Law and Oracle

"Law and Oracle" is the one hundredth and fourth episode of Futurama, the sixteenth of the sixth production season and the fourth of the eighth broadcast season.

Story
Fed up with his go-nowhere job, Fry joins the police force.

Production
During May and June 2011, Countdown to Futurama released three items of promotional material for the episode: concept art of the police station's future crimes division on 20 May, part of the storyboard showing Fry be pranked by Ipgee, Terry and Lou on 21 May, and a video clip showing Fry and URL in a chase in Circuit City on 16 June.

Reception
In its original U.S. broadcast on 7 July, 2011, "Law and Oracle" scored a 0.7 share among adults 18-49 and 1.548 million viewers, down about 400,000 viewers since Ghost in the Machines, making it the second lowest rated episode of season 6 after "The Futurama Holiday Spectacular".

Trivia

 * The high scores on the Delivery Command video game are:
 * BBR:
 * NIB:40565
 * HJF:00254

Allusions

 * The title of the episode is a parody of the long-running legal drama television franchise .
 * Pickles, the colored balls, the screens controlled by hand movements, and the overall concept of trying people for crimes committed in the future, are all obvious references to the 2002 film .


 * The opening scene is a direct reference to the opening scene of "Space Pilot 3000".
 * The video game Delivery Command resembles .
 * The Sound Effects 5000 is a direct parody of Sgt. Larvelle Jones from the ' films. The sign in front of the police academy also states that they are not affiliated with '.
 * Bender and Leela make a delivery to the 3-D planet of Pandora, and Leela asks if they can use their avatars. This is a reference to the 2009 3-D blockbuster film , which largely takes place on a planet called Pandora.
 * Leela moves the ship back and forth as she tries to land in front of the giant tree on Pandora. This is a reference to cheap gags in some 3-D movies where objects seems to jump out of the screen at the audience.
 * At the end of the 3-D sequence, Bender throws his sandwich at the screen, to similar effect.




 * Circuit City is a reference to the American retailer of the same name,.
 * The light cycle chase scene, featuring Fry and URL in Circuit City, is an obvious reference to the 1982 science-fiction movie ' and its sequel, '.
 * The man being chased in the light cycle scene is, a 20th-century Austrian physicist known for his paradox.  The cat is found alive in a box inside Schrödinger's car, along with a lot of drugs.
 * Fry makes two references to "", a 1970's Hanna-Barbera cartoon similar to about a mystery-solving trio of teenagers and their talking car, Speed Buggy.
 * The Maltese Liquor is a reference to the priceless stuffed falcon known as the Maltese Falcon, which is also the subject of attempted thievery in the.


 * After Fry is named "Executive Delivery Boy", Hermes whispers to Leela that "executive" is a meaningless title that helps people with low self esteem feel better about themselves. This is a fourth-wall break that mocks the numerous "Executive Producer" and "Co-Executive Producer" credits on the show, including a direct jab at Matt Groening and David X. Cohen whose "Executive Producer" credits appear right after Hermes finished talking.

Continuity

 * The beginning of the episode is a reenactment of the cold opening of the first episode of the series, with Zoidberg in the role of the boy who calls Fry a loser and Leela replacing Mr. Panucci. Fry is once again delivering a pizza to a prank name at Applied Cryogenics, while being frustrated about his dead-end job.
 * This is the second time Roberto uses Zoidberg as a hostage, the first being in "Insane in the Mainframe".


 * This is the first time Dandy Jim is seen alone, after only having been seen with his hobo friend Gus before.
 * This is Wash bucket's first cameo appearance since her introduction in "The Prisoner of Benda". Apparantly, she still works together with Scruffy.
 * Leela had trouble with 3-D previously, in Fear of a Bot Planet. Also, this is not the first delivery Leela and Bender have done without Fry. They had a very successful delivery in The Why of Fry, even being awarded medals at some point during.

Goofs

 * Fat-bot is drawn with a closed grin on his face instead of a light-up mouth.

Characters

 * Debut: Bert O'Mannahan
 * Dandy Jim
 * Fat-bot
 * Debut: Gretsky
 * Fry
 * Hattie McDoogal
 * Hedonism Bot
 * Hyper-Chicken (on sign)
 * Ipji
 * Lou
 * Debut: Chief O'Mannahan
 * Debut: Pickles
 * Roberto
 * Debut: Erwin Schrödinger
 * Scruffy
 * Smitty
 * Debut: Sound Effects 5000
 * Spotty Teen Robot
 * Terry
 * URL
 * Wash bucket