haven't read too much about Episode 3. Turns out that tuesdays at 8:30 was Fox's worst rated sitcom spot, I'm a little surprised because of the KOTH lead-in, but that might not be so strong. Was the Hughley's really beating everything else? The PJs became unwatchable, so I'm not terribly surprised.
Futurama was the #1 show among teenage boys in the neilsens. that's not necessarily the best sign, but at least it's taken hold in one demographic.
I think the characters are starting to move into their own much more on this episode. Their voices sound better, more expressive and less like Stimpy. They made GREAT use of the culture in this episode and I think it would have been a better story than the moon episode, which I didn't really think gelled, despite some funny lines and scenes. HOWEVER, the ending was such a deus ex machina deployed of course by a machina himself, that it kind of shot he cleverness that the episode built up.
Either way, funhouse-mirroring our culture in this case by the obsession over a wedding episode of a soap opera was genius. My favorite part was the "human" character which was almost exactly like the "gay" characters in so many 1970s sitcoms. Down to Bender's comment, "oh he does human stuff." The "human" stereotype was very subtle and very clever. IMHO the best part of the episode.
Does anyone know the situation with the writers? I heard that this season is 100% Matt Groening, as opposed to the Simpsons which perhaps has been taken over by a cabal of writers (some of whom latched onto King of the Hill as well). I gotta wonder if the Simpsons writers will be the Your Show of Shows/ Steve Allen Show of the 1990s (ie, Larry Gelbart, Woody Allen, Mel Brooks, Carl Reiner all worked on the same show in the 1950s). Perhaps Groening wanted something with more of his personality? then why no religion or politics in Futurama, the great staple of the Simpsons.