What else did you want from Futurama? What has been fulfilled?

[on:]

Now that the series has ended (again), I was curious as to what else people want out of the series? What characters deserved more development and what plot points deserved expansion? I'm not looking for lists of fanfiction. 

For example, I think Fry's arc has been really well covered. We know why he was sent to the future, and revisited that moment more than enough times. Game of Tones almost felt like a parody of the past 12/31/1999 episodes, where in the end the revelation meant nothing at all. We've seen Fry share moments with his brother (Luck of the Fryish), his father (Cold Warriors), his mother (Game of Tones) and his dog (Jurassic Bark). Pretty much giving his whole family a proper goodbye. He has adjusted to the future, with the "Gosh! I'm in the future!" element of his character wearing off by the dvd movies. And of course, his relationship with Leela has had a proper resolution.

Leela has also been covered really well. She found her parents, the mutants are no longer confined to the sewers, and her relationship with Fry was resolved. Bender isn't really a character that ever needed resolution, but I think all aspects of him have been covered really well. All of the secondary crew members have had their pasts explored, and have had fitting resolutions.

Amy earned her PhD and is married to Kif (after being on and off and on in their relationship). Zoidberg  has had his past with his family, his species, and the professor explored. He also is in a relationship thanks to the penultimate episode. Hermes also had his past explored a few times. The professor's past has also been explored multiple times, often intersecting with other secondary characters like Zoidberg and Mom.

---

Honestly, I can't think of may things that I've been left hanging on. There was, of course, Leela being "the other" which as many have said before can easily refer to her being Fry's reason for saving the universe. They could have easily worked "the other" into a future episode featuring Nibbler and the universe coming to an end. But it wasn't something that was absolutely necessary.

A few things I still wanted from the series was a full-on Zapp and Kif episode that has been talked about in the past by the production crew. I also wanted to see an episode involving Igner and the Professor being father and son, and perhaps working in Wernstrom and his son Larry and Walt. Another Cubert and Dwight episode would have been fun, perhaps one dealing with how they haven't aged since the series debuted. In fact, the whole thing with Futurama characters having longer life spans would have been an interesting episode. Dealing with how Fry, not being of the Future, has a shorter lifespan than the other characters.

All of that could have easily been fit into another 13 episode order, and while I'm happy with how the finale turned out, I'd love to see some more episodes should they touch on these things.

[Reply #1 on:]

I would have liked a whole episode centered around Zapp and Kif. There were rumors about an episode like that being produced, but unfortunately it never happened. 

[Reply #2 on:]

I'd liked to have seen a proper Christmas episode in the new run, with Robot Santa and deadly rampages and things like that. The Holiday Spectacular was a poor excuse for a Holiday Special, especially when comapred to Xmas Story and A Tale of Two Santas.

[Reply #3 on:]

I wish there could have been an episode that explained Hermes' hatred for Zoidberg. Instead it just fizzled out slightly.

[Reply #4 on:]

Some more Nibblonian stories were needed in the new run, as well. In fact, Nibbler seemed very underused in the CC run to me. Since they made him permanently talk, I would've thought he'd become more of a main character, but sadly no.

[Reply #5 on:]

Some more Nibblonian stories were needed in the new run, as well. In fact, Nibbler seemed very underused in the CC run to me. Since they made him permanently talk, I would've thought he'd become more of a main character, but sadly no.

Exactly. I've missed him. He hasn't had more than five minutes of screen time in the new run.

[Reply #6 on:]

Some more Nibblonian stories were needed in the new run, as well. In fact, Nibbler seemed very underused in the CC run to me. Since they made him permanently talk, I would've thought he'd become more of a main character, but sadly no.

Exactly. I've missed him. He hasn't had more than five minutes of screen time in the new run.

Well, he was a main character along with Amy in 'That darn Katz!', but sadly that episode sucked.

[Reply #7 on:]

I enjoyed That Darn Katz purely for how relentlessly absurd it was, but other than that, I agree completely. Don't add a plot development like "the entire crew discovering the truth about Nibbler" without paying it off in some way.

[Reply #8 on:]

I liked some of TDK, but quite a bit of it was just mediocre ("That Darn Katz!", that is. Not The Dark Knight ).

I enjoyed the absurdity of cats invading Earth and a lot of the jokes, but the "cuteness war" was pretty cringeworthy.

[Reply #9 on:]

I'd have like an episode explaining why Zapp was hailed such a galactic hero.
He might be a huge moron, but yet -for some reason- there is no one being able to replace him and take his place. I'd like to have that reason explained.

Joe Abercrombie did something similar in his Fantasy novels, regarding an under-successful mercenary captain. He explained his role himself "As a mercenary, your do not take your employers money to fight for him. You take his money not fight for the others". An equally easy, obvious and dirtbaggy explanation would have been great on Zapp.

[Reply #10 on:]

Eh, Love's Labors Lost in Space explained it relatively well: He's only considered a hero to those who haven't met him. He wins wars through dumb luck and horrifying actions (ie. sacraficing wave after wave of his own men), but those on the outside only hear the "he wins wars" part.

[Reply #11 on:]

A cop becomes Fry!


But, seriously, I don't really feel unfulfilled in any way. Prior to the show being revived, I wanted to see an episode with a mutant uprising and I wanted to see Fry and Leela's story get some real closure, and both of those desires were fulfilled.

I suppose it would have been nice to see "Anthology of Interest III" - frankly, I'm amazed that they didn't do that in season 7 over "Naturama" or "Saturday Morning Fun Pit".

And I would have liked to see the Nibblonian plot continued (properly). I'm not including "Game of Tones" as a real inclusion. It was more like a derpy parody of the previous episodes.

[Reply #12 on:]

A cop becomes the cop with a cop out ending!

I would have liked to see generally more recurring themes, notably Nibblonians.

[Reply #13 on:]

The Steamin' Pile of Vomited Out Time Travelin' Indian Crap becomes a cop!

BEST EPISODE IDEA EVER.

I guess a few more Amy-centric episodes would've been nice, so her character could've been more fleshed out. She's really the only crew member who's backstory hasn't been noticably explored.

Also.... Susan Boil becomes a Cop!

[Reply #14 on:]

I personally think that anyone who disobeys Binder and posts FanFic lists in this thread should be beaten with an Oar that was drenched in the feces of one million Llamas that each had both Rabies and AIDS. But that's just me.

Anyway, back on the actual topic, Maybe more information on how the Planet Express company truly formed would've been nice. An episode like that could've shown us how the company started out, and how it grew more and more popular and reliable over time up until the present.
^{Surprise Double-Post!}

[Reply #15 on:]

Thank you, Monster_Robot_Maniac. If I were a cop I'd do just that to lawbreakers.

More company centric episodes would have been nice. I always liked to think of The Simpsons as Matt Groening's take on family sitcoms while Futurama was Matt's take on workplace sitcoms... which happened to also take place in the year 3000, giving it a sci-fi element.

[Reply #16 on:]

If you all don't like my ideas, then why did you all nominate me in 2011 for 'Most Creative PEELer'?

Irony. The truth is, you're a fountain of ideas, but none of them are creative or original. Your best idea to date was the gigantic hissy-fit that saw you leave PEEL for a while (with the net result that on-topic became slightly more on-topic), and obviously you didn't really follow that one through.

It's not even that people really dislike your ideas. They're incredibly bad, but they'd be easily ignored if you kept them to one thread. Instead, you keep spreading them around every thread, even where you've been specifically told that they're unwelcome.

Back on topic, I think that Futurama explored a lot of what they had to explore, but would have enjoyed seeing a resolution to the whole Igner/Farnsworth thing, since it seems that was immediately forgotten about as soon as Bender's Game ended. Just a few scenes here and there showing Farnsworth's involvement in Igner's life now and then would have been nice.

Taking something of a backseat to that, it would have been good to focus on Nibbler for an episode. What's his story? Is his assignment on Earth some kind of punishment detail? Did he lose a bet? What are the long-term goals of his species? What's their power structure, and where exactly does he fit into it? Is he married, does he have children? Why is he still assigned to Fry... do the Nibblonians know of a future need for The Mighty One? Where did he go when the universe tore open? There are no big questions to answer for Nibbler, but there are a thousand small ones, and an episode where some of those questions actually became important to answer might have been a good one to do.

I think we should just ignore all of the previous irrelevant posts, and begin correctly using this thread.

I think that a lot of them should be deleted, personally. But we have lazy moderators who only take action after repeated proddings with the Moderator Action Request stick. General Disscussion's active moderators are  futurefreak, TheMadCapper, ~FazeShift~, and Tweek. If you see something derailing a thread, PM these moderators and state your objection. After repeated PM's, one of them might come and take a look, and hopefully put a stop to any nonsense that's going on (though it's not unknown for them to join in instead).

[Reply #17 on:]

It was a play on how fucking unoriginal all of Kurt's "ideas" are. Everything boils down to "Futurama should do a parody of THIS." That's not being creative, that's being a derivative, uninspired tool.

"Futurama should do a parody on this" is unacceptable for you?
Well, I am pretty sure most Futurama parodies came into existence that way:
- WITHW probably started with a "Let's make a Starship Troopers parody"
- LaO started probably with a "Let's make a Minority Report parody"
- MoPE started probably with "Let's make a "The Thing" parody.
etc...
So, Kurt's "episode start ideas" are not simpler than the initial thought behind some Futurama episodes. I also gave you some reasons why a Law Enforcment career -upheld by two different characters- will take a different turn, and therefore not be repetitive. Especially when certain themes (musicians, martial arts, etc..) have already been succesfully covered by by different characters.

Those arguments were unfortunately not answered: I would have liked to hear why the law enforment theme would -unlike the other ones- suddenly become repetitive and cannot be covered by two characters (as e.g. the already mentioned martial arts/musician themes).

[Reply #18 on:]

"Futurama should do a parody on this" is unacceptable for you?
Well, I am pretty sure most Futurama parodies came into existence that way:
- WITHW probably started with a "Let's make a Starship Troopers parody"
- LaO started probably with a "Let's make a Minority Report parody"
- MoPE started probably with "Let's make a "The Thing" parody.
etc...

I'd like to point out that Futurama has always had its strongest writing shine through in episodes that aren't direct parodies of a particular thing. Sure, little homages and references here and there are nice, but when working within the confines of an established work, Futurama doesn't have the freedom to truly be Futurama. The scenes (for me, at least. YMMV as always) in LaO, for example, that directly parody Minority Report are pretty scattered. There are other "cop movie" and "cop show" jokes and tropes in there. The overall plot is only loosely derived from Minority Report, and in moving away from the specifics, the writers allow the script a little more freedom to be both inventive and engaging.

As for repetitive themes, I'm not a fan of the idea of re-using standard tropes like "X becomes a cop". Mainly because Futurama is character-driven rather than thematically driven, meaning that when you focus on the theme (eg: "cop theme"), the writing isn't as strong, and the show suffers. Futurama's strength has always been in showing how the characters react to a given situation (usually one defined by a standard trope), rather than showcasing a theme or producing a direct parody (and I think that the more direct parodies, such as FaTSF are among the weaker episodes of the series as a whole). Re-using those standard tropes again and again would have seriously cheapened the feel of Futurama as an entity.

That's not being creative, that's being a derivative, uninspired tool.

Says the guy behind this account.

How wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye?

Is that maybe why you're called Beamer?

[Reply #19 on:]

That's not being creative, that's being a derivative, uninspired tool.

Says the guy behind this account.

Whoever The Hippie Toad is, there isn't anyone else on PEEL doing his gimmick. And it's one harmless thread! Unlike Kurt, Hippie's nonsense is contained.

"Futurama should do a parody on this" is unacceptable for you?
Well, I am pretty sure most Futurama parodies came into existence that way:
- WITHW probably started with a "Let's make a Starship Troopers parody"
- LaO started probably with a "Let's make a Minority Report parody"
- MoPE started probably with "Let's make a "The Thing" parody.
etc...
So, Kurt's "episode start ideas" are not simpler than the initial thought behind some Futurama episodes. I also gave you some reasons why a Law Enforcment career -upheld by two different characters- will take a different turn, and therefore not be repetitive. Especially when certain themes (musicians, martial arts, etc..) have already been succesfully covered by by different characters.

Those arguments were unfortunately not answered: I would have liked to hear why the law enforment theme would -unlike the other ones- suddenly become repetitive and cannot be covered by two characters (as e.g. the already mentioned martial arts/musician themes).

I actually agree that "Bender gets a job in law enforcement" isn't a half-bad idea. We know that he would be corrupt and reckless in his position, which would be entertaining. But "law enforcement" extends beyond cops, and given that they've already done an episode with Fry becoming a cop, I would hope that, if the writers ever tried such an idea, they would try to differentiate it as much from Law and Oracle as possible. However, arbitrarily suggesting "X BECOMES A COP" in a thread that was primarily geared towards which aspects of Futurama's concept/mythology you wish had been more thoroughly explored is completely asinine, and given that Kurt has done this in about a dozen other random threads this past week, enough was finally enough.

Also, as someone who dabbles in writing in his spare time, I've generally found (in my personal experience, anyway) the things I've written that turned into parodies never started out that way. It's usually a pretty organic transition; "There are a lot of similarities between this idea and X, I'll throw in a few nods to it" and then it grows from there. Granted, Futurama does do the occasional full-blown parody, but more often than not, they're a bit more subtle about it. I doubt all the episodes you listed were conceived that way. Kurt, on the other hand, has been throwing in one-sentence suggestions akin to "Futurama should do a parody of X" without any mention as to
a) How it would work in the Futurama universe
b) Why this is a good idea
c) What it would achieve
d) What importance it would play in the series (after all, this one is the entire damn point of this thread)

No, instead, we're getting these persuasive arguments:

Also, Honey Boo Boo should've been made fun of on Futurama (after all, South Park did).

Need I say more? As I said, I'm not dismissing the law enforcement idea entirely. But this isn't the thread for it, and even if it was, Kurt hasn't made a case for it.

[Reply #20 on:]

"Futurama should do a parody on this" is unacceptable for you?
Well, I am pretty sure most Futurama parodies came into existence that way:
- WITHW probably started with a "Let's make a Starship Troopers parody"
- LaO started probably with a "Let's make a Minority Report parody"
- MoPE started probably with "Let's make a "The Thing" parody.
etc...

Whilst I appreciate what you're saying, the difference is that the people actually making the show don't bombard us with "Futurama should parody this thing I like" ideas without also presenting us with a fully formed episode to back it up.

And for the record, we know that "Law and Oracle" turned into a Minority Report as they were writing it. It was originally intended to be that episode where Fry and Leela's backwards-time-travelling child shows up. They talk about how its evolution into parody happened quite naturally on the commentary from what I remember.

Back on topic, I think that Futurama explored a lot of what they had to explore, but would have enjoyed seeing a resolution to the whole Igner/Farnsworth thing, since it seems that was immediately forgotten about as soon as Bender's Game ended. Just a few scenes here and there showing Farnsworth's involvement in Igner's life now and then would have been nice.

That's a really good point, actually. I would have liked that.

[Reply #21 on:]

Yeah, I'd completely forgotten about it myself. We all know they had a lot of Futurama's mythology outlined when they went in, but very few things ultimately paid off beyond the reveal. Same with certain story developments that occurred post-Fox run; Nothing really came of Igner learning he was the Professor's son, mutants were allowed on the surface but the only episode where it even factored in afterwards was Zapp Dingbat, the crew learned Nibbler could talk but the only episode where it factored in was That Darn Katz (and even then, it could've easily been written so that Amy learned the truth about Nibbler within that episode and he erased her memory at the end of it, and it wouldn't have changed anything after that point anyway). I'm sure there's more I'm forgetting.

I really wish they'd have incorporated these plot points into subsequent episodes, because a revelation for the sake of a revelation ultimately proves meaningless. More Igner/Farnsworth in particular would've been quite interesting... ie. Maybe Mom kicks him out and he has to move into the Planet Express building for an episode, which further builds on his relationship with the Professor?  Plus, I love Igner in general, and seeing him have more interactions with the PE crew would've been priceless.

Holy shit, if I ever write a fanfic, this is gonna be it.

[Reply #22 on:]

Back on topic, I think that Futurama explored a lot of what they had to explore, but would have enjoyed seeing a resolution to the whole Igner/Farnsworth thing, since it seems that was immediately forgotten about as soon as Bender's Game ended. Just a few scenes here and there showing Farnsworth's involvement in Igner's life now and then would have been nice.

That's a really good point, actually. I would have liked that.

Cubert was also sidelined following his first appearance. An episode involving the professor's offspring either teaming up or being rivals would have been fun. Cubert and Igner would make for some funny scenes, I'd think.

[Reply #23 on:]

I just did some major cleanup in this thread and I am not happy. I deleted some, moved others to Kurt's "Idea for a Perfect Episode" thread in fanart. Please you guys, don't add to the chaos - we can't be everywhere at once, so if someone is doing something to derail a thread report it to the mods right away so it can be dealt with swiftly. This was a well thought out thread by Binder and I don't know how it devolved into that other stuff so easily.

Looking back, there are some things they explored that I don't think needed to be explored (like the relationship of Professor and Zoidberg in The Tip of the Zoidberg; felt too laid on/fake). I would have liked to learn about the Professor as a child, actually; his roots and how they do or don't relate to Fry. There were just too many gaps between Fry and Professor that would have been interesting to fill out.

I don't think I could have known any more about Leela, that character was done. Amy...maybe her childhood years, like we knew she was intelligent getting a degree, but I would have liked to see that evolve somehow perhaps (earlier on, I mean). Did we have an episode that involved the interaction between Hermes and Amy? That would have been interesting to expand upon.

[Reply #24 on:]

I like the way the thread now just looks like several of us are just ranting about cops, like maniacs.

Back when season 6A was on, it was apparent that they were teaming up lots of characters that hadn't been seen together, much, to allow for some interesting territory to be explored (Hermes and Bender in "Lethal Inspection", Amy and Nibbler in "That Darn Katz!", to a lesser extent, Cubert and Zoidberg in "A Clockwork Origin" and Lrrr and the whole crew in "Lrrreconcilable Ndndifferences").

Looking back on it, it's a real shame that they basically ditched that in season 7 and 6B. It was working out pretty well and was helping to make things feel nice and fresh.

And, the more I think about it, if they'd known it was the last season, it would have been nice to see an episode with a Hermes/Zoidberg pairing. Not necessarily them being trapped in a bank vault or anything, but something that forces them to come together and make a small degree of peace would have been a lovely way to wrap things up in a final season.

Now that I think about it, they were paired up in "Murder on the Planet Express", but I mean a plot with them as the main characters, like Hermes and Bender in "Lethal Inspection".

[Reply #25 on:]

I like the way the thread now just looks like several of us are just ranting about cops, like maniacs.

Isn't that what we were doing? 

I agree that Amy's character should've been expanded on. Like I said, she's pretty much the only non-fleshed out character at this point. I mean, They have referenced her past a few times, but never have they went into full depth about it, Leela's Homeworld-Style.

[Reply #26 on:]

Excluding That Darn Katz, the writers totally forgot that Amy was an engineering student ages ago.

[Reply #27 on:]

Excluding That Darn Katz, the writers totally forgot that Amy was an engineering student ages ago.

They also forgot about her clumsyness rather quickly.
Also, in the last two seasons, Amy was basically turned into a "backup-Leela".

[Reply #28 on:]

Amy definitely has the most inconsistent characterisation out of any of the PE crew, that's for sure.

[Reply #29 on:]

Thanks for your comments and cleanup futurefreak!

I definitely would have loved to see a Fry & Professor episode that explored how the two are distant relatives and are so different. I always thought it would be fun to have the Professor letdown by Fry's extreme stupidity, being insulted to be his descendent. But, as seen in countless episodes, despite his idiocy, Fry does have a great appreciation for the wonders of the galaxy. Wasn't his earliest aspiration to be an astronaut?

Having such a conflict, and then ending it with the Professor accepting Fry for who he is and the both of them sharing in the awesomeness of some cosmic wonder that neither one can explain (Fry, because he is stupid and the Professor, because it is beyond even his great intelligence) would be a sweet moment between the two.

[Reply #30 on:]

The Duh Vinci Code kinda touched on that... Granted, it took a far different approach, but the acknowledgement was certainly there. Plus, isn't Fry just the anomaly of his family due to the delta brain wave thing? Yancy Jr. in particular seemed like a logical predecessor to the Professor.

Officially calling "Predecessor to the Professor" as a band name!

[Reply #31 on:]

There should have been little more character exploration and little less genetics/bioluminesis/3D-printing. It has been said that the biggest questions have been answered now with second run, but I see there is still much to be answered and quessed too. New ideas for episodes can't be a problem with this huge universe Futurama has been created to, problem has been with wanting everything and mixing different kind of themes.

Futurama has been great with complex storylines, but I would have liked to see generally simpler subjects and themes (with a complex story in the end), especially with better execution. I want more, to have what still has been missed.

[Reply #32 on:]

I wish we could have seen more of Fry and Zapp interacting. I'm not even sure if they exchanged dialouge in the series before, but I wish there would've been some sort of interaction between the two.

(edit): There was only one dialouge exchange I can remember, In " A Flight to Remember."

[Reply #33 on:]

I'm not even sure if they exchanged dialouge in the series before,

"Hello from the neck down..." "Giggle"...

[Reply #34 on:]

Brannigan, Begin Again? That was their main one.

[Reply #35 on:]

Brannigan, Begin Again? That was their main one.

Oh my god, I feel so stupid. Lucky people make up for my absentmindedness.

[Reply #36 on:]

There were also a few small exchanges in Love's Labor's Lost in Space and Amazon Women in the Mood, too. And I believe there MAY have been some in War is the H-Word, Where the Buggalo Roam, The Beast With a Billion Backs, Where No Fan Has Gone Before and The Problem With Popplers, though it's been a while since I've seen any of them.

[Reply #37 on:]

Looking back on it, it's a real shame that they basically ditched that in season 7 and 6B. It was working out pretty well and was helping to make things feel nice and fresh.

What? There was plenty of unusual character pairings. Well, not all of them were unusual, but there were a lot that never really received an episode's worth of attention.

LAO: Leela/Bender (this pairing's rarer than you might think)
TTOTZ: Zoidberg/Farnsworth
TBJE: Leela/Amy (seriously, this is the only episode that focuses on this pair!)
TSMDM: Hermes/Zoidberg
VMV: Amy/Zoidberg
FALBF: Bender/Zoidberg/Amy

There were also a few small exchanges in Love's Labor's Lost in Space and Amazon Women in the Mood, too. And I believe there MAY have been some in War is the H-Word, Where the Buggalo Roam, The Beast With a Billion Backs, Where No Fan Has Gone Before and The Problem With Popplers, though it's been a while since I've seen any of them.

Interestingly, TBWABB is one of the only times Fry interacts with Kif.

[Reply #38 on:]

God damn, I wish people would stop abbreviating the episode titles. There are too many episodes now for me to keep track of all these.

[Reply #39 on:]

What do I look like, a guy who's not lazy?