A Pharoah To Remember

Production Code: 3ACV17
Original Airdate : Sunday March 10, 2002
Written by : Lewis Morton

Note: This capsule is still a work in progress. Send additional comments or missing information to tomg at io dot com or post to alt.tv.futurama for possible inclusion in the next revision. Thanks for helping out!

Synposis

Fry, Leela, and Bender end up as slaves on an Egypt-like planet, but when one of them gets a position of influence, there's hope for...oh, wait, it's Bender, looks like Fry and Leela are screwed royally.

Title sequence

Opening theme promotion :
unknown

Opening theme cartoon :
unknown

Did You Notice?

One of the slave drivers wearing a "What Would the Pharoah Do?" robe?

References (movies, books, etc.)

+ Wedding Bouquet Legend
The professor's funeral being next because he caught the funeral bouquet.

+ Abott and Costello Meets the Mummy
Ancient Egyptian aliens knowing technology to turn pharohs into beings that would scare the two.

+ Cleopatra, King Tut
-Cleotut

+ Candle in the Wind 1997
Elton John performing at the pharoh's funeral.

+ Closing Time
You don't have to go home, but you can't stay here."

+ "Walk Like an Egyptian" by The Bangles
The guitar riff that plays when Pharoah Bender makes his big entrance

+ "Chariots of the Gods" by Erich Von Daniken (see comments)

Freeze Frame Fun

>> Buildings/Signs

Animation, continuity, and other goofs

(nothing yet)

Previous Episode References

(nothing yet)

Other Comments

First Hermes, now Bender: who's next for wearing Speedos?

Old artists' lofts last into the 31st Century, whereas Modernist architecture is being knocked down by Bart Simpson in the year 2010 ("Lisa's Wedding" [2F15]). (Okay, I admit it, I'm an architecture wonk.)

Any guesses why Zoidberg would sing "Danny Boy" as opposed to a Squiddish lamentation?

Why are they delivering sandstone to a planet covered with sand?

Erich von Daniken's "Chariots of the Gods?" is perhaps the best-selling version of the theory that ancient Egypt was visited by space aliens. In this episode, of course, we learn that it's the aliens who learned from the Egyptians, not the other way around.

"Liberty Meadows" slave quarters: there's a comic strip with same name, but I didn't see anything in particular that referred to it.

Contributors

Capsule authored by Tom Georgoulias, using postings from alt.tv.futurama

Joe Klemm
Jym Dyer