Anthology of Interest 1
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Anthology of Interest 1 Written by Eric Rogers, Ken Keeler,
and David X. Cohen
Directed by Chris Louden and Rich Moore
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Production code: 2ACV16 Original Airdate: Sun, 21-May-2000
Snyopsis:
Professor Farnsworth unveils his What-If Machine, which
shows what would happen if Bender was 500 feet tall, Leela
was a little more impulsive, and Fry was never frozen.
Title Sequence
Opening theme promotion:
PAINSTAKINGLY DRAWN
BEFORE A LIVE AUDIENCE
Opening theme cartoon:
Bosko
Did You Notice...
... The army electrocutes Bender with guns that look like
three-pronged elecrical plugs?
... Bender smells something and has to clean the underside
of his shoe after stepping on Zapp and Kif?
... Zoidberg uses the Brooklyn Bridge as a slingshot?
... Bender is impaled by the Empire State building?
... after the anteaters skeltonize Professor Farnsworth, one
of them belches up his eyeglasses, which land on his skull?
... Amy's corpse is holding a handful of purple hair?
... when Fry looks inside a cryogenic tube, he sees a man
wearing glasses, whereas in [1ACV01] this man was not
wearing glasses?
... the people in silhouette who beat Fry with tennis rackets
were Nichelle Nichols and Al Gore?
... Deep Blue somehow managed to pin Fry's sleeve to the floor?
Adam Foster:
... the power switch icons on the side of the 500-foot Bender:
'Off' has a Bender's head with eyes closed, 'On' has a head
with eyes open?
... MacOS 8-style widgets on the video will?
... this time, when Fry falls backwards off the chair, there's
no Nibbler-shaped shadow present?
Voice Credits
- Starring
- Billy West (Fry, Dr. Zoidberg, Prof. Farnsworth, Zapp)
- Katey Sagal (Leela)
- John DiMaggio (Bender)
- Tress MacNeille (Deep Blue)
- Also Starring
- Maurice LaMarche
- Special Appearancex by
- Vice President Al Gore (Himself)
- Stephen Hawking (Himself)
- Nichelle Nichols (Herself)
- Gary Gygax (Himself)
- Guest Starring
- Lauren Tom (Amy Wong)
- Phil Lamarr (Hermes Conrad)
- David Herman
- Kath Soucie (Cubert)
- Frank Welker (Anteaters)
Movie (and other) References
+ "Iron Man" (Song by Black Sabbath)
+ The Iron Giant (Animated Film)
- A young boy befriends a giant deadly robot.
+ Cereal commercials (on TV)
- Bender says, "I want a big cereal."
+ "Mmmmbop" (Song by Hanson)
+ "Hamlet" (Play by William Shakespeare)
- Fry says "Goodnight, sweet prince" when Bender dies, as
Horatio said to Hamlet after Hamlet's own death. {JE}
+ Sherlock Holmes (Books by Arthur Conan Doyle, widely adapted)
- The hat, magnifying glass, and pipe used by Zoidberg resemble
those used in many depictions of Holmes.
+ Poltergeist (Movie)
- Fry asks whether the Planet Express building is on an Indian
cemetary. (Also, see The Simpsons "Treehouse of Horror"
reference below.)
+ Star Trek (TV Series)
- Nichelle Nichols is wearing the Starfleet costume from her
portrayal of Lieutenant Uhuru in that series.
+ The Simpsons
- [7F04] "Treehouse of Horror," which established the format
of "Anthology of Interest:" three "imaginary" tales in one
episode. Both address the scenario of buildings on Indian
burial grounds.
- [7F10] Prediction that a New York City baseball team won't
win the World Series for a very long time.
- [7F22] Most bodacious use of Black Sabbath's "Iron Man."
Previous Episode References
- [1ACV01] Scenes from pilot episode, 31-Dec-1999.
Freeze Frame Fun
- Sign in Central Park:
CENTRAL PARK LAKE
Loitering Permitted, But Be Reasonable
- NEW NEW YORK POST headline:
ROBOT RAMPAGE: THOUSANDS DEAD
None Injured
- Sign on factory with smokestacks:
KENTUCKY SLIMS
Chicken-Flavored Cigarettes
- Professor Farnsworth's experimental enlarging ray:
The SUPER-SIZER
- "Rent A Human" (in Alien Alphabet #1)
- Banner on building stuck sideways into river bank:
LUXURY RIVER VIEW APTS
- Shea Stadium:
HOME OF 1969 & 1986 WORLD CHAMPION METS
- Pannucci's Pizza:
- Sign on door:
Try Our MILLENNIUM PIZZA
2000 KINDS OF MEAT!
- The MONKEY FRACAS JR. video game
- MENU:
Pizza by the slice, 98¢ each
.Pepperoni
.Sausage
.Cheese
.Anchovy
.Olive
- School bus:
GRAND UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT
Animation, Continuity, and Other Goofs
The Professor says he needs an heir, but in [2ACV10] he has already
named Cubert as his heir. Though perhaps if Leela was just a little
more impulsive, he'd not have done so?
It's not clear how Bender and Leela met up with Planet Express
if Fry didn't arrive to unite them all.
Deep Blue's "summer internship" has been extended to January.
Reviews
Adam Foster: It was fun, but not my favourite - I like the
details of the normal plots in Futurama, and I thought that these
mini-stories were just too short. They started, then finished,
with little in the middle. My favourite by far was the Action
Rangers one - it was dark, nerdy, and had Stephen Hawking in it.
Comments and Other Observations
Shea Stadium
Shea Stadium as "Home of the 1969 & 1986 World Champion Mets"
suggests no either that the Mets won't win the World Series
for at least 1,000 years or they've found another home. {jd}
Approximate volume of stadium:
Radius ~ 100m
Height ~ 50m
Volume = 1.6 * 10^6 m^3
Mass of water in stadium = 1.6 * 10^9 kg
Specific heat capacity of water = 4.2 J g^-1 K^-1
= 4200 J kg^-1 K^-1
Assuming water starts at 293K, and boils at 373K,
temperature change = 80K
Energy required to boil water in stadium = 5.4 * 10^14 J
Energy produced burning 1kg ethanol = 2.4 * 10^7 J
Therefore, assuming 100% efficiency, Bender would need to burn
about 22500 tonnes of ethanol in order to boil the contents of
the stadium. Quite how many bottles of Olde Fortran that would
be is left as an exercise for the reader. {af}
- In addition to the 80K temperature change, you must also include
the latent heat to change water into steam (ie boiling). Your
calculations describe how much energy it would take to heat water
from 293K to 373K, but not turn it into steam.
The latent heat of vaporisation of water (L subscript v) = 2.257 MJ/kg
(Physics for Scientists and Engineers, Tipler, 3rd Edition)
Energy require to boil water = 3.6 * 10^15 J.
Total energy required = ~4.2 * 10^15 J.
So your ethanol calculation would be out by a similar factor. {sb}
- Well, the obvious error in using metric measurements
notwithstanding, I think the fact that the stadium was not an
empty cylinder might have negatively affected the accuracy of
the initial volume calculation. {D}
- Also, the water he used was sea water and the addition of the
salt would increase the specific gravity and change the boiling
point. {lf}
Scruffy
This is the Scruffy's first speaking appearance. However, he
first appears within a What-If Machine visualization, and then
again in the "real life" framing narrative sequence which ...
well, I won't spoil that for you, but it does explain why, in
[3ACV02], Bender seems to meet Scruffy for the first time. {jd}
Quotes and Scene Summary
Bender: Ooh! Ooh! I wanna ax it a question. As a robot living
among humans I've never really felt accepted at parties or
nude beaches. So, I've always secretly wondered ... What
if I was 500 feet tall?
Bender flies through space to the tune of Black Sabbath's "Iron Man."
Fry: Who are you?
Bender: I'm a big robot, and I want a big cereal.
Fry: You too? Will you be my friend?
Bender fends off electrical charges, stomps on a tank containing
Zapp and Kif, cleans off the bottom of his foot, and goes on a
building-smashing spree.
Amy: Well, there goes the neighborhood.
[Sound of more smashing.
There goes another neighborhood.
Hermes: We're jerked. Nothing can stop a monster that big!
Farnsworth: Nothing except an even equally big monster!
Zoidberg: [Sniffs] What's this? Two meals in one week?
Guinea Pig: Squeak!
Crew: Got you!
Amy: [Laughs]
Leelas: Sucker!
Zoidberg: Friends, help! A guinea pig tricked me!
Zoidberg: So, now Zoidberg is big, huh? That's more like it!
[Looks out over the New New York skyline.]
Who's intimidating who now, big city?
Giant Zoidberg strolls over to a building.
Zoidberg: Hello, Mr. Chase Manhattan Bank. Deny my credit card
application, will you?
[He smashes the Chase building, then turns to the Apollo.]
Ah, the famed Apollo Theater. Boo me off stage on open
mike night, huh? I'll show you!
[He kicks it to pieces.]
Bender: Bite my colossal metal ass!
Zoidberg leaps out of Shea Stadium and uses his claws to chop
off Bender's feet. Bender falls backwards and is impaled on the
Empire State Building.
Bender: I came here with a simple dream. A dream of killing all
humans. And this is how it must end? Who's the real
seven billion ton robot monster here? Not I, not I...
[His eyes close and he dies.]
Fry: Good night, sweet prince.
Announcer: Interesting stuff! Stay tuned for more ...
Tales of Interest!
[End of Act One.]
Leela: Make that machine show me what would happen if
I was a little more impulsive. Just a little.
[Pauses] Not too much.
Leela: Hey, guys! Look what I bought on a wild impulse: New boots!
They're like my old ones but with a crazy green stripe!
Woo! Never know what I'm gonna do next!
Prof.: You've killed me! You've killed me!
Leela: Oh, no! What have I done?
Prof.: I just told you, you idiot: You've killed me!
Hermes: Sweet giant anteater of Santa Anita! The Professor's been
eaten by giant anteaters!"
Leela: Whoa?
Zoidberg: What?
Hermes: If you ask me, it's mighty suspicious. I'm gonna call the
police ... right after I flush some things.
Zoidberg: Alright, anteater number one. Who are you protecting?
Is it anteater number two? Don't stick your tongue out
at me! I need a name!
Anteater: [Growls]
Zoidberg: What? How do you spell that?
Meanwhile, we can hear Hermes being killed in the other room.
Hermes: What are you hacking off? Is it my torso? It is!
My precious torso!
Zoidberg: Hermes, quiet! I'm deducing things.
Bender: There's nothing wrong with murder. Just as long as you
let Bender wet his beak.
Leela: You're blackmailing me?
Bender: Blackmail is such an ugly word. I prefer extortion.
The "X" makes it sound cool.
Leela: I don't know what came over me. I killed one person on
impulse. Then I had to kill another, and another!"
Fry: Well, that covers the first three killings.
[End of Act Two.]
Fry: I have a question. What if Bender was really giant?
Leela: You idiot. We already saw that.
Fry: I know. I liked it. I wanna see it again.
Prof.: We're not seeing it again. Ask something less stupid.
Fry: Who are you people?
Gore: I'm Al Gore. And these are my vice presidential Action
Rangers. A group of top nerds, whose sole duty is to prevent
disruptions in the space-time continuum.
Fry: I thought your sole duty was to cast the tie-breaking
vote in the Senate.
Gore: That, and protect the space-time continuum. Read the
Constitution.
Gore: To my left you'll recognize Gary Gygax, inventor of
Dungeons & Dragons.
Gygax: Greetings! It's a -- [Rolls multi-sided dice.] --
pleasure to meet you!
Fry: Where am I, anyway?
Nichols: You're travelling in a specially equipped terrestrial
transport module.
Gygax: A school bus!
Nichols: It's about that rip in space-time that you saw.
Hawking: I call it a "Hawking Hole."
Fry: No fair! I saw it first!
Hawking: Who is the Journal of Quantum Physics going to believe?
Al Gore: If we don't go back there and make the event happen,
the entire universe will be destroyed. And as an
environmentalist, I'm against that.
Nichols: Something's wrong. Murder isn't working and that's
all we're good at.
Gygax: Let's try something else. Maybe we should --
[Rolls multi-sided dice.]
Gore: Put the dice away before I take them away.
Hawking: Great. The entire universe was destroyed.
Fry: Destroyed? Then where are we now?"
Gore: I don't know, but I can darn well tell you where
we're not: the universe!
Nichols: Eternity with nerds. It's the Pasadena Star Trek
convention all over again.
Gygax: Anyone wanna play Dungeons & Dragons for the next
quadrillion years?
Nichols: Sure, I guess.
Hawking: Yes, please.
Deep Blue: Pawn to rook eight.
Gore: I'm a tenth level vice president!
[End of Act Three.]
Contributors
Capsule authored by Jym Dyer.
{sb} Stephen Bell
{D} Dave
{jd} Jym Dyer
{JE} Jordan Eisenberg
{lf} Larry F
{af} Adam Foster