Future Stock
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Contents |
[edit] Future Stock
| Futurama Episode Guide | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Episode Title | Future Stock | Philip J. Fry | Billy West |
| Episode Number | 53 | Bender B. Rodriguez | John DiMaggio |
| Production Number | 3ACV21 | Turanga Leela | Katey Sagal |
| Original Airdate | March 31, 2002 | Professor H. Farnsworth | Billy West |
| Intro Caption | Love It Or Shove It | Hermes Conrad | Phil LaMarr |
| Intro Promotion | Amy Wong | Lauren Tom | |
| Intro Cartoon | Dr. J.A. Zoidberg | Billy West | |
| Script | Aaron Ehasz | Special Guests | |
| Director | Brian Sheesley | Also Starring | Tom Kenny |
| Storyboard | Guest Starring | ||
| Animation | 3D Animation | ||
| Page Navigation | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Godfellas | <- Previous Episode | Next Episode -> | The 30% Iron Chef |
[edit] Plot
Planet Express holds its stockholders' meeting, and the state of the business is not good. Disinterested in the meeting, Fry and Dr. Zoidberg wander off in search of food. Fry finds his way into a cryogenic defrostee support group meeting, where he meets a sleazy Gordon Gekko-esque 1980s businessman (referred to only as "That Guy") who froze himself to await a cure for his terminal bone-itis.
Fry and That Guy return to the Planet Express stockholders' meeting, where a revolt against Professor Farnsworth is in progress. Fry nominates That Guy to be the new CEO (Chief Executive Officer); That Guy gets one vote more than Farnsworth, and takes over Planet Express. That Guy names Fry his new Vice Chairman, and sets out to remake Planet Express by giving it an expensive image overhaul.
That Guy's business strategy proves to be the acquisition of flying chairs, expensive suits, and an enigmatic television commercial, which is a reference to the 1984 Macintosh commercial. Fry is impressed, the rest of the crew is appalled, and Zoidberg is hungry; he sells his stock to That Guy for a sandwich. After draining the company's funds and its employees' morale, That Guy announces that he is selling Planet Express to Mom.
The takeover, ostensibly a shareholder's meeting, begins at the orbiting Intergalactic Stock Exchange, and all the Planet Express employees vote against it. That Guy's vote tips the scales to 51% in favor; his sandwich-bought pile of shares, it is revealed, had been requisitioned to Zoidberg by Hermes in lieu of toilet paper, when the shares were worthless. The shares are now worth a huge sum, and the crew contemplate the loss of their company and the gaining of incredible wealth, save for Zoidberg, who is left to contemplate the worth of his sandwich. Before the final approval of the merger takes place, That Guy's uncured bone-itis enters its final stage, causing his body to contort and bones snap, twist and curl. That Guy bemoans that he had been so busy "being an 80s guy", he had forgotten to get it treated.
Fry gains control of That Guy's shares, and moves to vote against the merger. The Planet Express staff initially tries to convince him to sell the company, because the sale of their stock will make them all rich. However, the very speech that Fry gives to announce his new plans for the company drives the stock's price through the floor. Since the staff will be poor no matter what he does, he votes against the merger.
[edit] Continuity
[edit] Debuts and Reappearances
- In this episode Kug, identifiable by her blue mohawk, is delivered a package in the movie shown to the Planet Express stockholders. Kug also makes appearances in Amazon Women in the Mood when members of the crew crash land on her planet and again in "The Sting" as one of the women mourning Fry's death in Leela's dream sequence. The first appearance of an Amazonian is in Brannigan Begin Again, on the Democratic Order Of Planets diplomatic ship.
[edit] Foreshadowing
[edit] Gadgets and Inventions
[edit] Future Culture
Mom reads the 30th C magazines "Mentor" and "Protoge" (surely, a cultural reference?).
[edit] Trivia
- That Guy's name, although never said during the episode, is given in the script as Steve Castle, the voice actor is Tom Kenny.
- Future Stock is the 21st episode in the third Futurama production season;
the episode aired as the ninth episode in the fourth Futurama broadcast season.
[edit] Goofs
[edit] Quotes
Elzar: Enjoy our private dining room, folks. This is where we serve our richest, most successful chumps!
Fry: Tonight, that's us!
That Guy: What have you got that's really overpriced?
Elzar: Everything.
That Guy: Bring me that.
Fry: Make it two. And a glass of all your water.
[Elzar leaves and That Guy takes out some cards from his jacket.]
That Guy: OK, let's work on your execu-speak. I'm worried about "blank".
Fry: Don't you worry about "blank". Let me worry about "blank".
That Guy: Good. I also would have accepted, "Blank? Blank? You're not looking at the big picture!"
[Mom coughs from behind Fry and he and That Guy look up.]
Fry: (weakly) What a pleasant surprise!
Mom: Shut up, booger blaster! It's time the three of us had a talk.
That Guy: I'll handle this, Fry. You get back to the farm, shift some paradigms, revolutionise outside the box.
That Guy (After being voted CEO of Planet Express): "My first order of business is to blame everything on the guy before me."
Professor Farnsworth (shaking fist in the air): "I'll ruin you like I ruined this company!"
[edit] Cultural References
- Future Stock is a pun on Future Shock by Alvin Toffler.
- The banner inside the room where the "Bot Mitzvah" is being held reads "Hayom Atah Robot" - Hebrew for "today, you are a robot." (with two misspellings) Bat Mitzvah [1] celebration is a rite of passage,[2] and the phrase often heard at such celebrations is, "today, you are a man."
- Fry's new suit prompts That Guy to refer to him as Gordon Gekko in reference to the movie Wall Street.[3] Gordon utters the much quoted line, "Greed is Good"; the actor who played Gecko, Michael Douglas, has been approached numerous times by "fans" of his work as Gordon, who to Douglas initial dismay, believe the Gecko character to have been played as a hero rather than a villain.
- That Guy's first lines; "Back in the 1980's I was the toast of Wall Street. I was having whiskey with Boesky and cookies with Milken. But then, I was diagnosed with terminal boneitis." refer to Ivan Boesky and Michael Milken.[4] Both were convicted of crimes relating to the buying up of companies that were about to be taken over, using information from sources inside the prospective companies to make what was for the rest of Wall Street, speculative, into a sure thing. Milken was additionally, the instigator of junk bond trading, high yield debt investment that holds high risk for the market as well as investors. Boesky was the model for Gordon Gekko character, see above. Boesky was considerably more cautious than the Gekko character; his original phrase was actually, "I think greed is healthy. You can be greedy and still feel good about yourself".
- Fry: So what's the deal? You guys don't believe in Robot Jesus?
Rabbi-bot: We believe he was built and that he was a very well programmed robot. But he wasn't our Messiah.
This refers to the absence of Jesus in Jewish sacred texts, inevitable, as Jesus was born long after they were written. - Fry and That Guy reminisce over the hit 1982 pop song Safety Dance by Men Without Hats, singing its chorus twice during the episode.
- As noted in "Plot", the surreal commercial satirizing Mom, in which a Planet Express delivery box flies through the giant video screen, and the giant image of her face shatters, references the 1984 Apple Computers video, which itself was drawing upon the year of release and images reflecting totalitarian dictatorship to reference the book 1984 by George Orwell.[5] The colors and design of the logo for the Planet Express commercial reference those of Fed-Ex shipping company.
- The title of Scruffy's magazine, "National Pornographic", is a portmanteau of pornography and National Geographic magazine.
[edit] External Links
[edit] Footnotes
- ↑ Bat Mitzvah, Bar Mitzvah
- ↑ Rite of Passage / Coming of Age Ceremony
- ↑ Wall Street film, "Greed is good" reference
- ↑ Insider Trading
- ↑ George Orwell, biography and writings
