An isolated brain is a brain kept alive in vitro , either by perfusion or by a blood substitute , often an oxygenated solution of various salts, or by submerging the brain in oxygenated artificial cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). It is the biological counterpart of brain in a vat . A related concept, attaching the brain or head to the circulatory system of another organism, is called a brain transplant or a head transplant . An isolated brain, however, is more typically attached to an artificial perfusion device rather than a biological body.
120-498: Futurama is an American animated science fiction sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company and later revived by Comedy Central , and then Hulu . The series follows Philip J. Fry , who is cryogenically preserved for 1,000 years and revived on December 31, 2999. Fry finds work at the interplanetary delivery company Planet Express , working alongside the one-eyed mutant Leela and
240-765: A computer -like screen , computer viruses , video chat , tanning beds , home treadmills , and more. In 1963, the time travel-themed Doctor Who premiered on BBC Television. The original series ran until 1989 and was revived in 2005. It has been extremely popular worldwide and has greatly influenced later TV science fiction. Other programs in the 1960s included The Outer Limits (1963–1965), Lost in Space (1965–1968), and The Prisoner (1967). Star Trek (the original series), created by Gene Roddenberry , premiered in 1966 on NBC Television and ran for three seasons. It combined elements of space opera and Space Western . Only mildly successful at first,
360-428: A space opera , went on to become a worldwide popular culture phenomenon , and the second-highest-grossing film series of all time. Since the 1980s, science fiction films , along with fantasy , horror , and superhero films, have dominated Hollywood's big-budget productions. Science fiction films often " cross-over " with other genres, including film noir ( Blade Runner - 1982), family film ( E.T.
480-478: A tie-in comic book series , video games, calendars, clothes, and action figures. In 2013, TV Guide ranked Futurama one of the top 60 Greatest TV Cartoons of All Time. Futurama is essentially a workplace sitcom, the plot of which revolves around the Planet Express interplanetary delivery company and its employees, a small group that largely fails to conform to future society. Episodes usually feature
600-477: A classic cartoon clip. Several episodes begin with a cold opening before the opening sequence, although these scenes do not always correspond with the episode's plot. The opening sequence has been lampooned several times within the show, in episodes including " That's Lobstertainment! ", " The Problem with Popplers ", as " Future-roma " in " The Duh-Vinci Code " and as " Futurella " in " Lrrreconcilable Ndndifferences ". "Decision 3012" and "The Problem with Popplers" are
720-524: A closet labeled P and NP respectively, referring to the possibility that P and NP-complete problem classes are distinct), electronics (an X-ray – or more accurately, an "F-ray" – of Bender's head reveals a 6502 microprocessor), and genetics (a mention of Bender's "robo- or R-NA"). The show often features subtle references to classic science fiction. These are most often to Star Trek – many soundbites are used in homage – but also include
840-469: A different voice. DiMaggio described Bender's voice as a combination of a sloppy drunk, Slim Pickens and a character his college friend created named "Charlie the sausage-lover". Phil LaMarr voices Hermes Conrad , his son Dwight, Ethan Bubblegum Tate, and Reverend Preacherbot. Lauren Tom voices Amy Wong , and Tress MacNeille voices Mom and various other characters. Maurice LaMarche voices Kif Kroker and several supporting characters. LaMarche won
960-492: A distinctive opening sequence featuring minor gags. As the show begins, blue lights fill the screen and the Planet Express Ship flies across the screen with the title of the show being spelled out in its wake. Underneath the title is a joke caption such as "Painstakingly drawn before a live audience" or "When you see the robot: DRINK!" After flying through downtown New New York and past various recurring characters,
1080-644: A fifth season of the show. Since no new Futurama projects were in production at the time of release, the final movie release Into the Wild Green Yonder was designed to stand as the Futurama series finale. However, Groening had expressed a desire to continue the franchise in some form, including a theatrical film. In an interview with CNN , Groening said that "we have a great relationship with Comedy Central and we would love to do more episodes for them, but I don't know... We're having discussions and there
1200-535: A great and influential film. In 1954, Godzilla , directed by Ishirō Honda , began the kaiju subgenre of science fiction film, which feature large creatures of any form, usually attacking a major city or engaging other monsters in battle . 1968's 2001: A Space Odyssey , directed by Stanley Kubrick and based on the work of Arthur C. Clarke , rose above the mostly B-movie offerings up to that time both in scope and quality, and influenced later science fiction films. That same year, Planet of
1320-479: A jar. Recurring guest stars included Tom Kenny , Dan Castellaneta (as the Robot Devil ), Dawnn Lewis , Nicole St. John, Al Gore , Phil Hendrie , Coolio and George Takei , among others. Bumper Robinson used to be a cast member of the series (who played Hermes' son Dwight ), but left the series after season 4 which caused Phil LaMarr to take over the role afterwards. John Goodman was meant to reprise
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#17327650312201440-703: A joke referring to the binary numeral system (Fry assures him, "there's no such thing as two"). The series developed a cult following partially due to the large number of in-jokes it contains, most of which are aimed at " nerds ". In commentary on the DVD releases, David X. Cohen points out and sometimes explains his "nerdiest joke[s]". These included mathematical jokes – such as " Loew's ℵ 0 {\displaystyle \aleph _{0}} -plex" ( aleph-null -plex) movie theater – as well as various forms of science humor – for example, Professor Farnsworth, at
1560-677: A journey to the Moon and how the Earth 's motion is seen from there. Kepler has been called the "father of science fiction". Following the 17th-century development of the novel as a literary form , Mary Shelley 's Frankenstein (1818) and The Last Man (1826) helped define the form of the science fiction novel. Brian Aldiss has argued that Frankenstein was the first work of science fiction. Edgar Allan Poe wrote several stories considered to be science fiction, including " The Unparalleled Adventure of One Hans Pfaall " (1835), which featured
1680-462: A racetrack, complains about the use of a quantum finish to decide the winner, exclaiming "No fair! You changed the outcome by measuring it", a reference to the uncertainty principle of quantum mechanics . In the season six episode " Law and Oracle ", Fry and the robot peace officer URL track down a traffic violator who turns out to be Erwin Schrödinger , the 20th-century quantum physicist. On
1800-564: A significantly larger basilar artery (a major artery of the brain) compared to rats and mice, which makes cannulation (to supply CSF) much easier. In philosophy , the brain in a vat is any of a variety of thought experiments intended to draw out certain features of our ideas about knowledge , reality , truth , mind , and meaning . A contemporary version of the argument originally given by Descartes in Meditations on First Philosophy (i.e., that he could not trust his perceptions on
1920-418: A society (on Earth or another planet) that has developed in wholly different ways from our own." There is a tendency among science fiction enthusiasts as their own arbiter in deciding what exactly constitutes science fiction. David Seed says it may be more useful to talk about science fiction as the intersection of other more concrete subgenres. Damon Knight summed up the difficulty, saying "Science fiction
2040-413: A strong desire in the mid-1990s for Matt Groening to create a new series after the success of his previous series, The Simpsons ; Groening began conceiving Futurama during this period. In 1995, he enlisted David X. Cohen , then a writer and producer for The Simpsons , to assist in developing the show. The two spent time researching science fiction books, television shows, and films. When they pitched
2160-408: A table meeting of writers, who discussed the plot ideas as a group. The writers are given index cards with plot points that they are required to use as the center of activity in each episode. A single staff writer wrote an outline and then produced a script. Once the first draft of a script was finished, the writers and executive producers called in the actors for a table read. After this script reading,
2280-495: A total estimated readership of at least 1 million), making it the world's most popular science fiction periodical . In 1984, William Gibson 's first novel, Neuromancer , helped popularize cyberpunk and the word " cyberspace ", a term he originally coined in his 1982 short story Burning Chrome . In 1986, Shards of Honor by Lois McMaster Bujold began her Vorkosigan Saga . 1992's Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson predicted immense social upheaval due to
2400-532: A trip to the Moon . Jules Verne was noted for his attention to detail and scientific accuracy, especially in Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas (1870). In 1887, the novel El anacronópete by Spanish author Enrique Gaspar y Rimbau introduced the first time machine . An early French/Belgian science fiction writer was J.-H. Rosny aîné (1856–1940). Rosny's masterpiece
2520-501: A vat of life-sustaining liquid, and connect its neurons by wires to a supercomputer which would provide it with electrical impulses identical to those the brain normally receives. According to such science fiction stories, the computer would then be simulating a virtual reality (including appropriate responses to the brain's own output) and the person with the "disembodied" brain would continue to have perfectly normal conscious experiences without these being related to objects or events in
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#17327650312202640-582: A very palatable form... New adventures pictured for us in the scientifiction of today are not at all impossible of realization tomorrow... Many great science stories destined to be of historical interest are still to be written... Posterity will point to them as having blazed a new trail, not only in literature and fiction, but progress as well. In 1928, E. E. "Doc" Smith 's first published work, The Skylark of Space , written in collaboration with Lee Hawkins Garby , appeared in Amazing Stories . It
2760-629: A world of harmony and conformity within a united totalitarian state . It influenced the emergence of dystopia as a literary genre . In 1926, Hugo Gernsback published the first American science fiction magazine , Amazing Stories . In its first issue he wrote: By 'scientifiction' I mean the Jules Verne, H. G. Wells and Edgar Allan Poe type of story—a charming romance intermingled with scientific fact and prophetic vision... Not only do these amazing tales make tremendously interesting reading—they are always instructive. They supply knowledge... in
2880-473: A year. Even by the fourth season, Futurama was being aired erratically. Because the show was regularly pre-empted by sporting events, it became difficult to predict when new episodes would air. The erratic schedule resulted in Fox not airing several episodes that had been produced for seasons three and four, instead holding them for a fifth broadcast season. According to Groening, Fox executives were not supporters of
3000-476: Is Les Navigateurs de l'Infini ( The Navigators of Infinity ) (1925) in which the word astronaut, "astronautique", was used for the first time. Many critics consider H. G. Wells one of science fiction's most important authors, or even "the Shakespeare of science fiction". His works include The Time Machine (1895), The Island of Doctor Moreau (1896), The Invisible Man (1897), and The War of
3120-413: Is a backdrop, and the writers are not above committing continuity errors if they serve to further the gags. For example, while the pilot episode implies that the previous Planet Express crew was killed by a space wasp, the later episode " The Sting " is based on the crew having been killed by space bees instead. The "world of tomorrow" setting is used to highlight and lampoon issues of today and to parody
3240-584: Is a prominent part of society, although the dominant religions have evolved. A merging of the major religious groups of the 20th century has resulted in the First Amalgamated Church, while Voodoo is now mainstream. New religions include Oprahism , Robotology , and the banned religion of Star Trek fandom . Religious figures include Father Changstein-El-Gamal , the Robot Devil , Reverend Lionel Preacherbot , and passing references to
3360-814: Is edited to include educational material ostensibly for youth. Television is still a primary form of entertainment. Self-aware robots are a common sight, and are the main cause of global warming due to the exhaust from their alcohol-powered systems. The wheel is obsolete (no one but Fry even seems to recognize the design), having been forgotten and replaced by hover cars and a network of large, clear pneumatic transportation tubes . Environmentally, common animals still remain, alongside mutated, cross-bred (sometimes with humans) and extraterrestrial animals. Ironically, spotted owls are often shown to have replaced rats as common household pests. Although rats still exist, sometimes rats act like pigeons, though pigeons still exist, as well. Anchovies have been extinct for 800 years because of
3480-465: Is given by the summation of all previous letters plus the current letter". The codes often provide additional jokes for fans dedicated enough to decode the messages. The third language sometimes used is Hebrew . Aside from these alphabets, most of the displayed wording on the show uses the Latin alphabet. The show predicts that several English expressions will have evolved by the year 3000. For example, in
3600-537: Is masterful". Groening and Cohen wanted Futurama to be shown at 8:30 pm on Sunday, following The Simpsons . The Fox network disagreed, opting instead to show two episodes in the Sunday night lineup before moving the show to a regular time slot on Tuesday. Beginning with its second broadcast season, Futurama was again placed in the 8:30 pm Sunday spot, but by mid-season the show was moved again, this time to 7:00 pm on Sunday, its third position in less than
3720-532: Is occasionally remixed for use in specific episodes, including a version by the Beastie Boys used for the episode " Hell Is Other Robots ", in which they guest starred as their own heads for both a concert and as part of the Robot Devil's song. The original version of the theme also samples a drum break originating from "Amen, Brother" by American soul group The Winstons . The theme has been noted for its similarities to Pierre Henry 's 1967 Psyché Rock . It
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3840-635: Is often called the first great space opera . The same year, Philip Francis Nowlan 's original Buck Rogers story, Armageddon 2419 , also appeared in Amazing Stories . This was followed by a Buck Rogers comic strip , the first serious science fiction comic . Last and First Men: A Story of the Near and Far Future is a " future history " science fiction novel written in 1930 by the British author Olaf Stapledon . A work of unprecedented scale in
3960-447: Is often easily maintained as they need less oxygen and to a larger extent get their oxygen from CSF; for this reason their brains are more easily maintained without perfusion. Mammalian brains , on the other hand, have a much lesser degree of survival without perfusion and an artificial blood perfusate is usually used. For methodological reasons, most research on isolated mammalian brains has been done with guinea pigs. These animals have
4080-512: Is one of the most influential examples of social science fiction , feminist science fiction , and anthropological science fiction . In 1979, Science Fiction World began publication in the People's Republic of China . It dominates the Chinese science fiction magazine market , at one time claiming a circulation of 300,000 copies per issue and an estimated 3–5 readers per copy (giving it
4200-560: Is related to fantasy , horror , and superhero fiction and contains many subgenres . Its exact definition has long been disputed among authors, critics, scholars, and readers. Subgenres include hard science fiction , which emphasizes scientific accuracy, and soft science fiction , focusing on social sciences. Other notable subgenres are cyberpunk , which explores the interface between technology and society, and climate fiction , addressing environmental issues. Precedents for science fiction are argued to exist as far back as antiquity, but
4320-467: Is some enthusiasm but I can't tell if it's just me." Futurama left Adult Swim's lineup on December 31, 2007, following a week-long marathon of the entire series. Comedy Central began airing the show the next day, with season 5 making its broadcast debut on March 23, 2008. In June 2009, 20th Century Fox Television announced that Comedy Central had picked up the show for 26 new half-hour episodes that began airing on June 24, 2010. The returning writing crew
4440-542: Is what we point to when we say it." Forrest J Ackerman has been credited with first using the term "sci-fi" (analogous to the then-trendy " hi-fi ") in about 1954. The first known use in print was a description of Donovan's Brain by movie critic Jesse Zunser in January 1954. As science fiction entered popular culture , writers and fans active in the field came to associate the term with low-budget, low-tech " B-movies " and with low-quality pulp science fiction . By
4560-542: The Golden Age of Science Fiction . Science fiction has been called the "literature of ideas ", and continues to evolve, incorporating diverse voices and themes, influencing not just literature but film, TV, and culture at large. Besides providing entertainment it can also criticize present-day society and explore alternatives, and inspiration a " sense of wonder ". According to Isaac Asimov , "Science fiction can be defined as that branch of literature which deals with
4680-591: The Emmy Award for Outstanding Voice-Over Performance in 2011 for his performances as Lrrr and Orson Welles in the episode " Lrrreconcilable Ndndifferences ". David Herman voiced Scruffy and various supporting characters. During seasons 1–4, LaMarche is billed as supporting cast and Tom, LaMarr and Herman billed as guest stars, despite appearing in most episodes. LaMarche was promoted to main cast and Tom, LaMarr and Herman to supporting cast in season 5, and promoted again to main cast in season 6. In addition to
4800-482: The Russian writer and paleontologist Ivan Yefremov presented a view of a future interstellar communist civilization and is considered one of the most important Soviet science fiction novels. In 1959, Robert A. Heinlein 's Starship Troopers marked a departure from his earlier juvenile stories and novels. It is one of the first and most influential examples of military science fiction , and introduced
4920-451: The information revolution . In 2007, Liu Cixin 's novel, The Three-Body Problem , was published in China. It was translated into English by Ken Liu and published by Tor Books in 2014, and won the 2015 Hugo Award for Best Novel , making Liu the first Asian writer to win the award. Emerging themes in late 20th and early 21st century science fiction include environmental issues ,
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5040-428: The robot Bender . The series was envisioned by Groening in the mid-1990s while working on The Simpsons ; he brought David X. Cohen aboard to develop storylines and characters to pitch the show to Fox. Following its initial cancellation by Fox, Futurama began airing reruns on Cartoon Network 's Adult Swim programming block, which lasted from 2003 to 2007. It was revived in 2007 as four direct-to-video films,
5160-400: The 1970s, critics within the field, such as Damon Knight and Terry Carr , were using "sci fi" to distinguish hack-work from serious science fiction. Peter Nicholls writes that "SF" (or "sf") is "the preferred abbreviation within the community of sf writers and readers." Robert Heinlein found even "science fiction" insufficient for certain types of works in this genre, and suggested
5280-559: The Apes (the original), directed by Franklin J. Schaffner and based on the 1963 French novel La Planète des Singes by Pierre Boulle , was released to popular and critical acclaim, its vivid depiction of a post-apocalyptic world in which intelligent apes dominate humans . In 1977, George Lucas began the Star Wars film series with the film now identified as " Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope . " The series, often called
5400-471: The Decapodians. Earth still suffers the effects of greenhouse gases , although in one episode Leela states that its effects have been counteracted by nuclear winter . In another episode, the effects of global warming have been somewhat mitigated by the dropping of a giant ice cube into the ocean, and later by pushing Earth farther away from the sun, which also extended the year by one week. Religion
5520-583: The Extra-Terrestrial - 1983), war ( Enemy Mine - 1985), comedy ( Spaceballs - 1987, Galaxy Quest - 1999), animation ( WALL-E – 2008, Big Hero 6 – 2014), Western ( Serenity – 2005), action ( Edge of Tomorrow – 2014, The Matrix – 1999), adventure ( Jupiter Ascending – 2015, Interstellar – 2014), mystery ( Minority Report – 2002), thriller ( Ex Machina – 2014), drama ( Melancholia – 2011, Predestination – 2014), and romance ( Eternal Sunshine of
5640-461: The Planet Express ship crashes through a large screen showing a short clip from a classic cartoon. These have included clips from Quasi at the Quackadero , Looney Tunes shorts, cartoons produced by Fleischer Studios and Famous Studios , a short of The Simpsons from a Tracey Ullman episode, the show's own opening sequence in " The Devil's Hands Are Idle Playthings " or a scene from
5760-476: The Space Pope, who appears to be a large crocodile-like creature. Several major holidays have robots associated with them, including the murderous Robot Santa and Kwanzaa-bot. While very few episodes focus exclusively on religion within the Futurama universe, they do cover a wide variety of subjects including predestination, prayer, the nature of salvation, and religious conversion. Futurama ' s setting
5880-464: The Spotless Mind – 2004, Her – 2013). Science fiction and television have consistently been in a close relationship. Television or television-like technologies frequently appeared in science fiction long before television itself became widely available in the late 1940s and early 1950s. The first known science fiction television program was a thirty-five-minute adapted excerpt of
6000-559: The States and Empires of the Moon (1657) and The States and Empires of the Sun (1662), Margaret Cavendish 's " The Blazing World " (1666), Jonathan Swift 's Gulliver's Travels (1726), Ludvig Holberg 's Nicolai Klimii Iter Subterraneum (1741) and Voltaire 's Micromégas (1752). Isaac Asimov and Carl Sagan considered Somnium the first science fiction story; it depicts
6120-542: The Wild Green Yonder , " Overclockwise ", and " Meanwhile " have all been written to serve as a final episode for the show. Science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to SF or sci-fi ) is a genre of speculative fiction , which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology , space exploration , time travel , parallel universes , and extraterrestrial life . It often explores human responses to changes in science and technology. Science fiction
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#17327650312206240-521: The Worlds (1898). His science fiction imagined alien invasion , biological engineering , invisibility , and time travel . In his non-fiction futurologist works he predicted the advent of airplanes , military tanks , nuclear weapons , satellite television , space travel , and something resembling the World Wide Web . Edgar Rice Burroughs 's A Princess of Mars , published in 1912,
6360-495: The [vocal artist] Billy West characters. I see it. The bottom line is, the producers are trying to make sure the shows are completely different entities. In an interview with Diego Molano, creator of Victor and Valentino , in April 2019, he said that he found Futurama "incredibly influential", calling the humor smart but "not alienating ". He added that it makes him "feel smart" and adding that Groening's "sense of comedic timing
6480-511: The animation being done by Rough Draft Studios . The studio would receive the completed script of an episode and create a storyboard consisting of more than 100 drawings. It would then produce a pencil-drawn animatic with 1,000 frames. Rough Draft's sister studio in South Korea would render the 30,000-frame finished episode. In addition to traditional cartoon drawing, Rough Draft Studios often used CGI for fast or complex shots, such as
6600-461: The background of episodes, usually in the forms of graffiti , advertisements, or warning labels. Nearly all messages using alternative scripts transliterate directly into English. The first alphabet consists of abstract characters and is referred to as Alienese, a simple substitution cipher from the Latin alphabet . The second alphabet uses a more complex modular addition code, where the "next letter
6720-483: The central trio of Fry, Leela, and Bender, though occasional storylines center on the other main characters. Futurama is set in New New York at the turn of the 31st century, in a time filled with technological wonders. The city of New New York has been built over the ruins of present-day New York City, which has become a catacomb-like space that acts as New New York's sewer, referred to as "Old New York". Parts of
6840-404: The close of each episode, the 30th Century Fox Television logo is displayed. While it is the same logo as that of 20th Century Fox, it is modified to fit the show's futuristic setting. Syndicated episodes use a 30th Television closing logo instead of the 20th Television one, while episodes from Season 8 onward use a 30th Television Animation logo. Initially, Fox did not want this logo to be used on
6960-413: The concept of powered armor exoskeletons . The German space opera series Perry Rhodan , written by various authors, started in 1961 with an account of the first Moon landing and has since expanded in space to multiple universes , and in time by billions of years. It has become the most popular science fiction book series of all time. In the 1960s and 1970s, New Wave science fiction
7080-506: The creation of microrobots and micromachinery , nanotechnology , smartdust , virtual reality , and artificial intelligence (including swarm intelligence ), as well as developing the ideas of "necroevolution" and the creation of artificial worlds. In 1965, Dune by Frank Herbert featured a much more complex and detailed imagined future society than had previously in most science fiction. In 1967 Anne McCaffrey began her Dragonriders of Pern science fantasy series. Two of
7200-472: The devoted aficionado or fan—has a hard time trying to explain what science fiction is," and the lack of a "full satisfactory definition" is because "there are no easily delineated limits to science fiction." Another definition comes from The Literature Book by DK and is, "scenarios that are at the time of writing technologically impossible, extrapolating from present-day science...[,]...or that deal with some form of speculative science-based conceit, such as
7320-399: The difficulty of animating the sequence. It took four to five weeks to fully animate the sequence, and it consists of over 80 levels of 3D animation composited together. It takes approximately one hour to render a single frame, and each second of the sequence consists of around 30 frames. The Futurama theme was created by Christopher Tyng . The theme is played on the tubular bells but
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#17327650312207440-571: The end of a message from Maurice LaMarche sent to members of the "Save the Voices of Futurama" group on Facebook, LaMarche announced that the original cast would be returning for the new episodes. The Toronto Star confirmed, announcing on their website that the original cast of Futurama signed contracts with Fox to return for 26 more episodes. Similarly, an email sent to fans from Cohen and Groening reported that West, Sagal, DiMaggio, LaMarche, MacNeille, Tom, LaMarr, and Herman would all be returning for
7560-511: The episode. Most episodes in Season 6 and Season 7 use an abridged opening sequence, omitting the brief clip of a classic cartoon. " Rebirth ", " That Darn Katz! ", " Benderama ", " Yo Leela Leela ", " Decision 3012 ", " Forty Percent Leadbelly ", " T.: The Terrestrial ", " Leela and the Genestalk ", and " Stench and Stenchability " have been the only episodes since " Spanish Fry " to feature
7680-537: The episodes " Bender Should Not Be Allowed on TV " and " Spanish Fry ". As the series began high-definition production in 2007 with the four direct-to-DVD movies and season 6 on Comedy Central, the opening sequence was updated to match, and a slightly slower and revamped remix of the theme song, which replaced the Amen break with a higher-fidelity drum recording and was previously used in the Futurama video game , replaced
7800-439: The episodes, ran from 1959 to 1964. It featured fantasy , suspense , and horror as well as science fiction, with each episode being a complete story. Critics have ranked it as one of the best TV programs of any genre . The animated series The Jetsons , while intended as comedy and only running for one season (1962–1963), predicted many inventions now in common use: flat-screen televisions , newspapers on
7920-441: The face or body, improving legibility of an expression. PowerAnimator and Maya were used to draw the comic-like CGI whilst Toonz was used for digital ink and paint and compositing. The series began high-definition production in season 6 , with Bender's Big Score . The opening sequence was re-rendered and scaled to adapt to the show's transition to 16:9 widescreen format. For the final episode of season 6 , Futurama
8040-453: The first half airing in 2012 and the second in 2013. An audio-only episode featuring the original cast members was released in 2017 as an episode of The Nerdist Podcast . On February 9, 2022, Hulu revived the series with a 20-episode order, which premiered on July 24, 2023. In November 2023, the show was renewed by Hulu for two more broadcast seasons, which will air through 2026. Futurama received critical acclaim throughout its run and
8160-762: The first science fiction novel . Some of the stories from The Arabian Nights , along with the 10th-century The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter and Ibn al-Nafis 's 13th-century Theologus Autodidactus , are also argued to contain elements of science fiction. Written during the Scientific Revolution and later the Age of Enlightenment are considered true science-fantasy books. Francis Bacon 's New Atlantis (1627), Johannes Kepler 's Somnium (1634), Athanasius Kircher 's Itinerarium extaticum (1656), Cyrano de Bergerac 's Comical History of
8280-653: The front seat of the car is a box, and when questioned about the contents, Schrödinger replies "A cat, some poison, and a cesium atom". Fry asks if the cat is alive or dead, and Schrödinger answers "It's a superposition of both states until you open the box and collapse the wave function." When Fry opens the box, the cat jumps out and attacks him. The run is a reference to the Schrödinger's cat thought experiment of quantum mechanics. The series makes passing references to quantum chromodynamics (the appearance of Strong Force -brand glue), computer science (two separate books in
8400-486: The genre, it describes the history of humanity from the present onwards across two billion years. In 1937, John W. Campbell became editor of Astounding Science Fiction , an event that is sometimes considered the beginning of the Golden Age of Science Fiction , which was characterized by stories celebrating scientific achievement and progress . The "Golden Age" is often said to have ended in 1946, but sometimes
8520-406: The grounds that an evil demon might, conceivably, be controlling his every experience), the brain in a vat is the idea that a brain can be fooled into anything when fed appropriate stimuli. The inherently philosophical idea has also become a staple of many science fiction stories, with many such stories involving a mad scientist who might remove a person's brain from the body, suspend it in
8640-547: The humor tradition of Groening's two series, finding that The Simpsons echoes the strains of American-Irish vaudeville humor – the beer-soaked, sneaking-in-late-while-the-wife's-asleep comedy of Harrigan and Hart , McNulty and Murray, the Four Cohans (which, yes, included George M. ) and countless others: knockabout yet sentimental, and ultimately about the bonds of blood family. Futurama , conversely, stems from Jewish-American humor, and not just in
8760-477: The implications of the Internet and the expanding information universe, questions about biotechnology , nanotechnology , and post-scarcity societies . Recent trends and subgenres include steampunk , biopunk , and mundane science fiction . The first, or at least one of the first, recorded science fiction film is 1902's A Trip to the Moon , directed by French filmmaker Georges Méliès . It
8880-404: The last of which was released in early 2009. Comedy Central entered into an agreement with 20th Century Fox Television to syndicate the existing episodes and air the films as 16 new, half-hour episodes, constituting a fifth season. In June 2009, Comedy Central picked up the show for 26 new half-hour episodes, which began airing in 2010 and 2011. The show was renewed for a seventh season , with
9000-415: The late 1940s and the 1950s are included. In 1942, Isaac Asimov started his Foundation series , which chronicles the rise and fall of galactic empires and introduced psychohistory . The series was later awarded a one-time Hugo Award for "Best All-Time Series". Theodore Sturgeon 's More Than Human (1953) explored possible future human evolution . In 1957, Andromeda: A Space-Age Tale by
9120-525: The lights that appear in the opening sequence. All four movies' end credits utilized an edited version from the full-length remix of the theme instead of the original end credits theme, and an even shorter edit was introduced in season 6. Another update of the opening sequence in season 8 for Hulu added more visual gags, and the end credits theme was replaced again with an edit of the 2012 digital download release version, which added an extra layer of beats. There are three alternative alphabets that appear often in
9240-410: The main cast, Frank Welker voiced Nibbler and Kath Soucie voiced Cubert and several supporting and minor characters. Like The Simpsons , many episodes of Futurama feature guest voices from a wide range of professions, including actors, entertainers, bands, musicians, and scientists. Many guest-stars voiced supporting characters, although many voiced themselves, usually as their own head preserved in
9360-456: The modern genre primarily arose in the 19th and early 20th centuries when popular writers began looking to technological progress and speculation. Mary Shelley 's Frankenstein , written in 1818, is often credited as the first true science fiction novel . Jules Verne and H.G. Wells are pivotal figures in the genre's development. In the 20th century, expanded with the introduction of space operas , dystopian literature, pulp magazines , and
9480-549: The movement of spaceships , explosions, nebulae , large crowds, and snow scenes. The opening sequence was entirely rendered in CGI. The CGI was rendered at 24 frames per second (as opposed to hand-drawn often done at 12 frames per second) and the lack of artifacts made the animation appear very smooth and fluid. CGI characters looked slightly different due to spatially "cheating" hand-drawn characters by drawing slightly out of proportion or off-perspective features to emphasize traits of
9600-460: The network would have any creative input into the show. With The Simpsons , the network has no input. Fox was particularly disturbed by the concept of suicide booths , Doctor Zoidberg , and Bender 's anti-social behavior. Groening explains, "When they tried to give me notes on Futurama , I just said: 'No, we're going to do this just the way we did Simpsons .' And they said, 'Well, we don't do business that way anymore.' And I said, 'Oh, well, that's
9720-478: The novellas included in the first novel, Dragonflight , made McCaffrey the first woman to win a Hugo or Nebula Award . In 1968, Philip K. Dick 's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? was published. It is the literary source of the Blade Runner movie franchise . In 1969, The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin was set on a planet in which the inhabitants have no fixed gender . It
9840-562: The obvious archetype of Dr. Zoidberg. From vaudeville to the Catskills to Woody Allen , it's that distinctly rueful humor built to ward away everything from despair to petty annoyance – the 'You gotta do what you gotta do' philosophy that helps the Futurama characters cope in a mega-corporate world where the little guy is essentially powerless. Animation maven Jerry Beck concurred: I'm Jewish, and I know what you're saying. Fry has that [type of humor], Dr. Zoidberg, all
9960-518: The only episodes that directly tie into the opening, with Bender deliberately crashing the ship after seeing an advertisement for free beer in "Decision 3012", while in "The Problem with Popplers", Leela crashes through it during an ad for Popplers, with Fry saying "That's the second billboard you've crashed through this week!". " Viva Mars Vegas " features a unique handmade variant of the opening, using cardboard, plastic, and model ships guided by strings and rods. Series director Scott Vanzo has remarked on
10080-425: The only way I do business.'" The episode " I, Roommate " was produced to address Fox's concerns, with the script written to their specifications. Fox strongly disliked the episode, but after negotiations, Groening received the same independence with Futurama . The name Futurama comes from a pavilion at the 1939 New York World's Fair . Designed by Norman Bel Geddes , the Futurama pavilion depicted how he imagined
10200-411: The original theme. Bender's Big Score has an extended opening sequence, introducing each of the main characters. In The Beast with a Billion Backs and Bender's Game the ship passes through the screen's glass and temporarily becomes part of the environment depicted therein—a pastiche of Disney 's Steamboat Willie and Yellow Submarine respectively—before crashing through the screen glass on
10320-614: The play RUR , written by the Czech playwright Karel Čapek , broadcast live from the BBC's Alexandra Palace studios on 11 February 1938. The first popular science fiction program on American television was the children's adventure serial Captain Video and His Video Rangers , which ran from June 1949 to April 1955. The Twilight Zone (the original series), produced and narrated by Rod Serling , who also wrote or co-wrote most of
10440-406: The present. Groening notes that, from the show's conception, his goal was to make what was, on the surface, a goofy comedy that would have underlying "legitimate literary science fiction concepts". The series contrasted " low culture " and " high culture " comedy; for example, Bender's catchphrase is the insult "Bite my shiny metal ass" while his most terrifying nightmare is a vision of the number 2,
10560-468: The reaction of human beings to changes in science and technology ." Robert A. Heinlein wrote that "A handy short definition of almost all science fiction might read: realistic speculation about possible future events, based solidly on adequate knowledge of the real world, past and present, and on a thorough understanding of the nature and significance of the scientific method ." American science fiction author and editor Lester del Rey wrote, "Even
10680-512: The real world. No such procedure in humans has ever been reported by a research paper in a scholarly journal, or other reliable source. Also, the ability to send external electric signals to the brain of a sort that the brain can interpret, and the ability to communicate thoughts or perceptions to any external entity by wire is well beyond current technology. In 2004 Thomas DeMarse and Karl Dockendorf made an "adaptive flight control with living neuronal networks on microelectrode arrays". Teams at
10800-487: The reference to the origin of the word robot made in the name of the robot-dominated planet Chapek 9, and the black rectangular monolith labeled "Out of Order" in orbit around Jupiter (a reference to Arthur C. Clarke 's Space Odyssey series ). Bender and Fry sometimes watch a television show called The Scary Door , a humorous parody of The Twilight Zone . Journalist/critic Frank Lovece in Newsday contrasted
10920-485: The revival. Cohen told Newsday in August 2009 that the reported 26-episode order means "[i]t will be up to 26. I can't guarantee it will be 26. But I think there's a pretty good chance it'll be exactly 26. Fox has been a little bit cagey about it, even internally. But nobody's too concerned. We're plunging ahead". Two episodes were in the process of being voice-recorded at that time, with an additional "six scripts ... in
11040-424: The role in future episodes. Following Coolio's death in 2022, David X. Cohen has revealed on TMZ that he recorded new dialogue for Kwanzaabot before his death in an upcoming episode, scheduled to be released in 2023. Futurama is produced by The Curiosity Company and 20th Television Animation (which was previously credited as 30th Century Fox Television and is now credited as 30th Television Animation) with
11160-416: The role of Robot Santa after " Xmas Story " in future episodes but was unable to reprise the role due to scheduling problems. As a result, John DiMaggio took over that role starting with " A Tale of Two Santas ". In that same episode, Dan Castellaneta was unable to reprise the Robot Devil due to his work on The Simpsons . Maurice LaMarche took over that role for that episode only as Castellaneta did reprise
11280-479: The same treatment; Los Angeles, for example, is depicted as a smog-filled apocalyptic wasteland. Numerous technological advances have been made between the present day and the 31st century. The Head Museum, which keeps a collection of heads alive in jars thanks to technology invented by Ron Popeil (who has a guest cameo in " A Big Piece of Garbage "), has resulted in many historical figures and current celebrities being present, including Groening himself; this became
11400-480: The science-fiction genre. This list follows the season box sets, which feature the episodes in the original production season order, ignoring the order of broadcast. The Hulu revival has alternatively been titled the eighth and ninth seasons (production), and the eleventh and twelfth seasons (broadcast). The tenth and eleventh production seasons will also be considered as Futurama 's thirteenth and fourteenth broadcast seasons. The television network Fox expressed
11520-778: The series gained popularity through syndication and extraordinary fan interest . It became a very popular and influential franchise with many films , television shows , novels , and other works and products. Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987–1994) led to six additional live action Star Trek shows: Deep Space Nine (1993–1999), Voyager (1995–2001) , Enterprise (2001–2005), Discovery (2017–2024), Picard (2020–2023), and Strange New Worlds (2022–present), with more in some form of development. Isolated brain The brains of many different organisms have been kept alive in vitro for hours, or in some cases days. The central nervous system of invertebrate animals
11640-450: The series to Fox in April 1998, Groening and Cohen had composed many characters and story lines; Groening claimed they had gone "overboard" in their discussions. Groening described trying to get the show on the air as "by far the worst experience of my grown-up life". Fox ordered thirteen episodes. Immediately after, however, Fox feared the themes of the show were not suitable for the network and Groening and Fox executives argued over whether
11760-474: The sewers are inhabited by mutants . Various devices and architecture are similar to the Populuxe style. Global warming , inflexible bureaucracy , and substance abuse are a few of the subjects given a 31st-century exaggeration in a world where the problems have become both more extreme and more common. Just as New York has become a more extreme version of itself in the future, other Earth locations are given
11880-478: The show later in 2003. The run on Adult Swim revived interest in both series, and when Family Guy found success in direct-to-DVD productions, Futurama ' s producers decided to try the same. In 2005, Comedy Central entered negotiations to take over the syndication rights, during which they discussed the possibility of producing new episodes. In 2006, it was announced that four straight-to-DVD films would be produced, and later split into 16 episodes comprising
12000-523: The show the word Christmas has been replaced with Xmas (pronounced " ex -mas"), and the word ask with aks (pronounced axe ). According to David X. Cohen, it is a running joke that the French language is extinct in the Futurama universe (though the culture remains alive), much like Latin is in the present. In the French dubbing of the show, German is used as the extinct language instead. At
12120-436: The show, but when creator Matt Groening purchased the rights to the logo, the network had a change of heart and allowed the altered version to be aired. Although the series uses a wide range of styles of humor, including self-deprecation , black comedy , off-color humor , slapstick , and surreal humor , its primary source of comedy is its satirical depiction of everyday life in the future and its parodical comparisons to
12240-476: The show. Although Futurama was never officially cancelled, midway through the production of the fourth season, Fox decided to stop buying episodes of Futurama , letting it go out of production before the fall 2003 lineup. In 2003, Cartoon Network acquired syndication rights to Futurama and Family Guy , another animated show Fox had cancelled, for its Adult Swim block. Both shows proved to be successful immediately, leading to sister network TBS picking up
12360-515: The term speculative fiction to be used instead for those that are more "serious" or "thoughtful". Some scholars assert that science fiction had its beginnings in ancient times , when the line between myth and fact was blurred. Written in the 2nd century CE by the satirist Lucian , A True Story contains many themes and tropes characteristic of modern science fiction, including travel to other worlds, extraterrestrial lifeforms , interplanetary warfare, and artificial life . Some consider it
12480-419: The voice of Fry is deliberately modeled on his own, so as to make it difficult for another person to replicate the voice. Doctor Zoidberg's voice was based on Lou Jacobi and George Jessel . The character of Zapp Brannigan was originally created for and intended to be performed by Phil Hartman . Hartman insisted on auditioning for the role, and "just nailed it" according to Groening. Due to Hartman's death, West
12600-481: The voices of Philip J. Fry , Professor Farnsworth , Doctor Zoidberg , Zapp Brannigan , and many other incidental characters. West auditioned for "just about every part", landing the roles of the Professor and Doctor Zoidberg. Although West read for Fry, his friend Charlie Schlatter was initially given the role. Due to a casting change, West was called back to audition again and was given the role. West claims that
12720-426: The way out. In Into the Wild Green Yonder , a completely different opening sequence involves a trip through a futuristic version of Las Vegas located on Mars. The theme tune is sung by Seth MacFarlane and is different from the standard theme tune. The end of the film incorporates a unique variation of the opening sequence; as the Planet Express Ship enters a wormhole, it converts into a pattern of lights similar to
12840-547: The works, ranging in scale from 'it's a crazy idea that someone's grandmother thought of' to 'it's all on paper'. When Futurama aired June 24, 2010, on Comedy Central, it helped the network to its highest-rated night in 2010 and its highest-rated Thursday primetime in the network's history. In March 2011, it was announced that Futurama had been renewed for a seventh season, consisting of at least 26 episodes, scheduled to air in 2012 and 2013. The first episode of season 7 premiered June 20, 2012, on Comedy Central. In July 2011, it
12960-408: The world would look in 1959. Many other titles were considered for the series, including Aloha, Mars! and Doomsville , which Groening notes were "resoundly rejected, by everyone concerned with it". It takes approximately six to nine months to produce an episode of Futurama . The long production time results in several episodes being worked on simultaneously. The planning for each episode began with
13080-501: The writers collaborated to rewrite the script as a group before sending it to the animation team. At this point the voice recording was also started and the script was out of the writers' hands. The writing staff held three Ph.D.s , seven master's degrees , and cumulatively had more than 50 years at Harvard University . Series writer Patric M. Verrone stated, "we were easily the most overeducated cartoon writers in history". Futurama had eight main cast members. Billy West performed
13200-613: The writers' device to feature and poke fun at contemporary celebrities in the show. Several of the preserved heads shown are those of people who were already dead well before the advent of this technology; one of the most prominent examples of this anomaly is former U.S. president Richard Nixon , who died in 1994 and appears in numerous episodes. The Internet, while being fully immersive and encompassing all senses—even featuring its own digital world (similar to Tron or The Matrix )—is slow and largely consists of pornography, pop-up ads , and "filthy" (or Filthy Filthy) chat rooms . Some of it
13320-480: Was completely reanimated in three different styles: the first segment of the episode features black-and-white Fleischer - and Walter Lantz -style animation, the second was drawn in the style of a low-resolution video game, and the final segment was in the style of Japanese anime . Much like the opening sequence in The Simpsons with its chalkboard gags , Lisa’s sax solo , and couch gags , Futurama has
13440-462: Was given the role. West states that his version of Zapp Brannigan was an imitation of Hartman and also "modeled after a couple of big dumb announcers I knew". Katey Sagal voiced Leela , and is the only member of the main cast to voice only one character. The role of Leela was originally assigned to Nicole Sullivan . In an interview in June 2010, Sagal remarked that she did not know that another person
13560-404: Was influential on later filmmakers , bringing a different kind of creativity and fantasy . Méliès's innovative editing and special effects techniques were widely imitated and became important elements of the cinematic medium . 1927's Metropolis , directed by Fritz Lang , is the first feature-length science fiction film. Though not well received in its time, it is now considered
13680-484: Was known for its embrace of a high degree of experimentation, both in form and in content, and a highbrow and self-consciously " literary " or " artistic " sensibility . In 1961, Solaris by Stanisław Lem was published in Poland . The novel dealt with the theme of human limitations as its characters attempted to study a seemingly intelligent ocean on a newly discovered planet . Lem's work anticipated
13800-421: Was nominated for 17 Annie Awards , winning nine of them, and 12 Emmy Awards , winning six. It was nominated four times for a Writers Guild of America Award , winning for the episodes " Godfellas " and " The Prisoner of Benda ". It was nominated for a Nebula Award and received Environmental Media Awards for the episodes " The Problem with Popplers " and " The Futurama Holiday Spectacular ". Merchandise includes
13920-402: Was originally intended for the Futurama theme to be remixed in every episode. This was first trialled in the opening sequence for " Mars University ", however it was realized upon broadcast that the sound did not transmit well through most television sets and the idea was subsequently abandoned. Despite this, beatbox renditions of the theme performed by Billy West and John DiMaggio are used for
14040-508: Was reported that the show had been picked up for syndication by both local affiliates and WGN America . Broadcast of old episodes began in September 2011. On September 19, 2011, WGN America began re-running Futurama , carrying it until 2014. Futurama doubled its viewership in syndication in 2012. Due to the uncertain future of the series, there have been four designated series finales . " The Devil's Hands Are Idle Playthings ", Into
14160-410: Was smaller than the original crew. It was originally announced that main voice actors West, DiMaggio, and Sagal would return as well, but on July 17, 2009, it was announced that a casting notice was posted to replace the entire cast when 20th Century Fox Television would not meet their salary demands. The situation was later resolved, and the entire original voice-cast returned for the new episodes. Near
14280-408: Was the first of his three- decade -long planetary romance series of Barsoom novels , which were set on Mars and featured John Carter as the hero . These novels were predecessors to YA novels , and drew inspiration from European science fiction and American Western novels . In 1924, We by Russian writer Yevgeny Zamyatin , one of the first dystopian novels, was published. It describes
14400-456: Was to originally voice Leela until many years after the show first began. John DiMaggio performed the voice of the robot Bender Bending Rodríguez and other, more minor, characters. Bender was the most difficult character to cast, as the show's creators had not decided what a robot should sound like. DiMaggio originally auditioned for the role of Professor Farnsworth, using the voice he uses to perform Bender, and also auditioned for Bender using
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