Futuramahas always been the show that just won’t die, and now we know that it’s coming back once again. After airing their most-recent series finale in 2013,Futuramapopped up again in a crossover episode withThe Simpsonsin 2014. For nearly a decade now, popular belief has been that they were done for good. However, a recent announcement from Hulu revealed thatFuturamais indeed coming back for a 20 episode run beginning in 2023.
The return also means that now is a great time to look back fondly on the best episode from each season. Not only are they some of the most-beloved episodes in the entire series, they tell a narrative that cuts to the heart of the show.
“Space Pilot 3000” (Season 1)
The best entry in the nine episode first season is undoubtedly the pilot, “Space Pilot 3000.” We learn everything we need to know about the situation and main characters that make upFuturamain just 23 minutes. And, although this might be a negative comment if it were about a different show, it has some of the funniest jokes in the entire series.
Futuramafollows Philip J. Fry (Billy West), a pizza delivery boy living in New York City in 1999. In short, he hates his life. That ends up somewhat working out for him when a pizza delivery gone wrong results in Fry being frozen in a cryogenics lab for 1,000 years. Upon learning that he was now living in the year 2,999, Fry delivers one of his funniest lines: “My God. A million years.”
In the future, Fry meets Bender (John DiMaggio), the sassy, cigar-smoking, binge-drinking robot. He also runs afoul of Turanga Leela (Katey Sagal), a one-eyed alien – or so she says – who works at the cryogenics lab. Ultimately, the pair become Fry’s closest friends and help get him to the home of his distant nephew, the elderly Professor Hubert J. Farnsworth (West). The pilot episode ends with Fry, Bender, and Leela all accepting jobs delivering packages for Farnsworth’s interplanetary company, Planet Express.
“A Flight to Remember” (Season 2)
The premiere episode for Season 2, “A Flight to Remember,” contains the rare combination of character development for both Fry and Leela as well as a classicFuturamaparody plot. The Professor takes the entire crew aboard a space-cruise, and the writers don’t even try to hide the fact that they’re satirizingTitanic. The ship is even named “Titanic” in the episode.
Aboard the massive space cruiser, Leela runs into Captain Zapp Brannigan (West), a former lover who she’d prefer to avoid. This creates the conflict for the main plot of the episode, which is Fry pretending to be Leela’s boyfriend to keep Zapp at bay. Bender also shines in a star-crossed lovers story mimicking the plot ofTitanic.
But what makes this one so good is that, for the first time, we see the seeds of Fry and Leela’s love being planted. While sharing a tender moment on the deck of the Titanic, they lean in for what might’ve been their first genuine, romantic kiss – that is, if Brannigan hadn’t steered the spaceship directly toward a black hole. Predictably, the main crew escapes the disaster and Fry and Leela go back to not addressing the sexual tension for a while.
“The Luck of the Fryish” (Season 3)
There are few great episodes ofFuturamathat feature flashbacks, providing us with more context for Fry’s feelings about his family – his mother, father, brother, and his dog, Seymour. In fact, the series devotes a special episode to each one, and some of them are real tearjerkers. Seriously, don’t watch “Jurassic Bark” without a box of tissues.
In Season 3’s “The Luck of the Fryish,” we see Fry’s contentious relationship with his brother, Yancy (Tom Kenny). Although Philip is the younger of the two, we see that Yancy has been jealous since the moment he was born. There’s a lot of resentment revolving around a “lucky seven-leaf clover,” which Fry attempts to recover in the year 3,000 from the ruins of Old New York.
There he discovers a statue of Yancy, which claimed him to be Philip J. Fry, the first man on Mars. Fry goes on an emotional journey in the final act, first feeling anger toward his brother for stealing his name and later coming to a sense of peaceful sadness when he realizes that it was actually Yancy’s son – named for his missing uncle – who was immortalized with the statue.
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“Roswell That Ends Well” (Season 4)
Over the long course of its run,Futuramaused time travel as a plot device a handful of times. However, it was “Roswell That Ends Well” when they first pulled it off, and the episode earned an Emmy Award for Outstanding Animated Program in 2002. There are a lot of silly details involved, but the Planet Express crew is thrown back in time and crash lands in Roswell, New Mexico in 1947.
Bender’s body is blown apart in the crash, and Zoidberg (West), the crew’s doctor – of sorts – and a weird, lobster-like alien, is picked up by the government and held in secrecy at Area 51. While attempting to rescue Zoidberg and Bender’s body, a string of completely avoidable events lead to Fry accidentally killing his grandfather. While comforting his grandmother, one thing leads to another and…well, he does “the nasty in the past-y” and effectively becomes his own grandpa.
Everyone makes it back to the year 3,000, but the damage was done, and it’s best not to think about it. However, this does later become an important plot point in Fry’s character trajectory. Bonus points to “Roswell That Ends Well” for the implication that Bender’s body was the rumored spaceship that crash-landed in Roswell.
“The Why of Fry” (Season 5)
By the fifth season,Futuramawas on the verge of being canceled. The writers did their best to wrap up loose ends, and “The Why of Fry” did a great job resolving Fry’s story in relation to why he ended up in the future in the first place. While walking Leela’s pet, Nibbler, the little poop-machine reveals to Fry that he can speak, and is in fact an intelligent being from an ancient species.
Nibbler then takes Fry to his home world where the Nibblonians explain that he is the most important person alive. Big evil brains are trying to end the universe, and Fry is the only one immune to their attack due to his lacking a delta brain wave – caused by his unfortunate actions in “Roswell That Ends Well.” At least they didn’t just make Fry do unspeakable things with his grandma just for a gag, right?
The episode takes a twist when the brains reveal to Fry that it was Nibbler who secretly pushed him into the freezer tube back in 1999. Indeed, in “Space Pilot 3000,” Nibbler’s shadow can be seen under the desk when Fry’s chair falls over backwards, throwing him into the cryochamber. The brains successfully send him back in time to stop Nibbler, allowing Fry the opportunity to resume his life in the past, but he ultimately agrees to let things proceed as normal because of his feelings for Leela.
“The Late Philip J. Fry” (Season 6)
After the DVD movies,Futuramawas picked up by Comedy Central for another season comprised of 26 episodes, split apart and aired in two 13-episode runs. The best of the bunch was “The Late Philip J. Fry,” and it might actually be the best entry in the entire series. In 2011, this episode earned an Emmy Award for Outstanding Animated Program and very well-regarded among the show’s diehard fans.
Fry has promised to take Leela out on a date for her birthday, but the Professor demands that he stay late at work to help test out his forward-traveling time machine. Yes, time travel, once again. Fry, Bender, and the Professor successfully test the machine, but then end up racing forward in time. The three of them stop in several futures, ranging from a beautiful utopia to a period when robots have taken over the Earth.
The three of them watch the end of the universe, but as luck would have it, time is apparently cyclical. They continue to watch as the Earth is formed, history unfolds before their eyes, and the Professor attempts to stop at the exact moment when they traveled forward in time. Of course, he botches the whole thing, and they have to go around once more. But Fry makes it to the date with Leela on time, continuing their long, drawn-out romance.
“Meanwhile” (Season 7)
Comedy Central produced one more season, once again composed of 26 episodes that were aired in two, 13-episode chunks. And without question, the best and most-important was the finale, “Meanwhile.” Not only is it a satisfying conclusion to the long, winding history ofFuturama, it gave us everything we needed for Fry and Leela.
The core of the plot is that Fry is intending to propose to Leela at 6:30 pm at the top of the Vampire State Building. But before his date, he and Bender spend some time abusing the Professor’s latest invention – you guessed it, a time travel device. Farnsworth’s “Time Button” is a device that allows the user to travel 10 seconds backwards in time.
When Fry believes that Leela has stood him up on their date, effectively declining to spend her life with him, he jumps off the top of the building in his grief. This is just a misunderstanding, however, due to Fry’s watch being fast from all the 10-second backwards time jumps. He gets stuck in a time loop as he’s falling, and the end result is a freezing of time for everyone but he and Leela.
We see a montage of their life playing out over several decades together while the rest of the universe remains frozen in time. They get married and go on a long honeymoon around the world, and it’s a beautiful and emotional ending for the original run of the series. Maybe the best of all theFuturamafinales, in fact. And that won’t be changed even if the most-recent revival continues to add on to Fry and Leela’s love story.
