Futurama is an animated television series created
by Matt Groening of the Fox network. The science-fiction sitcom portrays
the adventures of a 20^th century pizza delivery boy, who
accidentally becomes cryogenically frozen for 1000 years, and continues living
in the year 3000. Its opening sequence shows much similarity to that of The
Simpsons, also created by Groening. The pilot episode, “Space Pilot 3000,”
pulled 19 million viewers. Although the rating were much lower than that of The
Simpsons, it lists higher than the opening of shows of King of the Hill,
Family Guy, Dilbert, South Park, and The PJ’s. Futurama aired from March 28, 1999 to August
10, 2003 when it was discontinued. Reruns have been broadcast on Cartoon Network
(2003-2007) and Comedy Central (2007-2010)

Phillip J. Frye, voiced by Billy West,
usually known as Frye, is a feebleminded pizza delivery boy who falls into a
cryptogenic pod for 1000 years, bringing him to January 1, 3000 to work with
the delivery company Planet Express. He has a love for his crewmate Leela,
which was repeatedly mentioned throughout the series.





Turanga Leela, voiced by Katey Sagal, usually known
as Leela, is a human Cyclops and captain of Planet Express’s ship.





Bender Bending Rodriguez, voiced by John DiMaggio, usually
known as Bender, is a chain-smoking, egocentric, alcoholic robot built in
Mexico. He is Frye’s best friend and roommate. Loves saying “Bite my shiny
metal ass!”





Professor Hubert J. Farnsworth, voiced by Billy West,
usually known as The Professor, is the founder of Planet Express and a mad
scientist. Although an astounding scientist, he is one hundred and sixty-six
years old and contracts many age-prone diseases and has fits of temper. In one
episode, he cloned himself into a young boy, Cubert, who he treats like a son. He
loves to come in the room and say “Good news, everyone!” to his Express crew.





Doctor John A. Zoidberg, also voiced by Billy West,
usually known as Zoidberg, is an alien with much qualities as a lobster. He is
the doctor for Planet Express, hired by long-time friend Farnsworth because he
was broke. Although a doctor, he lacks much knowledge of the human anatomy and
loses many patients.





Amy Wong, voiced by Lauren Tom, known as just Amy, is
a rich engineering student on Mars and intern for Planet Express. Though born
on Mars, she is culturally Chinese. One episode she dated Frye, but dates Kif
Kroker for an extensive amount of time.





Hermes Conrad, voiced by Phil LaMarr, known just as
Hermes, is the accountant for Planet Express. He is a hefty yet gentle Jamaican
man and former Olympic Limbo champion. He and his wife LaBarbara have a 12 year
old son, Dwight, who’s best friend is Cubert Farnsworth.





Zapp Brannigan, also voiced by Billy West and has no
nickname, is the first character here not employed by Planet Express besides
the 2 children. He is the sleazy, incapable captain of the starship Nimbus. At
his own risk of being beat up by her, he constantly tries unsuccessfully to
seduce Leela.





Kif Kroker, just known as Kif, is Brannigan’s Lieutenant,
who constantly suffers under his abominable lack of self-discipline and is
quite shy most of the time.

Futurama takes place in the year 3000, in what is
referred to as “New New York,” built over the primitive 21^st century
New York. It takes probable future problems of today and amusingly exaggerates
them, such as Global Warming and substance abuse, making parody of other Sci-Fi
productions. Other forms of humor include self-deprecation and off-color humor.
The President of Earth is none other than ex-United States President Richard
Nixon, who made a name for himself in being the only U.S. President to be
indicted by Congress, or legally forced to step down. Nixon in Futurama is kept
alive like many celebrities of our day, such as Bob Barker and William Shatner,
by their head surviving in a jar without their body. This is one of many
impractical futuristic technologies in the series. The wheel, developed
thousands of years ago, is foreign to everyone except for Frye, due to all cars
hovering.

During the fourth season, the series was cancelled;
partially due to NFL programming was overrunning its new episodes, and the fact
that Fox executives never favored the show, and many episodes scheduled for
season 4 were never seen. The series ended August 10, 2003. However, creator
Matt Groening had still hoped to continue the series with another Network. In
an interview with CNN, Groening said that he has a great relationship
with Comedy Central and wanted to work with them. On June 9, 2009, Fox
announced that 26 new half-hour episodes would air on Comedy Central near
mid-2010; and, after much argument over salary, the entire original cast would
return.