Unused ideas

[on:]

Is anyone else here interested in unused ideas for the show?

Here are a few I know:

-Cubert was originally supposed to be introduced in "A Big Piece of Garbage" and become a regular.  The reason this didn't happen was because the writers thought this would annoy the audience.

-Instead of the plot we ended up with in "Rebirth" we were originally going to get a story similar to "Fry and Leela's Big Fling" where the wormhole ends up takng the crew to a zoo were they are forced to mate.

-Fry was originally supposed to have a little robot in his pocket that would explain certain elements of the future.  This robot might have been the original Bender.

-Flexo was originally supposed to appear in "Crimes of the Hot", but it was decided that it would confuse fans who had never seen him before.

If you know any others feel free to post them.

[Reply #1 on:]

I also forgot to mention that Zapp was originally to be voiced by Phil Hartman.  This didn't happen because of his death.

[Reply #2 on:]

DXC wanted to do an entire episode just about Zapp & Kif. He said they'd briefly bump into the PE crew but that's it.

In fact, he said it right here.

[Reply #3 on:]

I've forgotten which episode it was, but there was one that was once planned to have the plot line of Fry and Leela encountering their son who would be traveling backwards through time.

If I remember correctly, DXC said they chose not to follow through on this idea because it wouldn't be funny enough, and the logistics of it would have become too complicated.

[Reply #4 on:]

I've forgotten which episode it was, but there was one that was once planned to have the plot line of Fry and Leela encountering their son who would be traveling backwards through time.

Law & Oracle was originally going to be that episode, they talk about it on the commentary, plus DXC has mentioned the idea several times in interviews and whatnot.

[Reply #5 on:]

Don't know if this counts, but Fry and Leela weren't originally supposed to get together at the end of Wild Green Yonder. It was Matt Groening that suggested they went with it, since at the time it was the last Futurama ever. But don't start singing his praises just yet, because when CC revived it, he wanted to completely hit the reset button and not have them be a couple when the new season started. So the ridiculous on again off again-ing of season 6 was presumably his influence.

[Reply #6 on:]

Jurassic Bark - According to the DVD commentary, the last part of the episode where Seymour is waiting outside on the sidewalk was originally set to "Gayane's Adagio" from Aram Khachaturian's Gayane ballet suite, famously used in the sequence introducing the Discovery spacecraft in 2001: A Space Odyssey, but was replaced with the song "I Will Wait for You" from The Umbrellas of Cherbourg as sung by Connie Francis, which writer Eric Kaplan's grandparents sang and played on the piano while he was a child.
According to the DVD commentary, the original idea for the episode was to have Fry's mother fossilized instead of Seymour, but this idea was scrapped after it was thought to be too upsetting to the audience.

[Reply #7 on:]

Kif Gets Knocked Up A Notch - At the beginning of the episode when Professor Farnsworth retreats to the angry dome, there was a long debate amongst the writers about whether the viewers should be able to hear him or not. They envisioned the angry dome as being similar to the Cone of Silence from Get Smart, but ultimately it was felt that hearing the professor was funnier. The writers apparently had an even larger debate about who the second parent of Kif's children should be. The head writer for the episode notes that they felt making Amy the true parent would make her character unlikeable after she did not accept the children.
In the scene in Kif's room, Bender is seen in Kif's closet with his head and body separated. No explanation for this is ever given. However, on the DVD commentary, it is revealed that it was originally going to be explained that the room was much too small to have everybody fit inside, and that Bender was in the closet out of necessity. The original script also contained a much longer series of events once the characters arrived at Kif's planet. The material that was eventually cut focused on the journey and a series of tasks Kif needed to complete before giving birth. Reportedly the material was enough for an entire second episode.

[Reply #8 on:]

The Zapp and Kiff get their own special episode.

Fry and Leela's backwards time traveling son, who does everything backwards saves the universe.

Why Nibbler knows Leela is "THE OTHER", and how she and Fry will save the universe together.

That's all I got... for now.

Edit: Hopefully we get three more DVD movies and they use these great ideas and any left over things!

[Reply #9 on:]

Don't know of this counts: Roswell That Ends Well was originally supposed to be a segment in AoG 2, but was so long it became its own episode.

[Reply #10 on:]

Originally, every episode was going to have a remixed theme during the intro. They tried it with Mars University but most TV sets at the time had crappy sound, so they felt the remix didn't sound too good and abandoned the idea.

[Reply #11 on:]

Originally, every episode was going to have a remixed theme during the intro.

Damn, I would have loved that. The Mars University remix is epic.

[Reply #12 on:]

Nine-The reason for his number was to indicate a yet to be revealed society caste system, where lower numbers were basically slaves, and higher numbers were of kingly status. Nines would, for example, be drones who walked around all depressed. However, this idea was abandoned before the series went live. His actual story was changed by the writers when given a speaking role in Into the Wild Green Yonder. Additionally, the re-assigned purpose of the 9 on his shirt appears to be that it is his name.

[Reply #13 on:]

I read that MG wanted to do an episode where Bender pulls off the greatest heist ever and has to go to heaven and steal gods treasure.

[Reply #14 on:]

A few working titles:

9/10ths of Zoidberg is Underwater - Tip of the Zoidberg

Bend on a Wire - Silence of the Clamps

And also this:

Proposition Infinity - The closed captions had lines that were not spoken.  Something to the effect of "Where Am I?  Is this TBS?" suggesting a Conan O'Brien appearence.

[Reply #15 on:]

A few working titles:

9/10ths of Zoidberg is Underwater - Tip of the Zoidberg

Bend on a Wire - Silence of the Clamps

And also this:

Proposition Infinity - The closed captions had lines that were not spoken.  Something to the effect of "Where Am I?  Is this TBS?" suggesting a Conan O'Brien appearence.

Also, "The Futurama Holdiay Spectacular" was originally called "Holiday Val-U Pack"; "Law and Oracle" was originally going to be called "Frynority Report"; and "Blue Munda" was the working title for "Zapp Dingbat".

[Reply #16 on:]

I have a hard time believing this, but these were supposedly working titles for the show, "Aloha Mars!" & "Doomsville".

[Reply #17 on:]

I believe it.

[Reply #18 on:]

Yeah, they'd make decent enough episode names, but definitely not for the show itself.

Has there been a mention of the alternate third act for Zapp Dingbat yet with the musical sequence (eventually released on DVD)? If not... that.

[Reply #19 on:]

Has there been a mention of the alternate third act for Zapp Dingbat yet with the musical sequence (eventually released on DVD)? If not... that.

Ah yes, that.

For anyone who hasn't seen it, beware. It's ridiculously awful.

[Reply #20 on:]

I recall that "I Dated A Robot" was originally called "J-Lo Dolly".

[Reply #21 on:]

I recall that "I Dated A Robot" was originally called "J-Lo Dolly".

Yep, and in case you can't tell by the title it would feature Jennifer Lopez instead of Lucy Liu.

[Reply #22 on:]

According to the Infosphere:

In "Space Pilot 3000", it was originally intended for a much longer scene with Fry on the Probulator, where after inserting a tube into his ears, and filling his head with liquid, would cause flashbacks to be shown to the viewer, and assumingly the Fate Assignment Officer, or Turanga Leela in this case.

[Reply #23 on:]

Yeah, There were some storyboard pistures for that too. Man, SP300 was really different in those.

[Reply #24 on:]

Charlie Schlatter was supposed to voice Fry.  I kind find any reason as to why it didn't end up happening, though.

The Biographic Projector - The biographic projector was a machine owned by Applied Cryogenics that would review a persons life and help the Fate Assignment Officer determine what job the defrostee was best suited for. The projector resembles a large flat-screen television atop numerous control panels, and is activated by pointing the remote control at the subjects head and pressing the power button. In the storyboard for "Space Pilot 3000", Leela hooked Fry up to the machine and it displayed his life before he was frozen. The projector showed Fry shortly after his birth, and then images of Fry as a teenager (in Dave Borden's office, watching The Simpsons, and in the A.V. Club), and then Fry fighting with Janet about working on New Year's Eve 1999. After showing his life, the machine determined that Fry is a loser and assigned him as a delivery boy, much to his displeasure.

By the way, most of these have been coming from a combination of the Infosphere & Wikipedia.  It didn't really occur to me to that I should probably credit them.

[Reply #25 on:]

I do remember a couple of alternate versions of Fry's "Woo-hoo!" line at the end of the pilot's cold opening, which were MUCH funnier than the groan-inducing option they went with:

"Wow, I must've been frozen for WEEKS! ... Hey, where's my bike?"

and just

"Holy sh-" (intro played) "-it!"

[Reply #26 on:]

Where did you see/hear/read about those, Beamer?

[Reply #27 on:]

The "Holy Sh - "
is on the original script that you can read on the season 1 dvd (disc one I think, along with a story board) for SP3000

[Reply #28 on:]

Yep, and I think the other was either in the animatic, or discussed in the commentary.

[Reply #29 on:]

-Fry was originally supposed to have a little robot in his pocket that would explain certain elements of the future.  This robot might have been the original Bender.

I may be wrong, but I recall some commentaries saying that this robot was reused as Andrew in "Less Than Hero" and the Pocket Pals in TBWABB.

[Reply #30 on:]

That's correct, I read/heard that too. I am very happy they didn't use that idea for real

[Reply #31 on:]

Same. The Professor fills that role wonderfully.

[Reply #32 on:]

Into the Wild Green Yonder's Mars Vegas intro was only supposed to last the length of the intro, but the writers liked it so much that they changed some if the storyline so that it could take place there.

[Reply #33 on:]

I'm a bit surprised no one has mentioned this yet, but Professor Farnsworth was originally going to say "Although, I am already in my pajamas" in every or most episodes.

Reincarnation- this episode was originally titled "Resurrection", but was changed to "Reincarnation" during production.  A claymation segment was considered but couldn't happen due to lack of time & money.  This episode was originally going to be 6ACV25 instead of 6ACV26, making "Overclockwise" the season finale. 

[Reply #34 on:]

Lethal Inspection was originally titled "Inspector #5".

[Reply #35 on:]

According to the DVD commentary, the original idea for the episode was to have Fry's mother fossilized instead of Seymour, but this idea was scrapped after it was thought to be too upsetting to the audience.

I think this idea is going to be used for Game of Tones now! 

[Reply #36 on:]

According to the DVD commentary, the original idea for the episode was to have Fry's mother fossilized instead of Seymour, but this idea was scrapped after it was thought to be too upsetting to the audience.

I think this idea is going to be used for Game of Tones now! 

Really?  I've seen about half of it in the animatic & it didn't look like it was setting up for that, but hell I'd be happy with it.

It's likely that the first act for "Leela and the Genetstalk" was originally set at Wong Ranch.  It's also been speculated that this episode had a lot more complex story but was cut due to time.

[Reply #37 on:]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_fb5Dc-67g&lc=aQftKwuNqbhIchTrRpunmAK6E8zzPRdQkrtz4JGCRWQ

This was a lamp made during the show's early production. Early P.E Ship? I think not. But this lamp is definitely worth mentioning.

[Reply #38 on:]

I think this idea is going to be used for Game of Tones now! 

How can you even deduce that from what we've seen?

[Reply #39 on:]

The Commercial for it.