Review: FUTURAMA on Global!, "Put Your Head On My Shoulders"
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Opening gag - "Not based on the novel by James Fennimore Cooper"
Well, for all of you who were wanting Fry and Amy Wong to get together, you got your fondest wish in this episode. Thanks to car trouble on the planet Mercury, Fry and Amy wind up discovering they have a lot in common and become lovers. However, Fry gets cold feet and is about to break off the relationship when a car accident on Jupiter leaves him near death, and the only way to save him is to graft his head onto Amy's body while his body is being repaired by Dr. Zoidberg. And it turns out Amy has a "hot date" for Valentine's Day...
I must say, I was very impressed by the way they handled the relationship, especially how the writers pulled our chain with what we were expecting to see regarding the physical side of it. Amy and Fry are actually very well-matched, and it was great to see that Fry didn't act like an irresponsible jerk towards her when he wanted to break up, he really cared about not hurting her feelings. And I'm sure that Amy was thrilled that she was finally in something other than a one-night stand. It was also great to see that they actually didn't get into the two-headed problems until the end of the second act, they built up the courtship nicely. It was actually a shame that they broke up, I'd kind of hope that as Fry matures he'll realize what he was missing.
Also amazing was the fact that Dr. Zoidberg is still suffering from being love-lorn from last week's episode.
The B-Plot, Bender's scam to exploit the feelings of the lovelorn on Valentine's Day by running a crooked Computer Dating service, is pretty much standard Bender, no real hilarious results except for a surprising turn from Zapp Brannigan - the way he handled that punchcard was both disturbing AND funny, and wait'll you see his date! Oh, and how Bender negotiates his fees from both Leela and Fry are pretty funny too.
Oh yeah, near the end Farnsworth says something to Fry that's hilarious, and opens a door into his psyche....
A - -
DYN -
- the modern Ford the salesman is trying to pressure Fry into buying has all the distinguishing features of the muscle cars that made up its composite name? (And dig that fuel-injected racing motor stuck in its hoodless engine bay!)
- Fry seems to have a serious caffeine addiction, judging by how fast he was gulping down cups of that coffee? (he must be substituting it to overcome his addiction to Slurm, or is it a reflection of the fact he was addicted to cola in the 20th century?)
- this is the first time we see Zapp Brannigan without Kif about? (Kif must be relieved that he had some time away from Meathead.)
- Zapp's date seems to resemble Homer Simpson in drag?
- Bender's victims, er, clients, include his former landlady from "I, Roommate", and one of Mom's sons?
- Hermes seems to be afraid of his wife? (he denied himself permission for time off for Valentine's Day)
- it's ironic that they showed a car accident with serious complications on the same weekend the Simpsons show a car accident with more permanent consequences?
- what WERE Amy and Fry doing in the supplies closet with the balls? (I was going to say Hacky-Sack, but you usually only play with one of them at a time, right?)
- that according to Bender's recall notification, there were 94 Bending Units manufactured, but he's the only one we've seen so far on the series? (that'll change with next week's episode)
CULTURAL REFERENCES:
"Put Your Head On My Shoulder" - title based on title of famous Paul Anka tune recorded during the "teen heartthrob" part of his long career; later covered by Leif Garrett.
RICARDO MONTALBAN, CAR SALESMAN - Amy's latin heartthrob car salesman seems based on the famous actor, best known for both his roles as Mr. Roarke on "Fantasy Island", and as power-mad warlord Khan Noonian Singh in the Star Trek TOS episode "Space Seed" and motion picture STAR TREK II: THE WRATH OF KHAN. However, he is also famous for being a spokesperson for Chrysler in the 1970s; the ads in which he praised the Chrysler Cordoba luxury coupe, especially their seats of "Rich Cor-EEN-thian Leather", are considered a camp classic in the ad industry.
PLAYTEX - makers for the Cross-Your-Heart Bra, whose product has the same properties as the seatbelt of the car the salesman is pitching to Amy.
ANNOYING "CRAZY" TV PITCHMEN - Malfunctioning Eddie is a reflection of a cultural phenomenon here in North America, the owner of a business who runs TV ads where he pulls crazy stunts, adopts crazy costumes, and tries to be as annoying as possible in order to pull attention to whatever he's hocking, usually used cars. The most famous seems to be a car salesman in California who had a live country music band play while he yelled about the many bargains you could find on his lot, but it seems there's at least one of these guys in every US and Canadian city - here in Toronto, the most famous are Blair Lastman, owner of Bad Boy Furniture & Electronics (he dresses up in striped prisoner fatigues and sometimes had his father, now Mayor Mel Lastman, appear with him yelling "NOOOOBODY!"), and Russell Oliver, owner of Oliver Jewelry ( he dresses up like a superhero called Cashman, and recently allied himself with a number of WWF wrestlers).
FORD PINTO: Bender's malfunctioning keister is similar to one of the biggest scandals in the US auto industry. The Pinto, Ford's first salvo into the US subcompact car wars, had a gas tank mounted in the back that, in the case of a rear-end collision, would cause the car to explode in a ball of flame. One case - in which a woman was killed and a teenager was horribly disfigured in a collision - led to what was at the time the biggest settlement awarded to a plaintiff in a major lawsuit, $128.5 million. It turned out that all those problems could have been prevented by installing a particular part in the gas tank, but it had been eliminated in a cost-cutting measure by Ford chairman Lee Iacocca (source: FORD, THE MEN AND THE MACHINE, Robert Lacey, Chapter 33.).
2001 - A SPACE ODDITY: the Monolith - the thing that looks like the box the United Nations building came in - from this movie appears.
GOOFS/CONTINUITY/WHATNOT
- when car windows get steamed up, the condensation forms on the INSIDE of the windows - the tow truck driver shouldn't have been able to wipe away the steam to look inside.
- there's no oxygen on the planet Mercury, and it really is quite hot to the point that the surface is supposed to be molten. Amy's car would have melted and she and Fry would have been cooked to a turn the minute they touched down! (that IS some incredible air conditioning in that car!) And how does that explain the tow truck driver and the gas station on the surface?
- Amy comments to Fry that "I'll always have this disfiguring scar to remember you by", but where were the scars around Fry's arm and legs after Zoidberg's surgery on him last week? (oh, yes, a wizard did it....)
ANACHRONISMS
- internal combustion engines being used to power cars that are basically forcefield hovercrafts? Shouldn't all the fossil fuels be depleted by Y3K? (OTOH, seeing as Mom had been disturbed that a single can of anchovies could have wiped her out of the robot oil business, it's possible that by this time they've been able to successfully synthesize and utilize substitute fuels and lubricants)