Roswell That Ends Well
Encyclopedia
"Roswell That Ends Well" is the nineteenth episode of the third production season of the TV show Futurama
. This episode, which won an Emmy Award
, originally aired on December 9, 2001 as the season premiere of broadcast season four. It was written by J. Stewart Burns
and directed by Rich Moore
. The episode centers around an accidental time travel event that results in the main characters participating in the Roswell UFO Incident
in 1947.
from point-blank range, Fry
puts a non-microwaveable metal "Iffy Pop
" container into the ship's microwave
. This causes a reaction between the microwave radiation and the "graviton
s and graviolis" from the supernova that sends the ship to 1947. On their return to Earth, the crew finds a complete lack of a Global Positioning System
, causing them to crash-land
in Roswell, New Mexico
.
Refusing to wear a seatbelt like the rest of the crew, Bender is catapulted out of the front of the ship upon crash-landing and smashed to pieces. The crew and Bender's disembodied head go to seek out a way to return, leaving Zoidberg behind to pick up the pieces. However Zoidberg is captured by the U.S. military and taken to Roswell Air Base for experimentation. Assuming the pieces are the remnants of a flying saucer, the military "reconstructs" Bender's body as such.
Meanwhile, the microwave needed to return to the future has been destroyed and replacements have not been invented yet. A microwave
antenna from the army base would work, but Professor Farnsworth
warns against using it; they must preserve causality
or risk changing history and doing damage to the future. While disguised as a soldier, Fry visits his grandfather, Enos, who is stationed at the base and engaged to Fry's grandmother. Near-accidents cause Fry to become obsessed with protecting Enos from possible harm as the grandfather paradox
means that Fry will cease to exist if Enos is killed. His own efforts to help Enos actually cause more danger to him. Desperate to keep Enos safe from possible harm, Fry instead brings about his death by leaving him in a house located in the middle of a nuclear weapon
testing range.
Despite Enos being killed, Fry still exists. He encounters and consoles his would-be grandmother Mildred. She propositions him, who deduces that since he is alive, Mildred must not have been his grandmother, and the two end up having sex. When the rest of the group finds him, Farnsworth insists that Mildred is indeed Fry's grandmother. Fry realizes that he is now his own grandfather and panics. Farnsworth gives up on noninterference as they are running out of time to get back to the future; Fry has already severely changed history, so what they do cannot matter.
The crew storms Roswell Air Base and steals the microwave dish. Fry and Leela rescue Zoidberg from an alien autopsy
while the Professor grabs Bender's body. As the crew leaves Earth's atmosphere, Bender's head accidentally falls off the ship and they are forced to leave it behind in 1947. Back in the 31st century, Fry laments the loss of Bender, until he realizes that his head must still be where it landed in New Mexico. The crew returns to Roswell's ruins with a metal detector
where they find Bender's head, none the worse for wear and saying he had been enjoying the centuries, and reattach it to his still-mangled, hovering, "UFO
" body.
". As the idea developed they eventually had so much material for it that they broke it out as a separate episode. The reason the concept was originally under consideration for the "What if..." scenario was that when Groening and Cohen originally created Futurama they decided there would not be any time travel; however they changed their mind and decided to go forward with the idea. The writers did not want to create a situation that would leave fans wondering why the Planet Express crew could not simply travel through time on a regular basis. For this purpose they chose to have it occur during a supernova as that was deemed to be a suitably rare occurrence. Futurama has returned to the theme of time travel twice since; in Futurama: Bender's Big Score
, although the cause of time travel is different, and in The Late Philip J. Fry
, which involves a time machine that can only travel forwards in time - to specifically avoid creating a paradox.
In this episode director Rich Moore used screen position and character movement to mimic the time travel aspects of the plot. In the planning stages it was decided that actions that played to screen left would represent events from the past or a setback to the plot. Likewise, screen right indicated progress or moving past their problems.
stories, most notably the Back to the Future and Terminator
movies. The episode also shares much in common with the episode "Little Green Men" of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
. The plot device of having Bender's head being lost for many years on Earth while the rest of the crew returns to their own time also alludes to "Time's Arrow", a Star Trek: The Next Generation
episode, and to the robot Marvin from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
series, who is left waiting for his masters for millions of years until the end of the Universe. Additionally, the episode may be alluding to an event in The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, where Zaphod Beeblebrox is discovered to be his own grandfather due to an accident with a time machine and a contraceptive.
Much of Enos' character is taken from The Andy Griffith Show’s
Gomer Pyle
, such as his accent and use of Pyle’s trademark “Gol-ly!”. Enos's sexuality is likely a reference to long standing rumors surrounding Jim Nabors
' sexuality.
At one point, the song "I'm My Own Grandpa
" is referenced, when Professor Farnsworth says "a lesson in not changing history from Mr. I'm-my-own-grandpa".
in the Outstanding Animated Program (Programming Less Than One Hour)
category in 2002, marking Futuramas first win in this category. Rich Moore also won an Annie Award
for "Directing in an Animated Television Production" in 2002 and in 2006 IGN
ranked the episode as the sixth best Futurama episode. In 2001 executive producer David X. Cohen noted that this was one of his favorite episodes of the series thus far. Sci Fi Weekly gave the episode an "A" grade and noted that it was "a half hour of pure entertainment". This episode is one of four featured in the Monster Robot Maniac Fun Collection, marking it as one of Matt Groening's favorite episodes from the series. Claudia Katz
, producer of Futurama, has also stated that this is one of her three favorite episodes of the series. Although the episode was well received by critics, it continued to do poorly in its time slot. The original airing was in 83rd place for the week with a 3.1 rating/5 share.
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...
. This episode, which won an Emmy Award
Emmy Award
An Emmy Award, often referred to simply as the Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards .A majority of Emmys are presented in various...
, originally aired on December 9, 2001 as the season premiere of broadcast season four. It was written by J. Stewart Burns
J. Stewart Burns
J. Stewart Burns is a television writer and producer most notable for his work on Unhappily Ever After, The Simpsons and Futurama....
and directed by Rich Moore
Rich Moore
Rich Moore is an American animation director and a business partner in Rough Draft Studios, Inc., where he serves as Sr. Vice President of creative affairs. He is one of a handful of artists who in the early 90s redefined prime time television animation with his work on The Simpsons...
. The episode centers around an accidental time travel event that results in the main characters participating in the Roswell UFO Incident
Roswell UFO incident
The Roswell UFO Incident was the recovery of an object that crashed in the general vicinity of Roswell, New Mexico, in June or July 1947, allegedly an extra-terrestrial spacecraft and its alien occupants. Since the late 1970s the incident has been the subject of intense controversy and of...
in 1947.
Plot
As the crew watches a supernovaSupernova
A supernova is a stellar explosion that is more energetic than a nova. It is pronounced with the plural supernovae or supernovas. Supernovae are extremely luminous and cause a burst of radiation that often briefly outshines an entire galaxy, before fading from view over several weeks or months...
from point-blank range, Fry
Philip J. Fry
Philip J. Fry, known simply as Fry, is a fictional character, the main protagonist of the animated science fiction sitcom Futurama. He is voiced by Billy West using a version of his own voice as he sounded when he was 25.-Character overview:...
puts a non-microwaveable metal "Iffy Pop
Jiffy Pop
Jiffy Pop is a popcorn brand of ConAgra Foods. The product combines unpopped popcorn kernels and oil with an aluminum pan and folded aluminum foil lid. As the pan is heated, the popping corn causes the foil to unfold and puff up. Jiffy in the name references the short cooking...
" container into the ship's microwave
Microwave oven
A microwave oven is a kitchen appliance that heats food by dielectric heating, using microwave radiation to heat polarized molecules within the food...
. This causes a reaction between the microwave radiation and the "graviton
Graviton
In physics, the graviton is a hypothetical elementary particle that mediates the force of gravitation in the framework of quantum field theory. If it exists, the graviton must be massless and must have a spin of 2...
s and graviolis" from the supernova that sends the ship to 1947. On their return to Earth, the crew finds a complete lack of a Global Positioning System
Global Positioning System
The Global Positioning System is a space-based global navigation satellite system that provides location and time information in all weather, anywhere on or near the Earth, where there is an unobstructed line of sight to four or more GPS satellites...
, causing them to crash-land
Crash Landing
"Crash Landing" is the only single by Route 1. The single features ex-Atomic Kitten member, Jenny Frost. "Crash Landing" is commonly, yet mistakenly, referred to as a single by Jenny Frost featuring Route 1 because the CD cover features only her with her name in a larger font.-Charts:...
in Roswell, New Mexico
Roswell, New Mexico
Roswell is a city in and the county seat of Chaves County in the southeastern quarter of the state of New Mexico, United States. The population was 48,366 at the 2010 census. It is a center for irrigation farming, dairying, ranching, manufacturing, distribution, and petroleum production. It is also...
.
Refusing to wear a seatbelt like the rest of the crew, Bender is catapulted out of the front of the ship upon crash-landing and smashed to pieces. The crew and Bender's disembodied head go to seek out a way to return, leaving Zoidberg behind to pick up the pieces. However Zoidberg is captured by the U.S. military and taken to Roswell Air Base for experimentation. Assuming the pieces are the remnants of a flying saucer, the military "reconstructs" Bender's body as such.
Meanwhile, the microwave needed to return to the future has been destroyed and replacements have not been invented yet. A microwave
Microwave
Microwaves, a subset of radio waves, have wavelengths ranging from as long as one meter to as short as one millimeter, or equivalently, with frequencies between 300 MHz and 300 GHz. This broad definition includes both UHF and EHF , and various sources use different boundaries...
antenna from the army base would work, but Professor Farnsworth
Hubert J. Farnsworth
Professor Hubert J. Farnsworth, or simply The Professor, is a fictional character in the American animated television series Futurama. He is voiced by Billy West using a combination of impressions of Burgess Meredith and Frank Morgan. Farnsworth is the proprietor of the Planet Express delivery...
warns against using it; they must preserve causality
Causality
Causality is the relationship between an event and a second event , where the second event is understood as a consequence of the first....
or risk changing history and doing damage to the future. While disguised as a soldier, Fry visits his grandfather, Enos, who is stationed at the base and engaged to Fry's grandmother. Near-accidents cause Fry to become obsessed with protecting Enos from possible harm as the grandfather paradox
Grandfather paradox
The grandfather paradox is a proposed paradox of time travel first described by the science fiction writer René Barjavel in his 1943 book Le Voyageur Imprudent . The paradox is this: suppose a man traveled back in time and killed his biological grandfather before the latter met the traveler's...
means that Fry will cease to exist if Enos is killed. His own efforts to help Enos actually cause more danger to him. Desperate to keep Enos safe from possible harm, Fry instead brings about his death by leaving him in a house located in the middle of a nuclear weapon
Nuclear weapon
A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission or a combination of fission and fusion. Both reactions release vast quantities of energy from relatively small amounts of matter. The first fission bomb test released the same amount...
testing range.
Despite Enos being killed, Fry still exists. He encounters and consoles his would-be grandmother Mildred. She propositions him, who deduces that since he is alive, Mildred must not have been his grandmother, and the two end up having sex. When the rest of the group finds him, Farnsworth insists that Mildred is indeed Fry's grandmother. Fry realizes that he is now his own grandfather and panics. Farnsworth gives up on noninterference as they are running out of time to get back to the future; Fry has already severely changed history, so what they do cannot matter.
The crew storms Roswell Air Base and steals the microwave dish. Fry and Leela rescue Zoidberg from an alien autopsy
Alien autopsy
An alien autopsy refers to a medical examination and dissection of the dead body of an extraterrestrial being. Such a procedure would more accurately be called an "alien necropsy", since an "autopsy" is, by definition, performed on a subject who is the same species as the examiner...
while the Professor grabs Bender's body. As the crew leaves Earth's atmosphere, Bender's head accidentally falls off the ship and they are forced to leave it behind in 1947. Back in the 31st century, Fry laments the loss of Bender, until he realizes that his head must still be where it landed in New Mexico. The crew returns to Roswell's ruins with a metal detector
Metal detector
A metal detector is a device which responds to metal that may not be readily apparent.The simplest form of a metal detector consists of an oscillator producing an alternating current that passes through a coil producing an alternating magnetic field...
where they find Bender's head, none the worse for wear and saying he had been enjoying the centuries, and reattach it to his still-mangled, hovering, "UFO
Unidentified flying object
A term originally coined by the military, an unidentified flying object is an unusual apparent anomaly in the sky that is not readily identifiable to the observer as any known object...
" body.
Production
The writing team came up with the idea for this episode when they were planning the three plot lines for "Anthology of Interest IIAnthology of Interest II
"Anthology of Interest II" is episode eighteen of Futuramas third season. It originally aired in North America on January 6, 2002. This episode, as well as the earlier "Anthology of Interest I", serves to showcase three "imaginary" stories.-Plot:...
". As the idea developed they eventually had so much material for it that they broke it out as a separate episode. The reason the concept was originally under consideration for the "What if..." scenario was that when Groening and Cohen originally created Futurama they decided there would not be any time travel; however they changed their mind and decided to go forward with the idea. The writers did not want to create a situation that would leave fans wondering why the Planet Express crew could not simply travel through time on a regular basis. For this purpose they chose to have it occur during a supernova as that was deemed to be a suitably rare occurrence. Futurama has returned to the theme of time travel twice since; in Futurama: Bender's Big Score
Futurama: Bender's Big Score
Futurama: Bender's Big Score is an Annie Award-winning direct-to-video film based on the animated series Futurama. It was released in the United States on November 27, 2007. Bender's Big Score, along with the three follow-up films, comprise season five of Futurama, with each film being separated...
, although the cause of time travel is different, and in The Late Philip J. Fry
The Late Philip J. Fry
"The Late Philip J. Fry" is the seventh episode of the sixth season of the animated series Futurama. It originally aired on Comedy Central on July 29, 2010. In the episode, Fry attempts to make it on time to a birthday dinner date for Leela. He is sidetracked by Professor Farnsworth and Bender,...
, which involves a time machine that can only travel forwards in time - to specifically avoid creating a paradox.
In this episode director Rich Moore used screen position and character movement to mimic the time travel aspects of the plot. In the planning stages it was decided that actions that played to screen left would represent events from the past or a setback to the plot. Likewise, screen right indicated progress or moving past their problems.
Cultural references
TV critic Rob Owen perceived the episode to have touched upon many of the plot devices and themes commonly seen in time travelTime travel
Time travel is the concept of moving between different points in time in a manner analogous to moving between different points in space. Time travel could hypothetically involve moving backward in time to a moment earlier than the starting point, or forward to the future of that point without the...
stories, most notably the Back to the Future and Terminator
Terminator (franchise)
The Terminator series is a science fiction franchise encompassing a series of films and other media concerning battles between Skynet's artificially intelligent machine network, and John Connor's Resistance forces and the rest of the human race....
movies. The episode also shares much in common with the episode "Little Green Men" of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine is a science fiction television series set in the Star Trek universe...
. The plot device of having Bender's head being lost for many years on Earth while the rest of the crew returns to their own time also alludes to "Time's Arrow", a Star Trek: The Next Generation
Star Trek: The Next Generation
Star Trek: The Next Generation is an American science fiction television series created by Gene Roddenberry as part of the Star Trek franchise. Roddenberry, Rick Berman, and Michael Piller served as executive producers at different times throughout the production...
episode, and to the robot Marvin from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is a science fiction comedy series created by Douglas Adams. Originally a radio comedy broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1978, it was later adapted to other formats, and over several years it gradually became an international multi-media phenomenon...
series, who is left waiting for his masters for millions of years until the end of the Universe. Additionally, the episode may be alluding to an event in The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, where Zaphod Beeblebrox is discovered to be his own grandfather due to an accident with a time machine and a contraceptive.
Much of Enos' character is taken from The Andy Griffith Show’s
The Andy Griffith Show
The Andy Griffith Show is an American sitcom first televised by CBS between October 3, 1960, and April 1, 1968. Andy Griffith portrays a widowed sheriff in the fictional small community of Mayberry, North Carolina...
Gomer Pyle
Gomer Pyle
Gomer Pyle is a bubbly, gentle, rural auto mechanic character played by American singer/ television actor Jim Nabors. Gomer Pyle became a character on the TV sitcom The Andy Griffith Show, when actor Howard McNear, who played Floyd the barber, suffered a stroke and took a respite from acting. Jim...
, such as his accent and use of Pyle’s trademark “Gol-ly!”. Enos's sexuality is likely a reference to long standing rumors surrounding Jim Nabors
Jim Nabors
James Thurston "Jim" Nabors is an American actor and singer. Born and raised in Sylacauga, Alabama, Nabors moved to Southern California because of his asthma. While working at a Santa Monica nightclub, The Horn, he was discovered by Andy Griffith and later joined The Andy Griffith Show, playing...
' sexuality.
At one point, the song "I'm My Own Grandpa
I'm My Own Grandpa
"I'm My Own Grandpa" is a novelty song written by Dwight Latham and Moe Jaffe, performed by Lonzo and Oscar in 1947, about a man who, through an unlikely combination of marriages, becomes stepfather to his own stepmother — that is, tacitly dropping the "step-" modifiers, he becomes his own...
" is referenced, when Professor Farnsworth says "a lesson in not changing history from Mr. I'm-my-own-grandpa".
Broadcast and reception
The episode won an Emmy AwardEmmy Award
An Emmy Award, often referred to simply as the Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards .A majority of Emmys are presented in various...
in the Outstanding Animated Program (Programming Less Than One Hour)
Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Animated Program (For Programming less than One Hour)
The Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Animated Program is a Creative Arts Emmy Award which is given annually to an animated series which is judged to have been the best...
category in 2002, marking Futuramas first win in this category. Rich Moore also won an Annie Award
Annie Award
The Annie Awards have been presented by the Los Angeles, California branch of the International Animated Film Association, ASIFA-Hollywood since 1972...
for "Directing in an Animated Television Production" in 2002 and in 2006 IGN
IGN
IGN is an entertainment website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites or "channels", each occupying a subdomain and covering a specific area of entertainment...
ranked the episode as the sixth best Futurama episode. In 2001 executive producer David X. Cohen noted that this was one of his favorite episodes of the series thus far. Sci Fi Weekly gave the episode an "A" grade and noted that it was "a half hour of pure entertainment". This episode is one of four featured in the Monster Robot Maniac Fun Collection, marking it as one of Matt Groening's favorite episodes from the series. Claudia Katz
Claudia Katz
Claudia Katz is an American animation producer. Katz also serves as Sr. Vice President of Rough Draft Studios. She has worked on television series The Maxx, Drawn Together, Star Wars: Clone Wars and Futurama. Her work also includes producing The Simpsons Movie, the four direct-to-DVD Futurama...
, producer of Futurama, has also stated that this is one of her three favorite episodes of the series. Although the episode was well received by critics, it continued to do poorly in its time slot. The original airing was in 83rd place for the week with a 3.1 rating/5 share.
External links
- Episode capsule at GotFuturama.com
- Roswell That Ends Well at The Infosphere.