Anthology of Interest I

Infobox Futurama episode
episode_name = Anthology of Interest I


caption = "What would happen if Leela was a tiny bit more impulsive?"
episode_no = 29
prod_code = 2ACV16
airdate = May 21, 2000
country = USA
writer = Terror at 500 Feet:
Eric Rogers
Dial L for Leela:
Ken Keeler
The Un-Freeze of a Lifetime:
David X. Cohen
director = Chris Louden
Rich Moore
opening_subtitle = Painstakingly Drawn Before A Live Audience
opening_cartoon = "Bosko Shipwrecked"
guest_star = Al Gore as himself
Stephen Hawking as himself
Nichelle Nichols as herself
Gary Gygax as himself
season = two

"Anthology of Interest I" is episode sixteen in season two of "Futurama". It originally aired in North America on May 21, 2000. This episode, as well as the later "Anthology of Interest II", serves to showcase three out-of-canon "imaginary" stories, in a manner similar to the "Treehouse of Horror" episodes of Matt Groening's other animated series "The Simpsons".cite book|last=Pratt| first=Douglas| title=Doug Pratt's DVD: Movies, Television, Music, Art, Adult, and More!| pages=474]

Plot

Professor Farnsworth shows his new invention, the Fing-longer, to the crew. He demonstrates it by activating the What-If machine, a device that allows the user to view a simulation of a hypothetical scenario after the user asks it a 'what-if' question. The Professor invites the crew to ask a question.

Terror at 500 Feet

Bender offers to take the first turn and asks what would happen if he were 500 feet tall.

The simulation begins with the giant Bender being built by hundreds of regular-sized bending units on some distant planet. He reaches Earth where he meets Fry, having recently arrived in the 31st century all alone. Bender takes a liking to him and they become friends. Bender destroys nearly all of Central Park and the military is sent to deal with him.

The military is unable to damage Bender with their electric weapons, but when Fry runs to his defense, he is electrocuted. Bender wreaks havoc upon New New York. To combat Bender, the Professor uses his enlarging-ray on Zoidberg, only to see him wreak havoc as well, interrupted by Bender who isn't pleased with Zoidberg destroying "his" city. The two fight and Bender finally appears to win by pushing Zoidberg into Shea Stadium filled with boiling water.

While Bender laughs in triumph, an enraged and hardboiled Zoidberg rises out of the water and snaps off Bender's feet, causing him to fall over and impale himself on the Empire State Building. A tearful Fry admonishes the citizens of New New York City about the tragedy of Bender, whose final words lament his inability to fulfill his dream to kill all humans, then he asks 'Who's the real 7 billion ton robot monster here?'. Bender dies, and the scenario ends as onlookers silently watch on.

Dial L for Leela

The Professor asks Leela to ask a question. She asks what would happen if she were a "little" more impulsive.

Leela shows off her new boots bought on impulse, the only difference being a green stripe down the side. The Professor summons Leela to tell her that she will be his sole heir as she is so unimpulsive and predictable. He leans over a pit containing his man-eating anteaters while commenting on how rich Leela will be as soon as he dies. Leela gives in to her impulses and kicks him into the pit, where the anteaters eat him alive. When Hermes discovered a video will showing the death, she desparately chops him up and stuffed his body down the garbage disposal. When Bender deduces that she is the murderer, he proceeds to blackmail her in return for his silence. Leela kills Bender with microwave rays and turns his body into a go-cart. Leela decides that whenever she wants to kill someone, she'll chew a piece of gum to distract herself. Amy insults Leela when she rides the go-cart and Leela asks Amy for a piece of gum. Amy has none, so Leela kills her and stuffs the body into a grandfather clock.

Zoidberg summons the rest of the crew in order to solve the murders. While Zoidberg reveals clues, Cubert, Scruffy and Nibbler attempt to implicate Leela, but she turns off the lights and kills them one by one (impaling them on the same sword). Just as Zoidberg is about to reveal it to Fry (the only other living crew member), Fry declares Zoidberg "boring" and leaves the room. Leela kills (and eats) Zoidberg. When Fry finally figures out the next day that she was responsible for the murders, Leela is forced to do something really impulsive: sleep with him to keep him quiet. Fry declares that he likes the new, impulsive Leela. Then she turns off the lights and Fry is heard to scream...and then says that he "really" likes it.

The Un-Freeze of a Lifetime

After being told that Bender's scenario would not be done again, Fry asks what would happen if he had not been frozen.

Fry narrowly misses falling into the cryogenic tube, and a rift in the space-time continuum appears, which shows the Planet Express crew in the future. The next day, after talking to Mr. Panucci, he comes to the attention of Stephen Hawking who arranges for Fry to be abducted. He is introduced to the "Vice Presidential Action Rangers", led by Al Gore, whose task is to protect the space-time continuum. The Vice Presidential Action Rangers include Gore, Hawking, Nichelle Nichols, Gary Gygax, and Deep Blue.

Fry explains what happened the previous night and they determine that Fry was supposed to die and try to kill him. Another rift appears during the attempted murder and Nichelle Nichols suggests that Fry be frozen and Gary Gygax gives Fry his "+1 mace" for protection in the future. Just before Fry is frozen, he smashes the cryogenic tube, causing the universe to collapse into a space-time rift. This results in Fry and the Vice Presidential Action Rangers appearing in some other indeterminate dimension which is not part of the universe. The scenario ends with them playing "Dungeons and Dragons" for the next quadrillion years.

Conclusion

After the end of Fry's scenario, the Professor curses the What-If machine for simulating scenarios even he found preposterous and dumps it into the trash. He judges the Fing-Longer to be a success and is congratulated by the crew. It is then shown that everything before was just a simulation by the What-If machine when the professor asked what would have happened if he "had" invented the Fing-Longer, leaving him to lament about the possibilities if he had invented it.

Continuity

*In the Futurama Comics, the Professor eventually would invent the Fing-Longer; it appears in the second issue of the "Simpsons/Futurama Crossover Chaos!" comic mini-series, and in later episodes in the show. An alternative explanation would be that the fing-longer already existed and he was wondering what would happen if he had invented it himself. Bender's speech before asking his "What If?" question in Act I, is an obvious introduction to his "What If?" question in "Anthology of Interest II".

*In "The Un-Freeze of a Lifetime", Bender and Leela are seen with the rest of the Planet Express crew in the space-time rift. However, if Fry had not been frozen, it is unlikely that Bender and Leela would both have come to work at Planet Express (since Fry was the reason Bender didn't commit suicide and the reason Leela left her job at the cryogenics facility earlier in the series).

*Also in this segment, when Fry falls backwards towards the cryogenic chamber, Nibbler's shadow is not visible on the wall. Despite Nibbler being absent, Fry still falls backwards off his chair, contradicting the later events of "The Why Of Fry" (although he does not actually enter the chamber as he does when blown off by Nibbler, hinting that Nibbler had something to do with Fry being frozen), where Fry falls backwards a few seconds later due to Nibbler being stopped by Fry's future self, and only when pushed by a breath from his future self -- though it should be noted that he also stopped his past self from falling backwards naturally before this. However, as this story is simulated by the What-If machine, it is not canonical, and the machine would most likely not have known of Nibbler's presence at Fry's freezing. It is also possible that the What-If machine simply removed Nibbler from the equation, meaning Fry that would not be pushed, he simply fell.

Production

Gary Gygax's appearance alongside Al Gore is something of an inside joke since Gore's wife, Tipper Gore, hates Dungeons & Dragons and has been publicly critical of it.cite web |url=http://www.urbin.net/EWW/polyticks/tipper.html |title=RAISING PG KIDS IN AN X-RATED SOCIETY |accessdate=2008-03-09 |format=html] When rebroadcast during the 2000 Presidential Election fiasco, the tagline at the start of the episode said, "Starring a guy who is kind-of, sort-of our next president, maybe!"Fact|date=June 2007

Broadcast and reception

This episode guest starred Nichelle Nichols and Al Gore, both of whom would make later appearances in "Where No Fan Has Gone Before" and "Crimes of the Hot" respectively. Al Gore received some criticism for his appearance because parts of the show "conflicted starkly with the anti-violence, anti-smoking and family-values themes of Gore's campaign". Gore's spokesperson responded by stating that most viewers would recognize that the show was meant to be entertaining and that it would be taken in the right spirit.cite web |url=http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/e1831.htm |title=Veep guest stars in TV cartoon | publisher= USA Today| accessdate=2007-06-26 |date=2000-05-22]

This episode is one of four featured in the "Monster Robot Maniac Fun Collection" as one of Matt Groening's four favorite episodes of the series.cite web |url=http://www.tv.com/tracking/viewer.html?tid=5078&ref_id=249&ref_type=101&tag=story_list;title;8 |title=Futurama — Do the Robot Dance! |publisher=TV.com |accessdate=2007-06-26 |author=Gord Lacey |date=2005-05-11] In 2006 IGN.com ranked this episode as number thirteen in their list of the top 25 episodes of "Futurama" reviewer noting that although the plots of the three individual segments weren't the best work of "Futurama" they were each considered to have "killer" comedy.cite web |url=http://tv.ign.com/articles/716/716663p1.html |title="Top 25 Futurama Episodes" |author = Iverson, Dan| publisher= IGN.com| date= 2006-07-07|accessdate=2007-06-25 |format= |work= ]

Cultural references

* When Giant Bender flies to Earth the distinctive riff from the song "Iron Man" by "Black Sabbath" is quickly heard
* The Giant Bender scenario is similar to the plot of the movie "The Iron Giant".cite web |url=http://movies2.nytimes.com/gst/movies/movie.html?v_id=287177 |title=Futurama: Anthology of Interest I |author=Andrea LeVasseur |accessdate=2007-06-26] The creator of the movie, Brad Bird worked with several of the Futurama writers as an executive consultant on "The Simpsons".
* The Fight between Giant Bender and Giant Zoidberg is similar to the Beastie Boys "Intergalactic" video.
* After the giant Bender has died Fry runs up to him and says "Good night sweet prince" which is also a line from William Shakespeare's stageplay Hamlet
* This episode's opening line "Painstakingly Drawn Before A Live Audience" is similar to a joke used in "The Simpsons" episode "The Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie Show", (Homer asks if the show is going out live, and the voice of Itchy & Scratchy says "Very few cartoons are broadcast live; it's a terrible strain on the animators' wrists") which was written by David X. Cohen, a developer for "Futurama".
* The line "I'm a big robot, and I need a big cereal" refers to the Honeycomb cereal commercials aired during the eighties (with "robot" replacing "kid" in this version).
* The school bus in the last segment reads "Grand Unified School District," a reference to Stephen Hawking's longtime pursuit for the Grand Unified Field Theory.

ee also

* "Anthology of Interest II"

References

External links

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