Space Pilot 3000

Act I: "Here's to another lousy millenium!"
Pizza delivery boy Philip J. Fry hates his life; he has to deliver a pizza without pay, his girlfriend dumps him, and his bike is stolen, and it all happens on New Year's Eve of 2000. The pizza goes to someone named "I. C. Wiener" in a cryogenics lab, where Fry soon realises that it was a prank call. He sits down and drinks one of the beers, toasting to "another lousy millenium." The bell tolls midnight and he unenthusiastically blows a noise maker when it knocks back in his face, causing him to fall backwards into a cryogenics tube. The tube sets itself for a thousand years and Fry is frozen. As he lies in wait for the next thousand years, the city of New York changes--it is destroyed by a group of mysterious spaceships before it seems to become a medieval-looking place, only to be destroyed again by more ships. By the time Fry awakens, he sees that New York has become an extremely futuristic metropolis and immediately deduces that he is in the future. He realizes that he will never see his friends, family and girlfriend again...and he couldn't be any happier. The Opening Sequence rolls.

Act II: "Strip naked and get on the probulator!"
Fry is greeted by two workers at the lab--one of them gives an extremely melodramatic greeting ("Welcome to the world of tomorrow!"). He is escorted to the Fate Assignment Officer's Office where he meets Leela, a beautiful woman with a huge eye in the center of her face, who explains that it is December 31, 2999 ("a million years!").

A DNA scan reveals that he has only living relative in this time period: his many times great nephew Professor Hubert J. Farnsworth. Fry begins looking forward to his life in the future until Leela assigns him a permanent career as a delivery boy. Fry refuses to be a delivery boy again, but Leela says that everyone--even herself--has do do a job whether they like it or not, coining a phrase, "You gotta do what you gotta do." She tries to implant a chip that will label Fry a delivery boy forever, but Fry runs away. Leela ends up falling into one of the cryogenic tubes during the ensuing chase, which sets itself for 1000 years much like Fry's tube. Fry prepares to leave frozen there but, out of the goodness in his heart, decides to reset the tube to unthaw her in 5 minutes before he leaves the lab.

After witnessing the wonders of the city and how it has changed, he decides to call his descendant Farnsworth. He gets in line for what he thinks is a phone booth and meets a robot for the first time--Bender--waiting in line. It turns out the phone booth is actually a Suicide Booth, and that Bender is eagerly awaiting his death, but they both manage to avoid death. Having failed at suicide again, Bender decides to get drunk at a bar, and Fry goes with him. Fry finds out that Bender wants to kill himself because of his programming as a girder-bender for Suicide Booths. Fry convinces Bender to abandon his plans at suicide and the two become friends when Leela finds them.

Act III: "Welcome to the head museum."
Fry and Bender duck into the Head Museum to hide and are greeted by Leonard Nimoy's head. Leela, along with two police officers Smitty and URL, finds the group in the museum, where Fry accidentally bumps into the shelves, knocking Richard Nixon's head down and provoking him to attack. Smitty and URL begin to use excessive force on Fry, but Leela tries to convince them to stop. After the officers insult her appearance (she actually took offense to a statement about her nose instead of her eye), and Leela knocks them out, prompting Fry and Bender to run for it. Leela demands to know why the officers would beat Fry like that--they explain that it's their job, saying "[they] gotta do what [they] gotta do."

Fry and Bender lock themselves in a room from Leela. Fry notices that there is a barred window and that Bender can bend the bars so they can escape, but Bender is unable to comply, saying he is only programmed to bend for construction. Fry, however, convinces him to break free from his dependency on his programming, and Bender manages to bend the bars apart, reaching an epiphany: "From now on, I'm going to bend what I want, when I want, who I want! I'm unstoppable!" They go deep underground to the ruins of Old New York, where Fry realizes that he has lost everything he left behind in the past. Leela once again catches up with them, but Fry decides to give in to his fate as a delivery boy--but instead of implanting the carreer chip, Leela removes her own chip, thus quitting her job. She thanks Fry for helping her realize the nonsensicality of the quote "You gotta do what you gotta do," much like he did for Bender.

Act IV: "We have you partially surrounded!"
Since all three have quit their jobs, Fry, Bender, and Leela realize that they are now fugitives of the law, so they hide at Planet Express where Fry's nephew Professor Farnsworth lives. After confirming his connection to Fry for himself, the Professor shows them his intergalactic spaceship. The building is then (partially) surrounded by the police, so they use the ship to escape. While they take off, the police open fire--but the bell tolls the year 3000, and the ship cannot be seen through the fireworks. Fry, Bender and Leela begin to ponder their lives as they are now unemployed until the Professor decides to hire them for an interplanetary delivery service he founded to fund his work. He even kept the career chips of his old crew as they had apparently been devoured by a space wasp (in actuality they had been stung to death by space bees). Fry is assigned to be a delivery boy...and he couldn't be happier.

Trivia

 * This episode is the highest rated Pilot episode in the history of Fox.
 * When Fry is going through the transport tubes, he passes by a three-eyed fish - which is Blinky, from the Simpsons.
 * The person who uses the tube system before Fry says "Radio City Mutant Hall" - but his original line was "JFK Junior Airport". The line was changed after the death of John F. Kennedy, Jr. (though it can still be heard in the animatic).
 * When Fry and Bender hide in the Head Museum, Matt Groening's head can be seen next to Barbra Streisand's.
 * This episode was named #14 on IGN's list of Top 25 Futurama Episodes.

Quotes

 * Fry: Space, it seems to go on forever. But then you get to the end and the gorilla starts throwin' barrels at you.
 * Leela: I'm sure this must be very upsetting for you. Fry: Y'know, I guess it should be but, actually, I'm glad. I had nothing to live for in my old life. I was broke, I had a humiliating job and I was beginning to suspect my girlfriend might be cheating on me. Leela: Well, at least here you'll be treated with dignity. Now strip naked and get on the probulator.
 * Bender: Bite my shiny metal ass! Fry: It doesn't look so shiny to me. Bender: Shinier than yours, meatbag.

Questions

 * What was the shadow under the desk just before Fry fell in the tube?
 * It was Nibbler, whose presence is explained in the Why of Fry in season 4.

Fast Forward

 * Fry's girlfriend, Michelle, appears again in the episode "The Cryonic Woman", then later at Fry's funeral in "The Sting", and finally, when Bender goes back in time, in "Bender's Big Score".
 * A brief shot shows a shadow under the desk just before Fry falls into the freezer-tube. This shadow is explained in "The Why of Fry".
 * The ruins of Old New York are visited again in "The Luck of the Fryrish".
 * In Bender's Big Score it is revealed that Bender is the one who destroyed New York the first time, and that it happened in 2308.

Mistakes

 * When Leela calls for backup, her wristlojackimator is on the wrong wrist.
 * Bender breaks two bars from the window when they are trapped in the cellar. In the next shot, he holds the bars, but they re-appeared back in the window

Real-World References

 * The introduction is reminiscent of Star Trek intros (with similar music and voiceover).
 * The barrel-throwin' gorilla is a reference to Donkey Kong.
 * The police use sticks that resemble the light sabres from Star Wars. Unlike their Star Wars counterparts, they are blunt weapons, rather than superheated blades.

Characters
As this is the first episode, every appearance is a debut appearance. (in alphabetical order)
 * 20th Century kid
 * Bender
 * Bike thief
 * Dick Clark's head
 * Fry
 * Ipgee
 * Leonard Nimoy
 * Lou
 * Michelle
 * Mr. Panucci
 * Nibbler (unofficial)
 * Number 9 Man
 * Poster Guy
 * Professor Farnsworth
 * Richard Nixon's head
 * Terry
 * Leela
 * Smitty and Url

Episode Credits

 * Writers
 * David X. Cohen
 * Matt Groening
 * Voices
 * Billy West
 * Katey Sagal
 * John DiMaggio
 * Tress MacNeille
 * Dave Herman
 * Kath Soucie
 * Special Guests
 * Dick Clark
 * Leonard Nimoy
 * DVD Commentary
 * David X. Cohen
 * Gregg Vanzo
 * John DiMaggio
 * Matt Groening
 * Rich Moore