc One:
Space Pilot 3000: Pilot for the show. Notice the first thing Bender ever says is "Bite my shiny metal a$$", a line that became a constant in his vocabulary. Special guest, Leonard Nimoy. Introduces Leela and Prof. Farnsworth.

The Series Has Landed: Introduces Hermes, Amy, and Dr. Zoidberg. The crew visits an amusement park on the moon.

I, Roommate: Fry needs to find a place to stay other than the lab, so he and Bender decide to be roommates. They need to find a place that they can both be comfortable. Bender refers to his antenna as "little Bender".

Love's Labors Lost In Space: Introduces Captain Zap Brannigan and his sidekick Kif. Absolutely hilarious character whose Captain's tunic is way, way, waaaaaay too short and who is a pompous idiot. After accidentally sleeping with Zap, Leela goes down to a disintegrating planet and finds her new pet Nibbler.

Disc Two:
Fear Of A Bot Planet: Don't even ask about Bender's butter dispenser at the ballgame. Fry and Leela have to go down to a Robot Planet to bring Bender back, but the robots kill humans.

A Fishful of Dollars: Fry discovers he's rich on 1000 years of interest from his 93 cent bank balance, and buys the last can of anchovies. This episode introduces Mom, the world's most huggable industrialist. When Mom steps out of her "fat suit", she's a bony old woman in a tight purple bodysuit who chainsmokes.

My Three Suns: Bender becomes a chef, the crew visits a planet where you can buy anything (note the Crack Dispenser Machine), and Fry delivers a package to a desert planet and then drinks their water-being emperor.

A Big Piece Of Garbage: Prof Farnsworth invents the smell-o-scope and detects a pile of garbage heading for earth. This episode takes huge potshots at the movies Armageddon and Deep Impact.

Hell Is Other Robots: Hysterical episode, Bender calls Fry and Leela "organ sacks" and goes out to "Drink until he reboots". He then starts "jacking on" by plugging into electricity, turns to religion to cure him, and winds out in Robot Hell where he and the crew perform a lively musical. Beastie Boys do a guest spot.

Disc Three:
A Flight To Remember: Makes fun of Titanic, and brings back Zap Brannigan as the Captain of the luxury ship. Zap decides to "take a route with chest air" and wrecks the ship.

Mars University: Takes a heavy dig at Animal House. Fry goes back to college and Bender shows his old frat house how to party.

When Aliens Attack: Zap Brannigan again! This time he has everyone dressing up in his short-short uniform. Aliens come to Earth in order to view the last episode of a long lost sitcom. At the beginning, when they are relaxing at the beach, Dr. Zoidberg "goes for a scuttle". I don't know why, but that just cracks me up.

Fry And The Slurm Factory: Digs at Willy Wonka and Spuds MacKenzie. Fry wins a trip to the factory that makes his favorite soft drink, Slurm, where the crew discover the disgusting source of Slurm. Fry still can't stop drinking it though.

Futurama is a warped cartoon for people with a warped sense of humor. It's silly comedy with a naughty edge to it, so if that is your cup of tea you will probably like it as much as I do. Enjoy!

Futarama is the best new TV series. If you only watch "Simpsons", "Family Guy", or "King of the Hill" then what the heck is wrong with you. Futarma is so funny on so many different levels. They have so many guest stars like Pamlea Anderson, a couple Star Trek members, and the voice of Richard Nixon. The three disc collection contains episodes 1-13.

The show is about Fry (Phillp) who a loser pizza delivery boy that has nothing to live for. His girlfriend leaves him he always gets fake deliveries. He ends up getting frozen for 1000 years. He wakes up in December 31, 2999. He goes out nd meets a robot and ends up running into Leela which joins him for the rest of the show. Fry trys to find a reletive in the future. He finds Professor Farnsworth who is some 100 year old man which ends up being his nephew. He hires them as his delivery crew on go on all kinds of exciting and funny missions. Here is a list of the episodes and what there about:


Disc1
1.Space Pilot 3000
After an accidental cryogenic freezing, Fry awakens at the dawn of the year 3000. With the help of his two new friends, a swearing robot, and a cute one-eyed alien named Leela, Fry defies his life assignment as a delivery boy. He tracks down his great-great-great-etc. nephew, Professoe Farnsworth, who hires the three to work for his intergalactic delivery service.

2.The Series Has Landed
After delivering a pacgage to an amusement park on the moon, Fry shows Leela how to appreciate the celestial body. Meanwhile Bender finds a little robot romance with a farmer's daughters, which puts the whole crew in jeopardy.

3.I,Roommate
Fry is such a slob that he is forced to move out of the Planet Express offices. But friendship makes for strange bedfellows when he moves in with Bender and discovers the nuts and bolts of living with a robot.

4.Love's Labours Lost In Space
On a mission to save endangered animals from a collasping, lonely Leela meets legendary starship captain Zapp Brannigan - who (at least in his own own opinion) is the universe's greatest ladies man.


Disc 2
5.Fear Of A Bot Planet
While delvering a package to a planet inhabited by robots, where humans are killed instantly, Bender becomes intoxicated with the robot lifestyles and must choose between becoming a celebrity of sorts or saving his friend's lives.

6.A Fishful Of Dollars
Fry discovers he's a billionaire because his savings have been accruing interest for 1,000 years. Caught up in the excitement of his riches, he squanders his fortune to buy an unopened can of anchovies - extinct since the year 2200. What he doesn't realize is that Mom, the head of mega-conglomerate, will do anything - even use Pamela Anderson's head in a jar - to get her hands on those anchovies.

7.My Three Suns
The crew visits a planet inhabited by liquid aliens. Fry, after delivering a package under the scorching heat of the planet's three suns, finds a bottle of cool blue liquid to quench his thrist. But when that liquid turns out to be the civilization's ruler. Fry finds he has become the new leader. Initially drunk withpower, he soon discovers his life is in danger and must turn to his friends to help him dry out.

8.A Big Piece Of Garbage
A gigantic ball of garbage carelessly launched off earth in the 21st century returns on a collision course for NNYC and Fry and the crew set out on a mission to destroy it.

9.Hell Is Other Robots
Bender puts his sinful lifestyle behind him when he joins the Temple of Robotolgy. But after returning to his old ways, he is banished to Robot Hell where, in a musical extravaganza, he faces the Robot Devil and endures tortures unimaginable to man.


Disc 3
10.A Flight To Remember
Professor Farnsworth treats Planet Express crew to a vacation on the largest, most luxurious space cruise ship ever built - the Titanic. Once in space, love is in the air as Bender falls for a beautiful robot Countess and Fry dates both Leela and Amy. Captain Zapp Brannigan sets a course for adventure when he decides to steer the Titanic through a swarm of comets, or as calls them, "the icebergs of the sky."

11.Mars University
When Fry returns to college to prove he can be just as good of a dropout as he was in the Twentieth Century, Professor Farnsworth surprises him with a dorm roommate, a super-intelligent monkey. Meanwhile Bender, a legend of the robot fraternity "ERR" leads a revenge of the robot nerds.

12.When Aliens Attack
The Omicrons threaten to destroy the earth if they can't see the last episode of the lost 20th Century TV series "Single Female Lawyer" starring an unmarried human female, who wears very short miniskirts, struggling to succed in human man's world. Because the last episode was destroyed by someone spilling beer on the transmitter (Fry), the crew from Planet Express must deliver their version of single Female Lawyer.

13.Fry & The Slurm Factory
Fry opens a "Slurm" beverage container bearing the golden bottle cap and wins a tour of the "Slurm" Factory (a la "Willy Wonka") to see how the world's most deliciously addictive soft drink is made. Wandering off from the tour, Fry is horrified when he accidently discovers the top-secret ingredient that makes "Slurm" so impossible to resist.

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