A Big Piece of Garbage

Infobox Futurama episode
episode_name = A Big Piece of Garbage


caption = Fry and Leela on the Trash Asteroid.
episode_no = 8
prod_code = 1ACV08
airdate = May 11, 1999
country = USA
writer = Lewis Morton
director = Susie Dietter
opening_subtitle = Mr. Bender's Wardrobe by ROBOTANY 500
opening_cartoon = Elmer Fudd in "A Corny Concerto"
guest_star = Ron Popeil as himself
Nancy Cartwright as the Bart Simpson doll
season = one"A Big Piece of Garbage" is episode eight in season one of "Futurama". It originally aired in North America on May 11, 1999. The episode was written by Lewis Morton and directed by Susie Dietter. Ron Popeil guest stars in this episode as himself. Nancy Cartwright also has a brief cameo as a Bart Simpson doll. Much of the episode is a spoof of "Armageddon" however instead of Earth being threatened by an asteroid it is instead threatened by a giant ball of garbage.cite book|last=Booker| first=M. Keith|title=Drawn to Television: Prime-Time Animation from The Flintstones to Family Guy|pages=pp. 115–124]

Plot

Professor Farnsworth announces that tomorrow the crew will make a delivery to Ebola 9, the virus planet. They cannot go today because he wants them all to be alive for the Academy of Inventors' annual symposium, where he will present the Deathclock, a device which calculates how long a person has left to live (a reference to Robert A. Heinlein's short story, Life-Line). At the symposium, he meets a former student of his from Mars University, Professor Ogden Wernstrom, who vowed revenge on the Professor after receiving an A-minus on a pop quiz, even if it took him a hundred years. Just over ninety-nine years have passed, and no revenge is in sight; so Farnsworth considers himself to be in the clear.

Wernstrom presents his invention, a sort of reverse SCUBA suit that allows fish to breathe water while walking about on land. He taunts Farnsworth over his invention from the previous year—the Deathclock. Mortified that he had already presented the invention and forgotten about it, Farnsworth hastily begins drawing on a napkin, and comes up with the smelloscope, a device that allows people to smell distant cosmic objects. The smelloscope is received with scorn and laughter, and Wernstrom gives it "the worst grade imaginable—an A minus... minus!"

Back at Planet Express, Farnsworth invites everybody to see the smelloscope which he already built last year and also forgot about. Fry begins pointing the smelloscope around, and discovers the smelliest object in the universe. After calculating its path, Professor Farnsworth announces that the object will collide with New New York City in 72 hours. After some research, a video is found, revealing the object to be a giant ball of New York City's garbage launched via mob-obtained rocket into space around 2052 in an attempt to alleviate a crippling rubbish problem. After Fry expresses his surprise that they were able to find a non-pornographic video on the internet, the video ends with the actors starting to take off their clothing.

After warning the mayor of New New York, Mayor Poopenmayer, a plan is hatched to destroy the garbage ball. The Planet Express crew is sent on a mission to plant a bomb on a fault line on the ball. The bomb has been set to allow twenty-five minutes to escape. When the crew lands on the ball, Fry is amazed of all of the 20th–century items on the ball; but Leela reminds Fry that these things were garbage, which is why they are in the garbage ball in the first place. Unfortunately, the Professor put the bomb's countdown display in upside down, and it actually only allows fifty-two seconds. The crew panics, and Bender throws the bomb into space to save them, but runs into a small meteor and falls back to the surface; Bender throws it again and this time the bomb goes off harmlessly. The opportunity to destroy the garbage ball is lost, so the crew returns to Earth in shame.

Trying to find another way to save the city, the Mayor sends for Wernstrom. Wernstrom demands tenure, a grant, and five research assistants. When the mayor agrees to his conditions, Wernstrom reveals that he has no plan, declares that he's set for life due to tenure, and leaves. In a last-ditch effort to redeem himself, Farnsworth comes up with a second plan to save the city; launching a second ball of garbage to bounce against the first one and sending it flying into the sun. The Mayor exclaims that there hasn't been garbage in New New York for 500 years, so there's no way to make such a ball. Fry seizes the moment and demonstrates how to make garbage. An announcement is made to tell the city to throw away everything. The city quickly generates a second ball of garbage, which is fired at the first garbage ball. The rocket flies into the air and hits the other garbage ball head-on, sending it into the sun as planned, while the new ball flies out of the solar system. Leela's concerns that the new garbage ball will return and destroy a future generation are dismissed by other characters; Fry says that it won't be for hundreds of years.

The finishing song is "We'll Meet Again" instead of the standard Futurama theme.

Awards

This episode was nominated for an Emmy award in 1999 for Best Animated Program (For Programming One Hour or Less)".cite web| url=http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117744103.html?categoryid=14&cs=1| title=Primetime Emmy noms — List 1| author=Variety Staff| date=1999-07-22| access date=2007-07-01] cite web|title=Farewell to the funny future|url=http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-14221036_ITM|author=Azrai, Ahmad|date=2004-10-31|accessdate=2008-01-10]

References

External links

* [http://movies2.nytimes.com/gst/movies/movie.html?v_id=283585 "A Big Piece of Garbage"] at The New York Times Movies
* [http://www.tv.com/futurama/a-big-piece-of-garbage/episode/1541/summary.html "A Big Piece Of Garbage"] at TV.com
* [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0584423/ "A Big Piece of Garbage"] at the Internet Movie Database
* [http://tv.yahoo.com/futurama/show/a-big-piece-of-garbage/episode/1630 "A Big Piece of Garbage"] at Yahoo!TV