Episode Two: The Series Has Landed
From Futurama Wiki
| The Series Has Landed | |
| |
| Air Date | March 28, 1999 |
| Written by | Ken Keeler |
| Director | Peter Avanzino |
| Next episode | I, Roommate |
| "In Hypno-Vision" | |
Professor Farnsworth introduces his new crew, Fry, Leela and Bender, to the other Planet Express employees - Hermes Conrad, the bureaucrat; Amy Wong, the Chinese intern whose super-rich parents own half of Mars; and Dr. Zoidberg, the staff doctor who knows nothing about humans.
Afterwards the crew go on their first delivery, with Amy accompanying them. It's only to the Moon, nothing special, but to Fry this is a dream come true. They get to the moon and Fry discovers that there is an amusement park on the moon. The delivery is a crate of stuffed toys for one of the amusement games, and once that is delivered the crew explores Luna Park. Amy discovers she accidentally left the keys to the ship with the crate, so they are now in the claw game. She tries to get them back before Leela (who has been appointed captain of the ship) finds out, but she is not very good as the claw keep dropping the keys. Bender tries putting his arm through the game to grab the keys but gets caught and is thrown out of the park.
Fry gets bored of the park and wants to explore "the real Moon", and find the site of the first lunar landing which has been lost for more than a thousand years. He and Leela hijack a cart and go exploring, but soon their oxygen runs out and they have to go to a Moon farmer to get some more. He only lets them have some if they do some chores for him. Whilst doing the chores Fry and Leela discover Bender has been trying to romance the farmer's 3 robot daughters, and the angry farmer chases Bender off with a shotgun.
Fry and Leela, now with more oxygen, manage to escape and find the lunar lander, where Leela tells Fry off for getting them into this situation. All because he wanted to see the Moon. Fry apologizes and says it was his dream. Leela looks out of the lander window and sees the Earth from space, and realizes what Fry meant, and forgives him. Amy then picks up the lander with a magnet attached to the Planet Express ship (she got the keys back by picking up everything in the game!) and they all fly back to Earth.
[edit] References Explained
- Episode Two: The Series Has Landed
- The episode title is a reference to the original Apollo 11 moon landing. (The Eagle has landed.) Neil Armstrong's first words after the lunar module "Eagle" touched down on the Moon's surface were "Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed." The format of the title is also a reference a common style of naming movie sequels, the most famous example being Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo.
- Luna Park
- Luna Park is also the name of a theater in Argentina, and two separate old-fashioned amusement parks in Australia.
- LEGO
- The emblems on Fry and Leela's spacesuits are identical to the emblems on old LEGO astronaut figures. In recent years, they've been making more intricately decorated spaceman figures, but on the old figures, they all had the same gold planet and rocket orbit logo.
- Apple Macintosh 128K
- Daisy May 128K is a possible reference to Apple's first Mac, the Macintosh 128K.
- The Jetsons
- The Crushinator looks like one of the robot football players from the animated TV series The Jetsons.
- The Delphi Bureau
- The scene in which the Moon hillbilly chases Bender in the harvester is a direct reference to the TV movie The Delphi Bureau.
- Cereals
- Cereals seen within the episode include 'Admiral Crunch' which is a parody of Captain Crunch and 'Archduke Chocula' which is a parody of Count Chocula.
- Star Trek
- "Admiral Crunch" is also a subtle reference to the various Star Trek series, most noticeably The Next Generation; whenever the series shows its own future, its Captains have always been promoted to Admirals.
- Sleeper
- The scene of the dismembered robot heads is reminiscent of the Woody Allen movie Sleeper.
- Nike
- The "swoosh" Nike logo can be seen on the bottom of the boot of the Moon uniforms.
- Little Hot Riding Hood
- Lulu Bell 7 looks like the "country" version of Little Red Riding Hood from Tex Avery's cartoon Little Hot Riding Hood.
- Liberty Bell 7
- The robot daughter's name, Lulu Bell 7, is reminiscent of the Mercury capsule Liberty Bell 7 which V. Grissom used for the 2nd manned suborbital space flight. Liberty Bells and "7"s are also traditional symbols on slot machines.
- Deliverance
- The scene with the hillbillies chasing everybody is a reference to the film Deliverance.
- Kermit the Frog
- There is a stuffed Kermit toy in the Stuffed Toy Machine when Bender and Amy are trying to obtain the Planet Express ship keys.
- Destination Moon
- The moon-buggy ride is called Destination Moon, a reference to the Robert Heinlein short story and the 1950 film of the same name.
- MTV
- Fry refers to the moon flag planted by Neil Armstrong as the "flag from MTV." A promo using the Apollo 11 landing footage was the first thing shown when MTV was launched in 1981.
- Disneyland
- Amy calls 'Luna Park', the "happiest place orbiting Earth." This is a take-off on Disneyland's tagline "The happiest place on Earth." Also, a door within the park with a 33 on it can be seen, this is a reference to Disneyland's Club 33, which is the only place within the park where alcohol is served. Also, the first ride the team go on is a take off of the Disneyland Anaheim ride Pirates of the Caribbean
- The Red-Neck Stereotype Farmer
- The farmer's hat which says "The Moon will rise again" is a parody on the red-neck farmer's saying "the South will rise again".
- Life in Hell
- A rabbit that resembles Binky from Matt Groening's syndicated comic-strip Life in Hell can be seen in the vending machine.
- The Farmer With Three Daughters
- Bender encounters a farmer on the Moon who has three robot daughters. This is a recurring theme found in jokes ranging from the dirty to the clean variety, but each of them has the same central plot of a young man meeting a farmer who has three available daughters that he is very protective of and never allows to date.
- Moon Patrol
- The security service that throws Bender out of the park is called the Moon Patrol. This is a small homage to the 80's arcade game of the same name.
- Inspector Gadget
- Bender's arm stretching out is a reference to the way Inspector Gadget's arms expanded and contracted. Also, the way Leela propelled Fry and herself out of the crater using the oxygen from their tank is very similar to how Brain pulled Gadget back to a space station while in space using the exact same method in the episode M.A.D. In The Moon.
- The Honeymooners
- Ralph and Alice from The Honeymooners television series are a part of the ride that shows how people came to the moon. The ride itself also depicts how people misunderstand history by taking Jackie Gleason's famous phrase out of context.
- Alvin & the Chipmunks
- The Goofy Gopher Revue gophers sing and talk a lot like the 1960's version of the Chipmunks, and one of the gophers has glasses like Simon.
- Games at Lunar Park
- Arcade games seen within the Lunar Park complex include "Gender-Neutral Pacperson" which is a parody of Pacman and Ms. Pacman; "Dodecapede" which is a parody of Centipede and Millipede; and "Mortal Kooperation" which is a reference to the Mortal Kombat series of games.
- Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon
- Just after Fry says "Hey, cool! Dark side of the moon!" the opening chord to the song "Breathe" is heard in the background, from the famous 1973 Pink Floyd album Dark Side of the Moon.
- Le Voyage Dans la Lune
- Bender poking the Craterface in the eye with a bottle refers to the film Le Voyage Dans la Lune (1902) in which a group of scientists travel to the Moon by way of a large, hollow bullet shot out of a cannon. The bullet flies through space and hits the moon (specifically, the "Man in the Moon") in the eye. The film, directed by Georges Méliès and based upon Jules Verne's classic From the Earth to the Moon, is considered to be the first in the science fiction genre.
