Season 1, Episode 2: "The Series Has Landed" (B)
Jul 20, 2014 14:15:45 GMT -5
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Post by Deleted on Jul 20, 2014 14:15:45 GMT -5
FUTURAMA CLASSIC
Episode 2, “The Series Has Landed”
Left. Down. Rotate 62 degrees. engage rotor.
The Series Has Landed (Season 1, Episode 2) is one of the episodes that frightened and confused the Fox network, causing them to wonder what fresh horrific failure they’d bought into in giving Matt Groening a second show. Looking back from a decade and a half of Futurama, it may be a bit surprising. But the episode not only demonstrates the huge amount of preparation, planning, and advanced story development the series started off with, but also just how gleefully bizarre the show could be. While we start out with a parody of a classic FedEx commercial and some clever puns based on cereal mascots getting promotions, not fifteen minutes have gone by before we’re in a farm-bubble on the dark side of the moon with a hillbilly and his three robot daughters.
The first act is the weakest part of the show, as it first has to introduce the remaining regulars (Hermes, Zoidberg, and Amy), and leans on a few predictable (and one would have thought network-pleasing) jokes: “He’s unusual… He wears sandals,” about the horrible crab-monster staff doctor; “Aye aye -- I mean, only one eye,” blurts Fry to newly minted cyclops captain Leela, and of course “One small step for man,” being answered with, “One giant line for mankind” as the crew arrive at the Moon’s only tourist attraction, Luna Park.
Thankfully, we quickly get to poorly maintained, intelligent, animatronic beavers shilling for the Monsanto Corporation and telling horrible puns, and one of the show’s early, memorably twisted moments. Much as the history of 1000 years ago is somewhat dodgy and in dispute today, we find that the consensus opinion of the year 3000’s “fungineers” is that the Moon was first explored by… Whalers. Sing with me now:
We’re whalers on the Moon!
We carry a harpoon!
But there ain’t no whales,
So we sing tall tales,
And sing our whaling tune!
There’s also the memorable summary of early astronautical visionary Ralph Kramden as “A TV comedian (who was) using space travel as a metaphor for beating his wife!”
The emotional heart of the episode is in Fry’s desire to live out his childhood dreams of following in the (apparently dainty) footsteps of Neil Armstrong, and his refusal to have the thrill and wonder of space travel diminished by the banal reality of it that Leela almost angrily tries to impress upon him. Futurama is in many ways an optimistic show written by a bunch of cynics. The year 3000 is at least as dark as our present world, and just the same, being happy in it takes deliberate acts of choice, love, and (occasionally) courage. That a primitive idiot from the stupid ages who refuses to give up a sense of wonder eventually prevails upon the levelheaded heroine who just wants to get the damn trip to the Moon done and go home speaks volumes.
Of course, this is still Futurama, so that emotional climax, watching the blue marble of Earth rise over the horizon from the re-located Apollo 11 lunar lander, is quickly broken by drunken, theiving, whoring Bender being chased across the lunar surface by a terrifying 3-D thresher, after having gone back to the farm to (ahem) engage rotors with The Crushinator. A little further vandalism of historic sites and a rousing rendition of “She’ll Be Comin’ Round the Mountain” (“Hey! I’m pretty good!”) bring the episode to a close, and, if you’re unwilling to enter the show’s world on its own terms, leaves you slack-jawed and baffled. With the exception of the next episode (“I, Roommate”), it only gets weirder from here on out.
GRADE: B
Stray Observations
- “Caffinated bacon? Baconated grapefruit? Admiral Crunch?” Either help yourself to a bowl of Archduke Chocula, or chime in with your own futuristic breakfast improvements below.
- Death by Sonic Diarrhea? Oh ho ho, you don’t want that.
- First instance of John DiMaggio’s ad-libbed singing, “It’s okay to look at my head!” while Bender’s head distracts Amy long enough for his body to lift her wallet.
- First instance of Bender singing folk songs, due to magnets interfering with his inhibition unit.
- One of the most iconic bender lines appears after being kicked out of Luna Park: “I'm going to make my own amusement park... With blackjack and hookers! In fact, forget the park!” It, of course, crops up again later when he’s locked out of the Lunar Lander: “I'll go build my own lunar lander… With Black Jack! And hookers! In fact forgot about the lunar lander, and the blackjack.”
- Fun with science:
Farmer: Drops down to -173.
Fry: Fahrenheit or Celsius?
Farmer: First one, then t’other.
- The Moon shall rise again!
- Yes, I’m aware of the Mieles reference with “Craterface”. Is there anyone who doesn’t catch that? If there are, they should be lined up and shot. Out of a cannon. Into the sun.
Episode 2, “The Series Has Landed”
Left. Down. Rotate 62 degrees. engage rotor.
The Series Has Landed (Season 1, Episode 2) is one of the episodes that frightened and confused the Fox network, causing them to wonder what fresh horrific failure they’d bought into in giving Matt Groening a second show. Looking back from a decade and a half of Futurama, it may be a bit surprising. But the episode not only demonstrates the huge amount of preparation, planning, and advanced story development the series started off with, but also just how gleefully bizarre the show could be. While we start out with a parody of a classic FedEx commercial and some clever puns based on cereal mascots getting promotions, not fifteen minutes have gone by before we’re in a farm-bubble on the dark side of the moon with a hillbilly and his three robot daughters.
The first act is the weakest part of the show, as it first has to introduce the remaining regulars (Hermes, Zoidberg, and Amy), and leans on a few predictable (and one would have thought network-pleasing) jokes: “He’s unusual… He wears sandals,” about the horrible crab-monster staff doctor; “Aye aye -- I mean, only one eye,” blurts Fry to newly minted cyclops captain Leela, and of course “One small step for man,” being answered with, “One giant line for mankind” as the crew arrive at the Moon’s only tourist attraction, Luna Park.
Thankfully, we quickly get to poorly maintained, intelligent, animatronic beavers shilling for the Monsanto Corporation and telling horrible puns, and one of the show’s early, memorably twisted moments. Much as the history of 1000 years ago is somewhat dodgy and in dispute today, we find that the consensus opinion of the year 3000’s “fungineers” is that the Moon was first explored by… Whalers. Sing with me now:
We’re whalers on the Moon!
We carry a harpoon!
But there ain’t no whales,
So we sing tall tales,
And sing our whaling tune!
There’s also the memorable summary of early astronautical visionary Ralph Kramden as “A TV comedian (who was) using space travel as a metaphor for beating his wife!”
The emotional heart of the episode is in Fry’s desire to live out his childhood dreams of following in the (apparently dainty) footsteps of Neil Armstrong, and his refusal to have the thrill and wonder of space travel diminished by the banal reality of it that Leela almost angrily tries to impress upon him. Futurama is in many ways an optimistic show written by a bunch of cynics. The year 3000 is at least as dark as our present world, and just the same, being happy in it takes deliberate acts of choice, love, and (occasionally) courage. That a primitive idiot from the stupid ages who refuses to give up a sense of wonder eventually prevails upon the levelheaded heroine who just wants to get the damn trip to the Moon done and go home speaks volumes.
Of course, this is still Futurama, so that emotional climax, watching the blue marble of Earth rise over the horizon from the re-located Apollo 11 lunar lander, is quickly broken by drunken, theiving, whoring Bender being chased across the lunar surface by a terrifying 3-D thresher, after having gone back to the farm to (ahem) engage rotors with The Crushinator. A little further vandalism of historic sites and a rousing rendition of “She’ll Be Comin’ Round the Mountain” (“Hey! I’m pretty good!”) bring the episode to a close, and, if you’re unwilling to enter the show’s world on its own terms, leaves you slack-jawed and baffled. With the exception of the next episode (“I, Roommate”), it only gets weirder from here on out.
GRADE: B
Stray Observations
- “Caffinated bacon? Baconated grapefruit? Admiral Crunch?” Either help yourself to a bowl of Archduke Chocula, or chime in with your own futuristic breakfast improvements below.
- Death by Sonic Diarrhea? Oh ho ho, you don’t want that.
- First instance of John DiMaggio’s ad-libbed singing, “It’s okay to look at my head!” while Bender’s head distracts Amy long enough for his body to lift her wallet.
- First instance of Bender singing folk songs, due to magnets interfering with his inhibition unit.
- One of the most iconic bender lines appears after being kicked out of Luna Park: “I'm going to make my own amusement park... With blackjack and hookers! In fact, forget the park!” It, of course, crops up again later when he’s locked out of the Lunar Lander: “I'll go build my own lunar lander… With Black Jack! And hookers! In fact forgot about the lunar lander, and the blackjack.”
- Fun with science:
Farmer: Drops down to -173.
Fry: Fahrenheit or Celsius?
Farmer: First one, then t’other.
- The Moon shall rise again!
- Yes, I’m aware of the Mieles reference with “Craterface”. Is there anyone who doesn’t catch that? If there are, they should be lined up and shot. Out of a cannon. Into the sun.
