Futurama / Season 4

Season 4 of Futurama
Episodes	18th
Country of production	United States , South Korea (animation)
First broadcast	February 10, 2002 - August 10, 2003 on Fox
German-language first broadcast	November 30, 2002 - September 18, 2004 on ProSieben
◀   Season 3 Season 5   ▶
► Episode list

The fourth production season of Futurama , a US science fiction - animated series consists of 18 episodes, the first from 10 February 2002 at the American broadcaster Fox were seen. Fox did not broadcast the episodes as a contiguous season, but distributed the episodes over the fourth and fifth season.

Individual episodes of this season were nominated for three Emmys , two Annie Awards , a WGA Award and a Nebula Award without winning any of the awards.

Episodes

See also : List of Futurama Episodes

No. ( total )	No. ( St. )	German title subtitle	Original title Subtitle	Director	script	First broadcast
						No. ( total )	St.	No. ( St. )	Original version	German dubbed version
55	1	Smizmarr or the Tea of ​​Life Recommended by Bigfoot	Kif Gets Knocked Up a Notch Bigfoot's Choice	Wes Archer	Bill Odenkirk	61	5	5	Jan. 12, 2003	June 12, 2004
Amy longs for Kif, who is on space patrol millions of light years away. When the Planet Express crew is supposed to deliver a huge medicine capsule to a nearby planet, Amy takes the chance and flies as a stowaway to meet Kif. In a simulation room, both speculate about their possible future together. However, due to a defect in the simulation chamber, there is a battle with villains who suddenly become real (including Genghis Khan ). Zapp shoots a hole in the wall of the spaceship through which the adversaries are sucked out into space. But the friends are also threatened with disappearing into space due to the negative pressure . They cling to each other, with Kif losing his glove. In the subsequent examination by the doctor, Kif's pregnancy is determined in addition to various bone fractures . Although expectant dad Kif actually loves Amy, Professor Farnsworth finds out that Leela is the mother. However, Kif informs the others that Amy, who triggered his willingness to conceive, is the only possible social mother ("Smizmarr") and becomes engaged to her. However, Amy feels overwhelmed by the situation and leaves Kif. When he then retires to his home planet for the birth of the offspring, Amy appears at the last moment to perform a correct marriage. In doing so, she learns that she still has twenty years to prepare for her motherhood role, which her tadpole-like offspring will spend in a pond.
56	2	The orphan of the year It is like a homeland bellboy	Leela's Homeworld It's like "hee haw" with lasers	Mark Ervin	Kristin Gore	49	4th	5	Feb. 17, 2002	0Dec. 7, 2002
Professor Farnsworth has developed a new machine that can make tiny, glow-in-the-dark noses. Unfortunately, this machine also produces tons of toxic waste . Bender "undercuts" the city's disposal costs ($ 500) with his bid of $ 499 and 100 cents, and Farnsworth hires him to dispose of the garbage. Conveniently, it simply directs the green liquid into the sewer . Meanwhile, Leela is elected Orphan of the Year by the orphanage and begins again to brood over her origins when suddenly the ground beneath Fry, Bender and Leela breaks up through the toxic waste in the sewer system and they are kidnapped by the mutants living underground. The mutants are annoyed by the toxic waste that cannot harm them, but now allows them to see each other in the water. When they want to transform the three into mutants by dunking them in the toxic waste-soaked water, Fry, Bender and Leela get help from two unknown beings and are able to escape. On the run from the angry mob through the sewer system, they discover a room that is full of pictures and texts from Leela's past. Driven by curiosity, Leela stays in the sewer against the will of her friends and pursues the two hooded figures. When the hoods are lifted, Leela realizes her parents and that she is actually not an alien but a mutant.
57	3	Love and Rockets When you see the robot, drink!	Love and Rocket When you see the robot, drink!	Brian Sheesley	Dan Vebber	48	4th	4th	Feb 10, 2002	Nov 30, 2002
Planet Express gets the order to bring 20 billion sweets in heart shape to the planet Omicron Persei 8 to show the love of the earth towards the Omicronians. Before that, Prof. Farnsworth installed new software on the Planet Express ship, which now has feelings and on which the voice can be adjusted. With these new feelings, Bender falls in love with the ship and goes out with him a few times. But on the run from the Omicronians, Bender breaks up with the ship, which is a rather inconvenient time, since the ship suddenly stops. Out of desperation, the ship tries to unite with Bender by trying to fly into a quasar . For this reason, Bender tries to reconcile himself with the ship, but he does not succeed. Since Leela wants to interfere as always, the ship simply turns off the oxygen and gravity . The ship would only stop if Bender wanted to become one with it, which Bender is not at all enthusiastic about. Leela promises to shut down the ship's brain and save him before it happens, which she then succeeds in doing.
58	4th	Superheroes will soon become a world religion	Less Than Hero Soon to be a major religion	Susie Dietter	Ron Weiner	62	5	6th	02nd Mar 2003	June 19, 2004
Leela calls her parents in the sewers and invites them for a trip to the surface. To do this, she needs a one-day residence permit for the surface, which she later has to get from Mayor Popenmeier. At that moment, Prof. Farnsworth comes in and presents his new robot, which he has ordered from KEA . Of course, Leela, Fry and Bender have to assemble the robot. Leela and Fry get a lot of pain from this, which they then turn to Dr. Zoidberg, who gives them a miracle ointment with which the two rub themselves. Since the new robot explodes immediately afterwards, Fry and Leela should bring it back and exchange it for a CD shelf. On the way to KEA they are ambushed and the robber shoots Fry. The shot simply ricochets off him and Leela cannot be hit with an iron bar. Both are amazed at the superpowers they suddenly have. Back in the Planet Express building, the two find out that Zoidberg's miracle ointment is responsible. Since it has always been a dream of Fry to be a superhero , he decides to form a superhero team with Leela and Bender and fight the crime. The mayor gives the three superheroes a special assignment to protect the museum , as the "zoo keeper" wants to steal the valuable quantum of gemaragd (a diamond ) there at 9 o'clock . But this date falls on the same day that Leela wants to meet her parents. She arranged for her parents to come to this museum at 10 a.m. But the zookeeper is exactly an hour late and therefore exactly with Leela's parents. In the museum there is a bitter fight between the superheroes and the animals that the zoo keeper has under his control. Meanwhile, Leela's parents are on their way back, thinking that Leela moved them out of shame. To apologize to her parents, Leela goes into the sewer and eventually tells them that she is a superhero. Her father can't keep this to himself and tells it around in the sewer system, so the zoo keeper finds out and kidnaps Leela's parents. He blackmailed the superhero crew into stealing the gem from the museum for him in exchange for the imprisoned parents. ${\displaystyle \pi }$ ${\displaystyle \pi }$
59	5	The Taste of Freedom Actually	A Taste of Freedom Or is it?	James Purdum	Eric Horsted	60	5	4th	Dec 22, 2002	June 26, 2004
Dr. Zoidberg eats the world flag on "Freedom Day" and is charged for it. He defends himself by pointing out that he wanted to make use of his personal freedom. When he was convicted anyway, he took refuge in the embassy of his home planet. The ambassador lets the crabs attack and conquer the earth. The Earthlings are enslaved, but this goes against the freedom-loving Zoidberg. Finally he desecrates the "world flag" one more time and thus saves the citizens of the world from bondage. As a thank you, he will be rehabilitated and exclusively allowed to nibble on the new world flag.
60	6th	Who's cool here? Controlled you by a chip in your butt since 1999	Bender Should Not Be Allowed on TV Controlling you through a chip in your butt since 1999	Ron Hughart	Lewis Morton	71	5	15th	0Aug 3, 2003	0July 3, 2004
Through an intrigue, Bender becomes the new star of the robot soap opera Alle mein Stromkreise . However, he falls out of his role at the first appearance, smokes and curses and thus becomes the new youth idol. Because they see the development of their sons in jeopardy, Prof. Farnsworth and Hermes found a citizens' initiative that campaigns for the show to be discontinued.
61	7th	Barking from the Stone Age No subsidiary of the Futurama Brass Knuckle Co.	Jurassic Bark Not affiliated with Futurama Brass Knuckle Co.	Swinton O. Scott III	Eric Kaplan	58	5	2	Nov 17, 2002	July 10, 2004
Fry finds his 20th century dog ​​in a museum, which has since turned to stone , and wants to have it cloned with the help of Prof. Farnsworth . When he realizes that the dog has lived a long time after being frozen, he decides to stop the cloning process because he thinks that the dog has already forgotten him, which is not the case.
62	8th	The stinking medal of pollution Warning! Causes madness in laboratory mice	Crimes of the Hot Known to cause insanity in laboratory mice	Peter Avanzino	Aaron Ehasz	57	5	1	Nov 10, 2002	July 17, 2004
Global warming is bothering everyone on earth. At a science meeting that Prof. Farnsworth is reluctant to attend, various ways of protecting the earth from the heat of the sun are discussed. When a giant parabolic mirror attempt failed, Farnsworth couldn't take it any longer and spoke up. He admits he designed the first robots to emit huge amounts of exhaust fumes. To Bender's horror, who is the only robot at the gathering, it is decided that all robots will be destroyed. All robots are ignorantly invited to a party on an island. Only Bender knows what to expect. But in the end Farnsworth came up with the solution: he let all robots emit their exhaust gases at the same time, thereby increasing the orbit of the earth. For this idea, he was awarded the stinking pollution medal .
63	9	The Source of Aging Now Interactive! Joystick controls Fry's left ear	Teenage Mutant Leela's Hurdles Now Interactive! Joystick controls Fry's left ear	Bret Haaland	Jeff Westbrook	63	5	7th	30th Mar 2003	July 24, 2004
At the beginning you can see a gargoyle rush through the roof of the Planet Express building and fly away. Shortly afterwards you can see how Professor Farnsworth gets a big pile of excrement in his face from above. Then he goes to look for him on the Planet Express ship. He acts on the driving style, as one retired nachsagt, and the crew decides it into a rejuvenation center to create. There he sits in hot tar , which has a rejuvenating effect. To speed up the whole thing, Bender uses a pump which lets the tar circulate even faster. But he exaggerates, the ground collapses and all crew members fall into the tar. Everyone's getting younger, the professor is in his fifties, the crew is in their teens. Leela thus gets the chance to spend her childhood in the sewer with her parents. Meanwhile, the professor tries to make everyone get older again, but it goes completely wrong. Fry, the Professor, Bender, Zoidberg, Amy and Hermes are getting younger by the minute (“ Unbirth - then death… ”). The professor gives the crew (which has slowly reached childhood) to Leela to babysit, so that he can calmly think about a way to get back to the right age. The solution appears to him when Leela reads something about " The Source of Aging " in a children's book. All fly to the spring together, whereupon the professor, Fry, Hermes, Amy, Zoidberg and Bender fall into the spring and they have to be saved by Leela. She gets hold of all but the professor, who threatens to sink into the spring. At that moment the gargoyle appears. He detaches himself from the Planet Express ship and pulls the professor out of the spring at the last second. He is now older than before, the rest are back halfway at their original age. The gargoyle is given freedom, at the end he sits in Paris and has offspring sitting next to him.
64	10	Philip J. Fry: VIP Dancing Space Tomatoes? What you can leave one on!	The Why of Fry Dancing Space Potatoes? You bet!	Wes Archer	David X. Cohen	64	5	8th	0Apr 6, 2003	July 31, 2004
The Nibblers kidnapped Fry so he could save the universe for them. The database of the bad brains collected all the information of the existing universe in order to destroy it and drag it to another world. It is now Fry's task to detonate a communications bomb in the new database so that everything is destroyed. As he tries to fulfill this mandate, he learns the real reasons why it was once frozen.
65	11	The last trekki where has never been a fan	Where No Fan Has Gone Before Where no fan has gone before	Pat Shinagawa	David A. Goodman	56	4th	12	Apr 21, 2002	0Feb. 1, 2003
Fry finds out that the words " Star Trek " are forbidden, all Trekkies have been executed and the heads of the main characters and the last recordings of all episodes and films have been relegated to the planet Omega 3. Then he decides to get the films back with the help of Leonard Nimoy . Once on the planet, the Planet Express crew are captured by Melllvar, an energy cloud and fanatical trekkie. Finally the escape from the planet succeeds. But then Zapp Brannigan appears with his spaceship and starts a court hearing against Fry, Leela, Bender and the crew of the spaceship Enterprise . Meanwhile, the ship is attacked by Melllvar. All in all, this episode has strong references to the spaceship Enterprise double episode Talos IV - Tabu , in which Spock kidnaps the Enterprise to bring Captain Pike to Talos IV.
66	12	The Sting A by-product of the television industry	The Sting A by-product of the TV industry	Brian Sheesley	Patric M. Verrone	65	5	9	0June 1, 2003	0Aug 7, 2004
Leela, Fry and Bender are sent on a seemingly simple mission by Professor Farnsworth: to collect honey from giant, evil space bees . After the crew has landed in the huge beehive, they begin to pump the honey through a hose to the Planet Express ship. Leela decides to take a baby bee with her. Back on the ship, Fry is stabbed to death by the baby bee while trying to save Leela. Even during Fry's funeral, Leela began to make serious accusations. Back home, Leela has a very realistic dream that makes her believe that Fry is still alive. When she tells the others about it, they don't believe her a word. But the dreams become more and more realistic and bizarre and Leela sinks into an ever deeper sleep.
67	13	Coilette & Calculon - A love story Too hot for the radio	Bend Her Too hot for radio	James Purdum	Michael Rowe	69	5	13	July 20, 2003	Aug 14, 2004
Bender can be converted into a Fem-Bot to take part in a competition for female bending robots. The series star Calculon of "Alle Meine Stromkreise" then falls in love with Bender aka Coilette, Bender decides to marry him and then get a divorce so that he can get money. But Coilette also falls in love with Calculon ... can the professor convert it in time before it remains a Fem-Bot?
68	14th	Absolutely fabulous cannot be proven it won't happen	Obsoletely Fabulous You can't prove it won't happen	Dwayne Carey-Hill	Dan Vebber	70	5	14th	July 27, 2003	Aug 21, 2004
Mom invented the new robot type 1-X and now wants all other robots to be upgraded . Since his colleagues made of sheet metal change a lot in the process, Bender quickly fled and found himself on an island that was only inhabited by three other fleeting robots. With the simple life the four metal boys put aside the stress of reality and come up with some stupid thoughts.
69	15th	The Farnsworth Parabox beats a hard kick in the face	The Farnsworth Parabox Beats a hard kick in the face	Ron Hughart	Bill Odenkirk	66	5	10	0June 8, 2003	Aug 24, 2004
In a crazy experiment, the professor creates a box with unknown contents. Since this experiment nearly cost him his life, he forbids the Planet Express crew to look into the box and orders the box to be destroyed the next day. As the most trustworthy employee, Leela should watch over the box overnight. After a sleepless night, even Leela can no longer resist, she flips a coin to decide whether she should look into the box. The result is positive, Leela looks inside and falls into a parallel universe . The Planet Express crew there is, apart from marginal differences, quite similar to that of the Leela known. After the local Leela (with red hair) kidnapped the crew from the universe we know into the parallel universe, both crews hold a conference. They agree to call the known universe "Universe A" and the parallel universe "Universe 1". The crews realize that the only difference between the two universes is the result of tossing a coin, which is opposite. The connection between the two universes are the two boxes that both professors built at the same time. Out of jealousy of the other crew members, the two Zoidbergs steal the blue box from Universe 1. Meanwhile, the crew learns that the Hermes from Universe A is on its way to destroy the yellow box and thus the parallel universe as ordered. To prevent this from happening, both crews must work together to find the Zoidbergs before Hermes hurls the box in the sun.
70	16	Three hundred big things Voted best show	Three Hundred Big Boys Voted "BEST"	Swinton O. Scott III	Eric Kaplan	67	5	11	June 15, 2003	04th Sep 2004
After Zapp Brannigan conquered the spider planet, President Nixon's head decides to donate $ 300 to the world's population. Amy uses her present to get a really hip, talking tattoo , while Kif prefers to invest his money in a date above the clouds and a watch for Amy. The professor wishes he could look a little younger again and bought a family pack of stem cells to tighten his skin and be more successful with women again. Bender's wish, "Le Grand Cigar", cannot be realized for $ 300. Since it was rolled into a piece of the same US Constitutional paper by Queen Elizabeth during her savage years , it costs $ 10,000. Bender prefers to opt for the burglar's tool set at $ 300 ... Hermes buys a pair of 10 m high bamboo stilts for himself and his son Dwight , with which the two stagger uncontrollably through New York. A swim with the sperm whale Mushu at the Brooklyn Zoo costs Leela her $ 300. Zoidberg buys everything for his money, but again nothing, because he simply doesn't know what to do with his new "wealth". And Fry? Fry turns every dollar into coffee . The counter runs throughout the entire episode. And when Fry drinks his 100th coffee, something incredible happens.
71	17th	Crisis of lust for Omicron Persei Eight thanks for watching, Futurama slave army	Spanish Fry Thanks for watching, Futurama slave army!	Peter Avanzino	Ron Weiner	68	5	12	July 13, 2003	Sep 11 2004
When Fry's nose suddenly gets lost while running in the woods, it turns out that the nose on the planet Omicron Persei Eight is a very popular aphrodisiac . The tyrant Lrrr stole it because he finally wants to have a normal sexual relationship with his wife again. Accordingly, Lrrr shows little willingness to give Fry his nose back until suddenly Leela and Bender stand in front of his door and demand the nose back.
72	18th	The Devil's Hands See you on some other channel	The Devil's Hands are Idle Playthings See you on some other channel	Bret Haaland	Ken Keeler	72	5	16	Aug 10, 2003	Sep 18 2004
The last episode of the season deals with the relationship between Fry and Leela. Fry takes holophonor lessons to use music to win Leela's heart, but he's not very talented. His music teacher diagnosed him with "stupid fingers" with which he will never master the instrument. On Bender's advice, Fry seeks an audience with the robot devil, who offers him a game of chance in which Fry can win the hands of a robot. Fry wins - the hands of the robot devil himself, reluctantly he exchanges his hands with those of Fry. With the help of his new fingers, Fry becomes a celebrated holophonor master, he plays in sold-out halls and sells CDs. When Hedonism Bot commissions an opera from Fry, Fry sees his chance - he writes about his love for Leela. But the robot devil is dissatisfied with the exchange, he wants his old hands back under all circumstances. He devises a complex plan that will make Leela deaf and unable to hear Fry's opera. After the first half of the opera is over, the robot devil offers Leela a swap - new robot tubes for her hand. Leela is so desperate that she accepts the trade in order to hear the rest of the opera. In the second half there is a showdown between Fry and the robot devil. In front of the assembled audience, he reveals the contract he signed with Leela. If Leela initially assumed that the robot devil would like to have her hand for his ears, this quickly turns out to be a mistake. When the robot devil reads the small print of the contract, his plan becomes clear - Leela has agreed to marry him with her signature. The robot devil gives Fry a choice: either he gives him back the hands that Fry needs to win Leela's heart, or he watches as the robot devil marries the woman of his dreams. Fry gives back the strange hands and tries to finish the opera anyway. When all the other spectators leave the opera, because they cannot stand Fry's bad performance, Leela is left alone and insists on hearing the end of the opera.

Guest appearances

The bridge crew from Spaceship Enterprise gathered for guest appearances in The Last Trekki : George Takei (2nd from left ), Nichelle Nichols (4th from left ), Leonard Nimoy (5th from left ) and Walter Koenig (right). - William Shatner is missing .
In addition to the photo: DeForest Kelley (left; died 1999), James Doohan (third from left ), Star Trek -creator Gene Roddenberry (third from right ) and the NASA -Verantwortliche George Michael Low (second from right ).

• Roseanne Barr as herself in Three Hundred Big Thats
• Dan Castellaneta as the robot devil in The Devil's Hands
• Jonathan Frakes as himself in The Last Trekki
• Al Gore as himself in The Smelly Pollution Medal
• Walter Koenig as himself in The Last Trekki
• Lucy Liu as herself in love and rockets
• Nichelle Nichols as herself in The Last Trekki
• Leonard Nimoy as himself in The Last Trekki
• Bob Odenkirk as Chaz in Philip J. Fry: VIP
• William Shatner as himself in The Last Trekki
• George Takei as himself in The Last Trekki
• Sigourney Weaver as a Planet Express ship in love and rockets

publication

watch TV

On February 10, 2002, an episode of the third production season of Futurama ran for the first time on television with Love and Rockets . The US broadcaster Fox did not release the 18 episodes of this season contiguously. He moved three of them to the fourth broadcast season, which otherwise consists of the episodes of the third production season . The remaining 15 episodes form the fifth broadcasting season with one episode from the third production season. The first broadcast on Fox was irregular, the station showed the 16 episodes of the fifth season over a period of nine months.

Home theater

Futurama was released on DVD and other storage media in the order and seasons of production . The fourth production season was available as Futurama: Volume Four from August 24, 2004 in the USA. It was released in a box set of four DVDs or , alternatively, four VHS cassettes. In later publications, the spelling changed to Futurama: Volume 4 .

Awards

Patric Verrone was nominated for an Annie and a WGA Award for the script for The Sting . The episode was also nominated for Best Non-Full-Feature Animated Show for an Emmy .

Three episodes of this season were nominated for an Emmy , two of them in the category Outstanding Animated Program (For Programming Less Than One Hour) : 2003 the episode Barking from the Stone Age , the following year the episode The Sting . It was also Ken Keeler in 2004 for the song I Want My Hands Back from the episode The hands of the devil for an Emmy in the category Outstanding Music and Lyrics proposed.

Two Annie nominations for episodes this season also resulted in no awards. Patric Verrone was nominated in the category Writing in an Animated Television Production for the script for the episode The Sting and again Ken Keeler in the category Music in an Animated Television Production for the music for the episode The Hands of the Devil . Keeler won the award, but together with Alf Clausen and Ian Maxtone-Graham for the Simpsons episode Auf der Familienranch .

The screenplay for The Stitch brought Patric Verrone not only the Annie nomination but also a nomination for the WGA Award in the animation category , and David A. Goodman was also the winner of the 2004 Nebula Award in the Best Script category with the script for the episode The Last Trekki nominated.

Web links

• Episode list for Futurama from fernsehserien.de (German)
• Episode list for Futurama from FuturamaPedia (German)
• Futurama (Season 4) in The Infosphere (English)
• List of episodes for Futurama in the Internet Movie Database (German / English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Futurama - Volume Four. (No longer available online.) In: IGN.com . Archived from the original on September 23, 2012 ; Retrieved November 4, 2012 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
2. ↑ Andy Patrizio: Futurama Volume 4. Does the final volume go out with a bang? In: IGN.com . August 5, 2004, accessed November 4, 2012 . 
3. ↑ VHS releases. In: The Infosphere. Retrieved November 1, 2012 . 
4. ↑ Kyle Nolan: Cool New Cover Art on FUTURAMA Vol. 1-4 DVD Re-releases. June 8, 2012, accessed November 1, 2012 . 
5. ↑ ^{a b c} Awards for Futurama. In: IMDb . Retrieved June 17, 2010 (English). 
6. ↑ List of Annie Award nominees and award winners 2003 . International Animated Film Society (2003). (English)
7. ↑ List of WGA Award Winners since 1996. (No longer available online.) Writers Guild of America , archived from the original April 12, 2006 ; accessed on June 17, 2010 (English).