The Sting (Futurama)

Last updated
"The Sting"
Futurama episode
Episode no.Season 4
Episode 12
Directed by Brian Sheesley
Written by Patric M. Verrone
Production code4ACV12
Original air dateJune 1, 2003 (2003-06-01)
Episode features
Opening caption A By-Product Of The TV Industry
Opening cartoon "The Queen Was in the Parlor" (1932)
Episode chronology
← Previous
"Where No Fan Has Gone Before"		Next →
"Bend Her"
Futurama season 4
List of episodes

"The Sting" is the twelfth episode in the fourth season of the American animated television series Futurama , and the 66th episode of the series overall. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on June 1, 2003. In the episode, the Planet Express crew is sent to collect space honey, and find themselves in a harrowing battle with giant bees. The episode's plot originated from the writers wanting to do a story where it seemed as though a major character had died. The episode was then produced faster than normal and was well-received by critics.

Contents

Plot

Professor Farnsworth warns the crew that their next mission, to collect honey from giant space bees, was the mission which killed his previous crew. Though Bender and Fry jump at the opportunity to opt out of the mission, Leela takes offense and drags them along.

At the hive, Leela paints Bender like a bee to deceive the real bees while she and Fry collect the honey. The crew discover the remains of the previous Planet Express crew and ship, but Leela insists that they press on. After gathering the honey, Leela decides to bring home a baby queen bee. On the way out, Bender inadvertently insults the hive's queen, causing the bees to attack. The crew escape, but in the ship, the baby queen awakens and attacks Leela. Fry throws himself in front of Leela to protect her and is impaled by the bee's stinger, while Leela is only pricked by the tip. Bender disposes of the bee and Leela awakens with a minor wound, but sees Fry lying dead on the floor.

At Fry's funeral, Leela blames herself for his death. After taking some space honey to calm herself down and help her sleep, Leela experiences a series of dreams in which Fry is alive, all of them ending with Fry telling her to "wake up" and leaving her a souvenir from the dream in the waking world. Leela's insistence that Fry is alive leads the others to conclude that she is going insane.

After awakening from a dream in which she attempts to exhume Fry's corpse, Leela concludes that she is indeed insane. Wracked with guilt and loneliness, Leela resolves to consume enough space honey to fall asleep forever and be with Fry in her dreams, but a portrait of Fry implores her not to do it. Leela tries to comply, but a small space bee starts flying around the room. Leela throws the jar of space honey at it, causing it to turn into an entire swarm of smaller bees. As Leela clutches her picture of Fry, Fry begs Leela to wake up.

Leela then awakens in a hospital to see a dishevelled, crying Fry at her bedside begging her to wake up. Fry explains that she has been in a coma since the queen bee's attack; the bee's stinger pierced cleanly through him, leaving Leela to absorb all the venom. After getting a new spleen at the hospital, he stayed by Leela's side for two weeks, talking to her and waiting for her to wake up. As the two embrace, they each whisper that the other could use a shower.

Production

The plot originated from the writers wanting to make an episode where it seems as though a major character has really been killed off; the story came together in a matter of hours after that. [1] At one point in the episode, Leela is crying and takes a tissue to dry her eye. However, when she does this, she tears the tissue in half. While on the surface this is a joke on Leela being a cyclops, the audio commentary reveals that this was also an in-joke among the writers. Around the time of production, David X. Cohen became sick, but still came to work anyway. To save tissues, he ripped a tissue in half. [1]

Broadcast and reception

In its initial airing, the episode received a Nielsen rating of 2.4/5, placing it 81st among primetime shows for the week of May 26 – June 1, 2003. [2]

The episode was nominated for an Emmy in 2003 for Outstanding Animated Program (For Programming Less Than One Hour). [3] [4] Writer Patric Verrone was also nominated for an Annie Award for "Writing in an Animated Television Production" [5] and the Writers Guild of America Award for Outstanding Writing in Animation at the 56th Writers Guild of America Awards. [6] In 2009, this episode was named by IGN as number 24 in their list of the 25 best episodes of Futurama; the episode was included in the list because of its advancement of the relationship between Fry and Leela. [7] IGN's 2019 reassessment of the list kept the episode at number 24 (despite the debut of an additional 68 Futurama episodes in the interim), but disregarded the Fry and Leela relationship, focusing instead on the episode's balance of dark themes and surreal imagery with a unique sense of humor. [8] The Futon Critic rated it number 48 in its list of the top 50 television episodes of 2003. [9] This episode is one of four featured in the Monster Robot Maniac Fun Collection, indicating it is one of Matt Groening's four favorite episodes. [10] In 2013, it was ranked number 8 "as voted on by fans" for Comedy Central's Futurama Fanarama marathon. [11]

Related Research Articles

<i>Futurama</i> 1999 American animated sci-fi sitcom

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 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 the one-eyed mutant Leela and the 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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Philip J. Fry</span> Main character in the TV show Futurama

Philip J. Fry, commonly known mononymously by his surname Fry, 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.

Leela (<i>Futurama</i>) Main character in the television show Futurama

Turanga Leela is a fictional character from the animated television series Futurama. Leela is spaceship captain, pilot, and head of all aviation services on board the Planet Express Ship. Throughout the series, she has an on-again, off-again relationship with and got engaged to Philip J. Fry, the central character in the series. The character, voiced by Katey Sagal, is named after the Turangalîla-Symphonie by Olivier Messiaen. She is one of the few characters in the cast to routinely display competence and the ability to command, and routinely saves the rest of the cast from disaster. However, she suffers extreme self-doubt because she has only one eye and grew up as a bullied orphan. She first believes herself an alien, but later finds out she is the least-mutated sewer mutant in the history of 31st-century Earth. Her family parodies aspects of pollution and undesirability associated with industrial New Jersey when compared with New York City.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Professor Farnsworth</span> Futurama character

Professor Hubert J. Farnsworth, commonly referred to in-show as either Professor Farnsworth or simply Professor, is a fictional character in the American animated television series Futurama. The mad scientist proprietor of the Planet Express delivery service for whom the main characters work, he is the great (×30) grandnephew and the great (×30) grandson of series protagonist Philip J. Fry because of a time paradox. He alternates between intelligence and amoral senility due to his greatly advanced age of 175. He demonstrates a mastery of any field of science necessary for the series' plots and is suggested to be one of the most brilliant inventors on Earth. However, he falls asleep constantly, and he routinely sends his crews on suicide missions.

"Roswell That Ends Well" is the nineteenth episode in the third season of the American animated television series Futurama, and the 51st episode of the series overall. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on December 9, 2001. The plot centers on an accidental time travel event that results in the main characters participating in the Roswell Incident in 1947.

"Where No Fan Has Gone Before" is the eleventh episode in the fourth season of the American animated television series Futurama, and the 65th episode of the series overall. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on April 21, 2002. Set in a retro-futuristic 31st century, the series follows the adventures of the employees of Planet Express, an interplanetary delivery company. In this episode, the Planet Express team and most of the main cast of Star Trek: The Original Series face a court-martial after visiting the forbidden planet Omega 3.

"The Series Has Landed", also known as "Episode Two: The Series Has Landed", is the second episode in the first season of the American animated television series Futurama. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on April 4, 1999. The episode was written by Ken Keeler and directed by Peter Avanzino. In this episode, several main characters, including Doctor Zoidberg, Amy Wong and Hermes Conrad, are first introduced, and the crew goes on their first mission. After completing their delivery, a series of mishaps occurs which puts Fry and Leela's lives in danger and nearly leaves all of them trapped on the Moon.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Patric Verrone</span> American television writer (born 1959)

Patric Miller Verrone is an American television writer and labor leader. He served as a writer and producer for several animated television shows, most notably Futurama.

"Godfellas" is the twentieth episode in the third season of the American animated television series Futurama, and the 52nd episode of the series overall. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on March 17, 2002. The episode was written by Ken Keeler and directed by Susie Dietter. It features Bender becoming the god of a tiny civilization, and explores various religious issues. The episode won the first Writers Guild of America Award for animation.

"31st Century Fox" is the eleventh episode in the seventh season of the American animated television series Futurama, and the 125th episode of the series overall. It originally aired on Comedy Central on August 29, 2012. The episode was written by Patric M. Verrone and directed by Edmund Fong.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Space Pilot 3000</span> 1st episode of Futurama Season 1

"Space Pilot 3000" is the pilot episode of the American animated television series Futurama. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on March 28, 1999. The episode focuses on the cryogenic freezing of the series protagonist, Philip J. Fry, and the events when he awakens 1,000 years in the future and is the first episode to be set in the 30th century. Series regulars are introduced and the futuristic setting, inspired by a variety of classic science fiction series from The Jetsons to Star Trek, is revealed. It also sets the stage for many of the events to follow in the series, foreshadowing plot points from the third and fourth seasons.

"A Fishful of Dollars" is the sixth episode in the first season of the American animated television series Futurama. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on April 27, 1999. The title of the episode is a play on name of the film A Fistful of Dollars. The episode was written by Patric Verrone and directed by Ron Hughart and Gregg Vanzo. Pamela Anderson guest stars as her own preserved head in a jar. This episode marks the first appearance of the character Mom, the series' recurring antagonist.

"War Is the H-Word" is the seventeenth episode in the second season of the American animated television series Futurama, and the 30th episode of the series overall. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on November 26, 2000. The episode parodies several war films and shows, including Starship Troopers, Star Wars and M*A*S*H.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Luck of the Fryrish</span> 4th episode of the 3rd season of Futurama

"The Luck of the Fryrish" is the fourth episode in the third season of the American animated television series Futurama, and the 36th episode of the series overall. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on March 11, 2001.

"Anthology of Interest II" is the eighteenth episode in the third season of the American animated television series Futurama, and the 50th episode of the series overall. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on January 6, 2002. This episode, as well as the earlier "Anthology of Interest I", serves to showcase three "imaginary" stories.

"Spanish Fry" is the seventeenth episode in the fourth season of the American animated television series Futurama, and the 71st episode of the series overall. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on July 13, 2003. Set in a retro-futuristic 31st century, the series follows the adventures of the employees of Planet Express, an interplanetary delivery company. In this episode, Fry's nose has mysteriously disappeared so he seeks to get it back. David X. Cohen admitted that this episode is one of the most "filthy" in the series' history.

"The Farnsworth Parabox" is the fifteenth episode in the fourth season of the American animated television series Futurama, and the 69th episode of the series overall. It first aired on the Fox network in the United States on June 8, 2003. The episode was written by Bill Odenkirk and directed by Ron Hughart. The plot of this episode revolves around the Planet Express crew's adventures in parallel universes.

"The Late Philip J. Fry" is the seventh episode in the sixth season of the American animated television series Futurama, and the 95th episode of the series overall. It originally aired on Comedy Central on July 29, 2010. In the episode, Fry attempts to make it on time to a birthday dinner date for Leela. He is sidetracked by Professor Farnsworth and Bender, who force him to test out the Professor's time machine, which only goes forward in time. After overshooting and thus going forward to the year 10,000 AD, they must keep traveling forward in time until a backwards time machine has been invented.

"Lrrreconcilable Ndndifferences" is the eleventh episode in the sixth season of the American animated television series Futurama, and the 99th episode overall. It aired on Comedy Central on August 26, 2010. In the episode, the ruler of the planet Omicron Persei 8, Lrrr, experiences marriage trouble with his queen, Ndnd. He departs for Earth, invading it in an attempt to overcome his mid-life crisis and reignite his marriage.

References

  1. 1 2 Verrone, Patric (2003). Futurama season 4 DVD commentary for the episode "The Sting" (DVD). 20th Century Fox.
  2. ↑ "Nielsen ratings.(May 26 – June 1, 2003)(Illustration)". Broadcasting & Cable . Future US. June 9, 2003. Archived from the original on October 23, 2012. Retrieved March 7, 2009.
  3. ↑ Wilmore, Alison (August 30, 2013). "The 10 Most Touching Episodes in the Surprisingly Poignant Seven-Season Run of 'Futurama'". IndieWire . Los Angeles, California: Penske Media Corporation . Retrieved April 4, 2019.
  4. ↑ Azrai, Ahmad (October 31, 2004). "Farewell to the funny future". Asia Africa Intelligence Wire. Retrieved January 10, 2008.
  5. ↑ "The fish that got away took top honors at the 31st Annie Awards". International Animated Film Society. June 12, 2004. Archived from the original on July 1, 2007. Retrieved June 28, 2007.
  6. ↑ Hiestand, Jesse (19 January 2004). "'Simpsons,' 'Law & Order' Top WGA Noms". Backstage. Retrieved 23 February 2019.
  7. ↑ Iverson, Dan. "Top 25 Futurama Episodes". IGN . Archived from the original on February 16, 2007. Retrieved November 4, 2006.
  8. ↑ Nicholson, Max (March 28, 2019). "Top 25 Futurama Episodes". IGN . Retrieved April 4, 2019.
  9. ↑ "The 50 Best Episodes of 2003: #50–41". The Futon Critic. 2004-01-12. Retrieved 2022-02-17.
  10. ↑ Lacey, Gord (May 11, 2005). "Futurama — Do the Robot Dance!". TVShowsOnDVD.com. Archived from the original on December 3, 2007. Retrieved 2007-11-30.
  11. ↑ "Futurama Fanarama marathon". August 25, 2013. Retrieved August 31, 2013.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.