Transcript:Commentary:A Fishful of Dollars


 * Note: One question mark in bold (?) means that the speaker was not identified by the transcriber.
 * Note: Three question marks (???) means that the word in proximity to the question marks is a suggested word, but not necessarily correctly identified, or if there is no word near the question mark (a space away is not near), then no suggested word was provided.

Matt Groening: Welcome to the audio commentary of the sixth episode of Futurama. I am Matt Groening. Gregg Vanzo: I am Gregg Vanzo, animation director. Patric M. Verrone: I am Patrick Verrone, writer of this episode. John DiMaggio: I am John DiMaggio, voice of Bender and bunch of other voices. David X. Cohen: Hi, I am David Cohen, the executive producer. Rich Moore: And I am Rich Moore, the supervising director. JD: And that was Phil LaMarr saying "sorry" like a Canadian. GV: We put this graphic in on back in the day when "loading" was something that appeared on home computers. JD: Yes. MG: So, Gregg,-- you wanna talk about this-- about this opening sequence? I guess not. DXC: Give him some more time. GV: I gotta warm up, it's okay. JD: Wonderful voices. Tress MacNeille. PMV: This is based on a real dream, that many people have. Hey, that's me. When you buy the action figure of Fry, you actually get the Lightspeed Briefs with him. ?: Really? PMV: Yep. DXC: Buy now! JD: Here's your name, man. RM: So you want to tell us about that opening now, Gregg? ?: Yeah, you wanna tell us about the opening or wait? GV: No thanks. PMV: He actually makes a reference to bananas carrying advertisement, which at the time ABC was threating to do-- to put ads on bananas. I don't think they ever did it. DXC: They did it, they just blended it in, 'cause of the yellow colour, so you couldn't see it. Here is Madison Cube Garden. Doesn't Calven Klone appear again about 2 or 3 episodes-- seasons actually - later in Los Angeles? I think it is. RM: Yes, there's actually Calvin Klone office-- headquarters. DXC: "Previously Used Calvin Clone". PMV: Ah, we recycle jokes all the time. The title of this show, "Fishful of Dollars", is actually a parody of a Clint Eastwood movie called Fistful of Dollars. DXC: This episode has a lot of good technology in it. Mirror and the dream broadcast. RM?: This clip was actually shown at a seminar on the images of manhood conveyed to children. That's true fact, I can't-- no joke to go with that. But why? Because it showed how we consider our bodies as men. DXC: Is this where Bender first shoplifts for the series? We had a lot of debate early on whether dollars still be the unit of currency in the future. There was various possibilities like "quadloos" and "bux", B-U-X, and "jules", J-U-L-E-S, the energy unit would be traded as money. That was one idea. JD: I don't know if anyone noticed that, but Billy West was actually the voice of the cashier at the beginning of that, and then Dave Herman was the voice of the cashier at the end of that. DXC: Is that true, did we screw up? JD: No... yeah! I think yeah! DXC: I remember David Herman doing the voice. But we have had West sneak in. JD: Ah yeah. DXC: It's Mom. JD: It's Mom. DXC: This is the introduction of the character of Mom. JD: Voiced by Tress MacNeille. DXC: In some early conception of the series, the entire Planet Express was gonna be a subcidera of Mom Corp. ?: Is this the introduction of the police? DXC: No, they're in the pilot. ?: Ah, that's right, they are in the pilot. But not in a shop. JD: Ask about our generous brutality settlements. PMV: A social commentary in this episode. JD: Was that about the time of the--? PMV: There is always something going on. JD: There's always something-- DXC: You mean like in Los Angeles, the police are always providing us with material. ?: How long did it take us to come up with the name of that bank? DXC: It didn't take that long, but it took a while to get out and make sure there was no legal problem... there are several similar real banks. Notice the dramatic cutaway, so we don't know that price. RM: We figured this out on three different times on Stewart Burns' Palm Pilot. 'DXC: And three different answers? RM: No, no. It was concidence and nobody on the news group ever proved us wrong. 'DXC: We do have-- we are only of the only shows has not one, but two PhDs in mathematics working on the staff. 'RM: That's something futuristic. PMV: Here is actually also the first appearance of Scruffy, although he is not identified and he doesn't speak, so I don't get the character payments for him. Before I came to work on Futurama, I was working on a screenplay about Mona Lisa. So I felt obliged to work her in this script. JD: Cosmic Ray's, a tribute to Famous Ray's. DXC: And the Original Ray's.  JD: And the Original Ray's.  DXC: Don't forget about Famous Original Ray's.  JD: Famous Original Ray's, an original-- DXC: That's John DiMaggio, speaking of and to John DiMaggio, as the waiter here. ?: This is one of three different pizzerias that appear in the first four seasons of Futurama. JD: That's my real voice. I normally sound like that. DXC: The idea - I don't know if it dates to Star Trek or early - that robots can be destroyed by illogical statements was obviously a big inspiration to Futurama. PMV: The original draft of this script was not about anchovies, it was about poptarts. It changed for the better. JD: Billy West as the voice of Dr Zoidberg. A genius! PMV: Also in an early draft, Fry was supposed to get another robot friend, he was rich enough get an all wood robot named "Deluxor" made of handcarved wood, but... DXC: I miss him. PMV: We can always build another episode and put him in.v ?: Lessi Loverland at the back? DXC: And a nakle??? on the wall. ?:That's not true about the eye cancer, is it? We're looking at the TV right now. JD: What is the obseen tattoo? PMV: We saw designs for it, but you guys-- the animators. GV: Oh, we had quite a few designs, it had to be so obscured anyway, so-- 'DXC: Tell animators to design an obseen tattoo, you're gonna get more than your money's worth. PMV: That's not fair, there was no one working the blue robot. DXC: We had a whole day at the office, where we decided to research this episode by eating both anchovies and sardines, first of all because most of us couldn't remember which one was whic, and secondly we couldn't remember what they tasted like. We all got them in, and we realised that no one on Earth really likes anchovies. PMV: I do. I love anchovies. JD': Who lieks anchovies? RM: I do. JD: You do? RM: Yeah. I love them. Salt bombs-- JD: Salt, oily, oily, salty fish. Augh God. DXC: You get a can of Angry Norwegian-- what was it? Angry Norwegian brand sardines with those toys? PMV: As a matter fact, you do-- a Fry action figure, you get the sardine can as well. And you get the Mom's robot oil with the Bender. JD: Yeah. RM: That's my favourite joke. DXC: I believe we lay claim to the most gasps per episode of any show in TV history. I love the little eye movement there. JD: Oh, one of my favourite-- ?: That skeleton doens't look at all like Ted Danson. He's watching static! DXC: What happened to his Lightspeed Briefs? JD: This the greatest. PMV: He couldn't afford them. DXC: Oh that's right. JD: That's just great. How much does Sir Mix-a-Lot get for that? That's what I wanna know. DXC: He cashed in good. JD: Excellent. DXC:We have squid fights, abe fights... animals battling in the future. RM: That's what the future is all about. Now the door opens from left to right. GV: Oh don't bring that up. RM: Oh, sorry. MG: We're in the future. DXC: Yeah. MG: Oh wait, that's the future. Well, it is the future, but old house. PMV: I like to point out that this is one episode from the first season that I don't let my children watch. And in a moment you'll find out why. Normally, I clear my throat during that. JD: Maurice LaMarche. Dave Herman. PMV: Maurice doing his Vincent Price. DXC: And that'll be John DiMaggio as Igner. JD: Yes. RM: Originally-- JD: I love Mom. MG: The original design of Mom was much more glamurous and beautiful and then we went this direction. She runs a little bit of Dr. Laura now. ?: I love the fact that her hair either looks like a heart or a big butt. MGI: like her giant desk sitting in front of her. And what is those uniforms the sons are wearing? DXC:You don't make your sons wear uniforms? What kind of father are you? MG: Only when I am a super villian. PMV: A clever tribute-- homage to Lorenzo's oil. Take a burn on all you fans of Sanford and Son. JD: That's the best. RM: Her hair's supposed to be-- JD: [Ester] Red Sanford, you're a heden! [normal] I'm sorry. RM: Her hair is supposed to look like the-- Dracula, the "Francis Ford Coppola" Dracula hairstyle. JD: Here you go. Is the trible swap coming? PMV: There is that language again. RM: See now the door opens from the right to left. DXC: We had a lot of debate on wheter there would be three sons or two sons. The rule of comedy three won out as always. PMV: And sooner or later one of the sons will be replaced by Shemp. Originally, Richard Nixon's head was supposed to help them in their recreation of the-- what the 20th century looked like, but that was cut out. DXC: Our guest star. PMV: See, the irony here is that Pamela Anderson allegely has a very attractive body, but we don't show that. JD: She was actually very sweet the day she came in, boy-- DXC: She was funny. JD: She was funny! She's wearing a sweatsuit. DXC: And actually-- JD: I remember 'cause there's a picture of all of us. Boy, were we smiling on that picture. Yes, broad smiles. ?: How does he looks, Nixon remains! He is right back there. JD: Nixon's the one. DXC: She did a little cameo while she was here for our 13th episode also. MG: They have so much money, that-- that it flies away. PMV: Here's a piece of trivia about this episode, it actually has the highest cumulative rating of all Futurama episodes, 'cause it actually aired in all three different time slots. So the few people who haven't seen it, are probably the ones watching it now. JD: Really? PMV: That's true fact. JD: That-- that voice I actually stole from a friend of mine. He still does it, and we still do it over the phone with each other. [robot voice] "Hi, ??? how you doing, I'm okay too, hey you. Hey you, I'm all right.  You're okay?  Your family?  My family good, your family good?" [normal] We hit that-- that was a tribute to him as a little-- "dude, I did that voice, man!" ?: You gonna bring that guy back? JD: Oh yeah. [Professor voice] oh wha- MG: It's a good angle. PMV: Forshadowing of the atomic monsters in the Harlem Globetrotters episode. PMV: Now she's doing it again. DXC: This might the most filthy language in any episode. PMV: I think it is, I think it is. DXC: Congratulations to you, Patrick. PMV: Thank you. DXC: This caused a lot of debate, because we were trying to decide if Bender could taste anything, it is resolved in later episodes that he can not. But nevertheless, he seems to find some trouble with the -- ?: He's just being one of the guys. ?: It also causes problem because Amy mentions she's had cow and cow's extinct. We had them build off that in future episodes. DXC: She had them in a can, just like they are having anchovies in a can. JD: I love when Dr Zoidberg goes nuts. PMV: "Zoidberg eyeball, iris out". JD: And here are the credits. MG: So what did Bender think of this episode? JD: [Bender] I thought this episode was pretty good. I liked it. I give it a 9. MG: Wow, we don't have to write it. JD: [Bender] I'll give it ten, if you give me enough money. PMV: And what does Randy think of it? JD: [Bender] Twenty bucks. [Randy voice] Randy thinks it's fabulous. Wonderful. PMV: I was afraid of that. JD: [Randy] Hey! 30th Century Fox!