All the Presidents' Heads

"All the Presidents' Heads" is the one hundred and eleventh episode of Futurama, the twenty-third of the sixth production season and the seventh of the eighth broadcast season. It aired 28 July, 2011 on Comedy Central. The crew members alter history when they travel back in time to the American Revolution.

Act I: "You have a night job?"
Fry goes to his night job at the Head Museum, where he feeds the preserved heads of the Presidents of the United States. He invites the Planet Express crew to the museum for a party, where they become drunk and begin ingesting the preservative liquid inside the jars. Doing so causes them and anyone standing nearby to temporarily travel back in time to the eras each head originally came from. Professor Farnsworth reasons that this time travel effect is caused by the rare powdered crystalline opal used to make the liquid, which keeps the heads alive in a temporal bubble. After learning from George Washington's head that one of his own ancestors, David Farnsworth, was one of American history's most nefarious traitors during the American Revolutionary War, Professor Farnsworth becomes determined to salvage his family's reputation. He dumps the world's entire powdered opal supply into Washington's jar and licks the head, transporting himself, Fry, Leela, and Bender back to colonial-era New York.

Act II: "Might be a couple of dead cats in there."
The four learn from the Continental Congress that David Farnsworth works at Benjamin Franklin's print shop in Philadelphia, where David would forge counterfeit money that would threaten to destroy the country's economy should it enter circulation. Though they do not find David at the shop, they discover a fake Massachusetts halfpenny and determine he has gone to Paul Revere's silver shop in Boston. They capture David, and burn his forged money just as Revere begins his ride to alert Lexington of the imminent British attack that would start the American Revolution. However, to fuel the fire, Fry takes one of the two lanterns hung at the Old North Church, causing Revere to wrongly warn of the British attack "by land" rather than "by sea."

Act III: "Just shut up and wait!"
The four are suddenly sent back to 3011 and find that history has been radically altered; Great Britain has won the Revolutionary War and taken over all of North America, turning it into "West Britannia." In this alternate timeline, David Farnsworth killed George Washington and was rewarded with a dukedom, making Professor Farnsworth a noble landowner and consort of the Queen of England. Having depleted the world's crystalline opal supply, Farnsworth despairs that there is no way to travel to the past to fix their mistake, until he notices an opal on the queen's crown. After stealing and crushing it, the four are able to use the preserved head of David Farnsworth to return to colonial times and restore the timeline. Once they return to 3011, everything is restored as it was before history was first altered, with one change; hanging in the Head Museum is the Gadsden flag replaced by Bender and a colonial spelling of his catchphrase "Bite my shiny metal ass."

Production
During May of 2011, Countdown to Futurama released three items of promotional material for the episode: concept art of the Planet Express headquarters with a design on 27 May, concept art of Nibbler wearing an English attire on 28 May, and part of the storyboard showing Professor Farnsworth meet Benjamin Franklin and Paul Revere on 29 May.

To coincide with Sarah Palin mangling the story of Revere's ride, Comedy Central Insider released a video clip featuring the Planet Express crew in the 18th century with Benjamin Franklin and Revere. This was the second video clip of the broadcast season not to be released by Countdown to Futurama, the first being from "Neutopia" and the third being from "Benderama".

Reception
In the original U.S. broadcast on 28 July, 2011, the episode scored a 0.8 share among adults aged 18-49 and 1.493 million total viewers, both up from the previous week.

In its review of the episode, called it "good enough", but overall "a middle of the road episode".

Trivia

 * This episode is among the Futurama media featuring its title within the story.
 * This episode is one of only five season 6 episodes to include the full opening sequence, the other four being "Rebirth", "That Darn Katz!", "Benderama" and "Yo Leela Leela".
 * The opening cartoon is a short film featuring, an entrant in the mascot contest for the . Zoich's design was influenced by the Hypnotoad from Futurama.
 * The opening cartoon is the second in the show's history to originate from the modern era, after the clip from the "" in "Fry and the Slurm Factory".  This does not include the self-references to Futurama in "The Devil's Hands Are Idle Playthings" and Bender's Big Score.
 * The caption in the opening cartoon reads "БЫСТРЕЕ, ВЫШЕ, СИЛЬНЕЕ" which is Russian for "FASTER, HIGHER, STRONGER"
 * "The Late Philip J. Fry" is the seventh episode of broadcast season 7 and involves time travel. "All the Presidents' Heads" is the seventh episode of broadcast season 8 and also involves time travel.
 * A few of the American revolutionaries as well as a few of The Redcoats that appear in the documentary also appeared when Fry, Bender and the Professor time travelled through the second universe in "The Late Philip J. Fry".
 * In the 1960s, the Andy Warhol painting's soup cans say "Canbell's" instead of "Campbell's", possibly to avoid paying for the use of the Campbell's name, or having to license the painting.
 * In the British version of New New York, the from Doctor Who can be seen running into a blue police box resembling the  across the street from Planet Express.
 * Coincidentally, in Doctor Who, the tenth Doctor has visited a city called New New York in two episodes. However, if the city had been more accurately named, it would in fact be "New New New New New New New New New New New New New New New New York" as it was the fifteenth New York.
 * It is possibly retconned that Teller's head's jar, seen in Into the Wild Green Yonder, does not use powder crystalline opal, the preservative commonly used for heads in jars, because Teller's head had died, again.
 * Each "Franklinator" has a badger on it except Fry's, which has a chipmunk, and Bender's, which has a shark.
 * Bender is 40% scrap metal, revealing more of his supersized composition.
 * This may or may not change the total values of his composition as scrap metal can be any metal.
 * Philo Taylor Farnsworth is the name of a real life inventor. He didn't invent television nor the childhood obesity that came with it, but the first all-electronic televisor.
 * In the episode, Paul Revere yells out "The British are coming!" during his ride. In real life, Revere relayed the message that "The Regulars are coming" discretely to other dispatch riders, because his route contained many military patrols and.
 * Throughout the episode, the halfpenny is referred to by its colloquial pronunciation of "ha'penny".
 * Leela tells that she is from Peru, after he notices that she has only one eye.  The 1940 film  is set in Peru.

Allusions

 * The title is a reference to (and ) All the President's Men.


 * FDR's head says, "We have nothing to fear but running out of beer." This is a reference to, "So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself—nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance. "
 * Scruffy, Hermes, Leela, and Bender chant, "Four more beers! Four more beers!" This is a parody of a presidential chant, "Four more years! Four more years!" after a President is about to finish his first term.
 * Prior to drinking Lyndon B. Johnson's jar juice, Zoidberg asks, "Hey, hey, LBJ. You wanna get drunk?" which is a reference to an infamous anti-war protest chant, "Hey, hey, LBJ. How many kids did you kill today?"


 * Wall Footpath Journal is a reference to  and the fact that it was found on a footpath.
 * Upon entering Boston in 1775, there is a sign saying the groundbreaking of the Big Dig is tomorrow. The was the most expensive highway project in the United States and was plagued with rising costs, construction problems, and was completed 10 years behind schedule.
 * After Fry removes the second lamp from the Old North Church, Farnsworth says he "really screwed the granny", referring to the incestuous deeds Fry performed in "Roswell that Ends Well", and how that too changed the course of history.


 * When the British version of the Planet Express headquarters is first shown, the can be seen on the sidewalk, as a double decker hoverbus drops off the  next to it, who runs inside. This is an obvious reference to the British TV show .
 * British Hermes is wearing a Manhattan United shirt, a reference to.
 * Some references are made in the third act to the television series .
 * When Zoidsmythe is walking towards the screen to turn on the documentary, he is walking in the same manner as from the famous "" sketch.
 * The part of the documentary recalling Paul Revere's ride is done in the style of 's animations on the series. Coincidentally, he is the one American member of the cast.
 * In that part of the documentary, Revere is referred to as "Wrong-Way Revere," a possible refrence to the Python sketch "Mr and Mrs Brian Norris' Ford Popular", where Mr Norris is later referred to as "Wrong-Way Norris".
 * Zoidsmythe says he is going to turn on "the Beeb", an old nickname for the.
 * In 3011 in the altered timeline, David Farnsworth says he is married to one of the . The Spice Girls were a popular English pop group in the late 90's.
 * Bender's redesigned flag of the United States saying "Bite my fhiny metal aff" and Fry's misreading "Maffachufetf" allude to the character (ſ) that was in common use at the time of the American Revolution.

Continuity

 * When Fry enters the head museum for his night job, Dr. Cahill calls Fry "Lars". This is understandable since Lars used to assist her in the head museum and that Lars and Fry were really the same person in Bender's Big Score.
 * The Continental Congress declared New Jersey to be the official joke state, another in the long line of jabs at the state on Futurama.
 * This is the second time the show has referred to Massachusetts as 'Taxachusetts', the first being in "Proposition Infinity", with Space Massachusetts instead of Earth Massachusetts. This is a reference to Massachusetts' supposed high tax rates.
 * The device that the Professor uses to show Ronald Reagan his family tree is the same device that Dr. Banjo uses to display evolution in "A Clockwork Origin".
 * During the attack on David Farnsworth, Fry and Leela use the same "helmets" they used in "Fear of a Bot Planet" for their disguise as robots but this time the pan is on Leela's head.

Goofs

 * Benjamin Franklin attaches his kite string to Bender, redirecting lightning in order to supercharge his speed; however in Hell is Other Robots it's demonstrated that being subjected to electricity causes Bender to get high and hallucinate. One possible explaination for this is that only Alternating Current forms of electricity such as man-made outlet power cause robots to get high while Direct Current forms of electricity such as lightning cause robots to supercharge. This would mean that the electrical storm the Planet Express crew encountered in Hell is Other Robots was a rare naturally occuring form of AC electricity.
 * It's revealed in this episode that drinking head jar liquid sends the person back to when the head's owner lived. However, in "A Leela of Her Own", Hank Aaron XXIV drank some jar liquid from Wade Boggs' jar and nothing happened.
 * That jar may not have had crystalline opal in it.
 * Dr. Cahill claims that no one knows why the mineral used works, but a few seconds later the Professor explains that it has unusual temporal properties, and then explains why after only having seconds to think about it. Admittedly Dr. Cahill is never portrayed as smart, but surely some other scientist would have figured it out.
 * It is possible that she did not know about anyone else knowing.
 * Before Fry went on the head trip to 1775, he was wearing his Head Museum uniform. When he returned after fixing the time lines, he was in his normal clothes.
 * At first when they drink the head jar liquid, they go to the same place as they were when they traveled, but when they return, when Fry ruins history, they arrive where they drank the juice, even though they travel miles apart.
 * It is stated that North America is still under British rule, so how did Hermes (a Jamaican), Amy (a Martian of Chinese descent), and most surprisingly Zoidberg (a Decapodian), become British too?
 * Jamaica was a British possession until 1962, so it could still be British in the alternate timeline along with North America. Also, there are many people with foreign ethnic backgrounds who were born and raised in Britain thus making them British.
 * As well as Jamaica, Hong Kong (now part of China) was a British possession until 1997.
 * During the fight between then and David Farnsworth, they burn off Benders antenna, when they use him as a cannon, but in the next scene he still has it.
 * It's not hard to believe Bender has many built-in backup pieces.
 * How did Fry, on foot, get to the church quick enough to beat Paul Revere, who was riding a horse?
 * They don't call him "Wrong-Way Revere" for nothing...
 * The Professor states they can't go back because they used up all the mineral, but as they changed history, they never would have gone back, so the mineral would still be there, admittedly this explains why it does appear again, but why this didn't occur to the professor is unknown.
 * The Professor's senility can be an explanation.
 * Several times, Paul Revere refers to (and insults) the soldiers as British. However, many colonists still considered themselves as British and subjects of the king.  Self-identification was near-evenly split between those who considered themselves American and those who were British.
 * "America the Dutiful" starts off as a shoddy re-enactment, but soon starts showing the actual events of 1775.
 * The flags on the British ships during the ride of "wrong-way Revere" resemble the modern flag, which was not used until 1801. The flag used in 1775 did not include the red diagonals of St. Patrick's Cross of Ireland.
 * The counterfeit money shown by Washington spells "Massachusetts" as "Maffachufetts" in an attempt to use the long s (ſ), but incorrectly includes crosshatches, turning them into "f" characters. Fry thinks they're "f", and Franklin corrects him, but they really are "f". ſ has no cross-bar. Long s's also don't appear after one another, but rather a long s, followed by an s (e.g. ſs).
 * If the crystalline opal keeps the heads in the head jars alive, how come they are not dead since there is currently no opal left when the timeline is returned to normal in 3011?

Characters

 * John Adams
 * Amy
 * Sharon Anders' head
 * Chester A. Arthur's head
 * Chester Z. Arthur's head
 * Cheryl Au's head
 * Bender
 * Montgomery Black's head
 * George H. W. Bush's head
 * George W. Bush's head
 * Dr. Cahill
 * Jimmy Carter's head
 * Andrea Cha's head
 * Oscar Chang's head
 * Colin Chivey's head
 * Grover Cleveland's head
 * Bill Clinton's head
 * Susan Cohu's head
 * Calvin Coolidge's head
 * Dwight D. Eisenhower's head
 * Tim Dylan's head
 * Benjamin Franklin
 * Debut: David Farnsworth
 * Debut: Dr. Dean Farnsworth
 * Debut: Philo Farnsworth
 * Professor Farnsworth
 * Millard Fillmore's head
 * Gerald Ford's head
 * Fourth Doctor
 * Fry
 * Warren Harding's head
 * Alexander Hamilton
 * Debut: John Hancock
 * Rutherford B. Hayes' head
 * Hermes
 * Herbert Hoover's head
 * Andrew Jackson's head
 * Thomas Jefferson's head
 * Debut: Lyndon B. Johnson's head
 * Henry Kissinger's head
 * Lars
 * Debut: Simon Lee's head
 * Leela
 * Abraham Lincoln's head
 * Debut: Louisa
 * James Madison's head
 * Debut: Summer Maher's head
 * Debut: Bob Meyers' head
 * Kasey Miller's head
 * Walter Mondale's head
 * Nibbler
 * Jeffrey Perez's head
 * Franklin Pierece's head
 * James K. Polk's head
 * Amelia Pond's head
 * Debut: The Queen of England, America and two parking spaces in Tokyo
 * Ronald Reagan's head
 * Debut: Paul Revere
 * Franklin D. Roosevelt's head
 * Theodore Roosevelt's head
 * Scruffy
 * Debut: Inara Serra's head
 * Smitty
 * William Howard Taft's head
 * Debut: Adam Tocaver's head
 * John Tyler's head
 * URL
 * Martin Van Buren's head
 * Quincy Wagstaff's head
 * Debut: Andy Warhol
 * George Washington's head
 * Debut: Zoe Washburne's head
 * Dr. Zoidberg/Zoidsmythe

Places

 * Debut: Ben Franklin's print shop
 * Boston
 * Debut: Broadway
 * Charlotte
 * Columbus Circus
 * Debut: Dunkin' Crumpets
 * England
 * Debut: Farningworthshire
 * Fifth Avenue
 * Georgia
 * The Hall of Presidents
 * Debut: Harrods
 * The Head Museum
 * Debut: The Hitchcock Memorial
 * Lexington
 * Louisa
 * Maribel
 * Massachusetts
 * The moon
 * New Jersey
 * North Carolina
 * Old New York
 * Debut: The Old North Church
 * Peru
 * Debut: Philadelphia
 * The Planet Express conference room
 * The Planet Express hangar
 * The Planet Express headquarters
 * South Carolina
 * Tokyo
 * Virginia
 * Debut: West Britannia