All the Presidents' Heads
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Season 6 episode Broadcast season 8 episode | |||||
All the Presidents' Heads | |||||
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No. | 111 | ||||
Production number | 6ACV23 | ||||
Written by | Josh Weinstein | ||||
Directed by | Stephen Sandoval | ||||
Title caption | APPLY VIEWING OIL NOW | ||||
First air date | 28 July, 2011 | ||||
Broadcast number | S08E07 | ||||
Title reference | All the President's Men | ||||
Opening cartoon | Zoich (2010) | ||||
Additional | |||||
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Season 6 | |||||
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"All the Presidents' Heads" is the one-hundred-and-eleventh episode of Futurama, the twenty-third of the sixth production season and the seventh of the eighth broadcast season. It aired 28 July, 2011 on Comedy Central. The crew members alter history when they travel back in time to the American Revolution.
Plot
Production
During May of 2011, Countdown to Futurama released three items of promotional material for the episode: concept art of the Planet Express headquarters with a Tudor architecture design on 27 May, concept art of Nibbler wearing an English attire on 28 May, and part of the storyboard showing Professor Farnsworth meet Benjamin Franklin and Paul Revere on 29 May.
To coincide with Sarah Palin mangling the story of Revere's ride, Comedy Central Insider released a video clip featuring the Planet Express crew in the 18th century with Benjamin Franklin and Revere.[1] This was the second video clip of the broadcast season not to be released by Countdown to Futurama, the first being from "Neutopia" and the third being from "Benderama".
Image gallery
Reception
In the original U.S. broadcast on 28 July, 2011, the episode scored a 0.8 share among adults aged 18-49 and 1.493 million total viewers, both up from the previous week.[2]
Additional Info
Trivia
- This episode is among the few Futurama media featuring its title.
- The opening cartoon is a short film featuring Zoich, an entrant in the mascot contest for the 2014 Winter Olympics. Zoich's design was influenced by the Hypnotoad from Futurama.
- The opening cartoon is the first in the show's history to originate from the modern era, not including the self-references to Futurama in Bender's Big Score and "The Devil's Hands Are Idle Playthings" and the clip from a Tracey Ullman Show Simpsons short in Fry and the Slurm Factory.
- "The Late Philip J. Fry" is the seventh episode of broadcast season 7 and involves time travel. "All the Presidents' Heads" is the seventh episode of broadcast season 8 and also involves time travel.
- In the British version of New New York, the Fourth Doctor from Doctor Who can be seen running into a blue police box resembling the TARDIS across the street from Planet Express.
- Coincidentally, in Doctor Who, the Doctor has visited a city called New New York in two episodes. However, if the city had been more accurately named, it would in fact be "New New New New New New New New New New New New New New New New York" as it was the fifteenth New York.
- This is the third episode of broadcast season 8 to contain the full opening sequence, cartoon and all.
- It is retconned that Teller's head's jar, seen in Into the Wild Green Yonder, does not use powder crystalline opal, the preservative commonly used for heads in jars.
- Each "Franklinator" has a badger on it except Fry's, which has a chipmunk, and Bender's, which has a shark.
- Bender is 40% scrap metal, revealing more of his supersized composition.
Allusions
- The title is a reference to the book (and the film) All the President's Men.
- FDR's head says, "We have nothing to fear but running out of beer." This is a reference to his inauguration speech, "The only thing we need to fear is fear itself."
- Scruffy, Hermes, Leela, and Bender chant, "Four more beers! Four more beers!" This is a parody of a presidential chant, "Four more years! Four more years!" after a President is about to finish his first term.
- Upon entering Boston in 1775, there is a sign saying the groundbreaking of the Big Dig is tomorrow. The Big Dig was the most expensive highway project in the United States and was plagued with rising costs, construction problems, and was completed 10 years behind schedule.
- After Fry removes the second lamp from the Old North Church, Farnsworth says he "really screwed the granny", referring to the incestuous deeds Fry performed in "Roswell that Ends Well", and how that too changed the course of history.
- British Hermes is wearing a Manhattan United shirt, a reference to Manchester United F.C..
- Some references are made in the third act to the television series Monty Python's Flying Circus.
- When Zoidsmythe is walking towards the screen to turn on the documentary, he is walking in the same manner as John Cleese from the famous "The Ministry of Silly Walks" sketch.
- The part of the documentary recalling Paul Revere's ride is done in the style of Terry Gilliam's animations on the series. Ironically the one American member of the cast.
- Bender's redesigned flag of the United States saying "Bite my fhiny metal aff" and Fry's misreading "Maffachufets" allude to the character long s (ſ) that was in common use at the time of the American Revolution.
Continuity
- In some ways, this is the second time Fry takes a job as a feeder at the Head Museum. The first time, he was his time duplicate Lars Fillmore a few years prior to Bender's Big Score. This is referenced when Dr. Cahill ignorantly calls him Lars when he shows up for work.
- The Continental Congress declared New Jersey to be the official joke state, another in the long line of jabs at the state on Futurama.
Characters
- John Adams
- Amy
- Sharon Anders' head
- Chester A. Arthur's head
- Chester Z. Arthur's head
- Cheryl Au's head
- Bender
- Montgomery Black's head
- George H. W. Bush's head
- George W. Bush's head
- Dr. Cahill
- Jimmy Carter's head
- Andrea Cha's head
- Oscar Chang's head
- Colin Chivey's head
- Grover Cleveland's head
- Bill Clinton's head
- Calvin Coolidge's head
- Doctor Who
- Dwight D. Eisenhower's head
- Tim Dylan's head
- Benjamin Franklin
- Debut: David Farnsworth
- Debut: Dr. Dean Farnsworth
- Debut: Philo T. Farnsworth
- Professor Farnsworth
- Millard Fillmore's head
- Gerald Ford's head
- Fry
- Warren Harding's head
- Alexander Hamilton
- Debut: John Hancock
- Rutherford B. Hayes' head
- Hermes
- Herbert Hoover's head
- Andrew Jackson's head
- Thomas Jefferson's head
- Lyndon Johnson's head
- Henry Kissinger's head
- Debut: Simon Lee's head
- Leela
- Abraham Lincoln's head
- Debut: Louisa
- James Madison's head
- Debut: Summer Maher's head
- Debut:Bob Meyers' head
- Kasey Miller's head
- Walter Mondale's head
- Nibbler
- Jeffrey Perez's head
- Franklin Pierece's head
- James K. Polk's head
- Amelia Pond's head
- Debut: The Queen of England, America and two parking spaces in Tokyo
- Ronald Reagan's head
- Debut: Paul Revere
- Franklin D. Roosevelt's head
- Theodore Roosevelt's head
- Scruffy
- Debut: Inara Serra's head
- Smitty
- William Howard Taft's head
- Debut: Adam Tocaver's head
- John Tyler's head
- URL
- Martin Van Buren's head
- Quincy Wagstaff's head
- Debut: Andy Warhol
- George Washington's head
- Dr. Zoidberg/Zoidsmythe
References
- ^ Has Sarah Palin Already Seen the New Season of Futurama?
- ^ Seidman, Robert (29 July 2011). "Thursday Cable Ratings: 'Suits' Tops Night in Demo + 'Burn Notice,' 'Project Runway,' 'Wilfred,' 'Futurama,' 'Louie' & More". TV by the Numbers. Retrieved on 30 July 2011.