If You Can Get Rid of 5 episodes

[on:]

What are some Futurama episodes you wish you can discard?  It could only be 5 of them.

I'll leave this for the people to decide....

[Reply #1 on:]

1. Yo Leela Leela
2. The Futurama Holiday Spectacular
3. Saturday Morning Fun Pit
4. Neutopia
5. A Leela of Her Own

Bold: From the Fox Run.

[Reply #2 on:]

1) Saturday Morning Fun Pit
2) Neutopia
3) The Futurama Holiday Spectacular
4) Yo Leela Leela
5) Attack of the Killer App

Those are probably my 5 least-favourite episodes.

[Reply #3 on:]

I could've sworn we had a thread like this already? Or perhaps it was just a question posed in the "Would You Rather" thread.

At any rate...

1. Attack of the Killer App (the worst episode of the series, relied almost solely on present-day references and gross-out humour, the Susan Boil thing was atrocious, the sub-plot with Mom went nowhere and the whole thing was just fucking painful to watch)
2. All the Presidents' Heads (shitty excuse for a time travel episode, something Futurama had done perfectly up to this point... barely made sense and lacked too much in the comedy department to make up for that)
3. The Futurama Holiday Spectacular (completely unnecessary, and unfunny to boot)
4. Saturday Morning Fun Pit (likewise)
5. A Leela of Her Own (ruined Blernsball, one of the funniest jokes the series had going for it; also boring and unfunny)

[Reply #4 on:]

1. Yo Leela Leela
2. A Leela of Her Own
3. The Futurama Holiday Spectacular
4. The Route of All Evil
5. Forty Percent Leadbelly

[Reply #5 on:]

There is several episodes that could have been left undone in the first place, but I wouldn't go and remove them now and this thread is basically a "worst episodes thread" imo.

Even if there was slightly less episodes and I would have missed something, it's not bad idea to have had makers skipped couple episodes in production (in retrospect) though this thread is mostly pointless, even with interesting question of "would you get rid of some episodes?".

[Reply #6 on:]

• Bender Dares Fry to Eat a Scorpion
• Fry Eats a Scorpion
• Bender Becomes a Cop
• Amy Eats Wikipedia
• Hermes Finds a Balloon

[Reply #7 on:]

1. In-A-Gadda-De-Leela
2.Attack of the Killer App
3.That Darn Katz!
4.Forty Percent Leadbelly
5.Saturday Morning Fun Pit

[Reply #8 on:]

• Bender Dares Fry to Eat a Scorpion
• Fry Eats a Scorpion
• Bender Becomes a Cop
• Amy Eats Wikipedia
• Hermes Finds a Balloon

I expected "Fry Eats an Albino Wallaby" and "Fry Eats an Albino Wallaby: Part II" to be on this list but whatever.

[Reply #9 on:]

1. In-A-Gadda-Da-Leela
2. Naturama
3. Forty Percent Leadbelly
4. Neutopia
5. Where the Buggalo Roam

The abundance of revival episodes speaks volumes huh :/

[Reply #10 on:]

1. Attack of the Killer App (gross!)
2. In-A-Gadda-Da-Leela (obviously)
3. Bender's Big Score (for retconning TLOTF and JB)
4. Stench and stenchibility (it's just boring)
5. Yo Leela Leela (stupid idea from the start)

I think it's all

[Reply #11 on:]

\
3. Bender's Big Score (for retconning TLOTF and JB)

It definitely doesn't quite retcon them. It just makes it... really dang complicated and confusing.

[Reply #12 on:]

I'll make this short and sweet:
1) In-A-Gadda-De-Leela
2) Attack of the Killer App
3) Some other later season episode I've refused to watch
4) Repeat #1 & #2 because they were THAT bad and frankly, pissed me off after I watched them.
5) Repeat #3. Is it just me, or after the movies (which were hit and miss as it was), other than for the random episode here and there, did the characters just break their normal routines/roles? The jokes were less funny (seemed like they were trying to go the Family Guy way), the 1-liners were forced, and well established threads/themes were broken. After most of Season 6 I stopped watching and frankly, when I see SyFy running a Futurama marathon, if it's past the movies, I won't watch.

_{Well, I made it short and sweet before I got into rant mode.}

[Reply #13 on:]

I definitely agree with you on the above counts. The episodes you mentioned relied too much on shock humour and vulgarity for its own sake, which was definitely beneath pre-cancellation Futurama.

The five episodes the series could do without, in my opinion, had the least substance. They either had no bearing on the series as a whole, relied too much on cheap humour, and had very little entertainment factor.
1) Saturday Morning Fun Pit - I could see they were going for the vignette format a la Simpsons Treehouse of Horror, which had potential for a few entertaining stories that couldn't be watered down into full episodes, but the parodies fell flat.
2) Holiday Spectacular - See above. Horribly unfunny to boot. The endings were a perfect example of how not to execute gallows humour (pun not intended).
3) Attack of the Killer App - I don't find gross-out humour to be funny. The references in the later seasons are obviously more dated; we're so far removed from 2009 that hardly anyone remembers Susan Boyle, for example.
4) Yo Leela Leela - Boring and unfunny in my opinion. I've never seen the show the title referenced, and the plot just seems too outlandish.
5) Most of season 7 - With a few exceptions, season 7 as a whole seemed very stale. I'm glad they wrapped it up when they did.
In-A-Gadda-Da-Leela gets honourable mention as its vulgarity for vulgarity's sake made it seem more like a Family Guy episode, but I kind of liked the framing device.

[Reply #14 on:]

\
3. Bender's Big Score (for retconning TLOTF and JB)

It definitely doesn't quite retcon them. It just makes it... really dang complicated and confusing.

I agree that "retcon" doesn't exactly apply in the case of the fuckery BBS perpetrated on TLotF and JB--but the sin that movie does commit is far more egregious. It completely neutralizes the emotional core of those two episodes by rendering everyone's grief at Fry's (now-temporary, narwhal-hunting) absence far less potent. Sure, Fry's family still has to deal with his eventual disappearance, from 2012 on, but Seymour only waited for the guy for a few years as opposed to a decade-plus, which severely undercuts the original episode's ending. (It also makes Yancy's tearful naming of his progeny, which is a moment in Fryrish that always chokes me up, utterly nonsensical.)

That said, I don't think I'd remove BBS from the series. There are faaar too many shit-shows from seasons six and seven to allow for that. To wit:

1. The Silence of the Clamps
2. The Tip of the Zoidberg
3. Ghost in the Machines
4. The Six Million Dollar Mon
5. Free Will Hunting
Dishonorable Mention: 2-D Blacktop (its first two acts are...fine, but the last act is dumb and self-indulgent and unfunny and bad)

In pretty much all of these instances, the writers take a formerly funny running character (Clamps, the Robot Devil, Roberto) or character dynamic (Fry and Bender's close friendship, Farnsworth's affection for/tolerance of Zoidberg, Hermes' hatred of Zoidberg) and completely butcher it. I will also never forgive Ken Keeler for that godawful sequence in TotZ where Zoidberg is, y'know, butchering every member of the PE crew--it is, I think, the most cartoon-y (in a bad way) thing the show has ever done.

Oh, and I get the disdain for the anthology-style episodes (minus the original AOIs and "Reincarnation"), but the fact that they're non-canon to begin with makes me far less invested in them and therefore less likely to be disappointed by their corniness/sloppiness.

[Reply #15 on:]

That said, I don't think I'd remove BBS from the series. There are faaar too many shit-shows from seasons six and seven to allow for that. To wit:

1. The Silence of the Clamps
2. The Tip of the Zoidberg
3. Ghost in the Machines
4. The Six Million Dollar Mon
5. Free Will Hunting
Dishonorable Mention: 2-D Blacktop (its first two acts are...fine, but the last act is dumb and self-indulgent and unfunny and bad)

Have you blocked out Near-Death Wish entirely? I recall you pretty much wishing near-death upon that episode too.

[Reply #16 on:]

Oh, shit, I hadn't even considered that one! I think it's probably in the most direct competition with "The Tip of the Zoidberg," in terms of the flashback stuff--but the fact that it at least stretches for genuine pathos, and lacks any egregiously corny or downright nonsensical "jokes," saves it from the list. But yeah, it's still no favorite o' mine, that's for sure.

[Reply #17 on:]

Honestly... if this scenario of "deleting" episodes actually came to be, I wouldn't choose any at all. I don't think there's a single episode that's bad enough to taint the entire series or anything that extreme to the point where's I'd want it completely gone. I'd argue it's even selfish; I'm sure there's a handful of people that love "Attack of the Killer App", for instance.

[Reply #18 on:]

I'm sure there's a handful of people that love "Attack of the Killer App", for instance.

It's all subjective. I wouldn't doubt that some viewers appreciated the jabs at social media, particularly the sensationalism and the almost invasive data mining. In fact, both may be even more relevant today than when the show aired. Maybe the brand of humour in the episode appeals to a select population. I personally wasn't a fan of watching goats spew into a pool.

As for deleting episodes, you bring up a good point in that deleting episodes completely or ignoring their existence may be extreme. A better phrase might be "What five episodes do you tend to skip the most?" or "What five episodes did you enjoy the least?"

I will also never forgive Ken Keeler for that godawful sequence in TotZ where Zoidberg is, y'know, butchering every member of the PE crew--it is, I think, the most cartoon-y (in a bad way) thing the show has ever done.

Oh yes, Tip of the Zoidberg! That one also goes on my personal Dishonourable Mention list. It was salvaged by the flashbacks that delve deeper into Farnsworth's and Zoidberg's relationship, which for the most part had been unexplored until that point. However, that mercy killing sequence with the Rube Goldberg device was overkill (pun not intended) and the plot resolution seemed phoned in, to say the least.

[Reply #19 on:]

I'm sure there's a handful of people that love "Attack of the Killer App", for instance.

Love is definitely a stretch, but I hold far less antipathy for that episode than do the majority of folks on PEEL. It's gross and cheesy and sort of typical of the too-topical/dated humor that plagued much of the new run, but it definitely doesn't sully the show's legacy for me in the same way as the episodes I listed above.

As for deleting episodes, you bring up a good point in that deleting episodes completely or ignoring their existence may be extreme. A better phrase might be "What five episodes do you tend to skip the most?" or "What five episodes did you enjoy the least?"

I actually read the whole "episode you'd like to get rid of" thing as fundamentally different from "worst episode ever" or "least-favorite episode" or something like that. Like, there are plenty of episodes--in both the old and new run--that I don't overly enjoy, and that are of a clearly lower quality than other episodes...but they don't fill me with that same mix of embarrassment, annoyance, and sorrow as the episodes I included on my "good riddance" list.

The episodes I'd most like to forget exist are those that somehow tinker with (to put it lightly; "outright bastardize" might be more accurate) some established and formerly-beloved element of the series. So, for example, "The Silence of the Clamps" not only runs the formerly hilarious (albeit, one-note) character of Clamps into the ground--it also manufactures this idiotic feud between him and Zoidberg that has the effect of messing with Zoidberg's generally well-meaning, affable, nigh-innocent persona to such an extent that he doesn't even feel like the same character to me. I mean, "Why Must I Be a Crustacean in Love?" also shows him being an asshole, but at least in that case his rivalry is with another main character (Fry) in whom the audience is equally emotionally invested, as opposed to a one-note, who-gives-a-shit character like Clamps.

On that same subject: I could have just as easily replaced one of the episodes on my list with "Proposition Infinity," which royally fucks with Amy's character, her relationship with Kif, and Farnsworth's backstory. I think I gave it a pass in this instance because there are enough quasi-redeeming things about it (I recall really enjoying the scene of the crew trying to capture the tornado for Farnsworth's mason jar or whatever, plus the Wongs' attempts at robosexual conversion with Amy; I also say the line "Even ghost and horse!" to myself with far greater frequency than one might expect), and it reconciles Kif and Amy by episode's end, so its sins are slightly more forgivable to me.

Or, hey, maybe they're not. Suffice it to say, there are probably more than five episodes I could comfortably remove from the series and never much miss.

[Reply #20 on:]

"Even ghost and horse!"

Under what weird context is this a relevant line to the point where you use it frequently?

[Reply #21 on:]

Oh, it's more like it's just a line that randomly pops into my head a lot; I think it has less to do with the content of the line and more to do with its delivery (I actually find that a lot of my favorite Bender lines are memorable largely because of the way he says them, as opposed to what he says).

But, like, for context: if I'm having a conversation with my friends about sexual politics, or reading an article about any sort of LGBT issue, "Even ghost and horse!" will definitely cross my mind. I'm not saying it makes sense--like, clearly it does not--but I can't imagine I'm the only Futurama super-nerd who'll sometimes just have random bits of dialogue/moments from the show cross their mind, whether there's a real-life reason for it or not. Or maybe I am? I dunno, man...

[Reply #22 on:]

Or maybe I am? I dunno, man...

Oh, you're definitely not. I often respond to "I'm doing my best" with "Your best is an idiot!"

Usually in my head

[Reply #23 on:]

Or maybe I am? I dunno, man...

Oh, you're definitely not. I often respond to "I'm doing my best" with "Your best is an idiot!"

Usually in my head

1000% true for me! I catch myself throwing in random quotes in ordinary conversations. In fact, my friends now automatically assume when I state something "weird"/out of left field, it's probably just a random quote from Futurama. _{(or at least that's always their first assumption)}

[Reply #24 on:]

i think these .

1. Yo Leela Leela
2. A Leela of Her Own
3. The Futurama Holiday Spectacular
4. Attack of the Killer App (gross!)
5. In-A-Gadda-Da-Leela (obviously)
can someone tell me where I can see the chapters apart from here "watch movie online"

*Link removed*

[Reply #25 on:]

Hey, mods, this miguel811 account is link-dumping for the purposes of SEO.

[Reply #26 on:]

The more objectionable offense, though, is including "A Leela of Her Own" on that list!

[Reply #27 on:]

I thought you liked Leela?
I like Amy better though...in some regards.

[Reply #28 on:]

Hey, mods, this miguel811 account is link-dumping for the purposes of SEO.

I removed the link. Other posts seem OK.

[Reply #29 on:]

I'd get rid of pretty well everything after Into the Wild Green Yonder to be honest. They really didn't seem to recapture the greatness of the first four seasons on Fox after that. The movies were a little weaker than the original series and then the revival on Comedy Central was much weaker than the movies.

Here are five particularly bad ones in no particular order:

Attack of the Killer App
Nutopia
In-A-Gadda-Da-Leela
The Futurama Holiday Spectacular
Yo Leela Leela

[Reply #30 on:]

I'd probably get rid of everything after the original series.

The first movie cheapens the emotional impact of "The Luck of the Fryrish" and "Jurassic Bark."  I'd prefer if it had never been made.

The Comedy Central episodes are a mixed bag.  Some of them are good (although I don't know if any of them are as good as any of the episodes from the original run), some of them are bad, and some of them are just plain awful.

I know we all wanted more episodes after the show got cancelled, but considering what we eventually got, be careful what you wish for definitely seems to apply here.

[Reply #31 on:]

I enjoyed the movies for what they were, but to be honest I'd be hard pressed to argue against the idea that the show should have lived fast, died young and left a beautiful corpse in the long run.

[Reply #32 on:]

I don't think that it would have been a bad thing if the show had continued instead of ending after four seasons, but I do think that "Devil's Hands" was a good way to end it, and I have yet to see a show that was brought back after being cancelled for a year or more where the new episodes were actually as good as the original run.

[Reply #33 on:]

I know I've said this elsewhere on PEEL, but there are exactly two new-run episodes that I believe are good enough to justify (if not forgive the sins of) the revival seasons: "The Late Philip J. Fry" and "Reincarnation." The latter might be a cop-out considering its non-canon nature, but TLPJF is not only a beautifully-executed episode--it's an episode that wouldn't have been possible in quite the same way during the original run, because it's predicated on a story point (Fry and Leela dating) that was only introduced in the new run. I mean, you could have done a similar story in the first four seasons, when Fry and Leela's will-they-or-won't-they was weighed heavily to the "won't" side, but it wouldn't have had quite the same impact. To me, what makes that episode work is Leela's sense of dissatisfaction and longing, which would've rung a bit hollow if Fry was just her co-worker and friend, not her sort-of-maybe-probably boyfriend.

Beyond that, though, I agree that the new run is largely worth erasing. There are a handful of episodes that are of comparable quality to the first four seasons ("Lethal Inspection" and "The Prisoner of Benda" come to mind), but besides the two episodes named above, they're not necessarily worth writing home about.

[Reply #34 on:]

There may have been a few good episodes in the new run, and maybe a few more that I enjoyed watching even though they weren't very good, but I'm still not convinced that it was worth bringing the show back to get to see those.

I mean, I think that I can honestly look at the original run and say that there isn't a bad episode in the bunch.  Sure, there are some that I like more than others, but there really aren't any episodes that I don't like.  I can't say that about the new episodes; not even close.

That said, I do think that "Reincarnation" is fantastic.  I enjoyed the third segment in a way that probably only someone who spent the '80s watching anime can.

[Reply #35 on:]

I know I've said this elsewhere on PEEL, but there are exactly two new-run episodes that I believe are good enough to justify (if not forgive the sins of) the revival seasons: "The Late Philip J. Fry" and "Reincarnation."

I agree with this. Mostly. I also think that there are maybe four or five episodes in the new run that justify its existence. Murder on the Planet Express, for example, isn't a terrible episode (not that it's in the same league, just that it's not shit). A Clockwork Origin had at least one line I use at least once a week. I'm sure there's another one I'll kick myself for not mentioning when I'm lying awake in two hours obsessively mulling it over but too lazy to get out of bed and plod over to the computer.

[Reply #36 on:]

Honestly, I also think I’ve just gotten better at viewing the old and new run as completely separate entities: I can enjoy seasons one through four on their own merits, as one cohesive story; and I can cherry-pick whichever new-run movies/episodes suit me and appreciate them as discrete, self-contained narratives. I guess what I’m saying is that I’ve learned to stop worrying about the arc of the entire series—because I find that arc deeply unsatisfying—and have separated the thing I think of as Futurama into two unrelated pieces of media to which I have two very different relationships.

[Reply #37 on:]

1) Neutopia
2) In-A-Gadda-Da-Leela
3) Lrrreconcilable Ndndifferences
4) T.: The Terrestrial
5) Saturday Morning Fun Pit

It's funny how over time these episodes just get staler and staler than the first initial watch... in fact I honestly despise SMFP now. G.I Zapp was the only good segment in the entire episode for me personally.

[Reply #38 on:]

in fact I honestly despise SMFP now. G.I Zapp was the only good segment in the entire episode for me personally.

For me, I rank the segments as follows:

1. Bendee-Boo
2. G.I. Zapp
3. Purpleberry Pond

The whole joke of Purpleberry Pond is so extremely on-the-nose and hammered to death, it became stale extremely fast.

[Reply #39 on:]

I've never even seen three of those episodes.  Sounds like I lucked out there.