Back to the Futurama: The Top 50 Episodes
Celebrate the "Rebirth" of the Planet Express crew with our countdown of the Top 50 Episodes of Futurama!
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By Kevin Fitzpatrick June 24, 2010 |
45. The Deep South
Tale of Interest: A fishing accident strands the crew at the bottom of the ocean, where they discover the Lost City of Atlanta isn't so lost after all...
Why We Love It: We're not sure how a loser like Fry manages to attract so many babes, but Futurama's at its best when playing with absurd concepts of fantasy and science fiction like mermaids.
We'll forgive caffeine turning denizens of the sunken city of Atlanta into mer-people, but how did Bender's cigar manage to burn down Zoidberg's home while underwater?
44. Raging Bender
Tale of Interest: An altercation at the movie theatre leads Bender to join the Ultimate Robot Fighting League, where he quickly learns the dangers of rigged fighting as he's pitted against a more popular opponent that could actually kill him, coached by an old enemy of Leela's...
Why We Love it: (Menacing music plays) "I'll put on my tutu..." As if Futurama robots weren't ridiculous enough already, we needed to see them put on bizarre personas and engage in brutally fake wrestling.
"Raging Bender" also makes great use of its peripheral characters, introducing memorable one-shots like Fnog, Destructor and the Brain Slugs, who created an even more iconic image for Hermes.
43. A Clone of My Own
Tale of Interest: Professor Farnsworth begins to feel the stigma of his advanced age before deciding to name a successor in the form of his very own clone, Cubert J. Farnsworth. Can Cubert and Hubert reconcile their differences before the Sunset Squad kidnaps the 160-year old to the Near-Death Star?
Why We Love It: "Everyone's always in favour of saving Hitler's brain but when you put it in the body of a great white shark, ooh, suddenly you've gone too far." Truer words were never spoken, Professor.
Most shows tend to jump said shark when adding a snarky youth to their cast, but Futurama succeeded in creating a young foil to the normally affable Planet Express crew, and gave the Professor a great spotlight for his very unique madness.
42. Insane in the Mainframe
Tale of Interest: A series of mix-ups lands Fry and Bender in the Hal Instituted for Insane Robots, eventually traumatizing Fry into believing himself a machine, but not before Bender's insane friend Roberto breaks loose and complicates matters for the entire crew.
Why We Love It: Another great peripheral character in the ridiculous world of Futurama robots, Roberto took our fear of killer machines to the next level. Ha HAH! As the first of several trips to the delightful robot insane asylum, "Insane in the Mainframe" gave us a new look at Fry and the insanities of the future we wouldn't soon forget.
41. Xmas Story
Tale of Interest: Close your windows and dead-bolt your chimneys, Robot Santa's coming to town! The seemingly indestructable Saint Mecha-Nick arrives to wreak havoc on the city of New New York, and poor Fry just wants to buy a cadre of lizards for Leela!
Why We Love It: Okay, so life in the year 3000 can be fairly tough for those closer to the age when boy bands roamed the Earth, but come on. Christmas? Not only has the revered holiday been truncated to "Xmas," but now Santa Claus (with the voice of John Goodman) is real enough to shove an M-80 up your stocking when he invariably finds you to be naughty.
It's twisted, but it's just the kind of Futurama weirdness that helped us fall in love with the show in its early years.
