Xmas Story

Last updated
"Xmas Story"
Futurama episode
Episode no.Season 2
Episode 4
Directed by Peter Avanzino
Written by David X. Cohen
Production code2ACV04
Original air dateDecember 19, 1999 (1999-12-19)
Guest appearances
Episode features
Opening caption Based On A True Story
Opening cartoon Elmer Fudd in "Fresh Hare" (1942)
Episode chronology
← Previous
"A Head in the Polls"		Next →
"Why Must I Be a Crustacean in Love?"
Futurama season 2
List of episodes

"Xmas Story" is the fourth episode in the second season of the American animated television series Futurama , and the 17th episode of the series overall. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on December 19, 1999. The episode was written by David X. Cohen and directed by Peter Avanzino. John Goodman guest stars in this episode as Robot Santa. The plot of the episode focuses on the first Xmas that Fry spends in the future.

Contents

Plot

While on a ski trip, Fry begins to feel nostalgic for 20th century Christmases. To cheer him up, the rest of the Planet Express staff decide to decorate for what is now called Xmas ( /ˈɛksməs/ ), which includes cutting down an Xmas tree (which are now palm trees, since pine trees are extinct). Fry's moping about his first Xmas without his family unknowingly agitates Leela, who has not felt happy about Xmas since she was an orphan, and storms off in tears.

When the others call him out on his mistake, Fry goes to buy a present to cheer Leela up. They warn him to be back before sundown, or else he will be killed by a murderous robotic Santa Claus. In the year 2801, The Friendly Robot Company developed a robotic version of St. Nick himself to determine who has been naughty and who has been nice. Unfortunately, due to a programming error, the jolly robotic saint soon turned into a mad murderer when his standards were set too high. Thus, he will kill anyone who has been naughty, which, by his standards is essentially everybody. Meanwhile, Bender volunteers at a homeless robot shelter, albeit stealing some food from there. He befriends several homeless robots and goes on a robbery spree with them.

Fry buys Leela a parrot, which escapes. Leela heads out to rescue Fry before Robot Santa arrives. After pursuing the parrot to the top of a tall building, Fry is saved from plunging to his death by Leela. Unfortunately, Fry and Leela's safety is short-lived, as sundown finally comes and the robotic Santa Claus makes his appearance and attacks the two friends, who seek solace in their loneliness and begin to fall in love with each other.

Fry and Leela take refuge in the Planet Express building after being saved by Bender and his homeless robot friends, but Santa breaks in through the chimney and claims that they "all have been very naughty", apart from Dr. Zoidberg, whom he gifts a pogo stick. Thanks to some quick thinking by Zoidberg, who uses the pogo stick to cut the wires to the Christmas lights, which then electrocutes Santa, the crew manage to force him back into the chimney, where an explosion sends him and his mechanical reindeer tumbling into the stratosphere.

During Xmas dinner, Fry gives a toast on the importance of togetherness at Xmas. Everyone celebrates by singing "Santa Claus Is Gunning You Down". However, Santa vows to enact revenge on the crew next Xmas.

Production

The plot for this episode was one of the first storylines that Matt Groening and David X. Cohen came up with aside from the series' pilot. They had the basic idea before they pitched the show to Fox, although they did not develop the detailed plot until much later. [1] The episode ended up being controversial although those involved with the show did not expect it to be. Fox was concerned that advertisers would find the episode too controversial for the time slot. When they made a second episode featuring Robot Santa it was delayed for nearly a year before being broadcast in a later time slot. [1]

John Goodman guest stars in this episode as Robot Santa; however, he was unavailable to reprise the role in the later episode "A Tale of Two Santas" so he was replaced by John DiMaggio. [2] Conan O'Brien makes an appearance as his own head in a jar. In order to make a visual joke that O'Brien has a large head in real life the head was drawn sticking out the top of the jar. [1] This choice caused many difficulties for the animators because it did not work with the animation layers typically used for other head-in-a-jar characters. [3] Frank Welker voices Fry's parrot and created the annoying squawk used. The initial squawk he made was considered to be annoying but according to Cohen they had him continue to make the squawk more annoying until he had done nearly a hundred different parrot squawks. [1]

In this episode, Bender receives a card from the machine that built him, referring to him as "Son #1729", a reference to the Hardy–Ramanujan number. According to Ken Keeler, co-executive producer of the series, they could have chosen any number but chose to include an interesting one instead. Many of the maths and science jokes in the series found their way into Futurama in this way. [4] Another small visual joke that was added was that the clock tower is shown at the end of the episode and the time on the clock is the same as the actual time that scene would have been shown in its original airing. [5]

Cultural references

Reception

Zack Handlen of The A.V. Club gave the episode an A−, stating, "As Christmas episodes go, this manages to be at once cynical and heartfelt, although the heart part is still a little iffy—it’s sweet, but somehow perfunctory." [6]

Related Research Articles

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

Dr. John A. Zoidberg, often referred to mononymously as Zoidberg, is a fictional character from the animated series Futurama and is the series' comic relief. He is a Decapodian, a crustacean-like species of alien, who works as the staff doctor for Planet Express, despite his woeful understanding of human physiology and allusions to his questionable credentials. His character parodies the supposed wealth and automatic respect of modern doctors—for example, his incompetence at human medicine makes him extremely poor despite his profession, and he is implied to be frequently homeless when not at work. The Decapod are an extended parody on Jewish culture—the bigger joke being that shellfish are not kosher.

<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.

Bender (<i>Futurama</i>) Main character in the TV show Futurama

Bender Bending Rodríguez is one of the main characters in the animated television series Futurama. He was conceived by the series' creators Matt Groening and David X. Cohen, and is voiced by John DiMaggio. He fulfills a comic, antihero-type role in the show, and is described by fellow character Leela as an "alcoholic, whore-mongering, chain-smoking gambler".

"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.

<i>Futurama</i> (video game) 2003 video game

Futurama is a 3D platform video game based on the science fiction animated series of the same name. It was developed by Unique Development Studios for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox, both of which use cel-shading technology. The cutscenes of the game are presented as an entire "lost episode" of Futurama on the DVD of The Beast with a Billion Backs.

"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.

"A Flight to Remember" is the tenth episode in the first season of the American animated television series Futurama. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on September 26, 1999. The title is a reference to Walter Lord's non-fiction book about the Titanic disaster A Night to Remember. This episode was written by Eric Horsted and directed by Peter Avanzino. Dawnn Lewis guest-stars in this episode as LaBarbara Conrad. The episode is a direct parody of the 1997 film Titanic.

"Why Must I Be a Crustacean in Love?" is the fifth episode in the second season of the American animated television series Futurama, and the 18th episode of the series overall. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on February 6, 2000. The episode is a parody of the Star Trek: The Original Series episode "Amok Time" and, in part, Cyrano de Bergerac.

"Anthology of Interest I" is the sixteenth episode in the second season of the American animated television series Futurama, and the 29th episode of the series overall. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on May 21, 2000. This episode, as well as the later "Anthology of Interest II", serves to showcase three "imaginary" stories, in a manner similar to the "Treehouse of Horror" episodes of Matt Groening's other animated series The Simpsons.

"A Tale of Two Santas" is the third episode in the third season of the American animated television series Futurama, and the 35th episode of the series overall. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on December 23, 2001.

"The Day the Earth Stood Stupid" is the seventh episode in the third season of the American animated television series Futurama, and the 39th episode of the series overall. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on February 18, 2001. The title of this episode is a play on the title of the 1951 science fiction film, The Day the Earth Stood Still.

"Love and Rocket" is the third episode in the fourth season of the American animated television series Futurama, and the 57th episode of the series overall. It first aired on the Fox network in the United States on February 10, 2002. The episode is a Valentine's Day-themed episode that centers on Bender's relationship with the artificial intelligence of the Planet Express Ship. The subplot involves Fry trying to express his feelings for Leela through the use of Valentine's Day candy. The episode parodies 2001: A Space Odyssey.

"Bend Her" is the thirteenth episode in the fifth season of the American animated television series Futurama, and the 67th episode of the series overall. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on July 20, 2003. In the episode, Bender changes into a female robot and adopts the name Coilette.

"Teenage Mutant Leela's Hurdles" is the ninth episode in the fourth season of the American animated television series Futurama, and the 63rd episode of the series overall. It first aired on the Fox network in the United States on March 30, 2003. The episode was directed by Bret Haaland and written by Jeff Westbrook. In the episode, the Planet Express crew take Professor Farnsworth to a clinic to make him younger though the use of tar. A freak accident occurs and the entire crew are covered in the tar, thus reverting them to their younger selves. They seek to reverse the effect and return to their proper ages.

<i>Futurama: Into the Wild Green Yonder</i> 2009 American film

Futurama: Into the Wild Green Yonder is a 2009 American direct-to-video adult animated science fiction comedy-adventure film based on the animated series Futurama, and the fourth and final of the direct-to-DVD films that make up the show's fifth season. The film was written by Ken Keeler, based on a story by Keeler and David X. Cohen, and directed by Peter Avanzino. Guest stars include Phil Hendrie, Penn Jillette, Snoop Dogg, and Seth MacFarlane, who sings the theme song. In the movie, Leela becomes an outlaw when she and a group of ecologically-minded feminists attempt to save an asteroid of primitive life forms and the Violet Dwarf star from being destroyed, while Fry joins a secret society and attempts to stop a mysterious species known as the "Dark Ones" from destroying all life in the universe. The title itself is a reference to the U.S. Air Force Song, the main chorus of which describes reaching "Into the wild blue yonder".

The animated science fiction show Futurama presents a satirical look at politics and current affairs in a number of its episodes. Series creator Matt Groening intended from the outset that Futurama would lampoon not only the conventions of science fiction, but elements of present-day life, serving as a form of political and social satire.

"Rebirth" is the premiere and first episode in the sixth season of the American animated television series Futurama, the 89th episode of the series overall, and the revival of the series. It originally aired on Comedy Central in the United States on June 24, 2010. The episode was written by David X. Cohen and Matt Groening, and directed by Frank Marino.

"The Prisoner of Benda" is the tenth episode in the sixth season of the American animated television series Futurama, and the 98th episode of the series overall. It aired on Comedy Central on August 19, 2010. In the episode, Professor Farnsworth and Amy build a machine that allows them to switch minds so that they may each pursue their lifelong dreams. However, they learn that the machine cannot be used twice on the same pairing of bodies. To try to return to their rightful bodies, they involve the rest of the crew in the mind switches, leaving each member free to pursue their own personal endeavors in a different crew member's body. The episode is composed of multiple subplots, with the main subplot being Bender attempting to steal a crown, but ending up switching places with the Robo-Hungarian emperor.

Reincarnation (<i>Futurama</i>) 26th episode of the 6th season of Futurama

"Reincarnation" is the 26th and final episode in the sixth season of the American animated television series Futurama, and the 114th episode of the series overall. It originally aired on Comedy Central on September 8, 2011. This is the only episode not to be animated in its regular animation style, instead featuring three different segments which each showcase Futurama "reincarnated" in a different style of animation. The plot of each segment forms part of an overall story arc, revolving around the discovery and subsequent destruction of a diamondium comet. A running joke for the episode involves a key plot point in each segment being obscured by the specific animation style, though the characters themselves express amazement over what they see.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Cohen, David X. Futurama season 2 DVD commentary for the episode "Xmas Story" (DVD). 20th Century Fox.
  2. ↑ "Meet the X-man who keeps Futurama's future secure". Sci Fi Weekly. October 30, 2000. Archived from the original on December 3, 2007. Retrieved 2007-06-18.
  3. ↑ Calder, Paul D. Futurama season 2 DVD commentary for the episode "Xmas Story" (DVD). 20th Century Fox.
  4. ↑ Greenwald, Sarah J (2007). "Klein's Beer: Futurama Comedy and Writers in the Classroom". PRIMUS: Problems, Resources and Issues in Mathematics Undergraduate Studies. XVII (1): 52–66. CiteSeerX   10.1.1.613.7739 . doi:10.1080/10511970601126894. S2CID   119751106.
  5. ↑ Avanzino, Peter. Futurama season 2 DVD commentary for the episode "Xmas Story" (DVD). 20th Century Fox.
  6. ↑ Handlen, Zack (January 22, 2015). "Futurama: "Xmas Story"/ "Why Must I Be A Crustacean In Love"". The A.V. Club . Retrieved February 17, 2022.
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.