Where the Buggalo Roam
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| Where the Buggalo Roam | |||||
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| No. | 42 | ||||
| Production number | 3ACV10 | ||||
| Written by | J. Stewart Burns | ||||
| Directed by | Pat Shinagawa | ||||
| Title caption | Krafted with luv by monsters | ||||
| First air date | 3 March, 2002 | ||||
| Broadcast number | S04E06 | ||||
| Title reference | A lyric in the song Home on the Range | ||||
| Opening cartoon | "The Emerald Isle" | ||||
| Additional | |||||
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| Season 3 | |||||
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"Where the Buggalo Roam" is the forty-second episode of Futurama, the tenth of the third production season and the sixth of the fourth broadcast season. It aired on 3 March, 2002, on Fox. On Mars, Leo and Inez Wong's buggalo herd is stolen by Native Martians, prompting Kif to lead a group to retrieve them.
The Story
Act I: "I broke your television!"
The PE crew goes to Mars (Mightiest of Planets) to visit Amy's parents at the Wong Ranch for Mars Day. The Wongs invite the crew in, and Zoidberg makes himself at home. The crew goes on a tour of the ranch, and Leo Wong reveals that the Wongs own the entire western hemisphere. Amy is reunited with Betsy, her pet Buggalo. Betsy is to be eaten at Amy's wedding. The Nimbus orbits Mars, and Zapp helps Kif prepare for meeting the Wongs. At the Mars Day celebration, Bender chats with the DJ, and Leo barbecues various animal parts. Inez Wong explains that Mars Day commemorates the day that Sir Reginald Wong bought Mars from the Martians for the price of one bead. Amy introduces Kif to R.J., who appears to be her ex-boyfriend. R.J. forces Kif to have a cigarette, and Kif starts coughing before it's even lit. Kif laments his difficulty impressing Amy's parents.
Act II: "What's that weird sound?"
After Amy tries to console Kif, saying her parents didn't see him puke, a dust storm rages, accompanied by a strange sound, so everyone heads inside. After the storm finishes, and Leo ensures nobody wants a lawsuit, they notice that the Buggalo all disappeared in the storm. Zoidberg has decided the Wongs are his parents, much to their disgust. Kif takes the responsibility of saving the Buggalo, though Leo and Inez are not comforted.
Act III: "My turn to tell a ghost story!"
Kif plans to take the remaining Buggalo (Betsy) on a cattle drive to find the rustlers. The Professor, noting the likelihood of death, sends Fry, Leela and Bender along. That night they camp on Olympus Mons. The group attempts to scare each other with ghost stories, Fry seems to know them all and tells the scariest. Amy appears so that she can be with Kif. Kif and Amy find the Buggalo in the crater of the volcano and Kif uses explosives to get them out. Another sandstorm begins, sucking everyone up into the vortex. The Native Martians reveal themselves on their flying Buggalo, and tell of their plan to ruin the Wong family by stealing the Buggalo. On learning that Amy is a Wong, they decide to kidnap her instead.
Act IV: "Take me to your leader!"
Everyone else returns with the Buggalo. The Wongs call in Zapp Brannigan to rescue Amy. The Professor sends his crew along again. They make their way to the great stone face of Mars, the only entrance to the Martian Reservation on that side of the planet (meaning they cannot enter through the great stone ass of Mars), and are followed by Betsy. Brannigan performs his usual poor attempts at negotiation and the Martians call another sandstorm to destroy the planet that they can't get back, then pull Amy into the storm. Kif flys Betsy to save her, which calms the Martians, who request Kif smoke the peace pipe with them.
Act V: "Oh, monkey trumpets!"
Kif actually manages to smoke without gagging, but then is patted on the back and coughs up smoke. The Martians prepare to kill Kif with the bead they traded the planet for and are surprised to learn that it is a gigantic diamond, worth a fortune. They abandon the planet, because it's a dump, and head off to find a new planet. The Wongs are told what happened, but think it couldn't have been Kif and praise Zapp instead. Leo and Inez finally kick Zoidberg, the son they neither had nor wanted, out of the building. Kif learns that it is a good thing Amy's parents don't like him, Amy saying that "If they liked you, then I woudn't. Do you know anything about girls?".
Additional Info
Trivia
- Leo Wong mentions that the Wongs own 17.9 billion acres, which is an accurate calculation of half the surface area of Mars.
- The leaf on Inez Wong's hat is supposedly a marijuana leaf.
- This refers back to Leela's quote in "Mars University": "They planted traditional college foliage; ivy, trees, hemp. Soon the whole planet was terraformed."
- Olympus Mons is indeed the tallest volcano in the solar system.
- This is the only episode or comic of Futurama to not feature New New York until "Naturama" and "Saturday Morning Fun Pit".
- This is also the only episode to not feature Earth (except in the opening sequence).
- The "Barbecue's Over" sound the wind makes when the Martians attack is actually Billy West and John DiMaggio doing Tuvan throat singing.
Allusions
- The arrows used by the Martians look like the lightsaber blades from Star Wars and produce similar sound effects.
- The face on Mars is a reference to the actual perceived "Face on Mars".
- The side shot of the group going into the Martian reservation might be a reference to when, in the TV series Scooby-Doo, the gang is solving a mystery.
- The Martian crying when Zapp throws a Slurm can is a reference to the famous Keep America Beautiful's "Crying Indian" commercial from 1971 which raised awareness about pollution (and has similarly been parodied on the season-9 Simpsons episode "Trash of the Titans").
- The song Bender sings while they set out to Olympus Mons is to the tune of the theme song of Bonanza, a TV-western that aired from 1959 to 1973.
- The name of the newspaper Amy holds in her kidnapping photo is The Martian Chronicle, referring to "The Martian Chronicles," by Ray Bradbury – a science-fiction short-story collection about the colonization of Mars by humans and the displacement of the native Martians.
- When Zapp introduces himself, he says he is the "man with no name". This is a reference to the Man with No Name from the Dollars Trilogy.
Continuity
- "Brannigan, Begin Again" (2ACV02)
- Bender's banjo makes its second appearance.
- "A Tale of Two Santas" (3ACV03)
- Dr. Zoidberg takes a bath in a liquid other than water (in "A Tale of Two Santas," it was homemade eggnog that went sour. In this episode, it was Dom Perignon) at an inappropriate time.
Quotes
Martian Chief: With cash like this, who's going to argue? Nobody, that's who.
Leo: Oh no! Martians kidnap Amy! I know it them, cause they no use good gramma.
Zapp: I didn't realize you were bringing your girlfriend Lieutenant. *snickers*
Kif: *sigh* She won't leave me alone.
Zapp: Did I say "girlfriend"? She sounds more like a wife!
[A tumble weed rolls past.]
Kif: The rustlers must have seen me coming and run off, scared.
Amy: Oh, Kif! You're so brave!
Kif: [nervous] Sh! They'll hear us!
Leela: Wow, look at that: Olympus Mons, the tallest volcano in the solar system.
Fry: Where?
Leela: Right in front of you.
Fry: Oh. Oh!
Goofs
- Amy's parents seem to have completely forgotten that they were the ones who introduced Amy to Kif in the first place.
- They may have only introduced him because they thought he was Captain, they may have found out somehow that Kif wasn't really Captain.
- When Amy does marry Kif in The Beast with a Billion Backs, Betsy isn't eaten.
- Although Amy and Kif don't actually have a wedding, they have a Fonfon rubok, which would explain why Betsy isn't eaten.
- While Olympus Mons is the tallest volcano in the Solar System, it actually has very slight slope and doesn't look like a normal Earth mountain if one is on or close to it. Climbing Olympus Mons would be most similar to walking up on a very slightly inclined plane. Furthermore, Olympus Mons is roughly spherical in footprint, but some 350 miles (600 km) in diameter. Even if the "climb" would be essentially a flat trail, it would take over a week for even a fit hiker (disregarding the unbreatheable Martian atmosphere and low gravity of some 0.4 g, as well as the thick ground cover of fine dust known to pervade this region of Mars, all of which would likely make such a trek rather difficult).
- The mountain does have a fairly steep escarpment around part of the edge of the volcanic shield; this is in places up to 5 miles (8 km) high. This feature would be recognizable as a mountain flank, and is by itself about as tall as the tallest mountains on Earth.
- This issue was addressed in the episode as an inside joke.
Characters
- Amy
- Bender
- Debut: Betsy
- Fry
- Hermes
- Inez
- Debut: Joe
- Kif
- Leela
- Leo
- Debut: Mixmaster Festus
- Professor Farnsworth
- Debut: R.J.
- Debut: Singing Wind
- Zapp Brannigan
- Zoidberg
Episode Credits
- Writer
- Director
- Voice Actors
- DVD Commentary