The Devil's Hands Are Idle Playthings

Infobox Futurama episode
episode_name = The Devil’s Hands Are Idle Playthings
episode_no = 72
prod_code = 4ACV18
airdate = August 10, 2003
country = USA
writer = Ken Keeler
director = Bret Haaland
opening_subtitle = See you on some other channel
opening_cartoon = Futurama’s opening credits (infinite regression)
guest_star = Dan Castellaneta as the Robot Devil


caption = Fry swaps hands with the Robot Devil.
season = four

"The Devil’s Hands Are Idle Playthings" was the original series finale of the animated television series "Futurama". It is the eighteenth episode in the fourth production season and first aired in the United States on August 10, 2003 as the sixteenth episode of the fifth broadcast season. However, it was confirmed on June 22, 2006 that the show would be returning for a run of at least 13 episodes on Comedy Central, to air beginning in 2008.cite web|author=Wallenstein, Andrew| url=http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=televisionNews&storyID=2006-06-23T033638Z_01_N22173912_RTRIDST_0_TELEVISION-FUTURAMA-DC.XML| title="Futurama" gets new life on Comedy Central|publisher=Reuters|date=June 22, 2006|accessdate=2006-06-22] This episode was written by Ken Keeler and directed by Bret Haaland, and it guest stars Dan Castellaneta, who reprises his role as the Robot Devil. Keeler was nominated for an Emmy Award for this episode and the song "I Want My Hands Back" was nominated for an Annie Award.

Plot

After a disastrous holophonor recital, Fry enlists the help of the Robot Devil to improve his holophonor skills through a hand transplant. After randomly determining the robot "donor", Fry's hands are switched for those of the Robot Devil himself. Fry becomes a skilled holophonor player and attempts to win the heart of Leela with an opera commissioned by Hedonismbot.

Revolted at getting the raw end of the deal, the Robot Devil decides he has to get his own hands back. He trades Bender a stadium air horn for his "crotch-plate" so that he can annoy people. When Bender uses the air horn on Leela, he causes her to go deaf (his air horn also breaks, and when the Robot Devil taunts him, there is no "shiny metal ass" for him to bite). Leela refuses to tell Fry that she is deaf because she is afraid that Fry will stop writing the opera, so she attends the premiere pretending she can still hear the performance. During the intermission, the Robot Devil offers Leela robotic ears (which previously belonged to Calculon) in exchange for her hand. Desperate to hear the opera, Leela accepts the offer.

The Robot Devil interrupts the opera and demands that Fry give back his hands. When Fry refuses, the Robot Devil says that he will take Leela's hand - "in marriage." After a musical conflict, Fry decides that he has no choice but to trade the Robot Devil's hands back for his own, or else he'll never have a chance to be with Leela. With his own hands, Fry can no longer play the holophonor, and the remainder of the opera is terrible. The entire audience storms out except for the sympathetic Leela, who wants to "hear how it ends." Playing an improvised finale of his opera, Fry produces very crude images of himself and Leela. To a simplistic yet sweet violin tune, they kiss and then walk into the distance hand-in-hand.

Continuity

The main plot of the episode stems from the events of an earlier episode "Parasites Lost", including the holophonor and Fry's belief that learning to play the holophonor would make Leela fall in love with him. During the episode Fry occasionally makes reference to the worms which had infested him during that time. However, he managed to play the holophonor perfectly using his hands while infested with worms, as they made him smarter, but he first battled, then convinced the worms inside him to leave his body at the end of the episode because he wanted Leela to love him for who he is, not because of what the worms had made him into.

As the production crew was aware that this was likely to be the final episode of the series, they made efforts to include a large number of the characters which had appeared throughout the show. One notable instance of this is the wheel which The Robot Devil spins to decide what hands Fry will receive. All names on the wheel are of robot characters which had previously appeared in one or more episodes.

Production

While this episode may not have been conceived as the final episode of the series, the production crew did include references to the series likely ending as the show had not been renewed by the end of production.cite web|author=Huddleston, Kathie|url=http://www.scifi.com/sfw/issue328/screen2.html|title=Futurama Series Finale|publisher=Science Fiction Weekly|date=August 4, 2003|accessdate=2007-06-11] The episode’s opening subtitle was “See You On Some Other Channel”, referring to the broadcast syndication that many shows enter after conclusion as this was the last episode at the time of production. In 2003, the series aired on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim block, running until the end of 2007, and bought by Comedy Central in 2006, to air in 2008, thus making the subtitle true twice.cite web|author=Wallenstein, Andrew| url=http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=televisionNews&storyID=2006-06-23T033638Z_01_N22173912_RTRIDST_0_TELEVISION-FUTURAMA-DC.XML| title="Futurama" gets new life on Comedy Central|publisher=Reuters|date=June 22, 2006|accessdate=2006-06-22] Also the screen that the Planet Express Ship crashes into during the opener displays the Planet Express Ship crashing into the screen, resulting briefly in an infinite regression of the same animation. This was done due to a desire to do something special for the series finale, and presumably to play on the fact that the cartoon was now finished and could be lumped in with the other old animation clips that had been used previously.Fact|date=June 2007 The crew was aware when writing the episode that there was a 50/50 chance the show would not be renewed and in the audio commentary it is stated that there was a concerted effort to include the entire cast of the show and also just about all the recurring characters. This episode features more characters than had previously appeared than any other. Notably absent, however, are Kif Kroker and Amy's parents.

Due to the ending of the series and Katey Sagal's role in "8 Simple Rules" there was difficulty in recording the final line of the series ("I want to hear how it ends"). In the audio commentary it is stated that this single line took nearly six months to record. The "Futurama" Season Four DVD also includes a hidden featurette of a table reading of the script for this episode.

Broadcast and reception

Writer Ken Keeler was nominated for an Emmy Award in 2004 for "Outstanding Music and Lyrics" for the song “I Want My Hands Back” and for an Annie Award for "Music in an Animated Television Production".cite web |url=http://annieawards.com/31stannieawardwinners.htm |title=The fish that got away took top honors at the 31st Annie Awards |publisher=International Animated Film Society |date=2004 |accessdate=2007-06-28 ] 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] The episode is considered by many fans to be one of the best episodes in the series' history and was ranked number 16 on IGN's list of the top 25 "Futurama" episodes in 2006. [cite web |url=http://tv.ign.com/articles/716/716663p1.html |title="Top 25 Futurama Episodes" |accessdate=2006-11-04 |format= |work= ] Science Fiction Weekly rated the episode as their "A Pick" for its original airing in 2003, calling the episode a "superbly funny ending to the series". Dan Castellaneta's performance as the Robot Devil in this episode along with the episode "Hell is Other Robots" has been described as a "bravura appearance".cite book|last=Booker| first=M. Keith|title=Drawn to Television: Prime-Time Animation from The Flintstones to Family Guy|pages=115-124] The episode was called an "instant classic" by a reviewer for the Asia Africa Intelligence Wire.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]

Cultural references

The title comes from the old saying "Idle hands are the Devil's playthings", which according to David X. Cohen, is rarely heard nowadays. In keeping with the episode’s focus on classical music (and particularly, opera), the plot is loosely based on the story of "Faust",cite book |last=Pinsky |first=Mark |title=The Gospel According to the Simpsons. Bigger and possibly even Better! edition |origyear=2003 |isbn=978-0-664-23265-8 |pages=229-235] the story upon which several famous operas are based. Additionally, the episode’s climax mirrors that of the opera "Pagliacci", in which the distinction between the actors’ performance and their real lives becomes blurred. Also featured in the episode is the music of Ravel ("Boléro") and Beethoven ("“Für Elise”").

References

External links

*imdb title|title=The Devil's Hands are Idle Playthings|id=0584456