Earlier this year, I celebrated the twentieth anniversary of a cartoon show that was very important to me growing up and remains one of my favourite television series. But May 1999 was just when Futurama first aired, the date much more important to the show was December 31st of that year: the eve of the new millennium where the series begins and from where Philip J. Fry is frozen for a thousand years. It’s also the date most often returned to in the show both thematically and literally (more than a few time travel devices turn up over its run). So on the auspicious occasion of that separate but equally important touchstone for the show, I return to pay further tribute with a list of the twenty best episodes of the series. Of course, that still leaves off a good chunk of favourites, both from the shows’ original Fox run and its’ Comedy Central revival (though the latter does have fewer). But these are what I consider to be the best of the best.
20. A Flight to Remember
Season 1, Episode 10
Written by Eric Horsted
Directed by Peter Avanzino
Space Titanic. That’s all this episode is really, a take on the iconic romance but with robot leads and a bunch of space-themed jokes, and that’s enough if it’s very very funny -which it is. There’s a subplot involving Fry pretending to be Amy’s boyfriend to impress her parents (and the inklings of Leela’s feelings for him), to ground it, but this is an episode all about cleverly and creatively riffing and it does so terrifically.
Directed by Susan Dietter
The only Futurama episode that could be called a Halloween special, “The Honking” cleverly combines The Wolf Man with Christine to the effect of a terribly inventive Were-Car concept and a lot of fun and thrills that go along with it. One of my favourite comments on the Fry and Bender friendship is Fry’s jealousy at the possessed Bender not trying to kill him.
18. Fry and the Slurm Factory
Season 1, Episode 13
Written by Lewis Morton
Directed by Ron Hughart
Another early parody episode that pretty much gets by on the strength of its parody and its outrageous, disturbing plot, “Fry and the Slurm Factory” just has a ton of the shows’ best jokes (including the unsettling implication that Soylent Green is an accepted reality of this universe), and one of its greatest bizarre story developments -an early sign of just how weird, exciting, idiosyncratic, and terrifying the world of this show could be.
17. The Why of Fry
Season 4, Episode 10
Written by David X. Cohen
Directed by Wes Archer
It was apparently planned from the beginning that Leela’s pet Nibbler would have a hand in Fry being sent to the future and when the show finally got around to revealing how and why with a simple yet satiric take on a chosen one narrative, it did so by pairing it with a surprisingly sincere theme on Fry’s self-worth and happiness in the future -very resonant for many viewers likewise feeling insignificant or unloved in their lives.
16. War is the H-Word
Season 2, Episode 17
Written by Eric Horsted
Directed by Ron Hughart
“War Were Declared”. It’s always fun on a show like this when the writers can just take a topic and run with it as far as they can, pelting it with jokes from all cylinders. “War is the H-Word” targets everything related to war from sci-fi war movies and M*A*S*H to the Military Industrial Complex, commentary on American foreign policy, gender roles and sexism in the army, and plenty of satire on Vietnam. It’s a blast!
15. Hell is Other Robots
Season 1, Episode 9
Written by Eric Kaplan
Directed by Rich Moore
Of all the weird world-building concepts for Futurama, one of the weirdest certainly has to be the Robot Devil as voiced tremendously by Dan Castellaneta. But this episode was also the first to really explore religion in this world and there’s a lot of fantastic humour to be had in that before Bender finds himself in Robot Hell (located in New Jersey). It’s also got one of the shows’ very best original songs.
14. Time Keeps on Slippin’
Season 3, Episode 14
Written by Ken Keeler
Directed by Chris Loudon
Futurama had plenty of interesting time travel concepts and one of the most novel was this episodes’ use of a time skipping phenomenon, where the universe would jump forward in time at random intervals. This of course leads to a lot of great gags, but also a bittersweet episode in the relationship between Fry and Leela, where Fry does something that finally wins her over during a time skip and desperately tries to figure out what.
13. Roswell That Ends Well
Season 3, Episode 19
Written by J. Stewart Burns
Directed by Rich Moore
Also known as the episode where Fry becomes his own grandfather, it’s a very funny and inventive take on the Roswell conspiracy theories. Zoidberg is the alien, Bender’s body is the flying saucer, and Fry accidentally kills his idiot grandfather before unwittingly having sex with his grandmother. It’s got a lot going on, but balances everything well and has plenty of fun with the period, making it one of the shows’ best time travel episodes.
12. Jurassic Bark
Season 4, Episode 7
Written by Eric Kaplan
Directed by Swinton O. Scott III
One of the most famous episodes of Futurama, if for no other reason than its’ heartbreaking ending, this is the one about Fry and his dog. Almost every time the show explored Fry’s past life it came with an emotional hook tied to the consequences of his disappearance. And this in spite of some heartwarming, joyful, and hilarious moments, was about the most devastating example, as even non pet-owners can emmpathize with its ultimate tragic irony.
11. The Sting
Season 4, Episode 12
Written by Patric M. Verrone
Directed by Brian Sheesley
The rare Fry-Leela episode actually told from Leela’s point of view is touching of course, but also terribly creative and emphatically surreal as it deals with Leela’s trauma after Fry dies for her on a delivery, encountering him subsequently through a number of dreams. It’s one of the shows’ sweetest, most outrageous, and weirdly darker episodes, well-plotted too as it throws you for twist after twist with a boldness unseen in T.V. animation at the time.
10. Meanwhile
Season 7, Episode 26
Written by Ken Keeler
Directed by Peter Avanzino
The best episode of the final season is fittingly the series finale, the fourth one written for Futurama and still one of the best of any T.V. series I’ve seen. “Meanwhile” brings to a conclusion the romance between Fry and Leela, through first shenanigans involving a minor time travel device then ultimately playing out the satisfactory love story we all wanted for these characters. It’s beautiful, compelling, and funny, ending the show on the high note it more than deserved.
9. The Problem with Popplers
Season 2, Episode 15
Written by Patric M. Verrone
Directed by Chris Sauve and Gregg Vanzo
An all-time classic in my opinion, “The Problem with Popplers” is emblematic of the brilliance of Futurama’s satire at its best: taking a relevant issue or concept, such as the food industry, putting it within the framework of this heightened world and letting loose. In a show full of dark implications, this epsodes’ premise might be the darkest, yet through all the incredible silliness, it has some important things to say.
8. The Luck of the Fryrish
Season 3, Episode 4
Written by Ron Weiner
Directed by Chris Loudon
This was the first episode to explore one of Fry’s past relationships in the twentieth century: his intense youth-spanning rivalry with his older brother. Contrasting their history with Fry presently getting to the bottom of how his brother wound up leading a famous, comically successful life after he was frozen, it’s ultimately one of the most touching and profound tributes to sibling relationships I’ve ever seen on television.
7. The Devils’ Hands Are Idle Playthings
Season 4, Episode 18
Written by Ken Keeler
Directed by Brett Haaland
As great as “Meanwhile” is, Futurama’s first series finale remains its best. Perhaps because most of it doesn’t seem like an ending, though the themes are subtly there. It’s got opera and a musical number, memorable jokes, Faustian allusions, robot hands, everything; and somehow manages to be a satisfying cap to an era without overtly trying to be. Nevertheless, I still get moved by Leela’s final line: “I want to hear how it ends.”
6. Leela’s Homeworld
Season 4, Episode 2
Written by Kristen Gore
Directed by Mark Ervin
The question of Leela’s alien origin, which served as an overarching mystery during the early years of the show, was answered deftly and tenderly by this episode that moves with palpable stakes and a suspenseful momentum. The twist, slyly foreshadowed over the previous four years, is nonetheless a very good one and is executed marvellously by a script that’s one of the shows’ strongest. And I dare any episode of Futurama to have a sweeter ending.
5. Bender’s Big Score
Feature Film (Season 5, Episodes 1-4)
Written by Ken Keeler
Directed by Dwayne Carey-Hill
Whether in broken up quarters or viewed in completion, Bender’s Big Score is easily the best of Futurama’s run of direct-to-video movies. It’s wild how fun and funny, brilliant and bizarre, eclectic and emotional it is; distilling just about everything great about the show into this virtually cinematic extension involving alien nudist scammers taking over the world, a time travel code on Fry’s ass, Bender becoming a terminator, the drama of time paradox duplicates, and solid gold death stars.
4. Godfellas
Season 3, Episode 20
Written by Ken Keeler
Directed by Susan Dietter
The most philosophically provocative episode of the series begins with space pirates (then again, so did Ad Astra). And yet the story it spawns in which Bender literally plays God is rife with thoughtful religious and ethical commentary. Unlike most of its contemporaries, Futurama was a show in a position to literalize such themes and go so far as to include an actual conversation between Bender and “God” without straining the foundations of the show. The result is one of the finest meditations on faith and morality the medium of television has produced.
3. Xmas Story
Season 2, Episode 4
Written by David X. Cohen
Directed by Peter Avanzino
I watch this episode every year and never grow tired of its deliberate ingenious subversions. A Robot Santa with too high a standard for ‘niceness’ going on a rampage/maiming spree every Xmas is such a neat concept, and that it still manages to be paired with traditional holiday themes of generosity and togetherness only makes the episode richer. One of the very best and most sorely underrated Christmas shows.
2. Parasites Lost
Season 3, Episode 2
Written by Eric Kaplan
Directed by Peter Avanzino
This was the episode that really kickstarted the Fry-Leela romance as the primary character arc of the show. It’s also one of the series’ greatest premises: a truck stop sandwich gives Fry worms that enhance his stamina and intellect. And additionally, it’s non-stop hilarious, particularly during the Fantastic Voyage-style quest to expel the worms. Featuring arguably the greatest of Fry’s many potentially sacrificial acts, one that’s for himself as much as for Leela, it is a defining episode of Futurama and one worth returning to time and again.
1. The Late Philip J. Fry
Season 6, Episode 7
Written by Lewis Morton
Directed by Peter Avanzino
Perhaps a controversial choice, but in my opinion no episode better encapsulates the wicked humour, extraordinary creativity, and warm tenderness of Futurama better than this episode that alone justifies the Comedy Central run of the series. Once again centring on time travel, it sees Fry, Bender, and the Professor trapped in a one-way time machine travelling deeper and deeper into the future to find a backwards one. In addition to the bevy of great sketches and jokes in each of the future realities, the episode hints at existential themes on par with “Godfellas”; and with a Douglas Adams sensibility and a damn good if comparatively more subtle emotional hook for Fry, I have no problem declaring it the best episode of one of the great shows of the twenty-first century!
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The only Futurama episode that could be called a Halloween special, “The Honking” cleverly combines The Wolf Man with Christine to the effect of a terribly inventive Were-Car concept and a lot of fun and thrills that go along with it. One of my favourite comments on the Fry and Bender friendship is Fry’s jealousy at the possessed Bender not trying to kill him.
Perhaps a controversial choice, but in my opinion no episode better encapsulates the wicked humour, extraordinary creativity, and warm tenderness of Futurama better than this episode that alone justifies the Comedy Central run of the series. Once again centring on time travel, it sees Fry, Bender, and the Professor trapped in a one-way time machine travelling deeper and deeper into the future to find a backwards one. In addition to the bevy of great sketches and jokes in each of the future realities, the episode hints at existential themes on par with “Godfellas”; and with a Douglas Adams sensibility and a damn good if comparatively more subtle emotional hook for Fry, I have no problem declaring it the best episode of one of the great shows of the twenty-first century!
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