Capsule Submission for GABF12: Future-Drama

Future-Drama (GABF12)

... apparently Bart and Lisa didn't see the Maggie sign? ... Bart wears the same tuxedo that Homer wore to his prom? ... Homer has only one hair strand on top of his head now? ... Lisa has braces at age 12? ... Marge still has photos of Homer up in the house? ... 80's music playing at a prom in the 2010's? ... Uter cheers for the USA at the prom? ... Sherri and Terri don't seem to care much about sharing Nelson? ... apparently Martin hasn't taken the homosexual injection? Or the robosexual one for that matter? ... SNPP has three cooling towers now? ... Vice-President Cletus is about to be deleted on Frink's astrology machine? ... apparently Bart has never visited Homer's house before? ... Professor Frink's skeleton hanging from a noose in his old house? ...

Futurama (TV series) - title

The Matrix (movie) - the scrolling green characters on Frink's astrology machine's monitor

TiVo - Frink's astrology machine has a similar interface, and makes identical noises

Krypto the Superdog (show) - Lenny has an identical super dog in one of the other futures

CatDog (TV show) - Costington's is selling a DogCat

The Incredible Hulk (movie/comic) - Milhouse's rampage downtown

Futurama-a-rama [AABF01] David "Watch Futurama" Cohen is credited [AABF05] Uter wears a Futurama shirt [BABF11] Bender seen in the FOX Telethon [BABF22] Fry appears in couch gag [DABF20] Bender is in Bart's TV-mitzvah [FABF04] Bender's name appears on a video tape label of a video that most likely shows him fighting Killhammed Aieee [FABF12] Matt Groening guest stars as Futurama's creator [FABF14] poster is seen in Lackluster Video [FABF18] Squeaky Voiced Teen attempts suicide over its cancellation [GABF12] referenced in title; Bender appears.

[7G08], [4F17], [FABF21] Burns steals Christmas [7G10] Smithers dates a woman [7F12] members of OFF attend a prom [8F06] an OFF male takes a job at the Kwik-E-Mart [8F16], [EABF02] Bart "dates" Edna [9F03] a future is envisioned in which Bart attends a prestigious college [9F06], [2F04], [DABF06], [FABF11] Bart in love [1F16] Milhouse's mom reassures him of his non-existent qualities [1F14], [FABF23] Ned harms Homer physically [2F05], [5F07], [DABF20], [GABF04] Lisa strangles Bart [2F06] Homer dreams of living under the sea [2F15], [BABF13] previous looks into the future [5F02] a character is genetically combined with an insect [DABF12] Moe gets a(n electronic device) [DABF14] the octuplets speak [DABF20] Lisa and Bart are in the same grade [EABF07], [FABF19] Lisa forsees a romantic future with Milhouse [EABF18] Homer wears a toupee [FABF21] C.H.U.M. appears with Martin [GABF04] an evolved form of Blinky appears [GABF07] Marge reveals her romantic chances in a clown

Frink's hair is miscolored in the first shot of Act II.

Last night's episode gives Sleeping With the Enemy a run for its money as the best episode of the season. What could have easily been a redundant retread of the first two future episodes still managed to add a fresh, cynical touch to the stereotypical view of the future, and the future's citizens. The impracticality and flawed nature of most of the technological advances is what kept the episode from veering into silliness, and really added to the episode instead of detracting from it. And the projected future appearances, occupations and fates of Springfield's citizens (Vice-President Cletus, Assistant Principal Kearney, Nelson, Sherri and Terri's whole pregnancy plot, Frink's suicide, straight Smithers and Apu having aged 8 times faster than he should have being the highlights) were all hilariously fitting. The actual plot was well executed, with Bart and Lisa being well characterized as teenagers, and Bart, the apparent antagonist, never coming off as a jerk or even mildly unlikeable. Amy Pohler gave a good performance as the seemingly perfect but ultimately shallow Jenda, providing the same role that Hugh Parkfield played in Lisa's Wedding, in the sense that she helped him come to the same realization about the importance of family. Milhouse and Lisa's relationship served as little more than a vehicle for jokes about Milhouse's new steroid infused body and inherent pathetic nature, but achieved in what it set out to do, making it enjoyable. While more screentime for Lisa would probably have helped to develop the conflict between the siblings, both in the present and the future, what was there was good enough. Homer and Marge's subplot suffered from not being tied in well enough with the related main plots, so that I never really was able to get into it all that much, but ultimately it worked out, with both being endearingly characterized. All in all, this episode was very good, and upon repeated viewings will likely become an all-time favorite, with a 9.5/10. (A)

Last night's episode gives Sleeping With the Enemy a run for its money as the best episode of the season. What could have easily been a stale retread ended up having a fresh, cynical touch to the stereotypical view of the future, which kept the episode from veering into silliness, and the projected future appearances, occupations and fates of Springfield's were all hilariously fitting. The actual plot was well executed, with Bart and Lisa being well characterized as teenagers. Milhouse and Lisa's relationship served as little more than a vehicle for jokes about Milhouse, but achieved in what it set out to do, making it enjoyable. Homer and Marge's subplot suffered from not being tied in well enough with the related main plots, but ultimately it worked out, with both being endearingly characterized. All in all, this episode was very good, and upon repeated viewings will likely become an all-time favorite, with a 9.5/10. (A)

Otto's intoxicated limo driving is eerily similar to an incident that occurred last week in Winter Springs, Florida. Ten students on their way to a high school prom found their vehicle running through stoplights, cutting off other cars and swerving into the wrong side of the road. After getting the driver to pull over and confiscating the keys, the kids soon discovered that the driver was in fact drunk, and, after police questioning, admitted to having consumed wine and half of a bottle of citrus-flavored vodka.

The Blinky/whale hybrid also mirrors a current event from this week: the birth of the first wholphin in captivity, at Sea Life Park, Hawaii. What is a wholphin, you ask? Well, the part-whale, part-dolphin creature was sired by an Atlantic bottlenose dolphin, and given birth to by a false killer whale/Atlantic bottlenose mix.

Announcer: Fox Sunday, the Simpsons discover a time machine and travel to the year 2013... (Teenage Bart and Older Homer are seen sitting in a decompression chamber. Cut to the garbage ship landing on Evergreen Terrace. Cut to Lisa and Bart standin with Professor Frink in front of the astrology machine.) Announcer: ...for a horrifying look into the future. (Scenes are quickly shown of an x-ray image of Bart and Lisa with the words "LETHAL RADIATION" superimposed, Bart in Homer's prom suit, and Homer in the house, pregnant Sherri and Terri at the prom, Ralph looking terrified by a punch bowl, Milhouse and Lisa dancing together at the prom, Martin dancing with C.H.U.M., Homer banging on the window of his aquatic abode, Patty with a fluffy tail, Maritians at a bar called "Mars Bar", Milhouse fighting robotic police in front of Costington's, Krusty in OFF's house, Bart buffing the Kwik-E-Mart floor as the octuplets hover overhead, aided by jetpacks, Bart carrying groceries and finding Mr. Burns tied and gagged, Future Lisa strangling Bart, while present day Lisa does the same, Lisa with a graduation cap, complete with hovering mortarboard, Sherri and Terri each with a pair of Nelson's twins, Milhouse looking menacingly at Bart and Lisa leaving Contraception Overlook in a hover car, Bart's reflection in Burns' diamon, Snake with a raygun/cellphone, Homer and Marge kissing as jellyfish float outside his bachelor pad, and Ralph's "Kick"-induced rainbow monster hallucinations. Cut to OFF's kitchen, where Marge, Krusty, Bart and Lisa stand.) Krusty: Krusty the Clown is dating your mom! Bart and Lisa: Aaaaaaah! Announcer: The future of The Simpsons! All-new at 8/7c, Fox Sunday. (Homer and Bart drive a hover car through a quantum tunnel.)

The hover car, to me, was like a strange merging of the DeLorean and hoverboard from Back to the Future.

I'd say it owes about 90% of it's design to the Studebaker Hawks & GT Hawks of 1956-1964, including the fins and wide fenders rather hastily hung on a smaller basic vehicle. Some of them had a grossly overweight Packard engine & transmission stuffed in, these were wickedly fast but handled very poorly. The Hover car's bobbing and weaving is only a small exaggeration. The grille is a dead ringer for the '64, the headlights with chrome rings a bit earlier, as are the tall tailfins. Is a Studebaker what they had in mind? I'd guess they were probably aiming at reminding us of The Car Built for Homer as well. It will be neat if it shows up in the next Hit & Run game....

And wasn't that whole thing of fins on the real cars back then to make the cars look "futuristic"? This matches the episode, where by merely going eight years in the future everything has changed to what we were told the future would be decades ago.

Michael

GT

hastily

overweight

but

tailfins.

be

it might just be the nerd in me, but those "fins" on the flying cars looked a whole lot like star trek warp nacelles.

I thought the car was a convertible, and I thought the point of the DeLorean was that it had those doors that hinged at the top. (Unless I don't know what a DeLorean is).

I think we were promised that sort of car decades ago. Maybe not a hover car, but at the very least a flying car. It's the sort of thing that was at the Futurama exhibit in New York City in 1964,

Michael

On 19 Apr 2005 04:46:22 GMT, [email] (Michael Black) wrote:

There just was a 20/20 on last sunday (two days ago) where they show this guy building this prototype flying cars.

I don't have the link to the story, I'm sure you can find it on abcnews.go.com or something.

I am intrigued by your ideas and would like to subscribe to your newsletter.

There's a History+/or Discovery/Wings/Military channel special on hydroplanes where they show some old hover car prototypes from the '30's onward. Too much noise and obviously dangerous, as every bit of rock and debris on the road is shot off to the side at 150 MPH, just like it was hit by a lawn mower.... That's one reason why helicopters are not in every back yard - every time you fired it up, you'd put 1000 holes in your (and your neighbors') siding & sandblast the paint off of everyone's cars.

Neutrodyne wrote:

Cool!

She has them at age 8, too, but they're almost invisible. Will Burns cancel the dental plan again in four years?

How often does an exchange student stay in the country for eight years? Maybe Uter has become an American citizen.

Nathan

Steve Brown wrote:

Probably thought he was George Bush for a minute there.