Setting

The setting of Futurama, Earth in the 31st century, is first and foremost a backdrop for humour. But as the show developed, the setting also gained sensible of its own as well as internal history.

Time frame
The time, in which Futurama takes place, is set in the 31st century. Matt Groening specifically choose this time frame for two reasons, because it was most simple to have a microwave like cryo-tube time setting to go automatically to a thousand years, but also because the lengthy time distance allowed to create pretty much whatever technology they wanted, but also allow there to be certain backtracks in technology due to often invasions and destructions of the Earth.

As the show grew onward, the authors simply used dates related to real dates of production for which in the episodes/films to be set, but a thousand years in the future, e.g. Bender's Big Score was released in 2007 and most of it takes place in 3007. The producers relates this simplifies defining the show's time setting.

The future
The future in Futurama was considered with care by the creators, to make it reminiscent of the 20th and the 21st centuries, for which current topics in the present world would still make sense in the future. So their future could not be bland and Utopian like , but at the same time not Dystopian like Blade Runner, but rather an inbetween world, similar to the world of the 20th century.

Planet Express
The Planet Express building is primary location on Futurama, as every episode at some point takes place there, and it is often used as an excuse for taking off the plot, e.g. the professor sending the crew on a mission.

New New York
The city of New New York is the most used location on Futurama, as every episode at least at some points takes place there.