Saturday Morning Fun Pit

"Saturday Morning Fun Pit" is the one hundred and thirty-third episode of Futurama, the nineteenth of the seventh production season, the sixth of the tenth broadcast season, and the sixth segmented episode. It aired on 17 July, 2013, on Comedy Central. The Futurama gang stars in a trio of craptastic morning cartoons.

Story
Amid protests from angry viewers on the White House lawn, the head of Richard Nixon and the last clone of Spiro Agnew host a three-part episode featuring the Futurama gang in parodies of popular s: Bendee Boo and the Mystery Crew (a ' parody featuring appearances by George Takei, Larry Bird, and the Harlem Globetrotters), Purpleberry Pond (a '-meets-' mash-up that was only created to plug its super-sugary cereal), and G.I. Zapp (a ' parody that Nixon tries to edit for violence himself).

Production
On 2 September, 2012, it was revealed that the Scooby-Doo-esque segment of the episode would guest-star George Takei and Larry Bird.

On 11 December, with the release of Volume 7 and its commentary for "Naturama", it was revealed that the episode would be directed by Crystal Chesney-Thompson.

The Countdown to Futurama posts from 19 May and 20 May, 2013, revealed the title of the Strawberry Shortcake-esque segment to be "Purpleberry Pond" and the title of the Scooby-Doo-esque segment to be "Bendy Boo", respectively. However, the Scooby-Doo-esque segment is actually called "Bendee Boo and the Mystery Crew".

By 9 July, the animatic for the Strawberry Shortcake segment had been released online.

Trivia

 * At one point, the episode's production number was planned to be 7ACV25.
 * This is the only segmented episode of the second run to not be a broadcast-season finale.
 * During the Bendee Boo intro, the crew runs from someone on a motorcycle. Also running from the motorcycle is who appears to be former U.S. president Jimmy Carter.

Allusions

 * The Futurama and Friends Saturday Morning Fun Pit title card features a stylized version of the pattern of blue lights that appear in the opening sequence.
 * In the Bendee Boo segment, the crew members are re-imagined as Scooby-Doo characters. Fry plays the role of, Leela plays the role of , Bender plays the role of , Hermes plays the role of , and Amy plays the role of.
 * Billy West, who voices Fry, provided the voice of Shaggy in the 1998 film .
 * The Harlem Globetrotters appear, just like they did in the T.V. show , and the shot of them sleeping in the same bed is taken from their appearance.
 * One of the protesters outside of the White House holds a sign which reads "Animation Dumb-a-nation", a reference to the Sunday-evening animated-programming block airing on Fox,, which was created in 2009 and includes The Simpsons, Family Guy, ', The Cleveland Show (canceled in 2013), and '.
 * The professor's character in the Purpleberry Pond segment is a parody of the, from Strawberry Shortcake.
 * Micky is a parody of, from cereal's 1970s "Mikey Likes It" ads.
 * Fry's name in the G.I. Zapp segment is Freezer Burn, a reference to the fact that he was frozen at the beginning of the show and has been frozen multiple times since.
 * Nixon renames the Leela character in G.I. Zapp as Pat. This is a reference to Nixon's wife, Pat Nixon.
 * At the end of the episode, the announcer says "Now stay tuned for six hours of golf", angering Agnew. This is a reference to how Saturday-morning cartoon line-ups in the 1980s and 1990s always aired sports telecasts after the last cartoon, and to 's bad golf playing, which would cause him to accidentally hit spectators with his golf ball.

Continuity

 * The professor also kept lengths of wire in "Space Pilot 3000".
 * George Takei's ancestry was previously referred to in "Where No Fan Has Gone Before".

Goofs

 * Although the professor's cloning machine is shown being turned on, every other shot of it (especially while it is actively cloning) depicts the switch pointing at "off".
 * This may be intentional, and just parodying the cheap production values of Scooby-Doo.
 * Scratches and visible edge lines on the animation "cel" are added as a parody of said cheap production values (Futurama is animated digitally, such effects would never occur normally).

Characters

 * Amy / Debut: Lady Lavender / Debut: Boxcutter
 * Bender / Debut: Bendee Boo / Debut: Marquis of Mulberry / Debut: Orphan Crippler
 * Bubblegum
 * Cubert
 * Curly Joe
 * Dwight
 * Farnsworth / Debut: Berry burglar / Debut: Profestro
 * Fry / Debut: Lord Loquat / Debut: Freezer Burn
 * George Takei
 * Globetrotters
 * H.G. Blob
 * Hermes / Debut: Viscount Violet / Debut: Waterboard
 * Huge-assed woman
 * Jimmy Carter
 * Kif
 * Debut: Larry Bird
 * Debut: Last clone of Agnew
 * Leela / Debut: Princess Purpleberry / Debut: Nutcracker
 * Debut: Micky
 * Morbo
 * Debut: Purple Heart sergeant
 * Randy Munchnik
 * Richard Nixon's head
 * Rose Mary
 * Scruffy
 * Sweet Clyde
 * Zapp Brannigan
 * Zoidberg

Places

 * Japan
 * Oval Office
 * Planet Express headquarters
 * Washington, D.C.
 * White House