Someone at Lucasfilm likes Futurama...

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I sat and enjoyed my new Original Trilogy Star Wars DVD's last night, and was delighted to see Futurama on the bonus disc. There's a small featurette about the Lightsabre, and at the end, whilst running the credits, they show clips from programs that have parodied the use of the Lightsabre and, as well as the Mark Hamill Simpsons appearance, nestled in the middle was Fry wielding his sabre in War is the H Word, slicing the sphere and spraying candy everywhere.

Let's face it - it's only a small clip but that's a hell of a lot of coverage considering the sales of the DVD. I just thought it was pretty cool.

Compare your lives to mine and then kill yourselves!

[Reply #1 on:]

In KoToR, isn't there a robot that calls humans 'meatbag' as well?

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The sales of the trilogy will be huge - stores opened at midnight just to sell it, I wonder how many people got mugged...

Also, having futurama in the features has a knock-on effect when magazines review the trilogy, I just picked up the latest copy of FILM, and it has a bit about Futurama, along with a pic of Fry in the star wars review:
 

Star Sightings - Like Tatooine sand in your underwear, Star Wars references get everywhere - FUTURAMA
Main doofus Fry signs up to the galactic army. Part of his training is a distinctly Luke- like session with a lightsaber and target. Except this one is a pinata. Candy for all!

If only they made a star wars episode instead of a star trek episode - they might have put the whole thing on the dvd.

[Reply #3 on:]

 

Originally posted by Zmithy:
The sales of the trilogy will be huge - stores opened at midnight just to sell it, I wonder how many people got mugged..

Well, in Australia in came out a day early, i work @ a video shop and i got to process and sign for all the DVD's and they came in the morning before they where suppose to be officaly released and my manger told me to start selling them once i finsihed priceing them and that was mid morning.  So i don't think any one got mugged....although it would be cheaper then buying it

 

Originally posted by Zmithy:If only they made a star wars episode instead of a star trek episode - they might have put the whole thing on the dvd.

Second...i think Star Wars has more going for it.  It's the Lord of the Rings of the last millenium..(falcon?)....although i would go Star Wars over LOTR anyday

Cheers!

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I doubt they'd have put a whole episode on there.  They didn't even put on deleted scenes, so I don't think they're going to put on an episode of an otherwise unrelated tv show with a much smaller audience.  Here they put it in a montage of pop-culture moments.

Still, nice to see Futurama make an appearance.  What else appears in the montage?

[Reply #5 on:]

It is cool that they put on a bit of Futurama 

I still think Futurama was right to spoof Star Trek rather than Star Wars though.

[Reply #6 on:]

 

Originally posted by DotheBartman:
Still, nice to see Futurama make an appearance.  What else appears in the montage?

As the credits roll, they also show Mark Hamill in The Simpsons ('You know, I'm here as Luke Skywalker, but I'm also here to talk about Sprint...'), then the Futurama clip, then a web movie that's been bouncing about for a couple of years where a kid gets a lightsabre for Christmas, jumps about with it really excitedly and slices his gran in half.

Compare your lives to mine and then kill yourselves!

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Well the only reason they used those to is because Simpsons, Futurama and Star Wars have two things in common, and that is - Rupert Murdock and 20th Century Fox.  There are plenty of other shows that have parodyied Star Wars like 70's Show and numerous others but they probly couldn't be bothered paying for the copyrights

[Reply #8 on:]

That 70's show is distinctly Fox, too.
That episode came on last night, also! 

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Star Wars kid on is on there?  Wow.

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I was really happy to see this too. As i'm in the UK I got my Star Wars DVDs on Monday morning. Only £26 & free delivery from Amazon!

I read a glowing review of the DVDs on Aint it cool news. But the stupid reviewer when mentioning this part of the features said something like

"There are two clips from the simpsons and one of a kid getting a lightsaber....."

What an idiot, can't even tell Futurama from The Simpsons!

[Reply #11 on:]

I saw this Futurama clip yesterday, and it is most cloolsome too see 

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Its funny, everyone noticed it within the first day, even friends of mine wich are not futurama fans told me (im still waiting for my brother to bring home the DVD SW trilogy, but hey! i pay only half of it).

And yes, a SW only episode would be great, but again you cant use the "guest cast" because they are either not interest or too expensive to put simply voices, Lucas would bill Matt with the cost of several episodes for the rights (no wait, parodys are free, hurray!) and well, what were they going to do? Another attack against a death star (i.e An Omicronian Star Destroyer again?) would Fry discover that Leela is his sistar? will farnsowrth die and the return as a bluish transpy annoying ghost?

[Reply #13 on:]

That'd make a good "What If." Leela could be Princess Leeia.

[Reply #14 on:]

Well, they could do a Star Wars tribute similar to what "Where No Fan Has Gone Before" did for Star Trek.

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Some at LucasArts likes Futurama. I recently got battlefront for the PS2, in the single player matches, nearly every soldier has a name relevant to science fiction. I found out the one the Battle Droids is name Omicron. Coincidence? I think not.

[Reply #16 on:]

Also, most of the Star Trek cast was unwilling to do it at first as well. But Nimoy said sure, and then Shatner said sure, and then everybody was in, except Scotty. But that even worked out to their advantage joke-wise (WELSCHIEE!!) I'm sure Mark Hammill would be down, seeing as how he put Billy West in a starring role in his movie. Plus he's used to voice work. It'd be pretty hard to get everyone though. Especially Carrie Fisher. Mayber if there was enough Star Wars-depricating humor, like for Star Trek in WNFHGB.

[Reply #17 on:]

This reminds of the commentary for BBA.  During the scene where Fry and Bender are playing chess, parodying the chess scene in Star Wars.  The animator who did all the aliens for that scene said George Lucas saw that episode and asked him to work for Lucas at his ranch, to design aliens for Attack of the Clones and perhaps Ep III.

[Reply #18 on:]

 

Originally posted by ShortRoundMcfly:
I found out the one the Battle Droids is name Omicron. Coincidence? I think not.

I think so. Omicron is a greek letter (like alpha, beta, gamma, and so on), and Omicron Perseus is a real star, as is Omicron Ceti (and probably others).

[Reply #19 on:]

I think omicron is the fifteenth letter of the Greek alphabet, so any constellation with fifteen or more stars is going to have an Omicron star.  Of course, this is based on the constellations when seen from Earth, so it's doubtful that the inhabitants of a planet in the Omicron Persei system would actually call themselves Omicronians.  Either Lrrr's people call themselves that for the benefit of the Earthicans, or, y'know, it's a joke.

[Reply #20 on:]

If there was a robot called Bender, however...

[Reply #21 on:]

 

Originally posted by ShortRoundMcfly:
I found out the one the Battle Droids is name Omicron. Coincidence? I think not.

Well 'Omicron' as in 'Omicron Persei 8', is a planet about 1000 light years away.....the reaason futurama chose it is because it worked into the story plot as they where looking for a planet 1000 light yrs away (the one where Fry nocks Fox off the air)

Some names in Star Wars are similar to actually galexies, star systmes planets etc, but apartly thou it could be Nerd rumours that Lucas has a formula for makeing all thses names up.

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As someone who prefers Star Wars to Star Trek anyday, I'd have to say they were right to do Star Trek instead.

So much of the spirt of WNFHGB was about fandom itself and how something (such as a film or tv show) can mean so much to a person.  While there was lots of friendly nerd-depreciating humor, it felt genuine, and the reason is that the writers themselves are clearly huge Star Trek fans.  Just look at all the references to it in the show.  Yes there are Star Wars references, but not nearly as many and from comments on the commentaries its clear they're far more geeky for Star Trek then Star Wars.  Plus the episode was about rabid fandom, and while Star Wars has very rabid fans I think Star Trek "fits" more because Star Wars has more casual fans and mass appeal then Star Trek does, and generally (slightly) less dedicated/geeky fans.

I'm barely even familiar with Star Trek but what makes WNFHGB so great (fifth best episode ever) is that its so genuine in its exploration of fandom, and I think Star Trek just fits more.

Though with that said if one of my favorite tv shows did an episode around the same topic with Star Wars, I'd adore it.

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Some names in Star Wars are similar to actually galexies, star systmes planets etc, but apartly thou it could be Nerd rumours that Lucas has a formula for makeing all thses names up.

But if it's in a galaxy far, far away, why would the star names be similar at all?

[Reply #24 on:]

For that matter, why do they speak English, and have all of those words with Greek and Latin roots?

It saves thinking of new ones.