The Top Ten Futurama Episodes of all time!

With what appears to be the final season of the beloved sci-fi comedy Futurama, I’ve compiled a list of my top ten favorite episodes for all you Blabberfans throughout the known universe.  These episodes are memorable because of their unique ability to make us laugh, think, and sometimes cry. They’re in no particular order. Feel free to post your Top Ten in the Comments below.

10) Space Pilot 3000.

The very first episode of Futurama. We’re introduced to most of the main cast and the show’s outrageous premise. A pizza delivery boy is frozen in a cryogenics lab for a thousand years and has to adjust to life in the 31st century. This episode sets the groundwork for a great comedy and also a great science fiction show.

9) Fry and The Slurm Factory.

Wiggy wam wam wazzle! Fry wins a contest, Willy Wonka style, to tour the Slurm factory only to discover the secret ingredient to his favorite beverage is the excretions of a giant slug. Laughs abound when the grunka lunkas sing little songs warning about the “secret ingredient”. We’re introduced to party-hearty mascot Slurms McKenzie, who heroically saves the Planet Express crew from certain doom.

8) A Head in the Polls.

The great thing about the Futurama universe is that when you die, your head can be placed in a jar and saved for posterity. This is a recurring gag on Futurama so when the Earthican elections come up, former president Nixon throws his hat (or head, I suppose,) into the race. Despite threatening to “go into their houses and wreck up the place!” Nixon is elected due mainly to his new body, which was originally Bender’s but is swapped for a huge robotic suit. This episode also introduced us to the headless Body of Agnew, Nixon’s right hand (head,) man.

7) Parasites Lost.

When Fry eats an old truck stop egg salad sandwich, he is infected with parasitic worms who turn out to be more helpful than harmful. They make him smarter and stronger and help him learn the holophoner. This turns out to be a real turn on for Leela, who seems to love the new Fry. The Planet Express crew races into Fry’s body in a direct spoof of Fantastic Voyage. After discovering the helpfulness of the worms, Fry shrinks himself down and has it out with them because he needs to know if Leela is falling in love with Fry, or the Fry the parasites have turned him into.

6) Crimes of the Hot.

Turns out Global Warming is just as big a problem in the 31st century as it is today, except the solution they have is much more interesting. Take a giant chunk of ice from Haley’s comet and drop it in the ocean every hundred years or so. When Planet Express lands on the comet to get the ice, they discover it’s completely tapped out. The world’s scientists, lead by Al Gore, determine the emissions from Robots are causing accelerated global warming. The devious president Nixon invites them all to a deserted island where he hopes to destroy them all and end the crisis. Bender discovers the plot and unifies the robots to release all of their gasses at once, pushing the earth slightly farther away from the sun and cooling the earth and saving the day.

5) Jurassic Bark.

The episode that has us crying manly tears every time. Fry discovers the fossilized remains of his old dog, Seymour. There are flashbacks to when he and Seymour are happily getting up to trouble. Professor Farnsworth declares he can clone the dog and give him all of his old memories, much to Fry’s elation. Bender, being the sociopath he is, is jealous of Fry’s potential new best friend and throws the fossilized remains in a volcano under the Planet Express headquarters (don’t ask,) after trying to retrieve it he decides it’s best to Seymour go because “that’s when I knew him, and that’s when I loved him.” He theorizes that Seymour finds a different family, but at the end we discover, to the melancholy voice of Ms. Connie Francis, that Seymour waited until the day he died for Fry. Shucks. Thinking about it even gets me misty eyed.

4) Roswell That Ends Well.

The episode that solidified Futurama place as a worthy contender on network TV (It won an Emmy award for this piece of brilliance,) The crew gets sucked back in time while watching a supernova because Fry put aluminum in the microwave and it caused some kind of reaction with all that wibbly wobbly timey wimey stuff and was transported to Roswell New Mexico on the day of the famous UFO crash landing. The crew needs a microwave in order to get back home, but its 1947 and the microwave hasn’t been invented yet. Dr. Zoidberg meets President Harry Truman with hilarious results. This is a great episode for anyone who loves time travel, also, it turns out that Fry is his own grandfather. Don’t think about that too much or blood will start shooting out of your nose. Damned paradoxes!

3) Bender Should Not Be Allowed on T.V.

When the child robot actor of All My Circuits goes on the fritz, the producers scramble to find a replacement. Bender is chosen after booing all the other child robot actors. He’s so bad at acting that he’s relegated to being in a coma. This doesn’t sit well with Bender, who starts causing a ruckus. The T.V. Execs love the on screen hijinks and give Bender carte blanche to do whatever he wants on the show. Dwight and Qubert, Hermes’ and Farnsworth’s children respectively, are influenced negatively by Bender’s antics and start a group dedicated to getting bender off the air. Eventually bender comes to his senses and things go back to normal. Well, as normal as it gets around the Planet Express crew.

2) The Tip of the Zoidberg.

. This episode delves deeper into the origins of Dr. John Zoidberg and why Professor Farnsworth refuses to fire him despite his incompetence. It turns out that decades ago, Zoidberg and the Professor went on a mission for MOMCORP. The Professor is stricken with Hyper Malaria which has delayed symptoms. The Professor begs Zoidberg to kill him the moment the symptoms start, and when he obliges, a huge misunderstanding takes place. The crew then discovers the professor’s malady and decides to help by making a huge death machine. Zoidberg, it’s discovered, isn’t such a bad doctor at all, he’s the best with alien species but terrible with humans. This episode really humanizes the good Doctor and shows us all he isn’t such a buffoon after all.

1) Where No Fan Has Gone Before.

There is nothing to hate about this episode. Fry discovers that all the Star Trek Episodes ever made have been sent away and banned. Fry seeks the guidance of Leonard Nimoy’s head and the crew blasts off to find the rest of the original cast of Star Trek. It turns out they are being held by a gaseous creature named Mellvaar and have to fight to the death. In classic Star Trek fashion, the crew works together to stop the gas creature, only to discover he’s in his thirties, living at home with his mom. There are a lot of great gags in this, and rips on Star Trek fans and conventions. Pretty much everyone from the original show appeared in this episode.
So those are my Top Ten favorite episodes. It was a hard list to compile considering all of the episodes, in my opinion, range from good to great, but I think these will suffice for now. I hope the last season of this fantastic show has just as many memorable episodes for us to enjoy.

Until Next Time!

-Paulie Von Doom.

Futurama returns tonight with a one-hour season premier @ 10pm EST on Comedy Central. Check your local listings and get back here later today for TWO video previews!