Well, Lets Bring Her Around Again - General Futurama Discussion

[Reply #120 on:]

Back on topic I wish Futurama could've played songs from Bush, Korn, Smashing Pumpkins, Sonic Youth, Alice in Chains, Soundgarden, Linkin Park, Green Day, Weezer, AFI, and Arcade Fire.

...y-yeah. That'd be cool I suppose.

I could see the show do a Mario or Zelda parody maybe for a video game segment for another trilogy episode, but the show has already done enough video game references in the past, and doesn't seem like something that the show really needs to do.

Also, I guarantee that if they did a Sonic parody (which I prey to God never happens in any universe), Leela would be Amy (not that Amy), unless they wanted to follow Sonic '06's story and have her be whatshername, at which point I'd kill the next living thing I see.

[Reply #121 on:]

Back on topic I wish Futurama could've played songs from Bush, Korn, Smashing Pumpkins, Sonic Youth, Alice in Chains, Soundgarden, Linkin Park, Green Day, Weezer, AFI, and Arcade Fire.

Depends on the story and the fitting song theme.
E.g. "The World's End" featured "This corrosion" from "Sisters of Mercy".
Not alone was the protagonist a Sisters fan, the music vids end time setting was a perfect fit to the scene the song was used.

Should they manage to establish such a link between song and Futurama episode: Sure, why not.

[Reply #122 on:]

I do believe the writers would make Leela into that role if they did do a Mario parody.   After all they did make her be Daphne from Scooby Doo.  The writers would probably make her be Minnie Mouse, Butterbear,  Smurfette, Sora from Digimon, or maybe even Meg from Family Guy.

Anyhoo, since there's going to be a Simpsons episode where they meet Futurama, will they only meet Bender, Hermes, Amy, and Zoidberg since Fry and Leela are dead now?

Agree that Futurama should never do a Sonic parody.   Video game parody they did was Raiders Of The Lost Arcade, that was enough.  Let's hope they never meet The Mario Bros or Sonic! 

[Reply #123 on:]

Anyhoo, since there's going to be a Simpsons episode where they meet Futurama,

Show spoiler

will they only meet Bender, Hermes, Amy, and Zoidberg since Fry and Leela are dead now?

The ending of Meanwhile was pretty open-ended, that's one interpretation but it's not a definite. Also you should really place spoiler tags on that as not everyone here has seen it yet.

Regardless, if the Futurama/Simpsons crossover isn't canon then it doesn't matter. And even if it is, it doesn't have to be set after the events of Meanwhile.

[Reply #124 on:]

It's not intended to be set after Meanwhile, and whatever its place in Futurama's timeline is, I'm sure it won't be addressed in anyway as it's Simpsons episode featuring Futurama characters and it will only present general aspects of Futurama.

[Reply #125 on:]

Yeah, I'm sure The Simpsons writers give as little of a fuck about Futurama's timeline as they do their own.

[Reply #126 on:]

Also, I guarantee that if they did a Sonic parody (which I prey to God never happens in any universe), Leela would be Amy (not that Amy)

There's a chance that they'd make Amy be Amy because they're both pink and called Amy; but the safe money would be on Leela.

Anyhoo, since there's going to be a Simpsons episode where they meet Futurama, will they only meet Bender, Hermes, Amy, and Zoidberg since Fry and Leela are dead now?

They didn't die in "Meanwhile" - or at least, if they did, it's because the Professor's button malfunctioned at the end and it's not even hinted at the fact that it killed all of them.

We only know that they're going to meet Bender with any certainty, though I'd be amazed if Fry and Leela didn't go back in time and meet them, too.

As for the others, it's anyone's guess. I think there's a good chance that the Professor, Amy, Hermes and Zoidberg will tag along, but I also think that there's a very good chance that they'll stay in the future and, if they're even in the episode at all, we'll only see them in scenes bookending the other characters going back in time, or communicating back in time, sort of like when Bender et al appear in the last segment of "Anthology of Interest I".

Agree that Futurama should never do a Sonic parody.   Video game parody they did was Raiders Of The Lost Arcade, that was enough.  Let's hope they never meet The Mario Bros or Sonic!

There was also the middle segment of "Reincarnation".

[Reply #127 on:]

As far as I'm concerned, "Meanwhile" is a better finale than "The Devil's Hands are Idle Playthings" and "Into the Wild Green Yonder" put together.

I think that "Devil's Hands" is the better episode, but "Meanwhile" is the better finale.

WELL SAID, Cyber Turnip -- and I couldn't agree more.

As far as predicting when FUTURAMA may come back? By 2014 (at least an annoncement, that it will come back, by then...)

As for Meatable Pie's posts... All 'OK' by me.

I get it now! The 'catman' was only 'friend-teasing' to Meatable Pie... Am I right?

[Reply #128 on:]

Agree that Futurama should never do a Sonic parody.   Video game parody they did was Raiders Of The Lost Arcade, that was enough.  Let's hope they never meet The Mario Bros or Sonic!

There was also the middle segment of "Reincarnation".

Yep, and those only worked because they were eclectic as hell, and parodied a whole range of video games. Anything beyond a nod or two to one game and the concept will become unfunny and alienating to a large portion of the audience.

[Reply #129 on:]

Such as was the case for many with "Saturday Morning Fun Pit".

[Reply #130 on:]

I always thought it would've been funny if Futurama had done a fake 'Behind-the-Scenes' episode, similar to the simpsons episode "Behind the Laughter". It'd have been funny to have seen characters' opinions on the show.

^{Oh, and this isn't going in the "What Else Did You want from Futurama?" thread becuse it's a pointless idea.}

[Reply #131 on:]

Back on topic I wish Futurama could've played songs from Bush, Korn, Smashing Pumpkins, Sonic Youth, Alice in Chains, Soundgarden, Linkin Park, Green Day, Weezer, AFI, and Arcade Fire.

Honestly, I've never heard of any of those groups.

[Reply #132 on:]

Back on topic I wish Futurama could've played songs from Bush, Korn, Smashing Pumpkins, Sonic Youth, Alice in Chains, Soundgarden, Linkin Park, Green Day, Weezer, AFI, and Arcade Fire.

Honestly, I've never heard of any of those groups.

I've heard of about Six of them. None of them are anything spectacular, at least not in my opinion.

[Reply #133 on:]

Back on topic I wish Futurama could've played songs from Bush, Korn, Smashing Pumpkins, Sonic Youth, Alice in Chains, Soundgarden, Linkin Park, Green Day, Weezer, AFI, and Arcade Fire.

Honestly, I've never heard of any of those groups.

I've heard of about Six of them. None of them are anything spectacular, at least not in my opinion.

I actually refuse to listen to almost anything from the 21st Century. I mainly listen to music from the 60's to the 90's.

[Reply #134 on:]

90s (and really great music) from the above list: Smashing Pumpkins, Alice in Chains, Soundgarden.

[Reply #135 on:]

The only band I continually listen to that's from the 21st century is the Gorillaz. Almost all the other bands from this century give me terrible headaches, as basically all they do is repeat the same terrible, Hypnotoad-esque electronic sound for two minutes straight.

I mostly listen to bands from the 80's and 90's, such as The Smiths and Billy Joel. Their songs actually have deep meanings, unlike today's music, which basically is a twenty year old banging on a broken keyboard while screaming unintelligible crap.

[Reply #136 on:]

I mean, there's loads of great music this decade - you just have to do a bit of work to find it. The good stuff doesn't tend to chart.

Basically, all that's happened is that the general public's musical taste has gotten awful since the '80s, so the good stuff isn't played on the radio and less people talk about it.

[Reply #137 on:]

The only band I continually listen to that's from the 21st century is the Gorillaz. Almost all the other bands from this century give me terrible headaches, as basically all they do is repeat the same terrible, Hypnotoad-esque electronic sound for two minutes straight.

I mostly listen to bands from the 80's and 90's, such as The Smiths and Billy Joel. Their songs actually have deep meanings, unlike today's music, which basically is a twenty year old banging on a broken keyboard while screaming unintelligible crap.

I mean, there's loads of great music this decade - you just have to do a bit of work to find it. The good stuff doesn't tend to chart.

Basically, all that's happened is that the general public's musical taste has gotten awful since the '80s, so the good stuff isn't played on the radio and less people talk about it.

I agree with you both, the Gorillaz are a pretty good band and most of the 80's and 90's music is catchy, but C.T. also makes a good point that most of the good music is hard to find. All they ever play on the radio usually sucks because of all the new crappy music that comes out. I really hate the song I love it or whatever it's called, and Miley Cyrus gets on my last nerves.

[Reply #138 on:]

That 'I Love It' song is terrible, despite most people's opinion. It's the perfect example of how almost all of today's songs have unbelievably stupid lyrics that mean nothing whatsoever, unlike pretty much all older songs.

Here's one line of lyrics from 'I Love It', 2012
I got this feeling on the summer day when you were gone.
I crashed my car into the bridge. I watched, I let it burn.
I threw your shit into a bag and pushed it down the stairs.
I crashed my car into the bridge

 ...and here's one from 'Scenes From and Italian Resturaunt', 1977
They got an apartment with deep
Pile carpet
And a couple of paintings from Sears
A big waterbed that they bought
With the bread
They had saved for a couple
Of years
They started to fight when the
Money got tight
And they just didn't count on
The tears.

In just one line of lyrics, the older song tells a somewhat comprehensible story about a couple that didn't belong with one another that is easy to visualize and is definitely believable.
Compare that to a line of lyrics from just last year, that makes almost no sense at all, and is in no way believable or visualizable.

There's such a huge difference between music from them and now, that it's almost hard to believe.
Shame on Modern Music. Shame on It.

[Reply #139 on:]

Shame on Modern Music. Shame on It.

This.

I'm a big fan of The Beach Boys, The Beatles, Tom Petty, and Bruce Springsteen. I hope I'm not alone.

[Reply #140 on:]

There is plenty of good stuff around these days, you've just gotta look for it because the charts and mainstream radio are completely clogged up with talentless hacks singing mindless bullshit in auto-tune over a repetitive dance beat. The good thing about being in the era of the internet is, it's much, much easier to find the obscure bands/artists who are writing sincere, genuine music and trying new and interesting things.

Getting back on topic though, I don't see the purpose of arbitrarily listing bands you like and saying "Futurama should use music by these guys!" Like... Why? In what context? I like some of those bands listed, but still, what does this achieve other being able to say that a show you like used some music you like? If the moment calls for it and a certain song fits perfectly and emphasizes the emotion, then sure, use it. But the audience is clever enough to know when you're forcing it.

[Reply #141 on:]

Obviously, I'm a big fan of David Bowie.

You can use that to judge how my tastes are when it comes to music and I'm standing by what I said that there's plenty of wonderful music still being made and released - it's just not thrust into the mainstream like it used to be.

Frankly, if you can't find good, modern music in this internet-age, then it's your own fault for being lazy.


I'm going to take 2012 as an example. In that year, we got the absolutely magnificent Young Man in America album from Anais Mitchell. My guess is that you've never heard of her. We got a great new album from Evil Cowards, who I bet you've also never heard of.
Or 2011: Electric Six's wonderful Heartbeats and Brainwaves and the incredible cast soundtrack to The Book of Mormon. And I could go on.

Music isn't all terrible dubstep and r&b nowadays.


And Beamer, I agree. The writers clearly don't go into episodes thinking "Let's make an episode so we can put this song in it". They talk about finding that "Egg Man" for "Fry Am the Egg Man" on the commentary, just by searching for the words "egg man" on iTunes to see what would come up that would fit the episode.

The one exception is "30 Century Man", used at the end of Bender's Big Score, which they say that they'd been wanting to use since they heard the song after the cancellation, but it's not as if the song didn't fit the scene perfectly and they obviously only wanted to use the song because it almost seemed like it was written about Futurama to begin with. The only way that it influenced the writing was that they put Charles De Gaulle's head in the movie, earlier on.

[Reply #142 on:]

There is plenty of good stuff around these days, you've just gotta look for it because the charts and mainstream radio are completely clogged up with talentless hacks singing mindless bullshit in auto-tune over a repetitive dance beat.

That's true. I like several albums that were released over the past five to ten years. You're right about it being overshadowed by the crap that people listen to today.

[Reply #143 on:]

The one exception is "30 Century Man", used at the end of Bender's Big Score, which they say that they'd been wanting to use since they heard the song after the cancellation, but it's not as if the song didn't fit the scene perfectly and they obviously only wanted to use the song because it almost seemed like it was written about Futurama to begin with. The only way that it influenced the writing was that they put Charles De Gaulle's head in the movie, earlier on.

I'd think quite a few songs that make allusions to the 30th century, or the future, time travel, cryogenic freezing, etc. must be in the back of some of the Futurama staff's minds as potential score material. But if it didn't fit perfectly into Bender's Big Score, they would've put it on the backburner until they had a moment where it did work, as opposed to forcing it. It's still a far different situation than "Oh, I like this artist, let's use something by them somewhere."

[Reply #144 on:]

Just love all the songs Futurama has used, like "30th Century Man", etc. -- as many have
been new to me, and I love to hear something both New AND Good!

I also love the Beatles, Beach Boys, U2, etc., and when they are referenced in any way,
like the line from Bruce Springsteen's 'Born to Run' on a street FYI type billboard (in '2D Blacktop'?), so cool!

If it relates well in the scene used, I'm OK with more recent songs in Futurama, and most
will be New to me, cause I never listen to what's 'popular' - rather hear Classic Rock, old
Jazz or even Classical stations than Britney, Miley, Taylor (or any of the many 'American Idol' they-all-sound-alike clones...) Great Zombie Jesus -- music was more original & better before
autotune & technology homogenized the sound of popular bands and singers of today...

[Reply #145 on:]

I went for a walk today and one of the benches was covered in lovely carvings, including this:


It was very strange to say that the carvings were largely woodland animals, which made sense, seeing as it was in a wood. There were what appeared to be some other animals from famous books, dotted around, but Bender felt very out of place (in the best way possible).

[Reply #146 on:]

Most Awesomely Beautiful, C_T.... THANKS!  
(any idea who made this? want a copy on my headstone!)

[Reply #147 on:]

Odd that Bender and the owl are craved together given the show's history with owls.
Or perhaps it makes perfect sense.

[Reply #148 on:]

...and when they are referenced in any way,
like the line from Bruce Springsteen's 'Born to Run' on a street FYI type billboard (in '2D Blacktop'?), so cool!

Really? I actually didn't notice that. What line was it?

[Reply #149 on:]

(any idea who made this? want a copy on my headstone!)

No idea. I found a few more pictures of it with Google, but they were all from people like myself who found it odd.

Here's one of the whole bench:


For the record, it was in Fletcher Moss Park and Botanical Gardens in Didsbury, Manchester. Just in case any of you want to try and dig any info up on it. My guess is that they just commissioned a nice, carved bench from some, local artist, and the person happened to be a fan of Futurama.

[Reply #150 on:]

Cool bench!  Love to sit on that!   You all have a point that we could possibly hear something by May 2014 about the status of the show.

[Reply #151 on:]

Seasons 5-7 just aren't as good as the first 4 seasons. I know, that's obvious and is already known. But I've been rewatching alot of eps from the Classic Era, and I can totally relate to how some of you guys here on PEEL feel about the new episodes. Some of the elements from the first 4 seasons that made me love Futurama just kind of, faded away for a while, only to come back in certain occasions.

Seasons 6 was actually pretty okay. had some really good episodes in there, a few gems, and a bunch of just unmemorable ones. 6A started terribly. but got better after 5 eps. Had some really good episodes, a few classics as well. 6B, was really mixed. It had like 3 or 4 classic, memorable eps. The rest were meh-good.

Season 7 was decent, with just decent episodes. Some were really bad, but the season itself didn't have nearly as much bad episodes as Season 6 did in my opinion. Which should be good, right? Well, Season 7 generally had nothing to gasp over, except for like 5 episodes out of 26. That's pretty bad Season-wise. Season 6 is pretty much better, because more episodes from that season exceeded my expectations than Season 7 has. I mean 7A only had 2 episodes that I could consider Classics. The rest were, just okay-good. Usually a Half-Season of Futurama exceeds my expectations by like 5 or 6 episodes. Not a mere 2. 7B was better. Much better. It had a good 6 episodes that exceeded my expectations. Not a mere 2 like last season. But the bad episodes it had were pretty bad. So I guess you could say it's almost on-par with Season 6B, I'd probably say better by a little bit. It had a better finale, and the writing was a bit better than in 6B in my opinion.

Season 5 was not so good, but pretty decent. I'll count the movies as episodes. I liked the last 3 parts of BBS. First one didn't do it for me. TBWABB was going pretty good, until Yivo came and ruined the film. Bender's Game was going decently until they went to Cornwood. And ITWGY was, just bleh. I wasn't a fan of it, and the ending wasn't anything special to me. I don't get all the hype that ending had. I liked the open-ended-ness of it, but that's it. It felt completely out of place concerning the plot, which had no real conclusion until Rebirth.

So yeah, my views of Old Futurama and New Futurama are pretty different now.

[Reply #152 on:]

At first, I also though seasons 5-7B were better than the original run, but after some rewatching, I have to side with the majority - The Original Run was better.

The Original Run just had many more classics, often in a row, than the newer run had. Don't get me wrong, the newer run had many great episodes, such as TLPJF, Prisoner of Benda, Murder on The Planet Express, and a few others, but the Original Run had noticeably more, and like I said, there were often 3-4 great episodes in a row.
Right now, I'm just going to go over my opinions on the movies, because I don't feel like spending the rest of the night writing this post.


Season 5, AKA the Movies - I'll be counting the movies as entire films, as I never actually saw the episode versions of them.

 Bender's Big Score was undoubtedly the best of the bunch, as it had a great Sci-Fi story, a Fry/Leela plotline, and was actually pretty funny. Sure, the first few scenes of the movie weren't that spectacular, but the rest of the movie made up for it. I'd also like to say that this one definitely felt the most like a movie you'd see in the theaters, as it had many different plotlines, each of which interconnected fluently.

BWABB Was great until the whole 'Dating Yivo' crap came about. It was touching, suspenseful, very funny (I find this to be the funiest Futurama film), and overall fun to watch. But once the Dating Yivo scenes started happening, the entire movie went downhill - and fast. I can't say I'm a fan of the league of robots scenes either - they all seemed out of place and unnecessary to me.

BG was alright, but was no where near as good as the first two films. It felt the most like an extended episode of the show - an extended Anthology of Interest episode, that is. For me, the whole Cornwood part of the movie was just way too unbelievable. It felt like a crappy FanFic in a way. Plus, none of the jokes were funny to me, and the entire movie just kept me consistently bored.

ITWGY was very good, at least to me. Sure, the storyline may not have matched up with the ending, but at least it did end with a bang. The storyline, though, was great. It was the best one since BBS, in my opinion. It's fun to watch, very Sci-Fi, and was pretty funny.

[Reply #153 on:]

Seasons 3 and 4 were pretty much untouched, but I'd take season 6 over 1 and 2. Like SolidSnake said, it had episodes you could gasp over and I don't think season 1 has any of those and 2 only has a couple near the end.

And whilst it is weaker, I still absolutely love season 5.

Season 7 is where it fell apart for me, and it's almost entirely because there's very, very few episodes to "gasp over" as you put it. I'm very forgiving of some crap episodes so long as there's some excellent ones to cancel them out. I'd always rather have a mixed bag like than than a more consistent selection of episodes in terms of quality, but ones that never get beyond being just decent. For me, season 7 only had two really good episodes and even those are a far shot from being among the show's very, very best.

[Reply #154 on:]

I'd actually rank season 7 above season 6. I felt that 7 was more consistent whereas 6 was all over the place. The best episodes from 6 ARE better than the best from 7 though, but the worst episodes from 7 are nowhere near as bad as 6's worst.

... *re-reads*

Woo, it makes sense!

[Reply #155 on:]

I'd agree that 7 was more consistent, but that's only because 7 was consistently mediocre to terrible whereas 6 varied from the very worst episode up to one that's probably in the top 5.

[Reply #156 on:]

Apart from the two triptych episodes, I thoroughly enjoyed season 7 for the most part. A Farewell to Arms, Decision 3012, Fun on a Bun, Viva Mars Vegas, Fry and Leela's Big Fling, The Inhuman Torch, Calculon 2.0, Game of Tones, Murder on the Planet Express and Meanwhile were particular stand-outs for me.

Whereas, if we look at season 6, I'd consider the stand-outs to be Rebirth, Lethal Inspection, The Late Philip J Fry, The Prisoner of Benda, Möbius Dick and Law and Oracle were the only ones I'd rate as excellent. I'd rank this collection of episodes higher overall (they'd all easily make a top 25 Futurama episodes ever list for me), but they're still fewer in number.

Season 6's lesser episodes were fucking abysmal, though. In-A-Gadda-Da-Leela, Attack of the Killer Ap, The Holiday Spectacular and All The Presidents' Heads are probably the four worst outings this show's ever done... Actually, I'd rank Saturday Morning Fun Pit lower than Presidents' Heads, but still, they really, really bring the season down as a whole for me.

Different strokes for different folks, I guess.

[Reply #157 on:]

The only two episodes that I think were particularly good from season 7 are "Fun on a Bun" and "Meanwhile" and "Fun on a Bun" wasn't that good.

There were a handful of decent episodes (though, far more full of little moments that annoyed me than ever before), there were loads of incredibly mediocre episodes ("Calculon 2.0", "Fry and Leela's Big Fling") and loads of utterly abysmal episodes ("Zapp Dingbat", "The Butterjunk Effect", "The Thief of Baghead", "The Bots and the Bees", "Near-Death Wish", "31st Century Fox").

6, on the other hand, had loads of particularly good episodes ("Lethal Inspection", "The Late Philip J. Fry", "A Clockwork Origin", "The Prisoner of Benda", "The Mutants are Revolting", "Benderama", "Law and Oracle", "Mobius Dick", "Reincarnation"), loads of good episodes and only a handful of particularly awful episodes ("In-A-Gadda-Da-Leela", "Attack of the Killer App", "The Futurama Holiday Spectacular").

[Reply #158 on:]

The only two episodes that I think were particularly good from season 7 are "Fun on a Bun" and "Meanwhile" and "Fun on a Bun" wasn't that good.

Weren't you one of the people here applauding Murder on the Planet Express upon its initial airing? Or am I totally just remembering that wrong?

I wouldn't call The Bots and the Bees, The Thief of Baghead or Near-Death Wish utterly abysmal. "Bees" was pretty average, but thoroughly exceeded the low expectations I had from what I'd read about it before it aired. I think Baghead is fucking hilarious, despite how completely retarded the whole "life force" thing was (I think I've said this before, but the brief visual gag of the t-rex struggling to keep afloat in the aquarium is the hardest I've ever laughed at the show), but I know I'm in the minority there. Near-Death Wish was disappointing for me - when I heard about it, I was positive it was going to be one of the show's most inspired, thought-provoking episodes - and it really COULD have been, but the execution was just a mess. Still, I wouldn't say it was terrible by any means, just mediocre/underwhelming.

[Reply #159 on:]

I think you're remembering it wrong.

I thought it was one of season 7's better episodes and it had a lot going for it, but it let me down in a lot of ways too. The ending, for example, was really lame.

"Bees" sucked, but it sucked a lot less than most of the episodes I listed.
"Baghead" had a lot of good gags, I agree - but that whole lifeforce thing was just too much for me. And the attempts at satirising acting fell short. I loved the t-rex, too. The episode just did enough bad to leave a bad taste in my mouth.
"Death Wish" was a wonderful premise and I also had high hopes for it. I do think it was pretty terrible, though. Beyond a few great jokes at the start, everything about it ranged from mediocre to a complete and utter mess.

And I mean, having good points isn't always enough to save an episode. I think there are a lot of good points about "The Futurama Holiday Spectacular", but they're not enough to stop it being the worst episode of the show.