The Series Has Landed
| "The Series Has Landed" | |
|---|---|
| Futurama episode | |
| File:Futurama 102 - Episode Two The Series Has Landed.jpg | |
| Episode no. | Season one |
| Directed by | Peter Avanzino |
| Written by | Ken Keeler |
| Original air dates | April 4, 1999 |
| Episode features | |
| Opening cartoon | Porky Pig in Baby Bottleneck |
"Episode Two: The Series Has Landed" is the 2nd episode in season 1 of Futurama. It originally aired in North America on April 4, 1999. Set on the moon, the title is a moon-landing reference.
Plot
Settling into their new jobs, Fry, Leela, and Bender are introduced to the other Planet Express employees: Company physician Doctor Zoidberg, intern Amy Wong, and bureaucrat Hermes Conrad. It becomes apparent that the ship needs a captain and Leela is promoted.
On their first mission, a simple delivery to the Moon, Fry undergoes severe culture shock. Rather than being a daring voyage of exploration, lunar travel has become a day trip to an amusement park called Luna Park. The actual documentation of the historical events of Project Apollo are somehow lost by the 31st Century, and instead they are replaced by ridiculous "fungineering" musicals about "whalers on the moon".
Attempting to see the real Moon, Fry hijacks a car from the lunar rover ride, despite Leela's orders not to, and takes it offroad. Meanwhile, Amy loses the keys to the ship, and has to recover them from a video arcade claw game.
Running dangerously low on oxygen, Fry and Leela take refuge on a hydroponic farm. After Bender arrives and seduces the farmer's robot daughters, the three end up on the run, trying to out-distance both the farmer's shotgun, and the lunar terminator.
Fry and Leela take refuge in the Apollo 11 lander, and Amy rescues them, as well as Bender, with her newly-developed crane operation skills.
Characters
Characters which make their first appearances in this episode are:
- Hermes Conrad
- Dr. Zoidberg
- Amy Wong
- Sal
- Horrible Gelatinous Blob
- Lulu Bell 7
- Daisy Mae 128K
- The Crushinator
Futurama products
The Futurama products which appear in this episode are:
Cultural references
- The chase on the Moon closely resembles chases in The Dukes of Hazzard, including the space alligators and the old farmer stomping on his space helmet.
- The title is a reference to Apollo 11 astronaut Neil Armstrong's transmission to NASA Mission Control that "The Eagle Has Landed".
- When Fry says "Cool, dark side of the moon!" the music that plays is a homage to Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon".
- The security team that throws Bender out of Luna Park is called Moon Patrol, a reference to the arcade game by the same name.
- In the Destination Moon (reference to the Heinlein book and film) ride (itself a parody of a popular Epcot Center ride) is a parody of a scene in The Honeymooners.
- In the arcade, some of the games in the background include "Gender Neutral Pac-Person", "Dodecapede", and "Mortal Kooperation".
- Bender's poking of the Craterface mascot in the eye with a bottle is a parody of the scene from the 1902 film Le Voyage dans la Lune (The Voyage to the Moon), where a bullet shaped capsule hits the Man in the Moon in the eye. "Craterface" is also a derisive nickname for a teenager suffering from acne.
- A ride in the park is called "Whalers of the Sea of Tranquility". The Sea of Tranquility is an area of the moon's surface on which the landing of the Apollo 11 mission occurred.
- The park name Lunar Park is a parody of The Coney Island Theme Park Luna Park
- The rover in the "Destination Moon" ride is a reference to the Lunar Rover.
- The name of one of the robot daughters, Lulu Bell 7, is a parody of the Liberty Bell 7 space capsule.
- The insignia on the spacesuits worn by Fry and Leela on the "Destination Moon" ride is strikingly similar to a classic "Lego Space" insignia.
- Bender, when talking about the Sexeteria, he shouts "Next year in Jerusalem! This line is the concluding line in many congregations Yom Kippur services, the Jewish day of atonement. The phrase is to remind people of the coming of the Jewish messiah. Bender, of course, means that they will go to the sexeteria next year.
- This episode contains multiple references to Disney's series of theme parks:
- The park slogan, "The Happiest Place orbiting Earth", is a parody of the Disneyland slogan, the Happiest place on earth.
- The boulevard in the entrance to the park is called "Moon Street U.S.A.", a reference to the Main Street, U.S.A. area in Disney's Disneyland/Magic Kingdom parks.
- The "Whalers of the Sea of Tranquility" ride is also a reference to the "Pirates of the Caribbean" ride at various Disney attractions throughout the world.
- The ride is also like "It's A Small World."
- The "Goofy Gopher Revue" is also a parody of Disney's "Country Bear Jamboree" attraction, with its sponsorship of Monsanto possibly being a reference to the company's sponsorship of multiple Disneyland attractions in the park's earlier years.
Foreshadowing
- When Fry places a magnet on Bender's head, Bender begins to sing folk songs; he also does this when Amy uses the ship's magnet to pick him up at the end of the episode. This malfunction reoccurs in a few later episodes whenever a magnet touches his head. The explanation for this is that the magnetism screws up his inhibition units.
- After Bender's magnet malfunction, it is revealed that he has a secret desire to become a professional folk singer. This later happens in the episode "Bendin' in the Wind", where he gets to sing with Beck.
- The giant bugs that Fry and Leela are milking on the Moon appear to be buggalo, which appear later in "Where the Buggalo Roam".
Trivia
- After the gift shop scene, there is a sign in the alien lounge that reads "tasty human burgers".
- When Fry and Leela are in the lunar lander, before Amy picks them up, there is a sign over Leela's shoulder that reads "Lander returned to site by the Historical Sticklers Society."