1. A Flight To Remember

26/09/1999

Ted Lange (Robot Bartender iZak) Dawnn Lewis (LaBarbara)

FILMED ON LOCATION

In a whole "Titanic" parody, Fry and the entire gang take a space cruise vacation. Leela tells Captain Zapp Brannigan that Fry is his boyfriend and Amy tells the same thing to her parents. Bender falls in love with a rich female robot. Problems start when the spaceship approaches a black hole.

Hermes' wife LaBarbara makes her first appearance. We are also introduced to Amy's parents, Leo (voiced by Billy West) and Inez (voiced by Lauren Tom, who also does Amy).  Since most people doesn't know what's this cartoon clip on the billboard in the opening credits is, the cartoon clip is from the late 1950s TV cartoon "Clutch Cargo".

The name for the Countess De La Roca probably came from one of the Co-Producers on the show, Claudia De La Roca

2. Mars University

03/10/1999

Fry, Leela, Bender and Farnsworth have to go to Mars University where Fry has to share a room with a talking monkey, Farnsworth's last invention. The monkey becomes a real headache when he starts beating Fry in all areas. Meanwhile, Bender is hanging out with nerd robots.  Bart and Homer Simpson dolls can be seen as prizes at one of the carnival games during Fry's flashback. The opening theme is slightly different in this episode.  The episode is a parody of the film 'Animal House' and is capped off with the Animal House Theme "Shout" and frames describing where the characters went in their futures.

This is the only episode since his introduction that Dr Zoidberg does not appear in.  A joke that was origionally planned for the series but didn't make it was the Alien Phone Book. Book 1: A-Y. Book 2: Z. The joke instead appeared in the Mars University signup line.

3. When Aliens Attack

07/11/1999

While delivering a pizza to a TV station back in 1999, Fry knocks FOX off the air while showing the season finale of "Single Female Lawyer". This upsets the aliens of Omicron Persei 8, a planet that is 1000 light years away and is just receiving the broadcast in the year 3000. Meanwhile, it's Labor Day and the crew decides to go to Monument beach. Everything seems well, until the Omicronians arrive on Earth and start destroying the monuments. Volunteers are called under the orders of Zapp Brannigan to battle the aliens, but fail in destroying the mothership. Lrr threatens to destroy the Earth unless he sees McNeal. President McNeal is delivered to him, but Lrr says that is the wrong McNeal and takes out of picture of Jenny McNeal. Luckily, Fry recognizes her from the TV show and the crew has to improvise and act out the series finale.  In the shot from Earth to Omicron Persei 8, you can see a brief glimpse of the Voyager spacecraft. The alien's television is oval and quite small. It also has rabbit ear antennae.  Famous signets on Monument Beach: The Sphinx, Big Ben, The White House, Mt. Rushmore, Randy's Donuts, Easter Island Heads, and The Tower of Pisa.  The "Single Female Lawyer" credits said "Written and Directed by Fry," without mentioning his first name.  While Lrrr is grading the episode, you can see (his wife) in the background by a water cooler.  That mysterious man wearing a white suit with a big nine on it was seen again! He was among the people who were celebrating the departure of the aliens. There was a conecpt that the crew was going to explore where they would visit a planet where everyone wore numbers. If they did it, it would have been an homage to Final Fantasy 7.

First appearance of Lrrr and Ndnd.

4. Fry & The Slurm Factory

14/11/1999

Pamela Anderson (Dixie)

Fry becomes addicted to Slurm, the ultimate drink in year 3000. When a contest appears on TV saying that the person that finds the golden cap in one of the cans will win a free trip to the Slurm factory, Fry uses an F-Ray gun that can see through metal. When he wins, he and the gang go into the tour, but Fry falls into the Slurm river followed by Leela and Bender. After being sucked by a drain, they arrive to the real factory where Slurm comes from the behind of a giant queen slug. When they try to escape, they are saved by Slurms McKenzie, the party slug and Slurm mascot. Prof. Farnsworth wants to tell the world of their discovery, but Fry convinces him not to so Slurm can still be produced.  Pamela Anderson also voiced her own head in a jar in A Fishful of Dollars. The cartoon clip on the billboard in the opening credits is usually an old Warner Brothers or MGM toon clip. But, this time it is Bart, Lisa and Maggie in the Simpsons shorts on the Tracey Ullman Show.  After Bender removes Amy's wristwatch, his color turns from dark gray to his regular grayish-blue color.  According to the DVD release this episode and the three preceding it belong to Season 1 not Season 2.  Slurm is most likely a takeoff on Mountain Dew, based on the similar green colors and the "addictiveness."  Parody of Roald Dahl's "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory".  Actually Slurm is really more like Coke due the the Slurm Queen's plan to make a nasty "New Slurm" and then bring back "Slurm Classic".  The Opening theme has the Simpsons on the TV screen.  The chip in Bender's head is a 6502, the chip that drove the 8-bit Nintendo and Commodore computers.  During the Slurm Contest Commercial, Alien Code #1 makes another appearance. Near the end while the rules are being flashed, the following phrase appears in code. "The Following Species Are Ineligible: Space Wasps, Space Beavers, Any Other Animal With The Word "Space" In Front Of It, Space Chickens And The Elusive Yak-Face." (side-"Yak-face" is an action figure of Star Wars (Return of the Jedi) that hasn't been sold in USA, and collectors pay BIG money for it. It was added because David Cohen owns one).  The Alien Code appears again on the medical eye chart behind the Professor back at the lab. It reads "No Squinting Four Eyes".  While in the factory store, Zoidberg tries on a T-shirt written in Hebrew. When translated it obviously reads "Slurm."  The Professor and Leela are playing a variant of Scrabble. On the Professor's tile tray, you can see F-U-U-T-A-M-R. On the board you can see the tiles arranged to say "one eye", "prop only", "donut", and "Matt area".  First appearance of Glurmo.  Glurmo's original name was Slurmy Slonka, a parody of Willy Wonka.

5. I Second That Emotion

21/11/1999

It's Nibbler 5th birthday and Bender is jealous. When he decides to build a giant cake so everyone will prefer him, Nibbler eats it before anyone can see it. Angry, he flushes Nibbler down the toilet. Leela says that all she wants is Bender feels how she feels. Fansworth puts an empathy on his head and he feels everything Leela feels. Feeling sad and guilty, he flushes himself, piece by piece, down the toilet to rescue Nibbler, later followed by Fry and Leela. Down the sewers, they find a mutant city.  Did you notice that in the scene where Fry and Leela open up a manhole, its cover has the title name of WB related cartoon The PJs on it. At the time this episode was being made, "The PJs" was airing on the FOX network. Near the beginning, in the vet's office, the robot's pet is a rust monster from dungeons and dragons.  From this episode on, Tress MacNeille becomes a "regular" and is no longer a guest star. Maurice LaMarche is promoted to "Also Starring", but Lauern Tom, Phil LaMarr and Dave Herman remain "Guest starring" throughout the series, even though at least one of them has appeared in every episode.  When the mutant with two noses plays the guitar and talks about the Chupanebrae, the camera switches to a wide shot, which shows Leela's parents in the background.  Almost every building in the mutants' village is a dry-cleaner's.  First appearance of Morris and Munda (Leela's parents), Jeffery Grant (the vet), Dwayne, Vyolet (mutant woman), Raoul (3-armed mutant) and El Chupinibre.

6. Brannigan Begin Again

28/11/1999

After being thrown out of the service for destroying a space meeting, Zapp Brannigan starts working for Planet Express. When the crew has to deliver pillows in a planet with super-high gravity, Zapp convinces Fry and Bender to ploy against Leela so he becomes the new captain. When Zapp finds himself not knowing what to do, Leela takes control again, and forgives Fry and Bender.  One of the Slurm guys is at the meeting thing. DOOP stands for Democratic Order of Planets.  One of the Robot Elders is also on the jury.  The oversized scissors are left-handed.  While Zapp and Kif peer into a restaurant, you can see a cop on the street writing parking tickets.  You can see Hermes' office from the Planet Express lobby.  The leader of DOOP is named Glab.

7. A Head In The Polls

12/12/1999

Claudia Schiffer (Herself)

When a mine disaster traps the only supply of Titanium and 200 robots, Bender becomes highly profitable, so he decides to sell his entire body. He later discovers that life as a simple head is boring, so he wants his body back. Elections take place, with John Jackson, Jack Johnson and Richard Nixon's head as candidates, but Nixon is using Bender's body.  When Fry, Leela, and Bender's head go bowling, the ball Leela uses looks exactly like an eye, a reference to her cycloptic nature. Katey Segal, the voice of Leela, is one of the heads in the head museum.  Bender's mentions that his body is 40% titanium in this episode. It is also 40% zinc, as mentioned in the episode Fry and the Slurm Factory.  When Bender is sleeping, he dreams in Binary. After frame by frame study, there is an actual sentance inside the dream. In the final frame when the screen fills with numbers, just before the bigger numbers appear, the binary can be translated into the sentance "Get A Life." Bender wakes up when you see a 2 in the code.  Bender reads a Playbot magazine.  Nixon says computers are only "twice as fast" as they were in 1973.  The two main parties in the future are the Tastycrats and the Fingerlicans.

8. Xmas Story

19/12/1999

John Goodman (Evil Santa Claus Robot) Conan O'Brien (Himself)

It's Christmas and Fry realizes how different it is from what he can remember. Santa Claus is now a robot who punishes the naughty people… a he considers everyone to be naughty.  The Preachorbot's name is Rev. Lionel Preacherbot.  The idea that an artificial being can't tell the difference between true naughtiness and just being children (i.e. wiping boogers on another person's shirt) is also used in [the] Santa Clause 2 by the toy Santa.  When bringing a tree back for Xmas, the ship passes by a sign that says Human Power, but has Alien Code #1 below it. The code reads "Disposable Office Temps"  While Fry is admiring the bird he has bought for Leela, he passes by a sign written in Alien Code #1. When translated it reads "Joyeux Noex," or for which in French means "Merry Xmas."  Santa Claus was manufactured by the Friendly Robot Company, not Mom's Friendly Robot Company.  Bongo, the one-eared rabbit from Life in Hell, for sale in the pet store?  In the clocktower, theres a sign that reads "No Banana Peels."

9. Why Must I Be A Crustacean in Love

06/02/2000

FROM THE NETWORK THAT BROUGHT YOU THE SIMPSONS

Leela and Amy drag Fry to the gym, and Zoidberg feeling extra energized, joins them. Zoidberg soon starts acting weird and getting violent. After being examined by Farnsworth, he tells the crew that it must be mating season on Zoidberg's planet. While taking him home for mating, Zoidberg informs Fry that there is no such thing as love for his species. Once there, Zoidberg is unsuccessful in finding a mate, and is even rejected by a female he used to know, Edna. Fry decides to help Zoidberg by teaching him how to romance a girl. It seems to be working, and Zoidberg starts feeling these weird emotions for Edna. Unfortunately, once Edna finds out it was Fry behind this, she falls in love with him! In a jealous rage, Zoidberg challenges Fry to Claw Plach, a fight to the death! During the fight, Zoidberg cuts Fry's arm off. The fight is stopped when the mating Frenzy has begun. Edna went off to mate with the emperor of the planet. Zoidberg is upset that he missed the frenzy, but at least he's alive because their species dies after mating.  The episode of All my Circuits Fry and Bender are watching in the beginning of the episode appears to be a repeat. It's from the episode "I, Roommate" where Calculon proposes to his girlfriend Monique.  While the gang walks through the gym, a lady is working out on a machine called a 'kegelcizer' and a huge stack of weights is going up and down.  A "Kegelcizer" is a machine invented by Dr. Arnold Kegel that is used to help women to overcome urinary incontinence.  Zoidberg's ancient homeworld is apparently named Decapod 10. Decapods are an order of (Earth's) crustaceans.  Most of Zoidberg's people talk with New York/Jewish accents.  Fry's list of "first date" ingredients is exactly what Zapp Brannigan had on hand when he invited Leela to meet him in the Love-Nasium.  Edna's doorbell sounds like a sonar pulse.  Zoidberg has elastic restraints on his claws, just like a lobster before it's cooked.

10. Put Your Head On My Shoulder

13/02/2000

When Fry and Amy decide they have a lot in common and begin an office romance just before Valentine's Day, Bender is inspired to start his own dating service, which many apply to, including Leela. Fry just decides to break up with Amy when he is injured in a car crash, and his body is so badly damaged that his head is temporarily transferred to Amy's body. Amy manages to find another date for Valentine's Day, so Fry applies to Bender's service. The dates Bender arranged are a disaster, and Fry gets worried when Amy's date hints that they should go back 'for coffee', but Leela rescues Fry from humiliation by distracting Amy's date and keeping him talking about his job all night. The next day, Dr Zoidberg transfers Fry's head back to his own body, and he thanks both Amy and Leela for their help.  Zoidberg's human anatomy chart is upside-down. Larry and Leela's ex-boss in line outside the Dating Service, along with Hattie.  In the supply cupboard, there are two binders/books/boxes labelled 'P' and 'NP' in the bottom left of the picture. Quick reference to P and NP problems.  Out of 994 Bending Units made, only 90 didn't get recalled.  Amy's compact sounds like a Star Trek communicator.  Bender's sign says "Descreet and Discrete." Roughly translated it means: "Private and Non-Continuous."

11. The Lesser Of Two Evils

Bob Barker (Himself)

THE SHOW THAT WATCHES BACK

Fry, Leela, and Bender go to "Pastorama", a place made to look like the 20th century. While there, Fry runs over Flexo, a robot that looks exactly like Bender, except for his goatee. Soon Bender and Flexo become real good friends and Fry gets jealous. The Professor hires Flexo as extra security when the crew is asked to deliver a valuable Gumbonium atom on a tiara to the Miss Universe Contest. Fry suspects Flexo of wanting to steal the tiara, and sure enough, the tiara ends up missing. Fry tries to track Flexo down at the competition which is being hosted by Bob Barker. After a fight between Bender and Flexo, it's revealed that Bender had stolen the tiara all along. Bob Barker mistakes Flexo for Bender and has him arrested for the crime.  "The Crushenator" returns in this episode. She was first seen in "Episode Two: The Series Has Landed".  In the Subway of Past-O-Rama, there is a sign written in Alien Code #1. It reads "Laser Tentacle Surgery".  During the Miss Universe ceremony, one of the girls is wearing a sash with Alien Code #1 on it. It reads: "Way To Go, "Dexter"!" Later in the credits you see a Character Layout Designer whose name is "Dexter Reed." Apparently he is the one responsible for designing most of the women in the scene.  Bender reads Pentiumhouse magazine.  The Miss Universe audience is all humanoid, though most of the contestants exhibit, shall we say, non-humanoid types of beauty.  One of the possible Miss Universe candidates looks like a three-eyed Abe Simpson, wrapped in a white towel.  First appearance of Flexo.

12. Raging Bender

27/02/2000

Rich Little (Himself) Mr. Moviefone (Himself) Tom Kenny (Abner Doubledeal)

NOMINATED FOR THREE GLEMMYS

Hermes has been taken over by a brain slug, and so to avoid getting infected by one themselves, the Planet Express crew go to the movies. After much consideration over what to see, they decide to see All My Circuits: The Movie.  A robot sits down in front of Bender and Bender starts annoying him. Thinking the robot is a wimp, Bender challenges him to a fight, but the robot is really the Masked Unit from the Ultimate Robot Fighting League! Bender runs off, dropping his popcorn - this causes the Masked Unit to slip. Everyone thinks Bender defeated him, and Bender is asked to join the URFL.  After his first match as "Bender the Offender", Bender discovers that the URFL is a fix. He's not bothered by that, since the most popular robot always wins - and right now, Bender is HOT! However Bender's popularity decreases, and he has to become "The Gender Bender" to lose a fight.  When Leela discovers that Bender's opponent, the Destructor, is being controlled by her old martial arts teacher, who taunted her when she was younger, she trains Bender to win the fight - but will he do it and make himself and Leela proud?

A slight reference to the previous episode, as we see a news broadcast about Miss Universe (crowned last episode).  One of the movies playing is "When a Man Loves a Smizmar." This is one of the little cookies that Groening & Co. liked to put in early episodes, for payoff in later ones, as we learn just what a "Smizmar" is, years later in "Kif Gets Knocked Up a Notch".  The teenage robot at the popcorn counter had acne in the form of Red LEDs.  "The Foreigner" has a New New York accent.  We see that Bender was made by Mom's Friendly Robot Factory in Mexico.

13. A Bicyclops Built For Two

19/03/2000

THE EPISODE HAS BEEN MODIFIED TO FIT YOUR PRIMITIVE SCREEN

Fry experiences the Internet of the future for the first time. While playing a video game, Leela sees a male cyclops, but Fry blast him before Leela finds out anything. Fortunately, the male cyclops - Alkazar - wrote down Leela's screen name and e-mailed her coordinates to his home planet. Once she gets there, Alkazar tells her that he is the last surviving male cyclops and that she seems to be the last surviving female. Alkazar isn't exactly what Leela hoped for when she finds out he's a rude, demanding slob, but still she decides to marry him.  This episode won an Emmy award for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Animation. Color stylist Bari Kumar was the recipient.  In this episode, Leela dresses as Peg Bundy in a spoof on Married... With Children. Katey Segal, who voices Leela, was actually who played Peg Bundy in that show.  One of the races involved in this multiple bride mess is a member of the "Great Race of Yith," from a story by H.P. Lovecraft.  While most of the signs written in the Internet are readable, there are two written in Alien Code. When Leela is destroying signs, she flips upside-down to kick one. While she's flipping, you get a glimpse of one written in Alien Code #1. It reads "Plump . Juicy . Humans . Web".  The other language is the first appearance of Alien Language #2. While going down a hallway of dirty chat rooms, one of the doors is written in the new code. It reads "Codebreakers Chat Room."  Bender had three goldfish bowls and a toaster inside him.  The Internet game the Futurama gang played contained elements of Metroid and Donkey Kong.

14. How Hermes Requisitioned His Groove Back

26/03/2000

Nora Dunn (Morgan Proctor) Dawnn Lewis (LaBarbara Conrad)

Just before an inspection by Morgan Proctor from the Central Bureaucracy, Hermes' office is trashed and, fearing he will be demoted, he threatens to commit suicide. When he is talked out of it, he is sent on paid vacation, to what he believes is a health spar but what turns out to be a forced labor camp. Meanwhile, Morgan Proctor stands in for Hermes as the Planet Express bureaucrat, and when she finds out that Fry is a slob becomes madly attracted to him. They try to keep their relationship secret, but when Bender catches them together he threatens to tell the others, and so Morgan downloads his 'brain' onto a disk and sends it for filing to the Central Bureaucracy. Fry, Leela, Amy and the Professor head down there to get it back, but are unable to find it and are confronted by Morgan. Just then, Hermes and his wife turn up, having improved the efficiency of the forced labor camp so their work is no longer needed there. Hermes locates Bender's disk and exposes Morgan as an inefficient bureaucrat. Impressed, the Professor rehires him.  This is the first time a Futurama episode runs out of production order. The people from Leela's old job return in a poker game with Leela, Fry, Bender, and Zoidberg.  The creature that the group passes in the hallway ("Please, don't tell my supervisor I was sleeping!") is a Beholder from D&D.  The is the first time we see the Austrailian who becomes a running gag (like Sal and Scruffy).

15. A Clone Of My Own

09/04/2000

COMING SOON TO AN ILLEGAL DVD

It's Farnsworth's 150th birthday, and a party is being held for him at Mars University. However the party makes him realize there is so much he has to do, and so little time to do it.  Back home, he reveals his clone, Cubert Farnsworth, who looks and acts like an obnoxious 12 year old brat. The crew soon takes a dislike to Cubert. Farnsworth is crushed when Cubert tells him he doesn't want to be a scientist because Farnsworth's inventions never worked.  Farnsworth decides to end it all, so he calls the Near Death Star. Anyone over 160 goes there for the rest of their lives, never to return, and it turns out Farnsworth has been lying about his age to avoid going there - he's really 160. When the crew find out, they, along with a reluctant Cubert, go off to rescue him...  This episode reveals that the year is no longer 3000, but it is now 3001. Time is advancing, and Matt Groening stated the characters will age, although of course this will not be that obvious. Farnsworth's birthday is also revealed to be April 9th, and although he claims to be born in 2851 to avoid being taken to the Near Death Star, he was really born in 2841. Cubert makes his first appearance this episode.  The acknowledgement of time progressing is one of the main differences between this show and The Simpsons; in that series, although the current year is sometimes given, nothing ever changes with it - for example, Bart and Lisa have always been 10 and 8 years old ever since the show began!  This episode has parodies of Star Wars and The Matrix.  At one point in this episode, Cubert makes a reference to week-old Baloneyum. This is an allusion back to the episode of the Simpsons where the school's substandard budget bought them Oscar Meyer periodic tables.  At the Roasting Ceremony, there is a video wall behind the podium. Alien Code #1 flashes a lot as Fry steps down. After translation, the code reads in order "Roll Picture, Color, Start Sound, Rough Draft Header, XXXX, Start Sound 16, Start Sound 35, 4, 3, 2." A standard display of what you would normally see in older countdown reels.  There's an old-fashioned Slurm billboard in the year 2851.  Every car in the Mars University parking lot is a VW New Beetle.  Cubert was origionally supposed to be a character that would travel with the crew and point out the flaws in the scripts and "natural science." (i.e. How could a one-eyed person with no depth perception pilot a ship through space?) But the plans were scrapped when they realized how annoying it would be, and how the fans would already do it.

16. The Deep South

16/04/2000

Donovan (Himself) Parker Posey (Umbrial)

A STERN WARNING OF THINGS TO COME

A day off from work, the crew aboard the Planet Express Spaceship goes fishing. When Bender fashions a gigantic hook catching a gigantic fish, the spaceship gets dragged underwater and sinks to the bottom. Unfortunately, the ship cannot operate underwater and the professor must modify the engines for them to re-surface. When Bender, Zoidberg, and Fry go out looking for food, Fry spots a mermaid. He tries to tell the others, but they claim he must have "ocean madness". Fry goes out again by him self later and once again meets Umbriel. They start talking and things start getting romantic between them. When the crew notice Fry is gone, they all go out and look for him. While doing so, they discover the long lost city of Atlanta which is inhabited as mer-people. Once the crew finds Fry they are ready to leave, but Fry decides to stay behind. He quickly changes his mind after he encounters a problem in bed with Umbriel.  60's folk rocker Donovan performs a version of his hit "Atlantis," humorously retooled to describe this episodes Lost City of Atlanta. The mermaid's name, Umbriel, is a takeoff on Ariel from The Little Mermaid. Ariel and Umbriel are the names of Uranus' two moons.  In Cartoon Network's showing off this episode, Farnsworth's line "Sweet Zombie Jesus" was edited out so Jesus was muted out of the phrase. As a result, he says "Sweet Zombie (Blank)". Cartoon Network had a similar editing problem with the Special Rejected, which may never air because of this phrase.  When played on TBS, instead of the word "Jesus" being blanked out, the entire "Holy Zombie Jesus!" line was cut from the episode.  Hermes' "Code of Conduct for Cannibalism" rulebook has a decorative bone-patterned border on the cover.

17. Bender Gets Made (a.k.a. Bendfellas)

30/04/2000

Tom Kenny (Joey Mousepad)

SIMULCAST ON CRAZY PEOPLE'S FILLINGS

Bender finally has his chance to meet chef Elzar, his hero, as the Planet Express crew are guests in the audience of Elzar's cooking show. Bender makes a fool of himself, and inadvertently causes Leela to become temporarily blind. Elzar offers them a meal in his restaurant to repay Leela for what happened, but then sticks them with a $1200 bill that they cannot pay. To avoid jail, Bender volunteers to work off the debt. But when he meets members of the Robot Mafia, Bender decides that crime pays more, and joins their group. His job? Steal a shipment of Zuban cigars from a delivery ship to show his loyalty . . . the Planet Express ship. It's one wild ride from there!  The Ambulance that rushes down the street has Alien Code #1 on the front or it. It's written backwards for rearview mirrors and it reads "Meat Truck".  First appearance of Don-Bot, Clamps and Joey Mousepad.

18. The Problem With Popplers (a.k.a. My Problems With Popplers)

07/05/2000

Phil Hendrie (Himself) Phil Hendrie (Free Waterfall Junior)

The crew is on their way back from a delivery and is a few days away from Earth. They spot a planet and land on it, hoping there is a Howard Johnson's on it. There isn't, but instead Leela discovers some worm-lie things. She tastes one, and then another, and then another as they are so delicious. The crew take some back with them to Earth and name them Popplers.  Leela crashes the ship into a bill-board advertising Popplers, to which Fry complains "That's the second bill-board you've crashed into this week", a reference to the gag on the opening credits. In this episode, we learn (or rather, it is confirmed) that Leela's first name is Turonga, and that Fry's first name is Philip.  The Omnicrons from When Aliens Attack make a reappearance.  The episode's title is a take on the Star Trek episode "The Trouble With Tribbles".  From all we can tell, "Smelly Hippie" Free Waterfall Junior is apparently related to Free Waterfall, the Animal Rights Activist in The Birdbot of Ice-Catraz, and war veteran/lawyer Old Man Waterfall in "A Taste of Freedom".  The correct title is "The Problem With Popplers". The one starting with "My..." is entirely due to a typo by TV listing services.  The correct spelling of Leela's first name is "Turanga", not "Turonga".  The term "Popplers" is a play on words. Not only because you 'pop' them in your mouth, but because they're 'popular'.

Apparently Kiff uses an Etch-a-Sketch as an organizer.

19. Mother's Day

14/05/2000

Nicole St. John (Electronic Mother's Day Card)

Mom - the founder of Mom's Friendly Robot Company - recruits all robots in an attempt of world domination.

Text on the Greeting Card: "You created me, Mom / so I guess you're to blame For the love that I feel / just from hearing your name. You're as tender as corned beef / and warm as pastrami ... I wuv my Mommy!"

20. Anthology of Interest I

21/05/2000

Al Gore (Himself) Gary Gygax (Himself) Stephen Hawking (Himself) Nichelle Nichols (Herself)

Professor Farnsworth creates What-If machine. The crew decides to ask the machine questions, which it answers as a video simulation. Bender wonders what if he's 500 ft. tall; Leela asks what it would be like if she was a little bit more impulsive; and what would have happened if Fry would have never been frozen 1000 years ago?

This episode follows the line of the popular Halloween episodes of The Simpsons. Al Gore is voiced by himself, making it his first appearance in any TV series of any kind. It is also one of the very rare times that a politician appears as himself on a show. Usually only famous relatives of politicians make appearances on television shows, such a few years ago when John F. Kennedy Jr. appeared as himself on Murphy Brown, as well as Roger Clinton (Bill Clinton's brother) has appeared as himself a few times on The Nanny.

Speaker of the House Tip O'Neill appeared as himself on Cheers as well.  During the scene where giant Bender flies to earth, the famous guitar riff from Black Sabbath's "Iron Man" plays in the background. Also, the song "Mmmm-Bop" by Hansen is played in this episode.  Bender's "What If" is a spoof of the 1999 animated film The Iron Giant about a giant robot/weapon that is befriended by a young human boy.  That pointy finger that Prof Farnsworth asked the what if machine ends up actually being invented and used in "The Birdbot of Ice-Catraz" episode.  Why exactly Fry create a rift in the space-time continuum by not going into the future isn't explained until Roswell That Ends Well. In that episode, Fry goes back in time to 1948 and ends up becoming his own grandfather. If this doesn't happen (ie by Fry going to the future and then going back in time), Fry wouldn't exist. Therefore the paradox.  Scruffy reappears, although his moustache is now brown, not white like it was when he appeared in A Fishfull Of Dollars.  When Fry's chair falls this time, Nibbler's and Future Fry's shadow are gone for the only time when this is shown. In the first episode, Nibbler is there and in Jurassic Bark, both Nibbler and Fry are there.  The reason for Fry's missing the freezing tube was probably because he fell by himself. Had he been blown in by either Nibbler or himself, he most likely would have fallen in.  An alternate title is "Tales of Interest".  When Bender and Zoidberg start fighting in the streets, one of the apartments has a green sign in Alien Code #1. It reads "Rent A Human".  The cover of the Monster Manual at the end of the third segment is exactly the same as the original Monster Manual from Advanced Dungeons and Dragons 1st editon from the late 1970s. This particular book was, of course, written by Gygax.  First appearance of the Accusing Parlor.