Obsoletely Fabulous
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| Futurama episode | |
| "Obsoletely Fabulous" | |
 Obsolete Bender and his Obsolete Gang. |
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| Episode no. | 68 |
| Prod. code | 4ACV14 |
| Airdate | July 27, 2003 |
| Writer(s) | Dan Vebber |
| Director | Dwayne Carey-Hill |
| Opening subtitle | You can't prove it won't happen |
| Opening cartoon | Unknown |
| Season 4 January 2002 – August 2003 |
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| List of all Futurama episodes... | |
"Obsoletely Fabulous" is the fourteenth episode of the fourth production season of Futurama.
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[edit] Plot
At a robot expo, Mom's Friendly Robot Co. has introduced a new, more advanced robot: Robot 1-X. Feeling unwanted after Professor Farnsworth buys one to help out around the office, Bender decides to get a personality upgrade so he can be compatible with Robot 1-X. During his upgrade however, Bender changes his mind and leaps out the window.
Too scared to get the upgrade but unable to face the others without it, he bends a "No boating" sign into a boat and heads out to sea, only to wash up on an uncharted island. At first he is in desperate need of alcohol to recharge, and goes to great lengths to find an energy source for the blender he has brought to make "yam Schnapps" to refuel himself.
Bender wakes one morning to find four outdated robots are living on the island and befriends them. After living with the outdated robots, Bender realizes he doesn't need technology anymore. He then orders his companions to "downgrade" his metal robotics with a wooden body. Bender leads his friends to New New York in a wooden submarine, where they wage war on technology. The band of five are surprisingly successful, but Bender reveals there is one more thing they need to destroy: Robot 1-X.
They head to Planet Express and, after destroying the power lines, Bender breaks into the hangar where he confronts his technologically-stricken former crew. Bender has his robotic friends throw large boulders at Robot 1-X, but they miss and hit the Planet Express ship, which falls and pins the crew down to the floor. A candle falls onto the leaking gas from the ship, causing a ring of fire to form around the crew. Bender tries to reach for the extinguisher, but his wooden body catches on fire. Failing to save his friends himself, Bender orders Robot 1-X to save the crew. This allows Bender to seem like a hero and, when the plan succeeds, he accepts the new robot.
At the end of the episode, it is revealed that Bender's adventure was just a vision he was experiencing during his upgrade. Bender starts to doubt if his life is nothing but a figment of his or someone else's imagination, but finally settles with the idea that "reality is what you make of it", while marching off into a whimsical fantasy land.
[edit] Continuity
- Roberto and Fatbot appear amongst the many robots receiving upgrades. iZac from "A Flight to Remember" also appears in the crowd at the Robot 1-X unveiling.
- In the scene where the crew is being crushed, the ship is leaking liquid fuel indicating that the ship can run on the liquid variant of Dark Matter. The liquid Dark Matter was first seen in The Birdbot of Ice-Catraz.
- Robot 1-X effortlessly manages to pick up the solid Dark Matter in Nibbler's litter box, suggesting that Robot 1-X is either extremely strong or this might have been a continuity error as one pound of Dark Matter weighs over 10,000 lbs.
[edit] Production notes
- The storyboarding of this episode was done around the time of the September 11, 2001 attacks, making most of the production team feel awkward about doing the sequence where the Planet Express crew is crushed under the Planet Express ship while a fire rages.
- According to DVD commentary, John DiMaggio (the voice of Bender) did Bender's dialogue in the scene where he dances to "I'm Alright" before the crew could pick out a song to match the scene.
[edit] Cultural references
- The title is a reference to the British sitcom Absolutely Fabulous.
- Bender dances to "I'm Alright" by Kenny Loggins, from the 1980 movie Caddyshack. Bender mentions that the CD is one of his ten Desert Island Discs. He mentions that another is by Ludwig van Beethoven, as he's crushing it.
- At the robot trade show at the beginning of the episode a small R2-D2 style robot can be seen among other items on the shelves.
- One of the obsolete robots is named Sinclair 2K, a reference to the Timex Sinclair 1000 computer (the American version of the UK Sinclair ZX81), which had 2K of memory (which owes to the robot's forgetfulness); the robot is modelled on Robby the Robot from Forbidden Planet.
- The cartridge unit robot is similar to the 2-XL, a talking robot educational toy made by Mego in the 1970s.
- The waterwheel-powered robot is named Lisa, a reference to the Apple Lisa.
- Cast Away is referenced several times.
- Bender references Canadian progressive rock band Rush, known for their lyrics about futuristic fantasy.
- According to the DVD commentary, Robot 1-X's design was inspired by the iMac.
- A cut scene has a robotic band playing at the convention, where the drummer chokes on his own vomit. Although the drummer is named "Keith Moo" (an obvious reference to The Who's drummer Keith Moon) the reference is actually of Led Zeppelin drummer John Bonham. The animatronic band is a parody of The Rock-afire Explosion.
- The Robot 1-X model seems to follow the Three Laws of Robotics much more closely than previous robots seen in the series.
- The episode's plot echoes those of Ambrose Bierce's An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge and Robert Sheckley's The Store of the Worlds.
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