Space Pilot 3000
From Futurama Wiki
| Space Pilot 3000 | |
|---|---|
| |
| Episode | 1 |
| Production Code | 1ACV01 |
| Season | 1 |
| Air date | March 28, 1999 |
| Running Time | 30 minutes |
| Directed By | Rich Moore Gregg Vanzo |
| Written By | David X. Cohen Matt Groening |
| Guests | Dick Clark as himself Leonard Nimoy as himself |
| Opening subtitle | In Color |
| Opening cartoon | "Little Buck Cheeser" by MGM (1937) |
| Followed by | The Series Has Landed |
- "Space. It seems to go on and on forever and then you get to the end and a gorilla starts throwing barrels at you."
- ―Philip J. Fry, first words of the series
Space Pilot 3000 was the very first Futurama episode released on the March 28, 1999. It featured Pizza delivery boy Philip J. Fry and his story of how he came to the year 3000.
Contents |
[edit] Synopsis
Philip J. Fry is playing a video game similar to Donkey Kong before his delivery to Applied Cryogenics. On his way, he sees Michelle in a car with another man, Constantine. She says "It's not working out, Fry. I put your stuff out on the sidewalk," and drives away. Fry keeps riding his bike, saying, "I hate my life. I hate my life." He makes it into the lab where a guy outside says, "Happy New Year!" and rides away on Fry's bike. He gets to the top floor and says, "I have a pizza for I.C. Weiner... Aw crud. I thought by now I'd be the one making the crank calls". Fry sits down in a chair, leans back, cracks open a beer and says, "Here's to another lousy millennium." The entire world is counting down to one on New Year's Eve. As the countdown hits "one", he falls back into the cryogenics tube and a strange shadow can be seen. The freezer sets itself for 1000 years and time passes quickly. Spaceships attack Earth and cities are destroyed and rebuilt.
Fry wakes up on New Year's Eve in the year 2999. Terry, a worker at Applied Cryogenics, comes out and says, "Welcome to the world of tomorrow!". He is escorted to the Fate Assignment Officer's Office where he meets Leela, a beautiful woman with a huge eye in the center of her face, who explains that it is December 31, 2999. A DNA scan reveals that he has only one living relative in this time period: his many times great nephew Professor Hubert Farnsworth.
Fry begins looking forward to his life in the future until Leela assigns him a permanent career as a delivery boy. Fry doesn't want the same job again, but Leela says that everyone, even herself, has to do a job whether they like it or not, citing the phrase, '"You gotta do what you gotta do"'. She tries to implant a chip that will label Fry a delivery boy forever, but Fry runs away. Leela ends up falling into one of the cryogenic tubes during the ensuing chase, which sets itself for 1000 years much like Fry's tube. Fry prepares to leave her frozen there but, out of the goodness of his heart, decides to reset the tube to unthaw in 5 minutes, and leaves the lab.
After witnessing the wonders of the New New York and seeing how much it has changed, he decides to call his descendant Farnsworth. He gets in line for what he thinks is a phone booth and meets a robot named Bender waiting in line. It turns out the phone booth is actually a suicide booth, and that Bender is eagerly awaiting his death. Fry pushes Bender to the other side of the booth and they survive.
Having failed at killing himself again, Bender invites Fry to get drunk with him at a bar. Fry finds out that Bender wants to kill himself because of his programming as a girder-bender for suicide booths. Fry convinces Bender to abandon his plans of suicide and the two become friends. When Leela finds them in the ruins of Old New York, she removes her career chip and they all get hired at Planet Express. Fry asks, "So I'm going to be a delivery boy?." After Farnsworth says that exactly, Fry is happy.
[edit] Trivia
- Leela's officer number is "1BDI" (one beady eye).
- The ship of the game Monkey Fracas Jr. is the Planet Express ship.
- Fry's blood type is B according to Leela's computer.
[edit] Background Notes
- This episode is the highest rated pilot episode in the history of the Fox Broadcasting Company.
- In the script's rough draft, Michelle was named Janet, and Fry was Curtis Fry. It was changed to Philip in honor of Phil Hartman, who was to have been Zapp Brannigan until the event of his untimely death.
- Bender takes Fry to hide inside the Head Museum saying, "It's Free on Tuesdays." December 31, 2999 will be a Tuesday.
- French seems to be a dead language as inhabitants of France count in English during the countdown scene in 2999.
- Originally, the first person entering the tube transport system declared "J.F.K. Jr. Airport" as his destination. After John F. Kennedy Jr.'s death in the crash of his private airplane, the line has since been re-dubbed on all subsequent broadcasts and the DVD release to Radio City Mutant Hall.
[edit] Goofs
- Although Fry entered the freezer at midnight on January 1, 2000, he wakes up early on December 31, 2999. There are many different explanations for this, the simplest being that the freezer clock is not accurate enough to accommodate a thousand years. A more complex (and more likely) argument involves the difference between a Gregorian year (which averages 365.2425 days per year) and a tropical year (which averages approximately 365.2422), leading to a discrepancy of 0.3 days or 7.2 hours... placing Fry's "awakening" at 4:36pm, December 31, 2999. Another possibility is that the freezer was programmed for 1000 Gregorian years, or 365242.5 days, which means he would be awakened at 12 noon on December 31, 2999, which is consistent with the daylight shown outside the window when Fry awakens. [1]
- The existence of Radio City Mutant Hall is inconsistent with the series describing mutants as needing a pass to even venture above ground. However, for example, the Washington Redskins is not a team composed of Native Americans, nor are the Vikings all Danes or Swedes; the building could well be called "Radio City Mutant Hall" to obtain a reflected glory in much the same way.
- When in the bar, Bender says he doesn't need to drink. In later episodes it is said to fuel their power cells, although it could be argued he could just drink pure oil.[2]
- Bender bends the bars in the Criminal Room of the Head Museum. In the next scene with Bender in the foreground, the bars are back to the original position.
- If New New York was built on the ruins of Old New York, how come the Cryogenics Lab was above ground?
[edit] Debut Appearances
- Bender
- Dick Clark's head
- Fry
- Leonard Nimoy's head
- Lou
- Michelle
- Mr. Panucci
- Nibbler's shadow
- Number 9 Man
- Professor Farnsworth
- Richard Nixon's head
- Terry
- Leela
- Smitty
- URL
[edit] Alienese
- There are four instances of Alienese in this episode. They say "Drink" (over the Slurm sign), "Venusians go home", and during the count down scene, "6" and "7".
