PERSONAL: In praise of Futurama

The reason I never planted myself in front of the TV every Sunday when Futurama was on Fox was because I was afraid of liking the show. It seems silly to say now, but I did not want to become one of those devouts who sing the praises of a work that I know will never gain the popularity it should. The show was always too smart, too conscientious, too playful, and too wise for its own good -- in other words, doomed in primetime TV. What it always needed to be -- what it was all along, really -- was animation-as-literature, combining classic elements of storytelling (the characters are especially unforgettable) with satire, comedy, and just the right touch of what we could call "heart" (you'll recognize it when you see it because it's what the early seasons of The Simpson's was chock full of; Matt Groening, of course, is a genius). What it needed was to be a movie franchise.

If you have not already, you should go watch these four movies in succession:

1. Bender's Big Score
2. The Beast with a Billion Backs
3. Bender's Game
4. Into the Wild Green Yonder

Bender's Big Score marks an incredibly strong start and is probably the finest film in the series. But Bender's Game is a hilarious satire with ample wit, and Into the Wild Green Yonder marks a fitting end to what should be hailed as a truly great show of our times. I'm really a little sad that this franchise truly has -- it seems, this time -- run its course. It went out on a very high, hopeful note.

I'm halfway glad, though, that Futurama won't be meeting the same fate as The Simpson's -- strapped to a cash cow and milked to the detriment of everyone who knew it from an earlier, better time. (We can talk about how bad The Simpson's has become some other day.) Let us honor Futurama, quite simply, by pausing to give it praise.

***
Two scenes:

From Bender's Game:

Professor: ...instead of science, we believe in hokus pokus. It's like Kansas.
Leila: God help us all!

From Into the Wild Green Yonder

Leila: It's like a textbook on evolution!
Fry: Except in Kansas.

Dear Kansas School Board Administrators,

You schmucks really are as stupid as everyone says you are.

Signed,
Former Kansas Public School Student

p.s. (that's me)