======================================================================== ============= THE FUTURAMA CHRONICLES ==== EPISODE CAPSULE ============= ======================================================================== Official Title: A Big Piece of Garbage Episode Number: 1ACV08 (#8) First Airdate : Tuesday, May 11th, 1999 (8:30 PM) Written by : Lewis Morton Directed by : Susan Dietter ======================================================================== = Additional tidbits = Opening theme promotion : Mr. Bender's Wardrobe by ROBOTANY 500 Opening theme cartoon : "A Corny Concerto" {dd} Subsequent Fox Airdates : 25-Jul-99 11-May-99 Nielsen ranking: 5.4% of audience (#75 for the week) 25-Jul-99 Nielsen ranking: 4.3% of audience (#69 for the week) MPAA rating : TV-PG-S Length minus commercials : [21:24] ======================================================================== = Foxworld Synopsis = While at a science symposium hosted by inventor extraordinaire Ron Popeil's head-in-a-jar, the Professor creates a new invention -- the Smelloscope. Initially criticized, the Smelloscope is redeemed when it reveals that a putrid celestial body is on a collision course with Earth. To make matters worse, the approaching object is a huge mass of garbage launched into space at the end of the 20th century, after New York ran out of landfill sites. The trash-teroid's orbit has set it on a path of destruction and it just may take a rag-tag team of package delivery specialists to land on it and blow it up before it creates Armageddon on Earth. ======================================================================== = Minutiae = - At the very beginning, Farnworth says that they are going to a symposium, and then Fry says something like "Wow, I LOVE symposia!" This is hilarious because it is completely out of context that stupid Fry would use "symposia," the proper Latin plural of "symposium." [This contributor did not want to be credited.] - As we all know, the Deathclock, presumably, said that Fry didn't have long to live. Is it possible that it arrived to such a conclusion because it believed that the garbage ball or the bomb planted on it would kill him and the reason why he didn't die was because of free will? {sam} [It might also be that it didn't forsee the garbage ball at all, and Fry would die from his Ebola 9 delivery. {jb}] - Portrait of Farnsworth has him with red hair like Fry and the obligatory pens in his shirt pocket. {hl} - Back in Mars University, Ogden Wernstrom sat in the front row. {jk} - The Acadamy of Inventors Seal included spray-on toupee. {jk} - Waiter at the banquet is carrying drinks in various lab containers, such as test tubes. {ds} - Look carefully and you'll see that the Professor's hand movement matches that shown on the overhead projection exactly. - The academy prize looked like an Emmy award. {bm} - When Farnsworth holds up his napkin later in the episode, it still has the same markings and smears on it. - A great example of attention to detail ... only Farnsworth knew that Uranus's name was changed in 2620. Leela had no clue! She's just a schmoe-ette, while Huburt is learned in all fields. {bk} - Was I the only one concerned about Fry's nose being torn off when Farnsworth manipulated the Smelloscope's trajectory? - News show is \/2 News (root 2 or 1.414 News). {hl} - The Earth's population in Y3K is still in the billions, even after the cyborgs and alien spacecraft attacks. {ds} [Well, there's only been 1000 years of population increase, immigration, and such. We don't know that the aliens completely destroyed civilization, either. {jb}] - The beanie baby's name that Fry held up is "Stripes the Tiger." {sh2} - Exactly twenty seconds pass during the commercial. - Bender scratches himself while standing on the heap of garbage. {vy} - "This picture of your wife? Pure garbage." wasn't taken offensively but the Mayor, which might lead one to believe that the Mayor might agree ... in a completely different way. {js} - Did anyone else notice that the Mayor and his assistant looked more than a little like our President and his cigar weilding intern? That would explain why he wasn't too upset when his wife's picture was smashed to bits. {ab} - When Fry instructs Leela to discard her doughnut, he refers to it as a cruller, although it sounds like he says "crawler." It actually kind of looks like something that would crawl, though ... {vy} - The City of NNY Seal features a human and a robot. {ds} - Professor Wormstrom got his three Chinese interns. {dd} - Wormstrom's interns were also shaking their fists when he vowed revenge "even if it takes me ANOTHER hundred years!" {js} ======================================================================== = Parallels to Science Fiction = ~ "This Island Earth" (movie) - Morvo is a Metaluna Mutant, a biologically produced servant/soldier to the Metalunans in the classic 1955 sci-fi feature. {dd} ~ "Life-Line" (short story) - The idea of the Death Clock is examined in great detail in a short story by Robert Heinlein called "Life-Line," originally published in 1939. In the story, the doctor invents a machine that can trace a body's vibrations through time and accurately predict when a person will die. Being a Heinlein story, the hero gets involved in all kinds of bureaucracy as a result. But the machine is right. I'm not sure where you can find the story, but I found it in a 1979 edition of "Isaac Assimov Presents the Great SF Stories Vol. 1." I highly recommend the entire series. {ac} ~ "Red Dwarf" (TV show) - "FUN IN THE SUN" is the theme song of the British SF TV-series. The theme song was composed by Howard Goodall and sung by Jenna Russell. {jr2} (For the complete lyrics, see "Final Thoughts / Comments.") - I don't know if this is a ref or not, but the way the garbage was eventually destroyed was very similar to an episode of Red Dwarf ("White Hole"), where Lister plugs up a White Hole by "Playing pool with planets." {mf2} + "Return of the Jedi" (movie) - The holographic projection was taken right of it. {rd2} ~ "Star Trek" (orig. TV series) - Doors open with the same sound used in ST, same with the Leonard Nimoy collector's plate. FYI, the stupid Uranus joke is another ST reference, "Going around Uranus and picking up Klingons." {vy} ======================================================================== = Other References = ~ "Alf" (TV show) - Did anyone else think that he was a reference to alf? Maybe stretching, but alf considered cats a delicacy. "Kittens give Morbo gas." {aa} ~ "The Alice's Restaurant Massacree" (?) - Did anyone else notice a connection between the garbage solution and "The Alice's Restaurant Massacree?" Namely, how Guthrie says: "...at the bottom of the cliff was another plie of garbage, and we decided that one big plie was better than two little piles, and rather than bring that one up, we decided to throw ours down." {ag} + "Armageddon" (1998 movie) - A giant ball of trash heading towards New New York similar to the plot of the film. {jk} - The color and design of the space suites is right out of Armageddon. {zz} + Botany 500 - Robotany 500. {jk} + "Citibank" (corporation) - City hall has been bought out by the 20th century banking firm, Citibank (note the similarities between the two logos). {vy} + "Dr. Strangelove ... " (movie) - At the end, right before the commecial for the next futurama, there was a shot of the garbage asteroid floating past the camera. During this time, the song "We'll meet again" is playing. This is kinda a reference to the 1964 Stanely Kubrick movie "Dr. Strangelove; or how I learned to stop worrying and love the bomb." At the end of that movie, A series of nuclear explosions is shown with "We'll meet again" playing. {jr3} [Rob McCartny disagrees that this is a direct reference. See "Final Thoughts / Comments."] - Just for the sake of getting all the facts down, the song is sung (in its most famous version - I'm not _sure_ that this was the one used here) by Vera Lynn. {jet} + "The Simpsons" (That _other_ cartoon) - Bender appreciates the taste of some 20th-century-era figurines, a real-life line of memorabilia dedicated to Matt Groening's freshman television show, The Simpsons. - Bender copies one of Homer's catchphrases when he eats Bart's shorts and remakrs "Mmmm ... shorts!" - The Bart Simpson dolls are wearing blue shirts, the color of Bart's shirt when it comes to merchandise. {jk} ======================================================================== = Freeze Frame Fanaticism = >> Academy of Inventors [AOI] Official Seal {ds} light | the bulb | wheel ------------------ mouse | spray-on trap | toupe >> Buildings / Signs PETE'S TVs letting people watch news reports in our windows since 1951 >> The city has a change of heart losers WELCOME HOME, [HEROES!] <-- "heroes" is crossed out >> The legendary spinning newspaper NEW NEW YORK POST --- CITY URGED TO LITTER! ======================================================================== = Goofs = - Bender says, "Dibs on his CD player." In 1ACV06, Fry had his CD player reposessed, didn't he? {vy} - Can't the people of the next millenium find a better solution to baldness than spray-on toupees? - The Reverse Scuba Suit doesn't appear until the fish needs it. {lp} - Bender and Leela swap places on the table when Farnsworth is drawing the Smelloscope. {lp} - The wooden panels that make up the symposium ceiling grow in size when Farnsworth takes the stage. - Professor Farnsworth places a piece of paper on an overhead projector (you need to use celluloid transparencies with an overhead projector, or an opaque projector). {vy} - Ron Popeil's head dissapears from the stage during the hat helicopter and the Smelloscope presentations, and reappears quite fast (there's no time for anyone to carry the podium with him back on). {lp} - When Fry is telling Farnsworth that back in the 20th century he never gave up, we see the hangar in the background, and the ship is missing. {lp} - When the crew first approaches the Smelloscope and we get a view from outside the window, the outlines of the windows' shadows appear on the floor inside. It's as if someone was supposed to color it in, but never did. - When Fry makes his Uranus joke, the elevator is in the wrong place. - Where did Bender's lootin' TV come from? - There is a rope attached to the "Fun in the Sun" barge, but it disappears when the barge sails away. - The steamboat was actually a product of the 18th century. In the 30th century educational institutions, everything from 1 AD to 2700 is probably grouped into the time period known as the "stupid ages." {jb} - When the PE ship first zooms into space, it looks like it's coming from Europe instead of NNY. - When the ship lands on the trashteroid, the main door (from where the crew exits) is WAY too wide. {lp} - It'd be impossible for Fry's neck to fit inside the six-pack ring, especially with his helmet on. - Leela's map of the trashteroid dissapears after she says "then the bomb must go right... here". {lp} - When the timer counts down, the good Professor supposedly installed the readout upside-down. If this were really the case, when Leela thinks it says "15:00", the "1" should be further to the left. On LCDs, numbers are formed from any of 7 elements (an "8" uses all 7). A "1" uses the two rightmost elements. Flipped, these would be the two LEFTmost ones, which the readout as shown does not show. {mc} - When Bender picks up the bomb, the clock loses two seconds. The bomb stops beeping before Leela's line "That idiot ... " - The bomb has some electronic components on its top; then Benders turns it upside down, but when Fry starts screaming, the electronic components are _still_ on its top. They're back below after the commercial. {lp} - The clock loses four seconds when Bender throws it at Leela, and another five seconds when he throws it into space. All in all, it goes from 19:00 to 00:00 in ten seconds. - During the crew's second visit to CityHall, the "Mayor" label on the mayor's desk is missing. {lp} - The buildings outside the Mayor's office change. - When Mayor Poopenmeyer yells "Get that robot some more beer" off- screen, who's he talking to? - Only a few things in the office are trashed, but an overhead shot reveals much of the furniture and previously non-existant items overturned and broken. - NNY had 72 hours until zero-hour, but somehow the entire city managed to amass enough garbage to send up at the trashteroid on almost no time at all. The original trash ball took DECADES to develop, didn't it? {js} - The ball has to be travelling more than fifty times the speed of the light in order to pass near Venus and Mercury and still reach the sun in ten seconds. {lp} [Maybe it burned up because it was just _closer_ to the sun, never actually reaching it. -ed] ======================================================================== = Extended Goofs / Technical Nitpicks = >> Smell ya' later! Haynes Lee: Smell can't travel through the vacuum of space. Derek Robb: Why on earth not? [I find this choice of words to be very ironic. -ed] Smell is particulate. Now, granted, there generally aren't many folks who would be breathing through their nose in the vacuum of space, but there's nothing keeping oderous particulate matter from travelling through it. Michael K. Neylon: While particles do travel through any medium, to be able to smell those particle requires a certain concentration of them in the air - and while the particle would travel from Jupiter or Saturn to Earth, the concentration will drop off with the square of the distance, roughly ... so maybe one or two particles a year from Jupiter will make it to earth. Derek Robb: I'll grant you that, but that's more a matter of "Jupiter is too far away to smell" ... not "smell cannot travel in a vacuum." Well, that and the particles in question would never survive re- entering an atmosphere. But still. I will not rest until every nit has been picked! William Rieder: Ahh, but! The recent speculation about Mars "seeding" early Earth with spores takes into account the fact that the sun's huge gravitation force _pulls_ the outer planets' particulate matter _towards_ the Earth. Smelling Mecury or Venus would be tough ... but Mars (+ the other outers)? Hell - we get (miniscule) _meteors_ worth of particulate matter every day! Larry Kurtz: In this case, the odour is not traveling through space ... the smelloscope uses an advanced technology that locates the odors. The odors are not brought down to earth via the smelloscope, the smelloscope somehow accesses the smells where they reside. Possibly creating a sort of "genetic code" of the smell, and coding/decoding it on earth to recreate the smell? John Wasser: I would further speculate that the smelloscope is not necesarily reproducing the true odor of the celestial objects. It is common for instruments to adjust a signal to match the senses of the operator. For example it would not make sense for an infrared telescope (designed for humans) to require infrared-sensitive eyes. The image would generally be displayed as shades of grey or a "false color" image where different ranges of infrared wavelengths would be represented as different colors. Perhaps the smelloscope senses something about the object that is indicative of its odour (reflection spectrum, nuclear spin moment, whatever ... ) and converts that to a smell in the range that can be sensed by humans. It would be most useful for comparing the properties of celestial objects ... Perhaps we would find that fruit odours indicate the presence of valuable minerals near the surface! Andrew Gill: What if the smelloscope were to precisely focus intense laser energy on a point where aromatic particles are believed to be, vaporise those particles, check the IR chromatography for that chemical, then duplicate it in the smelloscope cruet? The main problem is that there would be a huge delay between when the laser was aimed and when it reached its destination, and when it came back, and when it created the chemical. Not only would that cause a problem with the immense rime that it would take, but it would alse cause a problem with the movements of the bodies. The planets would move enough so that it would be impossible to correctly aim it without solving the many-body problem. Steven Aaron Monroe: A smelloscope could actually be invented and, in fact, we already have something sort of like it, the spectrometer. My guess is that the smelloscope works by analyzing the spectrum of light coming from the celestial object, just like a spectrometer. However, the smelloscope apparently also recreates the chemicals and/or odors of the object in question so that a person could smell them. Farnsworth said that the smelloscope works by collecting odors, but, as mentioned on another website, such a thing would be impossible or incredibly impractical. Since he was senile enough to forget that he had already invented the smelloscope and that he had already presented the Deathclock, he was probably also senile enough to forget how he built it. In reply to Haynes Lee's original accusation that smells can't travel through the vacuum of space, Hannah M. reminds us that "it _can_ travel through the vacuum of a cartoon. Debate resolved." >> The Plural zones strike again? For the most part, the placement of the garbage ball, the Earth, the sun and the moon are accurate throughout the episode, but there are a few slip-ups. First of all, when we first see the ship taking off, it's going in the wrong direction. Even if they were planning on looping around the globe first, they'd still be approaching the garbage ball from a different angle than was shown. Another concern is the ball's trajectory. Taking into account the Earth's rotation, (as demonstrated in the holographic projection shown early in Act Two), the western hemisphere should not be visible from the ball itself until very close to collision. For the most part, this goes accordingly, as the view from the ball is of Eurasia (not to be confused with Urectum) and Africa. However, in the final shot from on top of the trashteroid, we see a head-on view of North America. Presumably, this is just for artistic emphasis, as the crew standing there with a view of somewhere halfway around the world from the impending collision just isn't the same. >> Size Doesn't Matter! (whoops, wrong Summer-'98 disaster-movie ... ) Steven Aaron Monroe: The big ball of garbage seems to have gotten much bigger while it was floating around for almost a millenium. Though we clearly see that it is small enough to fit on a normal-sized barge and rocket, when it approaches Earth it appears to be large enough to have a strong enough gravity field for the Planet Express Crew to walk around and for it to hold an atmosphere (which would explain why we could hear the Bart Simpson doll). However, when we see the second ball of garbage (which should have been just as large as the first) on the launch pad, it looks pretty tiny compared to how big it should be. Vince Yim: A trash ball of that size would not cause significant damage upon impact, as much of the mass would burn up upon re-entry (but hey, it makes for a good story). The size between the ball of trash as shown in the "pornocumentary" (thanks to whoever coined that term ... I'll have to remember that *) is inconsistent with the ball of trash that the Planetary Express team lands on. Unless the ball of trash is actually picking stuff up along the way, it should actually be really small, and would not have caused significant damage on impact (but then, that would make for a dull story). If it were actually that small, it should not have enough gravity to keep them from walking without breaching the escape velocity of the object. They would have to use docking clamps in order to secure the ship on the planet, but instead it simply lands on it (but again, it makes for a good story). [* - I believe it was Dave Sweatt who first used the word with regard to this episode. -ed] ======================================================================== = Reviews = Haynes Lee: Good episode. Character development of Professor Farnsworth with good 20th century references. (A-) Patrick McGovern: Good episode, another great new character, and some really good depth to Farnsworth. This should also silence the "Fry is a stupid asshole" critics for a while. Bender should've had more lines, but when he was hot (like his "Trash making" beer blast), he was hot. (B+) Vince Yim: This is one of my favorite episodes by far. Even though I haven't seen Armageddon yet, the references were really obvious yet subtle (and hilarious nonetheless). The historical movie on the NNY garbage problem turning into a porn film had me in stitches. A few lapses in continuity here and there, but those don't get in the way. (A) Yours Truly: For the first time, I didn't laugh much throughout the whole thing, even though I really wanted to. It seemed much of the careful subtlety we usually see in the show was abandoned in favor of a few stand-outish jokes (which, to be fair, _were_ funny). Aside from humor, the plot seemed kind of slow-paced, and it felt like the 20th-century bashing was being pounded into my head. But looking back, I suppose things could be a lot worse. (C+) Average Grade: [16/4=4] (B+) ======================================================================== = Final Thoughts / Comments = >> Is it sponsored by Stop-N-Drop? Benjamin Robinson: [The internet]'s also got a death clock, over a thousand years before Dr. Farnsworth came up with the idea. The morbidly curious can go to to see when they'll shuffle off this mortal coil. >> Happiness is overanalyzation There was some discussion over the hidden meaning behind Bender's "Fortified Wine List," which consisted of the '71 Hobo's Delight, the '57 Chateau Parte and the '66 Thunder Shewitz. The first to comment was Dave Antonoff, who said the middle wine was "obviously a play on 'House party.'" John E. Thelin: I would say it is a play on how some people will proclaim "Time to par-TAY!", and since it sorta' sounds vaguely French, the adding Chateau to it makes sense. Dave Antonoff: You may be right but Chateau _is_ French for house, and "house party" _is_ a common enough phrase, I think there might have even been a film with that as the title. Maybe "House Par-TAY?" John E. Thelin: Ehm, no. Chateau is french for "castle." It is a common preface to many wine names, as vineyards are often appended to castles. I think it was (like the other two examples) a mix of high and low - the "chateau" part indicating culture, and the "par-tay" indicating lack of such. Michael Choi: Actually, "chez" is not an "architectural" term but just a locational one, "at the home of." "Maison" is French for "house." Dave Antonoff makes an additional remark about the 66' Thunder Shewitz: A piquant blend of Thunderbird (drink of choice for the stereotypical Sterno bum) and Manishevitz (cheap wine imbibed at Bar Mitzvahs and other essentially Jewish functions). Michael D. Hovde: I thought this referred to cars: 57 Chevy, 66 Thunderbird ... (no idea what 71 is, though). >> Never overestimate the human race Steven Aaron Monroe: The two inventions presented during the Symposium that we see (the Reverse Scuba suit and that helicopter Beanie hat) seem awfully primitive for the 30th century. The Deathclock (if it works) seems to be a more accurate example of technology in the year 3000. >> He should quit while he's a head Haynes Lee: One of Ron Popeil's feats in the 20th century was the invention of the informercial. Frederick J. Barnett: It wasn't mentioned in the show, but didn't he also invent (or maybe just distributed) the Popeil Pocket Fisherman? Michael R. Flavin: No, the Pocket Fisherman was invented by Ron's father. (Sorry, but I don't know his first name.) I know this because of the Weird Al Yankovic song Mr. Popeil, about Ron's dad, which featured backup vocals by Lisa Popeil, Ron's sister. I really know much more than I should about the Popeil clan, don't I? >> The downside to having two punchlines Sarah Culp: What I found interesting was that in the promos for the episode, the "Smell Uranus" joke was presented _as_ the joke. Then the actual show mocked the stupidity of such a joke. If Futurama ever makes it to syndication, I have no doubt that in the scene where they're smelling the planets, everything after "As long as you don't make me smell Uranus" will be cut. >> Urban Folklore References Haynes Lee provides one: T. 800ft diameter asteroid passed within 500K miles of hitting earth in 1989. The next one, introduced by Dave Sweatt, sparked some discussion. He wrote: "A barge full of garbage once actually went from seaport to seaport along the east coast trying to find someplace that would receive it, but was repeatedly turned away." Ryan Paige: I took a trip to New York after the barge had returned to the City. The tour guide on the Circle Line actually pointed out the barge in the harbor as part of the tour (and mentioned it was sinking). Paul Brinkley: Having just recently seen an episode of Modern Marvels (History Channel) dealing with garbage disposal, I can safely say this was no urban myth. From what I can remember, it wasn't, however, quite a case of "no one would take it". Apparently someone in charge of disposing of this particular batch of NY garbage hit on a scheme to ship it to a landfill that was charging very little to take it, allowing either this guy or his department to pocket a lot of the disposal budget. Once the barge was on its way, though, some media guy latched on to the plan and made a big stink (so to speak) about it, leading a politician in the area of the landfill to make a big deal out of turning away the barge (even though the landfill operator was quite enthusiastic to receive; apparently they were making a lot of money off of this too). After that, the barge became somewhat famous for floating from harbor to harbor, looking for a taker, and finding none. I likely have several details wrong here; I wasn't paying huge attention to the documentary. Perhaps someone else can help clarify. John Wasser reprints portions of an article from : Barging into a Trashy Saga A plan to send Long Island garbage south becomes a national joke -- but helps solve a problem By Shirley Perlman Staff Writer It was 1987 and America was awash in trashy news, most notably the sex scandals involving former U.S. Sen. Gary Hart and television evangelist Jim Bakker. [...] The partners envisioned leasing four barges to haul 10,000 tons a day -- at a profit of $200,000 a day. [...] On March 22, the Break of Dawn pulled out of New York with 3,186 tons of baled Islip trash in tow. At the helm was Duffy St. Pierre, a soft-spoken Cajun sea captain from New Orleans, with a crew of three men. Three days later, the barge docked in North Carolina, where Harrelson had verbal agreements with a few farmers to use some of their land for dump sites. And then ... "There were these two little old ladies in Morehead City living in a house near the dock where the barge pulled up," Hroncich recalled recently. "They called the mayor's office, and one thing led to another. They really started it." The mayor called the governor. The governor barred the barge from docking anywhere in the state. The same thing happened in Louisiana (where Harrelson had written agreements to dump the trash in landfills), Texas and Florida. By then, nobody wanted Long Island's garbage, but everyone was talking about it. [...] Cuba said no, and so did the little country of Belize. Mexico said it would dispatch gunboats if the barge tried to approach the Yucatan Peninsula. [...] On May 16, after two months at sea, the beleaguered garbage barge sailed back into New York Harbor under police escort and then dropped anchor in Brooklyn's Gravesend Bay. There it became a tourist attraction for almost four months while state and local officials battled in court about what to do with the trash. [...] Finally, in August, after four months of legal wrangling, an agreement was reached to burn the trash in Brooklyn and bury the ash at the Islip landfill. On Sept.1, the first truckload of trash was deposited atop the landfill without protest or fanfare. [...] >> Think of it as "Extended Parallels to Science Fiction" Javier Redal: "FUN IN THE SUN" is the theme song of the British SF TV- series "Red Dwarf." The theme song was composed by Howard Goodall and sung by Jenna Russell. The lyrics are: It's cold outside, there's no kind of atmosphere I'm all alone, more or less Let me fly far away from here Fun, fun, fun in the sun, sun, sun I want to lie shipwrecked and comatose Drinking fresh mango juice Goldfish shoals nibbling at my toes Fun, fun, fun in the sun, sun, sun Fun, fun, fun in the sun, sun, sun >> Reference-debunking Corner Rob McCartny: "We'll Meet Again" was indeed the final song in "Dr. Stangelove or How I Discovered How Annoying It Is To Type The Whole Title" ... _but_, I believe the intent of using that song for the asteroid's passing by Earth was to suggest that this _new_ asteroid will eventually return to threaten New New York again sometime in the future, just as the 20th century garbage ball returned to New New York after 1000 years ... a kind of "Circle Of Life" thingy. I recognized the song from Dr. Strangelove and it brought up funny memories from that film, but it seemed funnier to me in the context described above. Anyone? Anyone? Alan Hamilton: I agree with the sentiment that it was a "circle of life" thingy, but I think that's what Kubrick meant as well. At the end, the politicians and military men were already planning the next war as civilization was being destroyed. A "circle of death" thingy. >> On the Cutting-Room Floor We know nothing about them, but two characters -- Arcturus Fats and Dr. Hanson -- were in scenes that were cut from this episode. Lauren Tom is credited in the end, but Amy did not speak in any of the scenes we saw. Could she have been cut too? >> Last, and probably least Haynes Lee: Philo T. Farnsworth, one of the 20th century pioneers of television, is also credited with other inventions such as the electron microscope. Rather than "reverse-scuba suit," Dr. Wernstrom should have named his invention the "Scaba Suit," or Self-Contained Abovewater Breathing Apparatus. Andrew Gill: The internet isn't just for pornography. It's also for spreading jokes about wearing sunscreen. (I've always wanted to say that!) Hannah M.: In the Morbo sequence, something _horrible_ must have happened to poor Mittens. I mean, look at that cat ... it's got bandages in the most _intriguing_ places. Speculations, anyone? Dave Sweatt: We already have Tress MacNeille as a Simpsons/Futurama voice actor cross-over. Tonight's clip of the Bart doll saying "Eat my Shorts" brings in Nancy Cartwright, and next week will feature Dan Castellaneta as the Robot devil. I was hoping that Prof. Frink would have been mentioned for some groundbreaking invention he created before he died. Don Del Grande: Was I the only one who thought that [it] was going to end with the garbage landing on Los Angeles? ======================================================================== = Fun Stuff = >> Alien Language #1 sightings TV Guide ad (not in actual episode): "FOOLISH EARTHLINGS WILL NEVER DECODE THIS." >> References to Previous Episodes - [1ACV01] Route-2 News uses the same photo of Professor Farnsworth as the Fate Assignment Office - [1ACV01] Mr. Spock / Leonard Nimoy appears, to Fry's amazement - [1ACV01] "Bad President," cf. "bad fish" {ds} - [1ACV01] The death clock works similar to Farnsworth's DNA detector - [1ACV04] Soft human brain, cf. tiny inferior brain {ds} - [1ACV05] Celestial object splats like a bug (hologram of trashteroid, cf. planet on the windshield) {ds} >> Fan-made Alternate Titles for this Episode "Garbage in, Garbage Out" {zz} "How I Learned to Stop Recycling and Love the 20th Century" "The Garbage Menace" {hl} "I Can Smell Clearly Now" {ds} "Trash of the Titan" {ds} ======================================================================== = Voice Credits = >> Starring Billy West ........................ Farnsworth, Fry, "GC2K" narrator, Man Scientist, Zoidberg Katey Sagal ................................................... Leela John DiMaggio ........................ Bender, waiter, Military Chief >> Special Appearances Ron Popeil .................................... his own head in a jar >> Guest Starring Phil LaMarre ................................................. Hermes Dave Herman ...................... Ogden Wernstrom, Mayor Poopenmeyer Tress MacNeille .......................... Lady Scientist, Stephanie, "Human Female" >> Uncredited Maurice LaMarche .............................................. Morbo At , John DiMaggio is credited as Arcturus Fats, Dave Herman is credited as Dr. Hanson, and Tress MacNeille is credited as Linda. No characters with these names (that were given to us, anyway) were in the episode. Lauren Tom also shows up in the credits, even though Amy doesn't speak. We've received word that the two characters Dr. Hanson and Arcturus Fats were cut from the episode. I assume that's what happened to Amy's scene too. = Quotes and Scene Summaries = % It's morning at Planet Express, and another meeting at the ol' round % table commences, with all members of the crew present. Prof.: Good news, everyone! Tomorrow you'll be making a delivery to Ebola 9, "The Virus Planet." Hermes: Why can't they go _today_? Prof.: Because, tonight's a special night and I want all of you to be alive. It's the Academy of Inventors' annual symposium. Fry: Wow, I love symposia! Prof.: It's the event of the scientific season. Every member presents an invention, and the best one wins the academy prize. Bender: Sounds boring. Prof.: Oh my, yes ... but not this year, because my latest invention is unbeatable. Behold the death clock! % Farnsworth carries a large, black box out from under the table. There % is a long, thin LCD screen on the front and a hollow, red cylinder on % the top. Prof.: Simply jam your finger in the hole, and this readout tells you exactly how long you have left to live. Leela: Does it really work? Prof.: Well, it's occasionally off by a few seconds, what with "free will" and all. Fry: Sounds like fun! How long do I have to live? % Fry decides to try it out and jams his finger in, per the % instructions. The box dings, and the others gather around to read the % results. Farnsworth whistles with awe. Bender: Ooh, dibs on his CD-player! % End of Act One (0:56) % That evening, everyone is gathered at the Academy of Inventors' % building. It's a formal affair in a nicely-decorated lounge room, and % many of the attendees are standing together chatting and sipping their % wine glasses. Amy, Leela, Fry and Professor Farnsworth stand together % against a wall of portraits, when Fry points to one in particular. Fry: Who's the gross nerd? Farnsworth: That's me at the very first symposium! I'm the academy's oldest living member, you know. These youngsters all look up to me. [another old man, named Dr. Wernstrom, approaches] Wernstrom: Well, well, well ... look who decided to show his wrinkled face. Farnsworth: [irritated] Why don't you just leave me alone, Wernstrom? Wernstrom: Face it, Farnsworth, you're over the hill! It's time to leave science to the 120-year-olds. Farnsworth: You young Turks think you know everything! I was inventing things when you were barely turning senile. Wernstrom: [laughs] Go home before you embarrass yourself, old man. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to take a nap before the ceremonies. [Wernstrom hobbles away] Fry: Who's that jerk? Farnsworth: 100 years ago, he was my most promising student at Mars University. But then, after one fateful pop quiz ... % The professor flashes back to his old days of teaching. While the % other students sit at their seats, a young man is standing in front of % Farnsworth's desk, angry at receiving an A- on his quiz. Farnsworth % explains to him that penmanship counts, but the boy vows revenge: "I % swear I'll have my revenge if it takes me 100 years!" Back in the % present, Farnsworth rationalizes that after 99 years of no revenge, % he's essentially in the clear. % Later on, the symposium moves its attendees to a dining hall with a % stage adjacent to it. Hermes, Amy and Dr. Zoidberg are at one table, % and the other crew members are at another. Bender (wearing a top hat) % is conversing with the waiter about their wine list. Bender: I've been perusing your fortified wine list, and I've selected the '71 Hobo's Delight, the '57 Chateau Parte and the '66 Thunder Shewitz. Waiter: Exquisite choices, sir. Bender: [politely] And mix them all together in a big jug. % On-stage, a man's head is floating in a jar, sitting on a stool, % facing the microphone. He introduces himself as Ron Popeil, "inventor % of Mr. Microphone, the spray-on toupee and, of course, the technology % to keep human heads alive in jars." The audience musters a few claps % for him, and he introduces the first in their lineup of inventors, % that up-and-coming young star, Dr. Wernstrom. Wernstrom takes the % stage and presents to the audience the "reverse-scuba suit." % In his demonstration, he presents a twig to the audience, and then to % the lonely inhabitant of a fish tank. He throws the stick across the % stage, and orders the fish to "fetch," so the fish swims down to the % empty RS Suit lying on the floor of the tank, squirms inside, and hops % out of the water with built-in mechanical legs. He retrieves the % stick for Dr. Wernstrom, and Wernstrom then orders the fish to sit % (which it does, after some discipline). As Wernstrom and his fish % leave the stage, the audience applauds, and Professor Farnsworth % groans. Fry: Don't worry, Professor. It's no competition for your death clock. [Wernstrom approaches] Wernstrom: And what will you be presenting this evening, Grampa? Farnsworth: Let's just say it'll put you young whippersnappers in your place! Wernstrom: I just hope it's not as lame as that death clock you presented last year. Farnsworth: [startled] Uh, last year, you say? Wernstrom: That's right. Farnsworth: Oh, my. [desperately] Did it put you young whippersnappers in your place? Wernstrom: Hardly ... we laughed until our teeth fell out! [to his fish] Come along, Cinnamon. [he and his fish leave] Farnsworth: Oh, dear ... I'll have to invent something new in the next ten minutes. Perhaps some sort of "death clock" ... Leela: [concerned] Um, Professor ... % Ten minutes later, the stage is occupied by a man with a propeller- % beanie on his head, who spins his propeller and flies away to make % room for the next presentation. Ron Popeil takes the mike again: "Our % last presentation comes from our oldest member, Professor Hubert % Farnsworth." As the spotlight shines on the professor's chair, he is % still hunched over a drawing of his, and quickly wraps it up. % (Wernstrom reminds his old colleague "pencils down, pruneface!" from % his seat.) Farnsworth hurries onto the stage, holding a wrinkled % cocktail napkin with scribbles on it, and stammers while trying to % address the crowd. Prof.: Oh, yes ... here I am ... okay, now ... hello there ... [composes himself] Now, we all know telescopes allow us to _see_ different objects. But, what if we want to _smell_ distant objects? Well, now we can, thanks to my new invention, the smelloscope! % He places his scribbled napkin onto an overhead projector for all to % see, and diagrams the parts of the machine, explaining how the odor % travels past a coffee stain, around an olive pit and into a cigar % burn. He also calls attention to the human operator of the machine % who, in his own words, "appears to be a doodle of myself as a cowboy." % The audience laughs and mocks him, despite his claim that the % smelloscope is brilliant. He becomes overrun with sweat and wipes his % brow with his napkin, but when he places it back on the projector, he % finds that it's been smeared beyond recognition. Wernstrom raises % from his seat. Wernstrom: I've waited a hundred years for this, Farnsworth! I give your invention the worst grade imaginable ... an A-minus- minus! % Farnsworth is laughed off of the stage, and Ron Popeil presents the % night's Academy prize to Dr. Wernstrom, "for his fish-thingy." % Wernstrom receives a trophy for his efforts, and is given a round of % applause. The professor leaves the back door of the room with a tear % in his eye, and later on is sulking at the table of Planet Express % surrounded by his employees. Prof.: [sighs] Perhaps 149 is just too old to be a scientist. Bender: [giddy] Yep! Fry: No, Professor, don't give up! There were plenty of times in my century when I was gonna give up, but I never did. Never. Hey, are you even listening to me? Oh, I give up. Prof.: By God, you're right! I'm going to _build_ that smelloscope! % He runs out of the room determined, smeared napkin in hand. The next % morning, he yells "Eureeka!" from up in the observation tower, and the % crew rush upstairs to see. He explains that, instead of building the % smelloscope, he remembered that he built one last year. Pan over to % an open window next to them, occupied by a huge, telescope-like device % with a y-shaped hook at the closest end to fit into one's nostrils. Prof.: Go ahead ... try it! You'll find that every heavenly body has its own particular scent. Here, I'll point it at Jupiter ... [he does so, and Fry assumes the nostril-hooks] Fry: [sniffs] Smells like strawberries! Prof.: Exactly! And now, Saturn. Fry: [sniffs] Pine-needles! Oh, man, this is great! Hey, as long as you don't make me smell Uranus. [laughs] Leela: I don't get it. Prof.: I'm sorry, Fry, but astronomers renamed Uranus in 2620 to end that stupid joke once and for all. Fry: Oh. What's it called now? Prof.: "Urectum." % The professor offers to locate Urectum with the smelloscope, but Fry % stops him, and decides to smell around elsewhere in the sky. He % points the machine at various locations, sniffs them, and murmurs % thoughtfully each time. Finally, he reaches a spot in the sky whose % smell instantly makes him want to retch. Professor Farnsworth takes % Fry's place to smell for himself, and gives a similar reaction. Prof.: Geez, oh man! Remarkable ... a stench so foul it's right off the funkometer. I dare say Fry may have discovered the smelliest object in the known universe. Bender: [excited] Ooh, ooh, name it after me! % Leela changes the smelloscope's trajectory slightly, and observes the % resulting smell. She deducts that the object creating this smell is % moving. The professor calculates the object's trajectory with his % computer, and is shocked to learn that whatever it is, it's headed % straight for them, with enough force to reduce the entire city to a % stinky crater. He also learns that they have less than 72 hours. [a moment of silence passes] Bender: Well ... let's get lootin'! % Bender picks up a television set from the professor's desk and carries % it to the elevator, whistling, until he's out of sight. % End of Act Two (7:08) % Planet Express' staff are gathered at the table with a sense of panic % in the air. The lights are dimmed and a large holographic display of % the Earth rotates and glows in midair. A second holographic sphere, % about the size of a baseball, flies towards the mini-Earth and splats % onto the tri-state area in a gooey mess. Professor Farnsworth is % hunched over at his computer. Fry: So this thing's gonna destroy the whole city? What the heck _is_ it? Prof.: [engrossed in his comp.] Ah, just as I thought! The answer lies on this movie I found on the internet. % Farnsworth presses a button and the TV screen on the wall lights up, % introducing the movie "Garbage Crisis 2000," complete with % sensationalist disaster music. A narration begins, highlighting % footage after footage of overflowing garbage cans, littering % pedestrians and piles of bloated garbage bags on the street corners. Narrator: New York City. The year 2000. The most wasteful society in the history of the galaxy and it was running out of places to bury its neverending output of garbage. The landfills were full. New Jersey was full. And, so, under cover of darkness, the city put its garbage out to sea on the world's largest barge. % On-screen, a uniformed man sneaks through New York harbor at night and % removes a rope between the dock and a large garbage-filled barge % (labelled "FUN IN THE SUN"). The barge floats out to sea, and we % rejoin it later, still sailing aimlessly at sea, being circled by % seagulls. Narrator: The repulsive barge circled the oceans for 50 years, but no country would accept it. Not even that really _filthy_ one. You know the one I mean ... Finally, in 2052, the city used its mob connections to obtain a rocket and launch the garbage into outer space. Some experts claimed the ball might return to Earth someday, but the concerns were dismissed as "depressing." [cut to the crew watching the movie] Fry: [to Prof.] Wow, you got _that_ off the internet? In my day, the internet was only used to download pornography. Prof.: Actually, that's still true. % Back in the movie, one of the scientists who has just helped to launch % the rocket turns to her partner and asks if he might help her with her % sexual inhibitions. He agrees to do it "with gusto," and more % sensationalist music plays out the remainder of the movie ... as well % as a view of the two scientists undressing themselves. Farnsworth % doesn't let us see the rest, because he turns the movie off and the % lights on. Fry is disappointed by this. Prof.: So that's the situation. Due to the short-sightedness of old New York, New New York is going to be destroyed by a giant ball of garbage. Leela: [lecturing] Fry, what the hell were you people thinking back then? How could you just throw your garbage away? Fry: Hey, gimme a break. What do you do with it? Leela: We recycle everything. [gestures towards Bender] Robots are made from old beer cans. Bender: Yeah. [gestures to a beer can] And this beer can is made outta old robots! Leela: And that sandwich you're eating is made from old, discarded sandwiches. Fry: [rejects his food] The future is disgusting. Leela: [condescending] Typical 20th-century attitude. Fry: Hey, you have no right to criticize the 20th century. We gave the world the lightbulb, the steamboat and the cotton gin. Leela: Those things are all from the 19th century. Fry: [thinks] Yeah, well, they probably just copied us. Prof.: Please, there's no time for this now! This is an emergency. We must warn the mayor! % We cut directly to "Citihall," where Professor Farnsworth, Fry, Leela % and Bender are standing before the mayor's desk. The smelloscope has % been relocated to the mayor's window. Mayor: Garbage ball, huh? That sounds serious. Farnsworth: _Very_ serious, Mayor Poopenmeyer. Mayor: I gotta be sure this isn't another scientific fraud like global warming or secondhand smoke. [to his intercom] Send in my science advisor. [Dr. Wernstrom is sent in] Farnsworth: [vindictive] Wernstrom! Wernstrom: Well, well, well ... come to present your latest napkin, professor? Farnsworth: No, I'm here because a giant trash ball is heading straight for us! Smell for yourself. % Farnsworth wipes the smelloscope nostril-hooks clean with his shirt, % and makes room for the mayor to smell the trash ball for himself. % After one whiff, he backs away in a fit of agony. Dr. Wernstrom, on % the other hand, is still skeptical: "That smell could be anything. A % faulty stench-coil, some cheese on the lense ... who knows?" The % mayor's secretary rushes in carrying a tape recorder with an urgent % transmission from Neptune. She presses play, and they hear a muffled % voice speak of a giant garbage ball passing close by, followed by 20 % seconds of wheezing and coughing. (This part is much longer than she % expected.) Mayor: My God! The senile old man is right! Wernstrom: Do you mean him or me? Mayor: [points to Prof.] Him. Wernstrom: [disappointed] Aww ... % On the sidewalk, a number of people are watching a news report through % the windows of "Pete's TVs." The news team is a young blonde woman % and a green, webbed-fingered alien with an enormous, pulsing brain. Woman: Next, "New New York in Crisis." [to her partner] Morbo? Morbo: Thanks, human female. Puny Earthlings were shocked today to learn that a ball of garbage will destroy their pathetic city of New New York. Woman: Makes me glad we live here in Los Angeles. Morbo: Morbo agrees. [they both laugh cheerfully] % Back at Citihall, a representative of the US Military has paid a % visit, and brought a holographic projector. A few members of the % press are also present. A projection of the garbage ball is glowing % in the center of the room, and they discuss solutions to the problem. % Leela suggests shooting a missile at the ball, but as the % supercomputer simulation shows, the ball is so gooey that a missile % would just go straight through it. Farnsworth steps up to the % holograph and points to a spot on it. Farnsworth: But, suppose we sent a crew to plant an explosive precisely on the fault line between this mass of coffee grounds and this deposite of America Online floppy disks? [his theory is reenacted, with positive results] Military Guy: In theory, it could work. Wernstrom: Uh, "in theory," perhaps, but you'll never find a crew willing to take on a mission so suicidally dangerous. [Prof. turns towards his crew, smiling] Bender: [resentfully] Aww, crap. % Later on, the four of them are inside the Planet Express ship hangar, % preparing to board the ship. Professor Farnsworth briefs them on % their mission, while handing helmets out to everyone. He also has a % bomb the size and shape of a thick book set aside next to him, with a % digital readout that says 25:00 on it. Prof.: Now, you'll only have one chance to destroy the ball. After that, it will be so close to Earth, that blowing it up would cause garbage to rain over the entire planet, killing _billions_! Bender: [cynically] Aw, boo-hoo. [Prof. hands Leela the bomb] Prof.: Now, here's the bomb I've prepared. Once you activate it, you'll have 25 minutes to get away. Leela: That's all? But ... Prof.: [interrupting] Now, now ... there'll be plenty of time to voice your objections when and if you return. % He shooes them off, and they don their uniforms. After an heroic shot % of the three of them walking towards their destiny, Fry and Leela % carrying their helmets under their arms and Bender carrying his head, % the ship is ready to take off, and flies past the moon, towards the % fiery, smelly trashteroid. When the odor magnitude becomes too % fierce, Leela orders the ship to turn on its anti-smell device, which % Fry considers "sporty" upon smelling the results. The ship makes a % safe landing onto the surface of the ball, and its three pilots exit. Fry: Wow! Leela: Look at all this filth. Fry: It's not _filth_. It's a glorious monument to the acheivements of the 20th century! [he rummages through the trash beneath him] Look, a real beanie baby! Oh, a Mr. Spock collectors' plate. Some Bart Simpson dolls! % Fry points to a pile of Bart Simpson dolls next to the ship, and % Bender examines them. He takes one of the dolls and pulls the string % on its back, to hear Bart say "Eat my shorts." Bender obeys the % doll's command, pulls its shorts off and swallows them, commenting % "Mmmm ... shorts!" Leela urges Fry for them to hurry up and blow up % the trash ball, but he insists that it's not all worthless garbage. % To demonstrate, he searches through a particular pile looking for % something of value, but instead he gets his neck caught inside a six- % pack ring. Leela saves him with a pair of scissors. % With the Earth growing ever larger in the sky above of them, the team % trudges through the tacky trash-valley, Leela with a map in her hand. % She locates "hypodermic ridge" on the map, and deduces that the bomb % must be placed right beneath them. She shoves it into the ground and % gives her teammates one last warning before activating it: "Get ready % to run. We've got 25 minutes!" She presses the red button, and the % display changes from 25:00 to 15:00. She corrects herself and warns % that they only have 15 minutes. The display changes to 05:00, and % then to 6h:00. While the others are deeply confused, Bender clears % things up and shows them that the counter is on upside-down. Leela: That idiot! It wasn't set for 25 minutes ... it was set for 52 seconds! [Fry screams moronically with fear] Fry: We're gonna die! [cautiously] Right? Bender: Right. [Fry screams again] % End of Act Three (7:06) % With only nineteen seconds until detonation, the crew are at their % wits' end. Bender panicks and tosses the bomb in the air, and it % lands in Fry's arms. Fry tosses it back to Bender, who tosses it to % Leela. Leela fails to catch it, so the bomb clanks against her helmet % and she warns that they're going to poke somebody's eye out. The % clock continues to tick away, but Bender gets an idea. He picks up % the bomb, winds up his arm up, and throws it up into the infinite % blackness. As luck would have it, a stray comet bounces the bomb % right back into Bender's arms, but he once again tosses it into the % sky, where it explodes for good, leaving our heroes unscathed. % They all take a deep breath, and although Fry is relieved, Leela % points out that this is not such a happy ending: "This garbage ball's % unstoppable now. New New York is done for." They take a hesitant % look at the Earth's western hemisphere looming in space above them, % and Bender takes the time to scratch himself. A crowd of protesters % boos their ship as it returns to land, and Morbo and his "Human % Female" co-anchor wrap up a news report about an injured kitty-cat. Female: All in all, this is one day Mittens the kitten won't soon forget. [they both laugh cheerfully] Morbo: Kittens give Morbo gas. [to the camera] In lighter news, the city of New New York is doomed. Blame rests with known human Professor Hubert Farnsworth and his tiny, inferior brain. % An photo of Professor Farnsworth appears in the corner. Our disgraced % crew members are watching this news report from the mayors' office, % and the professor wonders how he could have been so neglectful, having % followed the instruction manual precisely. (He even holds the manual % up to show us, and we see he's been reading it upside-down.) Farnsworth: I'm a dried-up husk of a scientist. This is all my fault. Fry: No, it's my fault too. I'm sure I threw out more than my share of that trash up there. Also, one month my toilet broke and I just went straight in the garbage can. [the mayor flinches with disgust] Fry: Leela was right. The people of the 20th century were idiotic slobs. Especially me. Mayor: Enough! You all failed miserably ... it's time to put a real scientist in charge. [he presses a button; Dr. Wernstrom enters] Farnsworth: [angrily] Wernstrom! Wernstrom: [pompously] The very same. Mayor: Dr. Wernstrom, can you save my city? Wernstrom: Of course, but it'll cost you. First, I'll need tenure. Mayor: Done. Wernstrom: And a big research grant. Mayor: You got it. Wernstrom: Also, access to a lab and five graduate students, at least _three_ of them Chinese. Mayor: [hesitates] Alright, done! What's your plan? Wernstrom: What plan? _I'm_ set for life. Au revoir, suckers! [Wernstrom exits] Leela: That rat! Do something! Mayor: I wish I could ... but he's got tenure. % Pedestrians on the streets of New York are starting to feel the stench % of garbage filling the air, and point at the looming ball in the sky. % Small bits and pieces of garbage such as half-eaten cheeseburgers and % pizza fall from the heavens, destroying buildings in their wake. As % Dr. Zoidberg flees with the others on the sidewalk, a fish skeleton % lands in front of him and he gobbles it up. A pepperoni pizza % splatters against the mayor's window. Mayor: It's time to take action. [to his intercom] Stephanie, cancel the maid for today. Have her come tomorrow. [turns intercom off] Well, I'm fresh out of ideas. Anyone? Prof.: [profoundly] Wait ... if we could build an object the exact size, density and consistancy of the garbage ball, it might just knock the ball away without smashing it to bits. [the holographic projector reenacts his idea] Leela: But where can we find a substance the exact density and consistancy as garbage? Prof.: Alas, I dont know. Fry: Uh ... what about _garbage_? Prof.: Good lord! A second ball of garbage ... that just might work. Mayor: But garbage isn't something you just find lying in the streets of Manhattan. This city's been garbage-free for 500 years. Fry: Well, then it's time to make some more! Mayor: [confused] Make garbage? Fry: [cooly] Stand back and watch the master. % Fry rolls up his sleeves and approaches the mayor's desk. He % demonstrates how he can turn an empty Slurm can, a stack of papers and % a framed picture of Mayor Poopenmeyer's wife into garbage by simply % dropping them onto the floor. He offers the mayor to give it a try, % and the mayor somehow finds it in himself (with some encouragement) to % drop a pencil onto the ground and turn it into garbage. He gets the % hang of it, and overturns his desk chair as well. % Fry encourages his friends to follow the example, by telling Leela to % throw her food away before finishing it (he calls the snack she's % eating a "crawler") and telling Bender to drain a beer bottle empty % and smash it against the ground. Poopenmeyer orders his cronies to % "get that robot some more beer," to Bender's delight. The crew try to % take their message to the people by broadcasting a public service % announcement to the whole city. As Bender stands beside Fry's podium % guzzling down beer after beer, Fry speaks to the audience. Fry: People of New New York, take a lesson from the 20th century! Stop all this pain-in-the-ass recycling and throw your garbage on the floor. Go ahead, just chuck it any old place like I used to. Your city is counting on you. % People all over the city see Fry's speech on their televisions and % begin creating garbage in their very own homes. The newspapers print % headlines like "City Urged to Litter," but before the papers can even % make it off the printing press, they're shoved out the window before a % waiting bulldozer. Finally, a large enough ball has been created, and % it's strapped to a rocket ready for lift-off. The mayor and his % associates, including our crew, are watching from a safe distance. % The smelloscope is also there with them. Farnsworth: If my calculations are correct, this garbage ball will knock the other garbage ball directly into the sun. Wernstrom: And, if _my_ calculations are correct, we're all going to die horribly! [Wernstrom laughs obnxiously in Farnsworth's face] Mayor: Alright, places, everyone. Prepare for launch! [the countdown begins] Farnsworth: 5 ... 4 ... 3 ... 2 ... 3 ... 4 ... 5 ... Leela: [whispering to Fry] Just fire the damned thing. % Fry reaches for a big, red button, misses it with his finger, reaches % again, and activates it. The camera pans between the suspenseful % faces of the crew, and we hear each person's heartbeat: Fry's (which % sounds like a normal heartbeat), Professor Farnsworth's (which is % very, very slow) and Bender's (which sounds like a snare drum). The % rocket lifts off, comes in contact with the original garbage ball, and % bounces it in the opposite direction. The new ball bounces off to the % side, into oblivion, while the old garbage ball ricochets around % another planet's gravitational field like a slingshot and flies % towards the sun, where it evaporates in a cloud of smoke. Professor % Farnsworth takes a sniff with the smelloscope and announces that it % smells like "burning garbage." Everyone cheers, and later on, a % ceremony is being held outside Citihall in Fry's honor. The mayor is % at his podium on the front steps overlooking a crowd of people, % including Dr. Wernstrom. On the podium sits the Academy of Inventors' % trophy that was given away earlier. Mayor: And, so, on behalf of the entire city, I think you, Professor Farnsworth. I now present you with the academy prize, which we confiscated from Dr. Wernstrom after it became apparent that he was a jackass. [Farnsworth is handed the trophy] Farnsworth: [triumphantly] Yes! In your face, Wernstrom. Wernstrom: I'll get you, Farnsworth, even if it takes _another_ hundred years. Mayor: And, Fry, we owe you a tremendous debt as well. Were it not for your 20th-century garbage-making skills, we'd all be buried under 20th-century garbage. [the crowd cheers] Leela: Should we really be celebrating? I mean, what if the second garbage ball returns to Earth like the first one did? Fry: Well, who cares? That won't be for hundreds of years. Farnsworth: Exactly. It's none of our concern. Fry: _That's_ the 20th-century spirit! % The crowd cheers one more time, and some heroic music ends the show. % End of Act Four (6:14) % During the first half of the ending credits, we watch as the new ball % of garbage orbits slowly around the Earth. A portion of the song % "We'll Meet Again" plays. ======================================================================== = Contributers = {aa2} Andy Andy {jr2} Javier Redal {ab} Alexis Bywater {jr3} Johnny Rhyne {ac} Amanda Cohen {js} Jay Seals {ag} Andrew Gill {lp} Leandro Pardini {bk} Brendan Keane {mc} Michael Choi {bm} Becky Mroczkowski {mf2} Mad Fifes {dd} Daniel L. Dreibelbis {rd2} Ricky Dhatt {ds} Dave Sweatt {sam} Steven Aaron Monroe {hl} Haynes Lee {sh2} Scott Henrichs {jb} Jason Barrera {vy} Vince Yim {jet} John E. Thelin {zz} Zachary Zulkowski {jk} Joe Klemm ======================================================================== Lawyers give Morbo gas. Nevertheless, ===== First uploaded: 20-Jun-1999 Futurama and its characters belong to ===== Revision D : 13-Mar-2000 Fox. This capsule was compiled by ===== E-mail jedraw@earthlink.net Jordan "Human Male" Eisenberg. =================================