Difference between revisions of "All the Presidents' Heads"

From The Infosphere, the Futurama Wiki
Jump to navigation Jump to search
Line 70: Line 70:
*Each "Franklinator" has a badger on it except Fry's, which has a chipmunk, and Bender's, which has a shark.
*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 [[Bender#Composition|composition]].
*Bender is 40% scrap metal, revealing more of his supersized [[Bender#Composition|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.
*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 {{w|Loyalist (American Revolution)|American loyalists}}.
*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 {{w|Loyalist (American Revolution)|American loyalists}}.

Revision as of 09:20, 2 September 2011

Season 6 episode
Broadcast season 8 episode
All the Presidents' Heads
All the Presidents' Heads infobox.png
Fry enters the Hall of Presidents in the Head Museum.
No.111
Production number6ACV23
Written byJosh Weinstein
Directed byStephen Sandoval
Title captionAPPLY VIEWING OIL NOW
First air date28 July, 2011
Broadcast numberS08E07
Title referenceAll the President's Men
Opening cartoonZoich (2010)
Additional
Commentary
(Transcript)
Transcript
Storyboard

Pictures

Season 6
  1. Rebirth
  2. In-A-Gadda-Da-Leela
  3. Attack of the Killer App
  4. Proposition Infinity
  5. The Duh-Vinci Code
  6. Lethal Inspection
  7. The Late Philip J. Fry
  8. That Darn Katz!
  9. A Clockwork Origin
  10. The Prisoner of Benda
  11. Lrrreconcilable Ndndifferences
  12. The Mutants Are Revolting
  13. The Futurama Holiday Spectacular
  14. The Silence of the Clamps
  15. Möbius Dick
  16. Law and Oracle
  17. Benderama
  18. The Tip of the Zoidberg
  19. Ghost in the Machines
  20. Neutopia
  21. Yo Leela Leela
  22. Fry Am the Egg Man
  23. All the Presidents' Heads
  24. Cold Warriors
  25. Overclockwise
  26. Reincarnation
← Season 5Season 7 →

"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.

Plot

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 Tudor architecture 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.[1] 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".

Image gallery

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.[2]

Additional Info

Trivia

The Fourth Doctor in New New York.
  • This episode is among the Futurama media featuring its title within the story.
  • This episode is one of only four season 6 episodes to include the full opening sequence, the other three being "Rebirth", "That Darn Katz!", and "Benderama".
  • The opening cartoon is a short film featuring Zoich, an entrant in the mascot contest for the 2014 Winter Olympics. Zoich's design was influenced by the Hypnotoad from Futurama.
  • "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 Fourth Doctor from Doctor Who can be seen running into a blue police box resembling the TARDIS 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.
  • 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.
    • 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 American loyalists.
  • Throughout the episode, the halfpenny is referred to by its colloquial pronunciation of "ha'penny".

Allusions

  • The title is a reference to the book (and the film) 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 The Wall Street Journal 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 Big Dig 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 Manchester United F.C..
  • Some references are made in the third act to the television series Monty Python's Flying Circus.
    • When Zoidsmythe is walking towards the screen to turn on the documentary, he is walking in the same manner as John Cleese from the famous "The Ministry of Silly Walks" sketch.
    • The part of the documentary recalling Paul Revere's ride is done in the style of Terry Gilliam'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 BBC.
  • Bender's redesigned flag of the United States saying "Bite my fhiny metal aff" and Fry's misreading "Maffachufetf" allude to the character long s (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.

Goofs

  • It's revealed in this episode that drinking head jar fluid sends the person back to when the head's owner lived. However, in "A Leela of Her Own", Hank Aaron XXIV drank some jar fluid from Wade Boggs' jar and nothing happened.
  • 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.
  • Before Fry went on the head trip to 1776, he was wearing his Head Museum uniform. When he returned after fixing the time lines, he was in his normal clothes.

Characters

(In alphabetic order)

References