Interesting Side Note

[on:]

that as a head with out a body i envy the dead. 

actually thats not what i was going to say but no arguement here.

What i was going to say is, in the Simpson Halloween (not sure which one) there is a short called The Genisis Lab, where lisa's tooth falls out and she puts it into a tub with cola and creates a minture city. 

It evolves quickly and it soon becomes a futuristic city and if u look closely there are about three or four shots of the ppl tubes like u see in Futurama......

this is very early on in The Simpsons, had Matt Greoning had ideas for Futurama long before it became a reality?

[Reply #1 on:]

There are a lot of small things earlier on in The Simpsons which show up later in Futurama; for example, the heads in jars (although they look slightly different).

They're down to Matt Groening's particular style of humour and drawing - although it's not beyond possibility that some of the character designs found their way to Futurama later.

EDIT: Oh, and it's Treehouse of Horror VII, which aired in 1996, 3 years before Futurama debuted. Although it's possible they were working on Futurama by that point.

[Reply #2 on:]

Every time the Simpsons showed the future or futuristic technology there were parallels with Futurama. In fact they repeated almost exactly the same joke with the memory ray.

[Reply #3 on:]

Memory ray....? I don't remember that....

[Reply #4 on:]

yeah they did. matt was planning futurama for ages and they started making them before so they had some episodes finished well before the debut. i think that is what it is

[Reply #5 on:]

I loved the futuristic bit in the simpsons with Burns as a head in a jar robot and Smithers as a dog-bot. Also Lisa "my hooks are flailing wildy" - that one's probably an obscure scifi ref that goes over my head but still great  Ah, why don't they do anything like that anymore? except maybe in treehouse

[Reply #6 on:]

becasue in the other episodes there is not too much futuristic stuff.
they were also in the episodes where they go into professor frinks house

[Reply #7 on:]

 

Originally posted by alenacat:
I loved the futuristic bit in the simpsons with Burns as a head in a jar robot and Smithers as a dog-bot. Also Lisa "my hooks are flailing wildy" - that one's probably an obscure scifi ref that goes over my head but still great    Ah, why don't they do anything like that anymore? except maybe in treehouse

Lost In Space I believe....I've never seen it but I'm sure it was good in it's day....


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"Broken dreams that fade away
Like muddy footsteps in the rain
Dusty hopes, frozen lies
Reveal the end so lost behind...."

[Reply #8 on:]

 

Originally posted by Gleno:
Memory ray....? I don't remember that....   

I think that this is referring to the Simpsons when Bart is shown his future.

Show spoiler

After hitting rock bottom, he says something about there only being one option left, and fires a ray-gun at his head; in reality, it is a way of watching TV. He was checking his lottery number.

[Reply #9 on:]

I watched 'Treehouse of Horror II' for the first time recently and noticed the similarity between Burns on Homer's body, and Fry on Amy's body. The artists are probably just lazy.

[Reply #10 on:]

How many ways can you put a person's head on another body? I suppose you could put it on a person's shin but...

[Reply #11 on:]

When I first watched 'Godfellas' I was immediately reminded of that short in the Simpsons halloween episoed where Lisa had the civilization of people grow on her tooth.

[Reply #12 on:]

Yeah, its basically the same. Asteroid, Tooth, its all the same.

[Reply #13 on:]

I think that THOH VII was co-written by Ken Keeler, although I don't know which segment he wrote. That could explain why "Godfellas" and Lisa's segment seem similar.

[Reply #14 on:]

well the next person to see THOH VII check the ending credits

[Reply #15 on:]

Lost in Space is one funny show. It was what I call Pathetic Sci-Fi. Much like Ed Wood 

I dont remember the name of the episode or what it was about, but in one scene Homer thinks of himself on a hang glider flying thru a futuristic city shooting a lazy gun. It always looked like New New York to me in the background.

Any more knowledge simpson folks who know what Im talking about?

[Reply #16 on:]

yeah that scene where he inagine he's shoting from a hanglider.  Yeah the background does look a fair bit similar to New new york but it could just be a coincdent.

Another thing i noticed was in the Mel Gibson Episode, Mel, does a whoop, whoop thing very similar to Zoidberg, If Mel did it he could probly do a good impersination of Dr. Zoidberg. 

[Reply #17 on:]

It's the episode where Apu cheats on his wife...  it was just a daydream sequence, and Homer says "You can run, but you can't gliide!"

[Reply #18 on:]

 

Originally posted by Hedonism Bot:
  I think that this is referring to the Simpsons when Bart is shown his future.

Show spoiler

After hitting rock bottom, he says something about there only being one option left, and fires a ray-gun at his head; in reality, it is a way of watching TV. He was checking his lottery number.

Yeah I know I was only kidding....it was a joke....! 

[Homer]Oh I get it, I get jokes[Homer]

[Reply #19 on:]

Well waaaay back when Matt was doing Life in Hel,he did one comic where Bongo had hundreds of toys for X Mas and if you look closely,there is a little Bender toy in the
middle of all the toys.Weird,isn't it?

[Reply #20 on:]

 

Originally posted by Neil McNeil:
Another thing i noticed was in the Mel Gibson Episode, Mel, does a whoop, whoop thing very similar to Zoidberg, If Mel did it he could probly do a good impersination of Dr. Zoidberg. 

That's an old 3 Stooges gimic, Groening obviously just likes using it.

[Reply #21 on:]

 

When I first watched 'Godfellas' I was immediately reminded of that short in the Simpsons halloween episoed where Lisa had the civilization of people grow on her tooth.

Was that segment, like so many other Treehouse of Horror stories, based on a Twilight Zone episode or other old science fiction story?  The "tiny world" theme seems to turn up quite often in fiction.  I mean, Dr. Seuss even used it.

[Reply #22 on:]

I noticed that too, Woodbot. Also one of Akbar and Jeff's businesses was a cryonics hut in which you see heads in jars, attatching heads to other animal's bodys. If you read enough Life in Hell it becomes pretty clear what Matt's influence on The Simpsons and Futurama is in both his humor and character design.