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============= THE FUTURAMA CHRONICLES ==== EPISODE CAPSULE =============
========================================================================
Official Title: A Big Piece of Garbage
Episode Number: 1ACV08 (#8)
First Airdate : Tuesday, May 11th, 1999
Written by : Lewis Morton
Directed by : Susan Dietter
========================================================================
= Additional tidbits =
Opening theme promotion : Mr. Bender's Wardrobe by
ROBOTANY 500
Opening theme cartoon : "A Corny Concerto" {dd}
Subsequent Fox Airdates : 25-Jul-99
11-May-99 Nielsen ranking: 5.4% of audience (#75 for the week)
25-Jul-99 Nielsen ranking: 4.3% of audience (#69 for the week)
MPAA rating : TV-PG-S
Length minus commercials : [21:24]
========================================================================
= Foxworld Synopsis =
While at a science symposium hosted by inventor extraordinaire Ron
Popeil's head-in-a-jar, the Professor creates a new invention -- the
Smelloscope. Initially criticized, the Smelloscope is redeemed when
it reveals that a putrid celestial body is on a collision course with
Earth. To make matters worse, the approaching object is a huge mass
of garbage launched into space at the end of the 20th century, after
New York ran out of landfill sites. The trash-teroid's orbit has set
it on a path of destruction and it just may take a rag-tag team of
package delivery specialists to land on it and blow it up before it
creates Armageddon on Earth.
========================================================================
= Minutiae =
- At the very beginning, Farnworth says that they are going to a
symposium, and then Fry says something like "Wow, I LOVE symposia!"
This is hilarious because it is completely out of context that stupid
Fry would use "symposia," the proper Latin plural of "symposium."
[This contributor did not want to be credited.]
- As we all know, the Deathclock, presumably, said that Fry didn't have
long to live. Is it possible that it arrived to such a conclusion
because it believed that the garbage ball or the bomb planted on it
would kill him and the reason why he didn't die was because of free
will? {sam} [It might also be that it didn't forsee the garbage
ball at all, and Fry would die from his Ebola 9 delivery. {jb}]
- Portrait of Farnsworth has him with red hair like Fry and the
obligatory pens in his shirt pocket. {hl}
- Back in Mars University, Ogden Wernstrom sat in the front row. {jk}
- The Acadamy of Inventors Seal included spray-on toupee. {jk}
- Waiter at the banquet is carrying drinks in various lab containers,
such as test tubes. {ds}
- Look carefully and you'll see that the Professor's hand movement
matches that shown on the overhead projection exactly.
- The academy prize looked like an Emmy award. {bm}
- When Farnsworth holds up his napkin later in the episode, it still
has the same markings and smears on it.
- A great example of attention to detail ... only Farnsworth knew that
Uranus's name was changed in 2620. Leela had no clue! She's just
a
schmoe-ette, while Huburt is learned in all fields. {bk}
- Was I the only one concerned about Fry's nose being torn off when
Farnsworth manipulated the Smelloscope's trajectory?
- News show is \/2 News (root 2 or 1.414 News). {hl}
- The Earth's population in Y3K is still in the billions, even after
the cyborgs and alien spacecraft attacks. {ds} [Well, there's only
been 1000 years of population increase, immigration, and such. We
don't know that the aliens completely destroyed civilization, either.
{jb}]
- The beanie baby's name that Fry held up is "Stripes the Tiger."
{sh2}
- Exactly twenty seconds pass during the commercial.
- Bender scratches himself while standing on the heap of garbage. {vy}
- "This picture of your wife? Pure garbage." wasn't taken
offensively but the Mayor, which might lead one to believe that the
Mayor might agree ... in a completely different way. {js}
- Did anyone else notice that the Mayor and his assistant looked more
than a little like our President and his cigar weilding intern? That
would explain why he wasn't too upset when his wife's picture was
smashed to bits. {ab}
- When Fry instructs Leela to discard her doughnut, he refers to it as
a cruller, although it sounds like he says "crawler." It
actually
kind of looks like something that would crawl, though ... {vy}
- The City of NNY Seal features a human and a robot. {ds}
- Professor Wormstrom got his three Chinese interns. {dd}
- Wormstrom's interns were also shaking their fists when he vowed
revenge "even if it takes me ANOTHER hundred years!" {js}
========================================================================
= Parallels to Science Fiction =
~ "This Island Earth" (movie)
- Morvo is a Metaluna Mutant, a biologically produced servant/soldier
to the Metalunans in the classic 1955 sci-fi feature. {dd}
~ "Life-Line" (short story)
- The idea of the Death Clock is examined in great detail in a short
story by Robert Heinlein called "Life-Line," originally
published
in 1939. In the story, the doctor invents a machine that can trace
a body's vibrations through time and accurately predict when a
person will die. Being a Heinlein story, the hero gets involved
in
all kinds of bureaucracy as a result. But the machine is right.
I'm not sure where you can find the story, but I found it in a 1979
edition of "Isaac Assimov Presents the Great SF Stories Vol.
1." I
highly recommend the entire series. {ac}
~ "Red Dwarf" (TV show)
- "FUN IN THE SUN" is the theme song of the British SF TV-series.
The theme song was composed by Howard Goodall and sung by Jenna
Russell. {jr2} (For the complete lyrics, see "Final Thoughts
/
Comments.")
- I don't know if this is a ref or not, but the way the garbage was
eventually destroyed was very similar to an episode of Red Dwarf
("White Hole"), where Lister plugs up a White Hole by "Playing
pool
with planets." {mf2}
+ "Return of the Jedi" (movie)
- The holographic projection was taken right of it. {rd2}
~ "Star Trek" (orig. TV series)
- Doors open with the same sound used in ST, same with the Leonard
Nimoy collector's plate. FYI, the stupid Uranus joke is another
ST
reference, "Going around Uranus and picking up Klingons."
{vy}
========================================================================
= Other References =
~ "Alf" (TV show)
- Did anyone else think that he was a reference to alf? Maybe
stretching, but alf considered cats a delicacy. "Kittens give
Morbo gas." {aa}
~ "The Alice's Restaurant Massacree" (?)
- Did anyone else notice a connection between the garbage solution
and "The Alice's Restaurant Massacree?" Namely, how Guthrie
says: "...at the bottom of the cliff was another plie of garbage,
and we decided that one big plie was better than two little piles,
and rather than bring that one up, we decided to throw ours down."
{ag}
+ "Armageddon" (1998 movie)
- A giant ball of trash heading towards New New York similar to the
plot of the film. {jk}
- The color and design of the space suites is right out of
Armageddon. {zz}
+ Botany 500
- Robotany 500. {jk}
+ "Citibank" (corporation)
- City hall has been bought out by the 20th century banking firm,
Citibank (note the similarities between the two logos). {vy}
+ "Dr. Strangelove ... " (movie)
- At the end, right before the commecial for the next futurama, there
was a shot of the garbage asteroid floating past the camera.
During this time, the song "We'll meet again" is playing.
This is
kinda a reference to the 1964 Stanely Kubrick movie "Dr.
Strangelove; or how I learned to stop worrying and love the bomb."
At the end of that movie, A series of nuclear explosions is shown
with "We'll meet again" playing. {jr3} [Rob McCartny
disagrees
that this is a direct reference. See "Final Thoughts / Comments."]
- Just for the sake of getting all the facts down, the song is sung
(in its most famous version - I'm not _sure_ that this was the one
used here) by Vera Lynn. {jet}
+ "The Simpsons" (That _other_ cartoon)
- Bender appreciates the taste of some 20th-century-era figurines,
a
real-life line of memorabilia dedicated to Matt Groening's freshman
television show, The Simpsons.
- Bender copies one of Homer's catchphrases when he eats Bart's
shorts and remakrs "Mmmm ... shorts!"
- The Bart Simpson dolls are wearing blue shirts, the color of Bart's
shirt when it comes to merchandise. {jk}
========================================================================
= Freeze Frame Fanaticism =
>> Academy of Inventors [AOI] Official Seal {ds}
light | the
bulb | wheel
------------------
mouse | spray-on
trap | toupe
>> Buildings / Signs
PETE'S TVs
letting people watch news reports
in our windows since 1951
>> The city has a change of heart
losers
WELCOME HOME, [HEROES!] <-- "heroes" is crossed out
>> The legendary spinning newspaper
NEW NEW YORK POST
---
CITY URGED
TO LITTER!
========================================================================
= Goofs =
- Bender says, "Dibs on his CD player." In 1ACV06, Fry had
his CD
player reposessed, didn't he? {vy}
- Can't the people of the next millenium find a better solution to
baldness than spray-on toupees?
- The wooden panels that make up the symposium ceiling grow in size
when Farnsworth takes the stage.
- Dr. Farnsworth places a piece of paper on an overhead projector (you
need to use celluloid transparencies with an overhead projector, or
an opaque projector). {vy}
- When the crew first approaches the Smelloscope and we get a view from
outside the window, the outlines of the windows' shadows appear on
the floor inside. It's as if someone was supposed to color it in,
but never did.
- When Fry makes his Uranus joke, the elevator is in the wrong place.
- Where did Bender's lootin' TV come from?
- There is a rope attached to the "Fun in the Sun" barge, but
it
disappears when the barge sails away.
- The steamboat was actually a product of the 18th century. In the
30th century educational institutions, everything from 1 AD to 2700
is probably grouped into the time period known as the "stupid
ages."
{jb}
- When the PE ship first zooms into space, it looks like it's coming
from Europe instead of NNY.
- It'd be impossible for Fry's neck to fit inside the six-pack ring,
especially with his helmet on.
- When the timer counts down, the good Professor supposedly installed
the readout upside-down. If this were really the case, when Leela
thinks it says "15:00", the "1" should be further
to the left. On
LCDs, numbers are formed from any of 7 elements (an "8" uses
all 7).
A "1" uses the two rightmost elements. Flipped, these would
be the
two LEFTmost ones, which the readout as shown does not show. {mc}
- When Bender picks up the bomb, the clock loses two seconds. The bomb
stops beeping before Leela's line "That idiot ... "
- The clock loses four seconds when Bender throws it at Leela, and
another five seconds when he throws it into space. All in all, it
goes from 19:00 to 00:00 in ten seconds.
- The buildings outside the Mayor's office change.
- When Mayor Poopenmeyer yells "Get that robot some more beer"
off-
screen, who's he talking to?
- Only a few things in the office are trashed, but an overhead shot
reveals much of the furniture and previously non-existant items
overturned and broken.
- NNY had 72 hours until zero-hour, but somehow the entire city managed
to amass enough garbage to send up at the trashteroid on almost no
time at all. The original trash ball took DECADES to develop, didn't
it? {js}
- The garbage would have to be traveling pretty darn fast to reach the
sun in only a few seconds. (Maybe it burned up because it was just
_closer_ to the sun, even though it never actually reached it.)
========================================================================
= Extended Goofs / Technical Nitpicks =
>> Smell ya' later!
Haynes Lee: Smell can't travel through the vacuum of space.
Derek Robb: Why on earth not? [I find this choice of words to be very
ironic. -ed] Smell is particulate. Now, granted, there generally
aren't many folks who would be breathing through their nose in the
vacuum of space, but there's nothing keeping oderous particulate
matter from travelling through it.
Michael K. Neylon: While particles do travel through any medium, to be
able to smell those particle requires a certain concentration of them
in the air - and while the particle would travel from Jupiter or
Saturn to Earth, the concentration will drop off with the square of
the distance, roughly ... so maybe one or two particles a year from
Jupiter will make it to earth.
Derek Robb: I'll grant you that, but that's more a matter of "Jupiter
is too far away to smell" ... not "smell cannot travel in
a vacuum."
Well, that and the particles in question would never survive re-
entering an atmosphere. But still.
I will not rest until every nit has been picked!
William Rieder: Ahh, but! The recent speculation about Mars "seeding"
early Earth with spores takes into account the fact that the sun's
huge gravitation force _pulls_ the outer planets' particulate matter
_towards_ the Earth. Smelling Mecury or Venus would be tough ... but
Mars (+ the other outers)? Hell - we get (miniscule) _meteors_ worth
of particulate matter every day!
Larry Kurtz: In this case, the odour is not traveling through space ...
the smelloscope uses an advanced technology that locates the odors.
The odors are not brought down to earth via the smelloscope, the
smelloscope somehow accesses the smells where they reside. Possibly
creating a sort of "genetic code" of the smell, and coding/decoding
it on earth to recreate the smell?
John Wasser: I would further speculate that the smelloscope is not
necesarily reproducing the true odor of the celestial objects. It
is
common for instruments to adjust a signal to match the senses of the
operator. For example it would not make sense for an infrared
telescope (designed for humans) to require infrared-sensitive eyes.
The image would generally be displayed as shades of grey or a "false
color" image where different ranges of infrared wavelengths would
be
represented as different colors.
Perhaps the smelloscope senses something about the object that is
indicative of its odour (reflection spectrum, nuclear spin moment,
whatever ... ) and converts that to a smell in the range that can be
sensed by humans. It would be most useful for comparing the
properties of celestial objects ... Perhaps we would find that fruit
odours indicate the presence of valuable minerals near the surface!
Andrew Gill: What if the smelloscope were to precisely focus intense
laser energy on a point where aromatic particles are believed to be,
vaporise those particles, check the IR chromatography for that
chemical, then duplicate it in the smelloscope cruet?
The main problem is that there would be a huge delay between when the
laser was aimed and when it reached its destination, and when it came
back, and when it created the chemical. Not only would that cause
a
problem with the immense rime that it would take, but it would alse
cause a problem with the movements of the bodies. The planets would
move enough so that it would be impossible to correctly aim it
without solving the many-body problem.
Steven Aaron Monroe: A smelloscope could actually be invented and, in
fact, we already have something sort of like it, the spectrometer.
My guess is that the smelloscope works by analyzing the spectrum of
light coming from the celestial object, just like a spectrometer.
However, the smelloscope apparently also recreates the chemicals
and/or odors of the object in question so that a person could smell
them. Farnsworth said that the smelloscope works by collecting
odors, but, as mentioned on another website, such a thing would be
impossible or incredibly impractical. Since he was senile enough to
forget that he had already invented the smelloscope and that he had
already presented the Deathclock, he was probably also senile enough
to forget how he built it.
In reply to Haynes Lee's original accusation that smells can't travel
through the vacuum of space, Hannah M. reminds us that "it _can_
travel through the vacuum of a cartoon. Debate resolved."
>> The Plural zones strike again?
For the most part, the placement of the garbage ball, the Earth, the sun
and the moon are accurate throughout the episode, but there are a few
slip-ups. First of all, when we first see the ship taking off, it's
going in the wrong direction. Even if they were planning on looping
around the globe first, they'd still be approaching the garbage ball
from a different angle than was shown. Another concern is the ball's
trajectory. Taking into account the Earth's rotation, (as
demonstrated in the holographic projection shown early in Act Two),
the western hemisphere should not be visible from the ball itself
until very close to collision. For the most part, this goes
accordingly, as the view from the ball is of Eurasia (not to be
confused with Urectum) and Africa. However, in the final shot from
on top of the trashteroid, we see a head-on view of North America.
Presumably, this is just for artistic emphasis, as the crew standing
there with a view of somewhere halfway around the world from the
impending collision just isn't the same.
>> Size Doesn't Matter! (whoops, wrong Summer-'98 disaster-movie
... )
Steven Aaron Monroe: The big ball of garbage seems to have gotten much
bigger while it was floating around for almost a millenium. Though
we clearly see that it is small enough to fit on a normal-sized barge
and rocket, when it approaches Earth it appears to be large enough
to
have a strong enough gravity field for the Planet Express Crew to
walk around and for it to hold an atmosphere (which would explain why
we could hear the Bart Simpson doll). However, when we see the
second ball of garbage (which should have been just as large as the
first) on the launch pad, it looks pretty tiny compared to how big
it
should be.
Vince Yim: A trash ball of that size would not cause significant damage
upon impact, as much of the mass would burn up upon re-entry (but
hey, it makes for a good story).
The size between the ball of trash as shown in the "pornocumentary"
(thanks to whoever coined that term ... I'll have to remember that
*)
is inconsistent with the ball of trash that the Planetary Express
team lands on. Unless the ball of trash is actually picking stuff
up
along the way, it should actually be really small, and would not have
caused significant damage on impact (but then, that would make for
a
dull story).
If it were actually that small, it should not have enough gravity to
keep them from walking without breaching the escape velocity of the
object. They would have to use docking clamps in order to secure the
ship on the planet, but instead it simply lands on it (but again, it
makes for a good story).
[* - I believe it was Dave Sweatt who first used the word with regard
to
this episode. -ed]
========================================================================
= Reviews =
Haynes Lee: Good episode. Character development of Professor
Farnsworth with good 20th century references. (A-)
Patrick McGovern: Good episode, another great new character, and some
really good depth to Farnsworth. This should also silence the "Fry
is a stupid asshole" critics for a while. Bender should've had
more
lines, but when he was hot (like his "Trash making" beer
blast), he
was hot. (B+)
Vince Yim: This is one of my favorite episodes by far. Even though I
haven't seen Armageddon yet, the references were really obvious yet
subtle (and hilarious nonetheless). The historical movie on the NNY
garbage problem turning into a porn film had me in stitches. A few
lapses in continuity here and there, but those don't get in the way.
(A)
Yours Truly: For the first time, I didn't laugh much throughout the
whole thing, even though I really wanted to. It seemed much of the
careful subtlety we usually see in the show was abandoned in favor
of
a few stand-outish jokes (which, to be fair, _were_ funny). Aside
from humor, the plot seemed kind of slow-paced, and it felt like the
20th-century bashing was being pounded into my head. But looking
back, I suppose things could be a lot worse. (C+)
Average Grade: [16/4=4] (B+)
========================================================================
= Final Thoughts / Comments =
>> Is it sponsored by Stop-N-Drop?
Benjamin Robinson: [The internet]'s also got a death clock, over a
thousand years before Dr. Farnsworth came up with the idea. The
morbidly curious can go to <http://www.deathclock.com> to see
when
they'll shuffle off this mortal coil.
>> Happiness is overanalyzation
There was some discussion over the hidden meaning behind Bender's
"Fortified Wine List," which consisted of the '71 Hobo's
Delight, the
'57 Chateau Parte and the '66 Thunder Shewitz. The first to comment
was Dave Antonoff, who said the middle wine was "obviously a play
on
'House party.'"
John E. Thelin: I would say it is a play on how some people will
proclaim "Time to par-TAY!", and since it sorta' sounds vaguely
French, the adding Chateau to it makes sense.
Dave Antonoff: You may be right but Chateau _is_ French for house, and
"house party" _is_ a common enough phrase, I think there
might have
even been a film with that as the title.
Maybe "House Par-TAY?"
John E. Thelin: Ehm, no. Chateau is french for "castle." It
is a
common preface to many wine names, as vineyards are often appended
to
castles.
I think it was (like the other two examples) a mix of high and low
-
the "chateau" part indicating culture, and the "par-tay"
indicating
lack of such.
Michael Choi: Actually, "chez" is not an "architectural"
term but just
a locational one, "at the home of." "Maison" is
French for "house."
Dave Antonoff makes an additional remark about the 66' Thunder Shewitz:
A piquant blend of Thunderbird (drink of choice for the stereotypical
Sterno bum) and Manishevitz (cheap wine imbibed at Bar Mitzvahs and
other essentially Jewish functions).
Michael D. Hovde: I thought this referred to cars: 57 Chevy, 66
Thunderbird ... (no idea what 71 is, though).
>> Never overestimate the human race
Steven Aaron Monroe: The two inventions presented during the Symposium
that we see (the Reverse Scuba suit and that helicopter Beanie hat)
seem awfully primitive for the 30th century. The Deathclock (if it
works) seems to be a more accurate example of technology in the year
3000.
>> He should quit while he's a head
Haynes Lee: One of Ron Popeil's feats in the 20th century was the
invention of the informercial.
Frederick J. Barnett: It wasn't mentioned in the show, but didn't he
also invent (or maybe just distributed) the Popeil Pocket Fisherman?
Michael R. Flavin: No, the Pocket Fisherman was invented by Ron's
father. (Sorry, but I don't know his first name.) I know this
because of the Weird Al Yankovic song Mr. Popeil, about Ron's dad,
which featured backup vocals by Lisa Popeil, Ron's sister. I really
know much more than I should about the Popeil clan, don't I?
>> The downside to having two punchlines
Sarah Culp: What I found interesting was that in the promos for the
episode, the "Smell Uranus" joke was presented _as_ the joke.
Then
the actual show mocked the stupidity of such a joke.
If Futurama ever makes it to syndication, I have no doubt
that in the
scene where they're smelling the planets, everything after "As
long
as you don't make me smell Uranus" will be cut.
>> Urban Folklore References
Haynes Lee provides one: T. 800ft diameter asteroid passed within 500K
miles of hitting earth in 1989.
The next one, introduced by Dave Sweatt, sparked some discussion. He
wrote: "A barge full of garbage once actually went from seaport
to
seaport along the east coast trying to find someplace that would
receive it, but was repeatedly turned away."
Ryan Paige: I took a trip to New York after the barge had returned to
the City. The tour guide on the Circle Line actually pointed out the
barge in the harbor as part of the tour (and menti
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