Character development (Will Fry turn into Homer Simpson?)

In the early episodes of The Simpsons, the characters were considerably different. This is especially noticable in "There's No Disgrace Like Home", in which Homer sells the TV in order to pay for counseling for the family to do better. And Marge pleads with Homer to pawn her engagement ring instead. If the exact same story were to have been done one or two seasons later, it would have been _Marge_ insisting on pawning the TV while Homer would be the one begging for her to pawn her engagement ring instead.

My point is that characters on Matt Groening shows can evolve until they're very different from what they were like in early episodes.

Fry shows occasional signs of real stupidity, especially in the "Fishful of Dollars" episode. I speculate that he might become just like Homer Simpson by the second season.

Bender is interesting enough the way he is, so I don't think he'll change too much. However, Leela can be, and probably will be fleshed out more in upcoming seasons. As to what type of character Leela will eventually be is anyone's guess. However, as for Fry, I see him turning more and more Homer Simpson-like as time goes on.

I'm not saying whether this is good or bad; I'm just making speculative predictions about how I think his character will develop.

Eric Perlin wrote:

Well, here's my take on it. With the Simpsons, the earlier episodes seemed to focus more on the antics of Bart, so Homer stayed as he originally thought up, as a densebut caring father figure. As the show dragged on, people became more enamored with Homer, especially with his idiotic antics, the the writers emphasized the traits that people liked about Homer...namely his stupidity. So Homer "grew" from a dense and selfish yet caring person that oyu saw in the episode where they pawned the TV for Therapy to the completely braindead and almost unaware of his surroundings that you see in the Frank Grimes episode (sorry, i don't know the names and episode titles :) ) ( I don't know if this is what really happened, but there is more of a shift of attention onto Homer rather than Bart) Personally I liked the old Homer better, the humor around him was a tad more subtle and almost believable.

With Fry, I think his character has, been set up as a moron from the very beginning. In the pilot, he thinks he fell asleep for a million years, for example, doesn't realize his girlfriend's seeing someone else after she breaks up with him with a guy in the cab, doesn't notice that people aren't leaving the suicide booth OR the voice that asks him how he'd like to die, and so on. IMHO, Fry has a lot less further to "fall" then Homey did. :)

Bender will probably end up being the most intriguing character, because I remember reading some interviews with Groenig where he said that Bender will have all the reprehensible traits: lieing, cheating, stealing, porn, drinking, robowhoring, etc, because no one can call a robot a "bad" rolemodel. :) Personally, I dig Bender, so I'd like to see what happens.

Fry isn't going to be a very popular character if he continues with the [address] mentality. Fry's stupidity is funny when he's bidding "a jillion" dollars for a can of sardines, but it's not when he's being a jerk and shunning all of his friends so he can sit in his underwear and watch nostalgiac TV videos(although that sounds eerily like my life... The Making of AfterMASH, anyone?). After all, [address] is what made Homer Simpson a household name, not [address] By this token, Fry will probably become much less of a jerk yet maintain a Homerish IQ. Perhaps by next season, maybe?

Also, I continue to think that Leela is going to be developed into a softer Margaret Houlihan-type character (this probably shows that I watch way too much MASH... but it's on right after the Simpsons, damnit!).

Eric Perlin wrote in message news:j%uV2.1800$[email]...

"[email] (Eric Perlin)" thinks: << Fry shows occasional signs of real stupidity, especially in the "Fishful of Dollars" episode. I speculate that he might become just like Homer Simpson by the second season. >>

Well, something had better happen with Fry, and pronto! Because like Pogo, Funky Winkerbean, and Kudzu before him, the "star" of the show is turning out to be the least interesting character, and is in danger of being overshadowed by his castmates. Which is too bad, because placing a 20th-century guy in a 30th-century environment could make for a really entertaining character. Such is not the case so far.

Bender still rocks, by the way. tpe

PS: At least Dave Lister has continued to hold his own on "Red Dwarf," even though his supporting cast could have easily outdistanced him long ago.

Fry at times is a foil for the "normalness" of the 30th century. It plays our a clash of cultures between 20th century and 30th century culture with interesting is stylized by 60's and other past futuristic visions. wrote in message news:[email]... "[email] (Eric Perlin)" thinks: << Fry shows occasional signs of real stupidity, especially in the "Fishful of Dollars" episode. I speculate that he might become just like Homer Simpson by the second season. >>

Well, something had better happen with Fry, and pronto! Because like Pogo, Funky Winkerbean, and Kudzu before him, the "star" of the show is turning out to be the least interesting character, and is in danger of being overshadowed by his castmates. Which is too bad, because placing a 20th-century guy in a 30th-century environment could make for a really entertaining character. Such is not the case so far.

Bender still rocks, by the way. tpe

PS: At least Dave Lister has continued to hold his own on "Red Dwarf," even though his supporting cast could have easily outdistanced him long ago.

Braindead Jerkass Homer is what made Homer a household name in my house....

hmmm..

grosse wrote:

Lucky. You can never watch too much MASH. No one's syndicating it by me anymore and that sucks.

I totally agree with you about Fry. Every episode that goes by, I find myself not liking him more and more. He's rude, inconsiderate, and sells out his "friends" every five minutes or so. What a drag. Gonna have a hard time salvaging this dick.

Bender is THE man. He's got every vice in the book, yet is still more "human" than a lot of humans. He can stay exactly the same and I'd be happy.

Leela? She seems to provide a baseline of common sense for all of the hilarious hijinks. Seems to be the most down to earth and warm character. Will only get better as she gets more of her quirks fleshed out.

Amy bores me. "Guh." just isn't that funny. The whatever-language cursing is getting old already, too. Maybe I just have a thing against superficial rich kids.

Zoidberg is good for fish jokes. Can you really have too many fish jokes? I did love the claw with the drink glass gag and the parasitic hotdog joke, though. Come to think of it, I guess I do like this character.

Hermes. Exists. Kinda. ?

Prof. Farnsworth. Now HERE'S possibilities. He's older than dirt and nuttier than a fruitcake. This makes for jokes aplenty and tons of room for development. He's already part Grandpa (falling asleep whenever), and part Mr. Burns (scheming with a complete lack of conscience for his own benefit). Definitely my pick for second best character after Bender.

I won't go into Mom, H.G. Blob, Kif, Zap Brannigan, or the others, cuz I haven't seen enough of them to be fair. (although I did find Zap played-out so far)

AND WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED TO NIBBLER??? He was cool.

cas all time high scorer on "gender neutral pac-person"

grosse wrote in message ...

wait , wait , wait.... you dislike fry because he is rude and inconsiderate , but you like bender even though he is ruder and even more inconsiderate?? He steals from everybody... i should be doing my homework, nevermind. =)

Hmm, good point. Somehow it just seems to me that Bender is already corrupt, so anything he does that is cool (like chop off his "antenna" for his buddy Fry) makes him seem redeemable. On the other hand, Fry has a lot going for him (fresh start, new friends, job- all within his first day of dethawing), but then he let's his buddy Bender chop off his "antenna", wants him to move out so he can have the good apartment, blows everybody off when he becomes rich instead of sharing it with them- this all just combined for me into him not being very likable.

Honestly, I think I may be just being too hard on the show. It IS brand new, no matter how long it was in pre-production and it does have great potential. I mean, we wouldn't have any preconceptions about it if Groening didn't have The Simpson's already under his belt. I was just unhappy with the last episode and blowing off steam I suppose. Anyway, I should be doing my billing now. How's that homework coming? =P cas

the ebola virus wrote in message ...

inconsiderate

-

-

I think what he's trying to get at is that Fry's being a jerk isn't nearly as funny as Bender being a jerk, mostly because Fry isn't really _supposed_ to be a jerk, just a confused kid. Bender's being a jerk is intentional and an hilarious part of his character, while Fry has never been fleshed out as being a jerk in any character profiles I've ever seen. Since Fry basically became a jerk only when he also became a multibillionaire, we could probably say that the writers were just trying to make a point of "money being the absolute corruptor". Only when Fry is once again penniless does he turn to his friends and become the goofy, lovable Fry we all love. Then again, if this is a trend, Billy West will start recieving some nasty hate mail.

the ebola virus wrote in message news:tfPV2.1986$[email]...

inconsiderate

inconsiderate??

Just goes to show that people from the 20th century are jerks.

Castor Troy wrote:

On Tue, 27 Apr 1999 21:44:16 -0600, "grosse" wrote:

Perhaps the Jerkass mentality isn't *entirely* his fault but is either genetic, or was environmentallty imposed. I mean, what kind of cold-hearted, dysfunctional bastards could his family have consisted of if they couldn't even be bothered attempting to track Fry down after he disappeared. As another poster had pointed out, all his parents really had to do was pick up the damn phone and get the address of the lab from the pizzeria!

Pat Rationalizing way too much

In alt.tv.futurama, on the "Re: Character development (Will Fry turn into Homer Simpson?)" thread, Mew wrote:

Yeah, but would an low-tech pizza joint really hang onto those records for very long? I get the impression that Fry moved to New York from somewhere else. If that's the case, his parents probably wouldn't know he was missing until days, perhaps weeks, later. By the time they contacted the pizzeria, the owner would have tossed the address of Fry's final delivery.

Having seen both the new episode and the repeat of "The Series Has Landed" back-to-back, and the preview for the liquid-emperor episode, I was disturbed to see that Fry appears to be developing a real stupid streak. I know there's going to be a certain amount of his stumbling through the thirty-first century, but I hope it doesn't reach the point where they might as well just shoot him now because he's going to endanger their very lives on an hourly basis.

Mike

Hey you guys!!!!! (Sorry, just saw TEC for the first time in 20 years)

Fry is a 20th century man in the 30th century. Not only is he emotionally mixed up from the whole experience, the whole culture shock would make him act "stupid". In the most rescent episode, I saw nothing Fry did that appeared stupid outside of telling his pin number. However since he probably never had any money, he never hand a real reason to protect it. Also as for spending millions on objects from the past, heck, look at Ebay. People spend hundreds, if not thousands of dollars for objects that are a meer tens of years old.

I say we start a list of Stupid Things Fry Has Done...

Let's see...

In 1ACV01...

• Got himself cryogenically frozen for 1000 years
• Exclaimed "Wow, a million years!"
• "Just like in Star Tr--OOF!"
• Suspected his gf might be cheating on him
• Mistook a suicide booth for a telephone booth

In 1ACV02...

• Suggested throwing the crate in the sewer
• Got cheesy moon promotional items "I'm with stupid... ON THE MOON"
• Crashed the lunar buggy into a pit

In 1ACV03...

• Uses the Chemical Burn Shower to shower in the morning
• Uses the ship's engines as a blow drier
• Leaves food out for owls
• Eats Farnsworth's alien mummy
• "Why is the TV getting smaller?"

In 1ACV04... (Actually, we saw very little of Fry in this episode...)

• Leela instead of obvious four-legged mimic

In 1ACV05...

I can't think of any genuinely stupid things Fry did, unless pissing behind the garbage cans counts, as well as this line:

- "Damn right!" (when referring to Bender's remark that humans were pathetic cowards)

In 1ACV06...

- Fry descends into a Howard Hughes-like fantasy world after he purchases
his historic 20th century apartment
- "One jillion dollars!"
    "Sir, that's not a number."
    "Oh, in that case, $50 million!"
- "I've finally found what I need to be happy.  And it's not friends, it's
things." <-- (Okay, it's not the stupidest thing he's said, but it sounded
very strange coming from Fry.)
- Watching Sanford & Son (ugh)
- Actually believing that Pamela Anderson still had her body
- "1077, same as my PIN number!"

Rob Merritt wrote in message news:[email]...

grosse wrote:

• "Hey, let's escape through this steam pipe... It's no good! It's full of steam!"

• "God help us!" in movie theater after 'shock' ending.
• He's unable to comprehend that Capek 9 is inhabited

-Paul

That was Fry's voice? Heh, I didn't notice.

grosse wrote:

Indeed, it wasn't very clear. The first time I saw it, I thought it was a robot. The second time I saw it, I thought it was Fry. I'm still not sure.

Mike

It might've been Billy West doing a voice of a robot or something.

Michael Morbius wrote in message news:7g91ip$ind$[email]...

In alt.tv.futurama, on the "Re: Character development (Will Fry turn into Homer Simpson?)" thread, grosse wrote:

Hey, wait! Some of these things aren't so stupid!

I'd say this is lazy and negligent, rather than stupid.

I live near a tourist-intensive area (and I've been a tourist myself), so I can understand the impulse to buy cheesy souvenirs. Maybe it's not the wisest thing you can do, but I wouldn't call these people, or Fry, stupid for doing so.

Easy mistake to make if you're not familiar with driving on the moon. On the other hand, you can add "Stepped on Neil Armstrong's footprint" to your list.

Actually, this was (perhaps unintentionaly) smart, since it reinforces Bender's argument to set the humans free.

Again, it's not wise, but understandable that a man suddenly dislocated from his time would want to reconnect in some way.

Hey, I used to like that show. (I still like the theme song.) Different entertainment tastes != stupid.

Remember, the thought he was back in the stupid ages, when Ms. Anderson still did have her body. Rather, it was stupid of Fry to think that she'd be seven feet tall and with such a masculine-looking body.

We all still love Fry, though.

Benjamin Robinson wrote in message news:[email]...

When's the last time you saw Thomas Edison throw a crate in the sewer?

I

Got a point there, heh.

your

It was probably the footprint of some charter member of the Historical Sticklers Society.

pathetic

No, I think Fry really is a genius and said that as part of his evil plan.

from

Maybe I should tape it sometime, it's on around 1PM here.

Not to mention walking around with a jar on her head.

On Wed, 28 Apr 1999 21:32:48 GMT, [email] (Rob Merritt) wrote:

So, you're saying that the $75.00 I spent last month on those "Star Trek; The Motion Picture Officially Endorsed Kirk and Spock Ragdolls" was silly???

Pat

On Wed, 28 Apr 1999 16:52:22 -0400, Castor Troy wrote:

I don't think Amy is that bad. I'm not sure what she's done that marks her a superficial rich kid either.

One of the parts I liked most about Fishful of Dollars was when they first showed everyone in Fry's new 20th apartment, Amy has the telephone reciever over her eyes.

The part I liked most was Bender shooting noxious fluid at the trigger happy perfume salesperson.

...which opens up a small continuity gap, because in 1ACV04, Leela used a 20th-century style reciever when calling Zapp. Is Amy so out of touch with the antiquated workings of the ship that she didn't know what that thing was, either?

<Jerry [email] (Jerry Cornelius)> wrote in message news:7g8km2$s1v$[email]...

is

rich

her

Maybe. The ship was built by Farnsworth, who's pretty old. And I got the impression from the episode when they went to the moon that Amy hadn't really been too familiar with the ship. At least not enough to operate the crane effectively.

But, on the other hand, he had been drugged. And if you'll look at the pizzeria, it's obviously not complete. Look at the walls. Not only that, but he didn't really recognize his boss, except for the mustache. I say he was still a bit woozy after being slipped the mickey.