I Dated a Robot
Encyclopedia
"I Dated a Robot" is the fifteenth episode in season three of Futurama
. It originally aired on May 13, 2001.
, Fry decides to do all the things he always wanted to do and the Planet Express crew obliges. After demolishing a planet, visiting the edge of the universe, and riding a dinosaur
, one of his few remaining fantasies is to date a celebrity. Fry and Leela venture into the Internet to visit nappster.com
and download a celebrity's personality. Fry downloads the personality of Lucy Liu
into a blank robot, which begins projecting an image of her.
Fry and the Lucy Liu robot begin dating, aided by her being programmed to like Fry. The other Planet Express employees, concerned about his relationship, show him the standard middle-school film (similar to Boys Beware
) that predicts the destruction of civilization if humans date robots. Unfortunately, Fry ignores the movie and keeps making out with his Lucy Liubot.
Bender, offended by the concept of competing with humans for the attention of female robots, sets off with Leela and Zoidberg to shut down Nappster. In the Nappster building a broken sign eventually reveals that the company is actually "Kidnappster". Breaking into the back room Bender discovers that Nappster has been kidnapping the heads of celebrities and making illegal copies of them. Leela grabs Lucy Liu's head and the four take off. The Nappster CFO
loads a backup disk of Lucy Liu, and creates a horde of Lucy Liu robots ordered to kill (by having their settings changed from "competent lawyer
" to "erotic assassin
").
Leela and her group, running from the robot horde, duck into a movie theater, where Fry is seeing a movie with his Lucy Liu robot. Everyone ducks into the projection room. Zoidberg discovers a five ton bag of popping corn, and sends it pouring onto the robots on the theater floor. The robots eat their way out from under the corn and start shooting popcorn kernels from their mouths at the room. Fry's Liu-bot points the projector at the other robots, and the heat causes the popcorn to pop, bursting the robots. At the request of the real Lucy Liu, Fry blanks his robot. A hypocritical Bender begins dating & kissing Lucy Liu's head much to Fry's anger.
Futurama
Futurama is an American animated science fiction sitcom created by Matt Groening and developed by Groening and David X. Cohen for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series follows the adventures of a late 20th-century New York City pizza delivery boy, Philip J...
. It originally aired on May 13, 2001.
Plot
After the crew sees an episode of The Scary DoorThe Twilight Zone
The Twilight Zone is an American television anthology series created by Rod Serling. Each episode is a mixture of self-contained drama, psychological thriller, fantasy, science fiction, suspense, or horror, often concluding with a macabre or unexpected twist...
, Fry decides to do all the things he always wanted to do and the Planet Express crew obliges. After demolishing a planet, visiting the edge of the universe, and riding a dinosaur
Dinosaur
Dinosaurs are a diverse group of animals of the clade and superorder Dinosauria. They were the dominant terrestrial vertebrates for over 160 million years, from the late Triassic period until the end of the Cretaceous , when the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event led to the extinction of...
, one of his few remaining fantasies is to date a celebrity. Fry and Leela venture into the Internet to visit nappster.com
Napster
Napster is an online music store and a Best Buy company. It was originally founded as a pioneering peer-to-peer file sharing Internet service that emphasized sharing audio files that were typically digitally encoded music as MP3 format files...
and download a celebrity's personality. Fry downloads the personality of Lucy Liu
Lucy Liu
Lucy Alexis Liu is an American actress and film producer. She became known for playing the role of the vicious and ill-mannered Ling Woo in the television series Ally McBeal , and has also appeared in several Hollywood films including Charlie's Angels, Chicago, Kill Bill, and Kung Fu Panda.-Early...
into a blank robot, which begins projecting an image of her.
Fry and the Lucy Liu robot begin dating, aided by her being programmed to like Fry. The other Planet Express employees, concerned about his relationship, show him the standard middle-school film (similar to Boys Beware
Boys Beware
Boys Beware is a drama short film released through Sid Davis Productions. It deals with a perceived danger to young boys: that of predatory homosexuals...
) that predicts the destruction of civilization if humans date robots. Unfortunately, Fry ignores the movie and keeps making out with his Lucy Liubot.
Bender, offended by the concept of competing with humans for the attention of female robots, sets off with Leela and Zoidberg to shut down Nappster. In the Nappster building a broken sign eventually reveals that the company is actually "Kidnappster". Breaking into the back room Bender discovers that Nappster has been kidnapping the heads of celebrities and making illegal copies of them. Leela grabs Lucy Liu's head and the four take off. The Nappster CFO
Chief financial officer
The chief financial officer or Chief financial and operating officer is a corporate officer primarily responsible for managing the financial risks of the corporation. This officer is also responsible for financial planning and record-keeping, as well as financial reporting to higher management...
loads a backup disk of Lucy Liu, and creates a horde of Lucy Liu robots ordered to kill (by having their settings changed from "competent lawyer
Ling Woo
Ling Woo is a fictional character in the US comedy-drama Ally McBeal, portrayed by American actress Lucy Liu. Ling was a cold and ferocious Chinese American lawyer who spoke Mandarin and was knowledgeable in the art of sexual pleasure unknown to the Western world...
" to "erotic assassin
Alex Munday
Alexandra "Alex" Munday is a fictional private investigator portrayed by Lucy Liu in the films Charlie's Angels and Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle.-Background:...
").
Leela and her group, running from the robot horde, duck into a movie theater, where Fry is seeing a movie with his Lucy Liu robot. Everyone ducks into the projection room. Zoidberg discovers a five ton bag of popping corn, and sends it pouring onto the robots on the theater floor. The robots eat their way out from under the corn and start shooting popcorn kernels from their mouths at the room. Fry's Liu-bot points the projector at the other robots, and the heat causes the popcorn to pop, bursting the robots. At the request of the real Lucy Liu, Fry blanks his robot. A hypocritical Bender begins dating & kissing Lucy Liu's head much to Fry's anger.
Production
The episode was originally entitled "J-Lo Dolly", but the title was dropped after the initial scripting stage.Broadcast and reception
In its initial airing, the episode received a Nielsen rating of 3.8/8, placing it 76th among primetime shows for the week of May 7-13, 2001.External links
- I Dated a Robot at The Infosphere.