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 fluid 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 fluid, 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.

Trivia

 * This episode is among the few Futurama media featuring its title.
 * 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.
 * 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 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.
 * This is the third episode of broadcast season 8 to contain the full opening sequence, cartoon and all.
 * 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.
 * 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.

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 his inauguration speech, "The only thing we need to fear is fear itself."
 * 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.


 * 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.


 * 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.
 * Zoidsmythe says he is going to turn on "the Beeb", an old nickname for the.
 * 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

 * In some ways, this is the second time Fry takes a job as a feeder at the Head Museum. The first time, he was his time duplicate Lars Fillmore a few years prior to Bender's Big Score. This is referenced when Dr. Cahill ignorantly calls him Lars when he shows up for work.
 * 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.

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
 * Calvin Coolidge's head
 * Doctor Who
 * 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
 * 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
 * Lyndon Johnson's head
 * Henry Kissinger's head
 * 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