Difference between revisions of "Simpsorama"

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This article is about the episode. For the comic reprint book, see Simpsons Comics Simpsorama.

"Bite my shiny metal ass!"

―Bender

"A robot! With a catchphrase!"

―Homer

"Simpsorama" is the sixth episode of season 26 of The Simpsons and the five-hundred and fifty-eighth episode overall. It originally aired on November 9, 2014. The episode was written by J. Stewart Burns and directed by Bob Anderson. It guest stars Billy West as Philip J. Fry, Professor Farnsworth and Zoidberg, Katey Sagal as Leela, John DiMaggio as Bender Rodríguez, Phil LaMarr as Hermes Conrad, Maurice LaMarche as Morbo and Hedonismbot, Lauren Tom as Amy Wong, Frank Welker as Nibbler and David Herman as Scruffy.

"Simpsorama" is a crossover between The Simpsons and Futurama.

Summary

"A crossover with Futurama, the Planet Express team comes to Springfield."

Plot

At the Springfield Elementary School, Principal Skinner announces a time capsule project, with everyone putting an item into the time capsule, which is to be dug up 1000 years later. Milhouse puts his lucky rabbit's foot into the capsule, whilst Bart puts a half-eaten sandwich which he sneezed into in the capsule. The capsule was then buried in the Springfield Town Square, with radioactive ooze bubbling up into the hole. When it starts storming, everyone leaves for home.

That night, the storm picks up and then the Simpsons hear a large bang outside. In the night, Marge hears noises coming from downstairs. Homer and Bart go to investigate and Homer uses Bart as bait. When the mysterious figure goes to drink Homer's beer, Homer attacks him. The figure then reveals himself to be Bender. When Bart questions Homer, Homer attacks Bart, who is dangling upside down. Bender then joins in and Homer and Bender start to bond. Bender tells them that he's a robot from the future, although everyone doesn't believe him. Homer then takes Bender to Moe's Tavern, then to Barney's Bowlarama before ending up back at home.

The family takes Bender to see Professor Frink to see if he can find out why Bender came to the past. Professor Frink turns Bender off and on again to get his mission protocol back. Bender then reveals that he's there to kill Homer Simpson and pulls out weapons. However, since he bonded with Homer, Bender can't go through with killing Homer. Just then, Leela contacts Bender from the future and asks if Bender's killed Homer yet, as the New New York creatures were going out of control. Philip J. Fry and Professor Farnsworth then tell Bender to hurry up and kill Homer. Hermes Conrad and Dr. Zoidberg also talk to the people in the past before Leela, Fry, and Farnsworth all go to the past to finish the job themselves. Professor Frink then suggests that they could team up to find a solution. Farnsworth then sends Leela and Fry to explore the time period and find out why people would pay for freemium games.

Professor Farnsworth explains to Lisa and Frink that they got to the past through a singularity that he had quantum entangled to Bender, whilst Bender got to the past via a time machine. Later at the Simpsons house, the science team arrives and tells everyone that half of the DNA in the creatures came from Marge, so it was one of Homer and Marge's children. Farnsworth then suggests killing all the children. At that moment, a news bulletin from the future comes through from Channel √2 News, with Morbo saying that the creatures had begun metamorphosing. One of the creatures then eats Linda van Schoonhoven and transforms to look like Bart. The Bart creatures are then seen destroying New New York. Bart then realizes that the time capsule is the cause of the creatures, with the rabbit foot and Bart's sandwich mixing with the radioactive ooze.

Everyone goes to dig up the time capsule and stop the mutants. Before they could do so, Amy Wong contacts them to tell them that the creatures got Scruffy. Scruffy then says that they just got his mustache, but a life without a mustache isn't worth living, so he shoots his head off. The creatures then destroy the portal, bringing everyone, except Bender and Maggie, to the future. Bender and Maggie then go to the Springfield Downs to bet on horse races.

In the future, Homer strangles each of the creatures to death until he gets to Bart. Professor Farnsworth decides to give up whilst Homer and Fry try to fix the portal to get the Simpsons home. Hedonismbot then shows up for end-of-the-world debauchery. Lisa then comes up with a plan to get the creatures into Madison Cube Garden so that the Planet Express crew could shoot them into space. Meanwhile, in the past, Bender bets on a horse called Bender's Bounty, even though he remembered the horse died during the race. When the horse was losing, Bender shot and killed it. In the future, Lisa tells the creatures that Madison Cube Garden is filled with Butterfinger bars and that people are laying their fingers over them. This lures them all to the Garden so the Planet Express ship could pick it up and send it into space. Everyone cheers the deaths of millions of Bart's children before the Simpsons go home after Fry and Homer fix the portal. Back at home, Bender takes money out of Maggie's diaper before he gives her a cut. Bender then puts himself into sleep mode for a thousand years and Homer takes his sleeping body down to the basement. Homer then pours some beer into Bender's head.

On Omicron Persei 8, Madison Cube Garden had crash landed, with all the creatures running amok there. Ndnd gets annoyed at Lrrr as the Garden would have disintegrated in the atmosphere if Lrrr hadn't turned it off. Kang and Kodos then arrive as Lrrr and Ndnd argue. When Lrrr burps up a creature's head, Ndnd runs off crying. Lrrr then asks the one of the Johnsons that's female to go console Ndnd, and both Kang and Kodos go after her.

Homer then sings the "Futurama theme" whilst a mashup of the two opening sequences plays over the end credits.

Production

The Simpsons and Futurama were both created by Matt Groening. There are several cast and crew members who have been on both shows, notably Tress MacNeille as various voices, Dan Castellaneta who voiced the Robot Devil in all but one of his appearances and Maurice LaMarche as various voices again. John DiMaggio previously appeared as Bender in the episode "Future-Drama" and The Simpsons Game whilst Billy West appeared as Zoidberg in The Simpsons Game. During an event called "The Mathematical Secrets of The Simpsons and Futurama" in the Science Museum of London, a clip from the episode featuring Homer and Bender hitting Bart was shown.^[1]

The recording started on September 19, 2013.^[2] Some scenes were based on the comic Futurama/Simpsons Infinitely Secret Crossover Crisis.^[3]

After the initial airing some fans were curious if the episode was considered canon, but executive producer Al Jean confirmed it was.^[4][5]

• 

  Production script for the episode.

• 

  Script for the Episode

Reception

In its original airing, "Simpsorama" had 6.70 million viewers, making it the most watched show on Fox that night.^[6]

Max Nicholson of IGN said that "Simpsorama" "was poised to be a match made in heaven". However, he complained that the episode didn't have enough time to explore different character interactions.^[7]

Zack Handlen and Dennis Perkins of The A.V. Club gave the episode a B- rating Nicholson said that the episode's "benign niceness just evaporated like a losing racehorse hit by Bender's death ray while I was watching it" and felt the episode was underwhelming. Handlen said about the episode that it was "Not particularly inspired, but never grossly offensive, with just enough laughs to keep you from feeling like the whole thing was a total waste of time."^[8]

Darren Franich of Entertainment Weekly said that "In a weird way, the crossover felt overplotted". He then went on to say that ""Simpsorama" wasn't a great episode of The Simpsons or of Futurama, but it was a lovely little celebration".^[9]

Sound mixers Mark Linden and Tara A. Paul received a nomination for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Sound Mixing for a Comedy or Drama Series (Half-Hour) and Animation in the 67th Primetime Emmy Awards for the episode. However it lost to "Connection Lost" from Modern Family.^[10]

As of October 2020, the episode as a 7.9 rating on IMDb^[11] and an 8.6 rating on TV.com.^[12]

International airdates

Country Date Channel Note Latin America May 3, 2015[13] Fox Latin America

Promotional images

• Simpsorama promo 1.jpg
• Simpsorama promo 3.jpg
• Simpsorama promo 4.jpg
• Simpsorama promo 5.jpg

References

See also

• "The Simpsons Guy"

Promotional clips

• Couch Gag from "Simpsorama" at YouTube
• Futurama meets The Simpsons from "Simpsorama" at YouTube

External links

• Simpsorama at the Infosphere

Wikisimpsons has a collection of images related to "Simpsorama".