"Futurama" Season Premiere Talkback (Spoilers)

[Andy Mancini]

I'm not really surprised that no one posted a talkback for this yet, considering that 75% of the country was probably stuck watching the end of another exciting NFL game. We in Pittsburgh got to see it because there was no 4:00 game broadcast this week. I just have one thing to say to all of you wishing that your local Fox affiliate would have aired the season premiere of "Futurama": you were better off watching football.

This episode reminded me of "Captain Planet": preachy, politically charged tripe that forces the viewer to take a theory as fact. See, according to "Futurama", robots, the 31st century equivalent to the "evil SUV", single-handedly caused global warming. Professor Farnesworth, the inventor of the modern robot, ignored how "evil to the environment" the robots were so he could make out with Mom. After the obligitory plot point, there was more preaching about how evil SUVs, I mean robots, are, and how these evil machines are killing the planet. <Yawn>

Still, it wasn't all bad (but damn near close). Al Gore was decent as himself (and that's saying a lot considering the fact that I can't stand the man), and there were some funny moments (Bender brfriending a turtle, Gore rewritting his book "Earth In the Balance" to include Harry Potter and dark wizards), but those were few and far between. Overall, the "Futurama" season premiere made "The Simpson's Treehouse of Horror XIII" look like an instant classic.

 

[TimTwoFace]

Wait, wait, wait...season premiere? I thought this show was cancelled (unfortunately)...?

-Tim

 

[J.C.]

Originally posted by dj_gir
See, according to "Futurama", robots, the 31st century equivalent to the "evil SUV", single-handedly caused global warming.

Think you're reading too much into this. They didn't say that robots single-handedly caused global warming. The Professor even said with his line "we'd figured mother nature wouldn't mind taking one more hit for the home team" that the robots were basicly the last straw, and not the sole reason, which caused the global warming.

This was probably my favorite of the fox prime-time shows season premiere episodes this year. The scenes with Bender and the turtle were actually pretty cute and I'm glad that he didn't forget about the little guy once the crisis was over like I thought he would. And the bit with the robot that looked like a keg was hillarious. My only complaint was that Fry didn't have much to do in the premiere, but that's nothing big.

Originally posted by TimTwoFace
Wait, wait, wait...season premiere? I thought this show was cancelled (unfortunately)...?

This "season" is really just the leftover episodes (about 13, I think) from last season that haven't been aired yet.

 

[Dark Spider]

We have so many Futurama fans on this board, yet so few replies to this thread. This should tell us something. Football does hurt Futurama.

I didn't even know the show had a season premiere, because its loosely advertised. You know those Fox ads where they tell you what's on Sunday night. They spend at least 5-6 seconds advertising the Simpsons, King of the Hill, and Malcolm in the Middle, each....but they just briefly glance over Futurama for like 1-2 seconds. Sometimes, they don't even do that, they just mention the show at the end of the commercial, without any screenshots. Such disrespect for an emmy winner...

 

[Terminatah]

Originally posted by J.C.
This "season" is really just the leftover episodes (about 13, I think) from last season that haven't been aired yet.

That's right. Technically, only four seasons were produced before Fox put the series "on hold" while they aired this "fifth season" of unused leftovers. Of course, I didn't have the premiere here because the football was still on. At this rate, we may see a "sixth season."

I hope Fox is destroyed by carnivorous fire-breathing robots.

-Terminatah

 

[PowerZord]

it was a cool episode

 

[Toon Capone]

I thought this was a great episode. I'm glad it's back Futurama rarely disappoints me.

 

[Marc]

This was a great episode. I'm on the east coast and I was shocked when I turned on the TV at 7:00PM and Futurama was actually on! This episode didn't remind me of Captain Planet, but that wouldn't be a bad thing if it did. If caring about the enviroment is wrong, then I don't want to be right.

Still, a great episode. I'm going to miss this show when it's all over.

 

[RZetlin]

Kyoto Protocol

Originally posted by dj_gir
This episode reminded me of "Captain Planet": preachy, politically charged tripe that forces the viewer to take a theory as fact. See, according to "Futurama", robots, the 31st century equivalent to the "evil SUV", single-handedly caused global warming. Professor Farnesworth, the inventor of the modern robot, ignored how "evil to the environment" the robots were so he could make out with Mom. After the obligitory plot point, there was more preaching about how evil SUVs, I mean robots, are, and how these evil machines are killing the planet. <Yawn>

You somewhat missed the point of the episode.

Yes, the episode has a political message to it.

In 1994 United Nations countries were suppose to sign up to an agreement called the "Kyoto Protocol". The purpose of the Kyoto Protocol was to drastically cut down on Greenhouse gases by a set target date.

(Notice that the scientist meeting in Futurama took place in Kyoto)

Most European countires had sign up to the Kyoto Protocol.

But United States totally opposed the agreement. The main reason is big businesses will suffer from the process to cut Greenhouse gases.

The message of the episode was asking the United States to sign the Kyoto Protocol.

 

[Master Moron]

Geez, this episode was bad

The whole plot of the episode made no sense. They can't be worried about global warming because way back in season 1 Leila said that global warming was cancelled out by nuclear winter. It's really great that they're inventing stuff that completely goes against what they said in previous episodes. And people wonder why I don't like this show.

Also, once again, I hate the heads in the bottle. Sure, it's nice that they got Al Gore to guest star but why not let him guest star as someone else? I mean Pamela Anderson played some trashy groupie on King of the Hill, surely they can find a good role for Al Gore besides his own head in a jar.

Once again, can't they make a show about the future that actually takes place in the future? A show about the Kyoto protocol and Joan Rivers doing a fashion review for it is NOT a show about the future. Can't the writers for this show come up with anything original? Don't get me wrong, it's okay to make an episode that deals with present day concerns, but make it clever, don't make it take place in the present, only with a bunch of robots and other "cool futuristic stuff".

 

[Chris Sanders MSX]

I liked it. It was funny and Al Gore as the guest was kind of a shocker, especially when he left and said "Peace Ya'll".