Editing Futurama (section)

==Premise==
===Characters===
{{main|List of Futurama characters|l1=List of ''Futurama'' characters}}
[[File:Futurama Planet Express.svg|thumb|Logo of Planet Express]]
''Futurama'' is essentially a workplace sitcom, the plot of which revolves around the Planet Express interplanetary delivery company and its employees,<ref name="locus">{{Cite web |last=Cook, Lucius |date=April 26, 2004 |title=Hey, Sexy Mama, Wanna Kill All Humans?: Looking Backwards at ''Futurama'', The Greatest SF Show You've Never Seen |url=http://www.locusmag.com/2004/Reviews/04Cook_Futurama.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160113172623/http://www.locusmag.com/2004/Reviews/04Cook_Futurama.html |archive-date=January 13, 2016 |access-date=July 29, 2008 |publisher=[[Locus Online]]}}</ref> a small group that largely fails to conform to future society.<ref name="NYTimes">{{Cite news |last=Gates, Anita |date=January 24, 1999 |title=Groening's New World, 1,000 Years from Springfield |url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9800EFD61530F937A15752C0A96F958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=2 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081205190035/http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9800EFD61530F937A15752C0A96F958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=2 |archive-date=December 5, 2008 |access-date=June 13, 2008 |work=[[The New York Times]]}}</ref> Episodes usually feature the central trio of Fry, Leela, and Bender, though occasional storylines center on the other main characters.
* [[Philip J. Fry]] (voiced by [[Billy West]]) – Fry is an immature, slovenly, yet good-hearted and sensitive pizza [[Delivery (commerce)|delivery boy]] who falls into a cryogenic pod, causing it to activate and [[cryonics|freeze]] him just after midnight on [[New Year's Day|January&nbsp;1]], 2000. He reawakens on New Year's Eve of 2999 and gets a job as a cargo delivery boy at Planet Express, a company owned by his only living relative, Professor Hubert J. Farnsworth. Fry's love for Leela is a recurring theme throughout the series.
* [[Leela (Futurama)|Turanga Leela]] (voiced by [[Katey Sagal]]) – Leela is the competent, [[List of one-eyed creatures in mythology and fiction|one-eyed]] captain of the Planet Express Ship.<ref name="locus" /> Abandoned as a baby, she grows up in the Cookieville Minimum Security [[orphanage|Orphanarium]] believing herself to be an [[extraterrestrial life|alien]] from another planet, but learns that she is actually a [[List of recurring Futurama characters#Sewer mutants|mutant from the sewers]] in the episode "[[Leela's Homeworld]]".<ref name="LeelasHomeworld">{{Cite episode |title=Leela's Homeworld |episode-link=Leela's Homeworld |series=Futurama |network=[[Fox Broadcasting Company|Fox Network]] |date=February 17, 2002 |season=4 |number=2}}</ref> Prior to becoming the ship's captain, Leela works as a career assignment officer at the [[cryonics|cryogenics]] lab where she first meets Fry. She is Fry's primary love interest and eventually becomes his wife. Her name is a reference to the ''[[Turangalîla-Symphonie]]'' by [[Olivier Messiaen]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=August 24, 2000 |title=Futurama Chronicles > Media Articles > 3.26.99 LA Weekly |url=http://www.frcr.com/library/la_weekly1.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20000824051913/http://www.frcr.com/library/la_weekly1.html |archive-date=August 24, 2000}}</ref>
* [[Bender (Futurama)|Bender Bending Rodriguez]] (voiced by [[John DiMaggio]]) – Bender is a [[profanity|foul-mouthed]], [[alcoholism|heavy-drinking]], cigar-smoking, [[kleptomania]]cal, [[Misanthropy|misanthropic]], egocentric, ill-tempered [[robot]] manufactured by [[Mom (Futurama)|Mom's Friendly Robot Company]]. He is originally programmed to bend girders, and is later designated as assistant sales manager and cook at Planet Express, despite lacking a sense of taste. He is Fry's best friend and [[roommate]]. He must drink heavily to power his fuel cells and becomes the robot equivalent of drunk when low on alcohol.<ref name="I, Roommate">{{Cite episode |title=I, Roommate |episode-link=I, Roommate |series=Futurama |network=Fox Network |date=April 6, 1999 |season=1 |number=3 |minutes=10}}</ref>
* [[Professor Farnsworth|Professor Hubert J. Farnsworth]] (voiced by Billy West) – Professor Farnsworth, also known simply as "the Professor", is Fry's distant nephew, and technically descendant.<ref name="ACloneofMyOwn">{{Cite episode |title=A Clone of My Own |episode-link=A Clone of My Own |series=Futurama |network=Fox Network |date=April 9, 2000 |season=2 |number=3 |minutes=10}}</ref> Farnsworth founds Planet Express Inc. to fund his work as a [[mad scientist]]. Although he is depicted as a brilliant scientist and inventor, at more than 160 years old he is extremely prone to age-related forgetfulness and fits of temper. In the episode "A Clone of My Own", the Professor clones himself to produce a successor, [[List of recurring Futurama characters#Cubert Farnsworth|Cubert Farnsworth]] (voiced by [[Kath Soucie]]), whom he treats like a son.
* [[Hermes Conrad]] (voiced by [[Phil LaMarr]]) – Hermes is the [[Jamaica]]n accountant of Planet Express. A 36th-level [[bureaucrat]] (demoted to level 37 during the series) and proud of it, he is a stickler for regulation and enamored of the tedium of paperwork and bureaucracy. Hermes is also a former champion in Olympic Limbo, a sport derived from the [[Limbo (dance)|popular party activity]]. He gave up limbo after the 2980 Olympics when a young fan, imitating him, broke his back and died. Hermes has a wife, [[LaBarbara Conrad|LaBarbara]], and a 12-year-old son, [[Dwight Conrad|Dwight]].
* [[Zoidberg|Dr. John A. Zoidberg]] (voiced by Billy West) – Zoidberg is a Decapodian, a [[squid]]/[[lobster]]-hybrid alien from his home planet [[Zoidberg|Decapod 10]], and the neurotic staff physician of Planet Express. Although he claims to be an expert on humans, his knowledge of human anatomy and physiology is woefully inaccurate (at one point, he states that his doctorate is actually in art history). Zoidberg's expertise seems to be with extra-terrestrial creatures. Homeless and penniless, he lives in the dumpster behind Planet Express. Although Zoidberg is depicted as being Professor Farnsworth's long-time friend, he is held in contempt by everyone on the crew.
* [[Amy Wong]] (voiced by [[Lauren Tom]]) – Amy is an incredibly [[wealth|rich]], blunt, ditzy, and [[Accident-proneness|accident-prone]] yet sweet-hearted long-term [[internship|intern]] at Planet Express. She is an astrophysics student at [[Mars University]] and heiress to the western hemisphere of [[Mars]]. In the second episode of season one, the Professor states that he likes having Amy around because she has the same bloodtype as him. Born on Mars, she is ethnically [[Han Chinese|Chinese]] and is prone to cursing in [[Cantonese]] and using 31st-century slang. Her parents are the wealthy ranchers [[List of recurring Futurama characters#Leo and Inez Wong|Leo and Inez Wong]]. She is [[Promiscuity|promiscuous]] in the beginning of the series, but eventually enters a monogamous relationship with [[List of recurring Futurama characters#Kif Kroker|Kif Kroker]]. In the show's sixth season, she acquires her doctorate, and in the eighth season, she and Kif become parents.

===Setting===
[[File:Futurama flag of Earth.svg|thumb|The flag of the Government of Earth]]
''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 the sewers are inhabited by [[Mutants in fiction|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 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 [[isolated brain|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 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 (franchise)|The Matrix]]'')—is slow and largely consists of pornography, [[pop-up ad]]s, and "filthy" (or Filthy Filthy) [[chat room]]s. Some of it 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 [[ethanol fuel|alcohol-powered]] systems. The wheel is obsolete (no one but Fry even seems to recognize the design),<ref name="MothersDay">{{Cite episode |title=Mother's Day |episode-link=Mother's Day (Futurama) |series=Futurama |network=Fox Network |date=May 14, 2000 |season=2 |number=14}}</ref> having been forgotten and replaced by [[Hovercar|hover cars]] and a network of large, clear [[Pneumatic tube|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 the Decapodians. Earth still suffers the effects of [[greenhouse gas]]es, although in [[Xmas Story|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 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,<ref name="Gospel">{{Cite book |last=Pinsky |first=Mark |url=https://archive.org/details/gospelaccordingt0000pins/page/229 |title=The Gospel According to the Simpsons. Bigger and Possibly Even Better! Edition |publisher=Westminster John Knox Press |year=2003 |isbn=978-0-664-23265-8 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/gospelaccordingt0000pins/page/229 229–235]}}</ref> while [[Haitian Vodou|Voodoo]] is now mainstream. New religions include [[Oprah Winfrey|Oprahism]], [[Religion in Futurama|Robotology]], and the banned religion of [[Trekkie|''Star Trek'' fandom]]. Religious figures include [[List of recurring Futurama characters#Father Changstein-El-Gamal|Father Changstein-El-Gamal]], the [[Robot Devil]], [[Reverend Lionel Preacherbot]], and passing references to 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.<ref name="Gospel" />

''Futurama''{{'}}s setting is a backdrop, and the writers are not above committing [[Continuity (fiction)#Continuity errors|continuity errors]] if they serve to further the gags. For example, while [[Space Pilot 3000|the pilot episode]] implies that the previous Planet Express crew was killed by a space wasp, the later episode "[[The Sting (Futurama)|The Sting]]" is based on the crew having been killed by space bees instead.<ref name="Verrone">[[Patric Verrone|Verrone, Patric M]] (2003), DVD commentary for "The Sting", ''Futurama''. Original air date June 1, 2003. No. 12, Season 4. 20th Century Fox.</ref> The "world of tomorrow" setting is used to highlight and lampoon issues of today and to parody the science-fiction genre.<ref name="Cohen01" />