"The Lesser of Two Evils" | |
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Futurama episode | |
Episode no. | Season 2 Episode 6 |
Directed by | Chris Sauvé |
Written by | Eric Horsted |
Production code | 2ACV06 |
Original air date | February 20, 2000 |
Guest appearance | |
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Episode features | |
Opening caption | The Show that Watches Back |
Opening cartoon | "Felix the Cat Trifles with Time" (1925) |
"The Lesser of Two Evils" is the sixth episode in the second season of the American animated television series Futurama , and the 19th episode of the series overall. It originally aired on the Fox Network in the United States on February 20, 2000.
While visiting the Past-o-rama theme park, Fry runs over a robot with an uncanny resemblance to Bender. They bring him back to the Planet Express building, where Professor Farnsworth repairs him. The robot's name is Flexo, and like Bender, he is a bending unit. The only physical difference between the two is that Flexo has a goatee. Bender and Flexo hit it off, but Flexo soon begins to annoy Fry, who suspects him of being evil, despite his behavior being similar to Bender's.
The Professor reveals an atom of the fictional element Jumbonium, which the crew is to deliver to the Miss Universe pageant on Tova 9. Due to the value of the atom, the Professor hires Flexo as additional security. Leela assigns Fry, Bender, and Flexo shifts guarding the atom, but when Fry's shift comes up he falls asleep due to staying up during all of Flexo's shift, and the atom is stolen. Fry not only suspects Flexo, but believes he has disguised himself as Bender. After Bender re-establishes his identity, Fry, Leela, and Bender head off to inform pageant host Bob Barker's head of the theft.
They burst into the contest in pursuit of Flexo, and he and Bender start to fight. At the end of the fight, Bender's chest cavity door is knocked open, revealing the atom. Flexo tells the crew members that he had seen Bender steal the atom and left to inform Barker.
With the atom recovered, and Flexo accidentally imprisoned for Bender's crime due to Barker's disinterest in his identity, the pageant concludes with a giant paramecium from Vega being crowned Miss Universe, only after Leela is mistakenly crowned first due to a miscommunication from judge Zapp Brannigan.
In the audio commentary of the episode, David X. Cohen states that this episode was the only one to which he gave his artistic input. When Fry, Bender, and Flexo are at a robot strip club, a robot stripper with a strange gear-oriented design can be seen. Cohen explains that he drew the robot himself and took great pride in doing so.
In its initial airing, the episode received a Nielsen rating of 4.4/8, placing it 87th among primetime shows for the week of February 14–20, 2000. [1]
The A.V. Club gave the episode a B, stating "There’s a lot of solid laughs, which is really all Futurama needs to manage to keep me watching... Still, a great episode of this show should be more than just some clever ideas scribbled in the margins." [2]
Futurama is an American animated science fiction sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company and later revived by Comedy Central, and then Hulu. The series follows the adventures of slacker Philip J. Fry, who is cryogenically preserved for 1,000 years and revived on December 31, 2999. Fry finds work at the interplanetary delivery company Planet Express, working alongside one-eyed mutant Leela and robot Bender. The series was envisioned by Groening in the mid-1990s while working on The Simpsons; he brought David X. Cohen aboard to develop storylines and characters to pitch the show to Fox.
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Philip J. Fry, commonly known mononymously by his surname, is a fictional character and the protagonist of the animated series Futurama. He is voiced by Billy West using a version of his own voice as he sounded when he was 25. He is a delivery boy from the 20th century who becomes cryogenically frozen and reawakens in the 30th century to become a delivery boy there with an intergalactic delivery company run by his 30th great-grandnephew, Professor Hubert J. Farnsworth. He is the best friend and roommate of Bender and the boyfriend and later fiancé of Leela while he is Elena Fry's father.
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"Hell Is Other Robots" is the ninth episode in the first season of the American animated television series Futurama. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on May 18, 1999. The episode was written by Eric Kaplan and directed by Rich Moore. Guest stars in this episode include the Beastie Boys as themselves and Dan Castellaneta voicing the Robot Devil.
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Futurama: Bender's Big Score is a 2007 American animated science fiction comedy film based on the animated series Futurama. It was released in the United States on November 27, 2007. It was the first Futurama production since the original series finale "The Devil's Hands are Idle Playthings". Bender's Big Score, along with the three follow-up films, comprise season five of Futurama, with each film being separated into four episodes of the broadcast season. Bender's Big Score made its broadcast premiere on Comedy Central on March 23, 2008. The film was written by Ken Keeler, based on a story by Keeler and David X. Cohen, and directed by Dwayne Carey-Hill.
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