Despite fan outcry, it axed Futurama after four brilliant seasons. Unfortunately, the Fox network, which initially aired Futurama from 1999 to 2003, didn’t know what to do with it. Jokes about superdupersymmetric string theory or written in binary code were included for viewers with the nerd credentials to recognise them. Unlike some shows aimed at nerds that just shouted science words and played a laugh track (bazinga!), Futurama really was as clever as it seemed. Everyone from Stephen Hawking (“That physicist who invented gravity”) to Al Gore (“Inventor of the internet”) was willing to be decapitated to appear on the funniest show on TV. Present-day celebrities made cameos as preserved heads in jars, which was a lot more satisfying than how The Simpsons handled them. Every mission was an adventure, whether it be discovering a parallel universe in a cardboard box or battling parasites in Fry’s bowels. On board the Planet Express spaceship with the immature and slovenly Fry were cyclops orphan Leela, drunken robot Bender, clumsy intern Amy and incompetent alien medical lobster Dr Zoidberg: a crew of misfits seemingly designed to connect directly to the types of misfits who watch cartoon science fiction. His excitement at his new life was tempered by finding out everyone in the future has a career assigned by the government, and his job was to be a delivery boy for Planet Express – motto: “Our crew is replaceable, your package isn’t!” The show began with New Year’s Eve 1999, when disillusioned pizza delivery boy Philip J Fry fell into a cryogenic vat, only to awaken 1,000 years later in “the world of tomorrow!”.
The Simpsons was still both witty and money-spinning, and he could get any project he wanted greenlit – even a sci-fi comedy cartoon called Futurama. M att Groening could do no wrong in 1999.
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