Television Info

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Superman: The Animated Series



Superman: The Animated Series is the unofficial title given to Warner Bros.' animated television series of the late 1990s. The official title of the series was simply Superman, and (as the title suggests) it starred the fictional character of Superman. Warner Bros. applied the same "more modern, more serious" animated treatment to DC Comics' flagship character in the same way they had successfully produced Batman: The Animated Series. The result was a cartoon praised by comic book and animation fans, and seen by some as one of the best adaptations of Superman ever.

Airing more than ten years after the 1985 "reboot" of the Superman comic book character, the animated series paid tribute to both the classic Superman of old and the newer "modern" Superman. Elements of Superman from all eras of his history were included in the series, especially in a potrayal of the planet Krypton that fans praised as a "modernization" of Superman's origin that contrasted John Byrne's total remake, and some fans felt was superior to the "newer" comic book version. Most notable was the addition of the evil computer Brainiac as being originally from Krypton (like Superman himself).

The "new" Lex Luthor featured prominently in the series as well, menacingly voiced by actor Clancy Brown. Superman himself was voiced by Tim Daly.

While the series featured fresh re-creations of much of Superman's rogues gallery, the series' writers supplemented the limited supply of enemies by paying tribute to Jack Kirby's Fourth World creations which also introduced the villain Darkseid to the series as one of Superman's greatest enemies. Darkseid had actually been portrayed as a villain in the final two seasons of the Super Friends series of the 1980s, but in the new Superman series he truly became an enormously powerful, evil cosmic emperor. The tribute event extends to the supporting character, Dan "Terrible" Turpin, who is visually modelled on Jack Kirby himself.

After the series reached episode number 65 and began syndication, it was combined with repeats of the Batman animated series to become The Batman/Superman Adventures. The characters of Superman and Batman were then spun off into a new animated series, Justice League, which featured other popular DC characters as well.


Episode list


Season 1 (Sept 1996 - Feb 1997)

1. The Last Son Of Krypton - part 1 of 3
2. The Last Son Of Krypton - part 2 of 3
3. The Last Son Of Krypton - part 3 of 3
4. Fun and Games
5. A Little Piece Of Home
6. Feeding Time
7. The Way Of All Flesh
8. Stolen Memories
9. The Main Man - part 1 of 2
10. The Main Man - part 2 of 2
11. My Girl
12. Tools Of The Trade
13. Two's A Crowd



Season 2 (Sept 1997 - May 1998)

1. Blasts From The Past - part 1 of 2
2. Blasts From The Past - part 2 of 2
3. The Prometheon
4. Speed Demons
5. Livewire
6. Identity Crisis
7. Target
8. Mxyzpixilated
9. Action Figures
10. Double Dose
11. Solar Power
12. Monkey Fun
13. Brave New Metropolis
14. Ghost In The Machine
15. Father's Day
16. World's Finest - part 1 of 3
17. World's Finest - part 2 of 3
18. World's Finest - part 3 of 3
19. The Hand Of Fate
20. Bizarro's World
21. Prototype
22. The Late Mr. Kent
23. Heavy Metal
24. Warrior Queen
25. Apokolips...Now - part 1 of 2
26. Apokolips...Now - part 2 of 2
27. Little Girl Lost - part 1 of 2
28. Little Girl Lost - part 2 of 2



Season 3 (Sept 1998 - May 1999)

1. Where There's Smoke
2. Knight Time
3. New Kids In Town
4. Obsession
5. Little Big Head Man
6. Absolute Power
7. In Brightest Day
8. Superman's Pal
9. A Fish Story
10. Unity



Season 4 (Sept 1999 - Feb 2000)

1. The Demon Reborn
2. Legacy - part 1 of 2
3. Legacy - part 2 of 2



External links

* Superman: The Animated Series at the Internet Movie Database
* Superman: The Animated Series @ The World's Finest



See also

* Diniverse

The X-Men Animated Series

Format Animated series
Run time 30min
Creator Larry Houston, Frank Squillace
Starring Cedric Smith, Cathal J. Dodd, Norm Spencer, Iona Morris
Country USA
Network Fox Kids Network
Original run 1992��997
No. of episodes 76

The X-Men Animated Series debuted in the 1992-1993 season on the Fox Network. It was part of Fox's Saturday morning lineup, which featured both cartoons, such as X-Men, Bobby's World and Life With Louie and live-action programming, such as Power Rangers, that were directed at young children. This youth-geared Saturday morning and weekday afternoon block of programming was known as "Fox Kids". This block has currently been replaced by 4Kids TV (Formerly "Fox Box") on Saturday mornings, but nothing in afternoons.

Currently, this series can be seen on Toon Disney at 11:00pm EST on all nights of the week.

Background
Character Beast talking with Warlock.
Enlarge
Character Beast talking with Warlock.

X-Men was one of the longest-lasting series on Fox Kids, with its final new episode airing in late 1997, after five complete seasons. The show was not removed from the lineup until 1998, after a full six seasons. The show also is one of the highest-rated and most-viewed Saturday morning programs in American history, to this day. During its peak years (1995 and 1996), the show was often shown every weekday afternoon, in addition to Saturday mornings.

After the box office success of the X-Men movie in the summer of 2000, Fox began airing reruns of the successful cartoon on weekday afternoons. This ended in early 2001. Soon after, the ABC Family licensed the cable syndication rights from FOX, and began airing reruns. The reruns are still being shown on ABC Family around the time of 7 AM EST and have been doing so for quite some time.

The show featured a team line-up similar to that of the early 1990s X-Men comic books. It included Professor X and the team Cyclops, Beast, Jean Grey, Wolverine, Rogue, Gambit, Storm, and Jubilee. Colossus, Nightcrawler, Forge, Banshee, Iceman, Archangel, Psylocke, and Bishop, who were also X-Men members in the early '90s comics, all guest starred in at least one episode of the cartoon, though they did not currently live at the X-Mansion. There is no season DVD available on this cartoon series. However, selected episodes have been released as:

* Wolverine's Story
* Legend Of Wolverine



Cast
Actor Role
Cedric Smith Professor Charles Xavier
Cathal J. Dodd Wolverine/Logan (as Cal Dodd)
Norm Spencer Cyclops/Scott Summers
Iona Morris Storm/Ororo Munroe (I) (1992)
Alison Sealy-Smith Storm/Ororo Munroe (II) (1992-1997)
Chris Potter Gambit/Remy LeBeau (I) (1992-1996)
Tony Daniels Gambit/Remy LeBeau (II) (1997)
Lenore Zann Rogue
George Buza Beast/Dr. Henry 'Hank' McCoy
Catherine Disher Jean Grey/Phoenix
Alyson Court Jubilee/Jubilation Lee
Lawrence Bayne Cable
George Buza Apocalypse
David Hemblen Magneto


Episodes of X-Men


Season one

1. Night Of The Sentinels (Part 1)
2. Night Of The Sentinels (Part 2)
3. Enter Magneto
4. Deadly Reunions
5. Captive Hearts
6. Cold Vengeance
7. Slave Island
8. The Unstoppable Juggernaut
9. The Cure
10. Come The Apocalypse
11. Days Of Future Past (Part 1)
12. Days Of Future Past (Part 2)
13. The Final Decision



Season two

1. Til Death Do Us Part (Part 1)
2. Til Death Do Us Part (Part 2)
3. Whatever It Takes
4. Red Dawn
5. Repo Man
6. X-Ternally Yours
7. Time Fugitives (Part 1)
8. Time Fugitives (Part 2)
9. A Rogue's Tale
10. Beauty And The Beast
11. Mojovision
12. Reunion (Part 1)
13. Reunion (Part 2)



Season three

1. Out Of The Past (Part 1)
2. Out Of The Past (Part 2)
3. The Phoenix Saga Part 1: Sacrifice
4. The Phoenix Saga Part 2: The Dark Shroud
5. The Phoenix Saga Part 3: Cry Of The Banshee
6. The Phoenix Saga Part 4: The Starjammers
7. The Phoenix Saga Part 5: Child Of Light
8. Obsession
9. Cold Comfort
10. Savage Land, Savage Heart (Part 1)
11. Savage Land, Savage Heart (Part 2)
12. The Dark Phoenix Saga Part 1: Dazzled
13. The Dark Phoenix Saga Part 2: The Inner Circle
14. The Dark Phoenix Saga Part 3: The Dark Phoenix
15. The Dark Phoenix Saga Part 4: The Fate Of The Phoenix
16. Orphan's End
17. Juggernaut Returns
18. Nightcrawler
19. Weapon X, Lies, & Videotape



Season four

1. One Man's Worth (Part 1)
2. One Man's Worth (Part 2)
3. Courage
4. Proteus (Part 1)
5. Proteus (Part 2)
6. Sanctuary (Part 1)
7. Sanctuary (Part 2)
8. Beyond Good And Evil Part 1: The End Of Time
9. Beyond Good And Evil Part 2: Promise Of Apocalypse
10. Beyond Good And Evil Part 3: The Lazarus Chamber
11. Beyond Good And Evil Part 4: End And Beginning
12. Have Yourself A Morlock Little X-Mas
13. The Lotus And The Steel
14. Love In Vain
15. Secrets, Not Long Buried
16. Xavier Remembers
17. Family Ties



Season five

1. The Phalanx Covenant Part 1
2. The Phalanx Covenant Part 2
3. A Deal With The Devil
4. No Mutant Is An Island
5. Longshot
6. Bloodlines
7. Storm Front Part 1
8. Storm Front Part 2
9. Jubilee's Fairytale Theater
10. The Fifth Horseman
11. Old Soldiers
12. Hidden Agenda
13. Descent
14. Graduation Day



External links

* DRG4's X-Men the Animated Series Page
* X-Men at the Internet Movie Database (IMDb).

The Powerpuff Girls

Format Cartoon
Run time 30 Minutes
Creator Craig McCracken
Starring Cathy Cavadini
E.G. Daily
Tara Strong
Tom Kane
Tom Kenny
Roger L. Jackson
Jennifer Hale
Jennifer Martin
Jim Cummings
Jeff Bennett
Kath Soucie
Country USA
Network Cartoon Network
Original run November 18, 1998��004
No. of episodes 78

The Powerpuff Girls is an animated series starring three little girls with superpowers who have dedicated their lives to fight crime and the forces of evil. The series was created by animator Craig McCracken, and first produced by Hanna-Barbera for Cartoon Network.

The show began as a project for Craig McCracken's college class at California Institute of the Arts in 1992, titled The Whoop-Ass Girls. Spike and Mike premiered the short at their Festival of Animation. They then funded a fully drawn color short, "A Sticky Situation," that also featured the Amoeba Boys. In 1995, they were renamed to the more TV friendly Powerpuff Girls as a few more episodes and new antagonists, "Meet Fuzzy Lumpkins" and "Crime 101," appeared on the What-A-Cartoon! show. A full TV series was aired in 1998. The Powerpuff Girls Movie was released in 2002.



Characters


The Powerpuff Girls

* Blossom: Red-haired, pink-eyed, and dressed in pink. She is "the commander and the leader" (aka the bookish, drill instructor-ish one). (Voiced by Cathy Cavadini)
* Bubbles: Blond-haired, blue-eyed, and dressed in blue. She is "the joy and the laughter" (aka the spacey one). (Voiced by Kath Soucie in the What-A-Cartoon! episodes, and Tara Strong in the series)
* Buttercup: Black-haired, green-eyed, and dressed in green. She is "the toughest fighter" (aka the violent one). (Voiced by Elizabeth Daily, who also recorded the theme song)

There was a fourth Powerpuff Girl: Bunny, who was brown-haired, purple-eyed, and dressed in purple. When, the three original girls couldn't handle all their crime-fighting activities any more, they decided to create a new powerpuff girl themselves, but she didn't turn out exactly as planned. Bunny appears to be mentally challenged. (Voiced by Christine Cavanaugh)


Townsville Citizens

They live in the fictional city of Townsville, USA (not to be confused with Townsville, Australia). They were created by Professor Utonium, who was attempting to make the perfect little girl by combining sugar, spice, and everything nice, when he accidentally knocked a glass of Chemical X into the mixture. The girls are super-cute and super-powerful. They have abnormally large eyes and no fingers or toes. They also have many super-powers similar to those possessed by Superman, including super-strength, the ability to fly, super-speed, and the ability to project a variety of energy blasts.

Friends and allies of the Girls include the Pokey Oaks kindergarten teacher Miss Keane, the empty-headed Mayor of Townsville (who is referred throughout only as "Mayor": in one episode where he was forced to run for re-election as Mayor, he ran with the campaign slogan 'Vote Mayor for mayor!') and his very competent assistant, the statuesque redheaded Ms. Sara Bellum (named after the cerebellum), whose face is always just out of shot (most likely a reference to the initial appearance of redhead Mary Jane Watson in Spider-Man).

One of the supporting characters in the show is The Talking Dog, he mostly appears in the background, but always has something to say, and once he had an episode dedicated to him, an old lady, that is always hit when driving and a man that looks just like George Jetson.

Enemies include the mad scientist monkey Mojo Jojo, Fuzzy Lumpkins, The Gangreen Gang, the spoiled little rich girl Princess Morbucks (the name is a play on Daddy Warbucks from Annie), The Rowdyruff Boys (male versions of the Powerpuff girls made by Mojo Jojo), Sedusa, and the mysterious, superpowerful, red-skinned, and effeminate devil referred to only as Him. The girls also frequently combat a wide assortment of giant monsters, all of which seem to visit Earth solely for the purpose of demolishing Townsville. One-time villain appearances include Femme Fatale, Abracadaver, Roach Coach, The Smiths (their next door neighbors), and The Dooks of Doom; furthermore, a group of unsuccessful bank robbers is often seen suffering the consequences of their deeds.

The Amoeba Boys, the harmless pack of amoebas who first appeared in the "World Premiere Toon" "Crime 101," are somewhere in between enemies and friends. That is, their crimes are as primitive as their species (they considered stealing a discarded orange to be their greatest crime ever), and they have some ties with the Powerpuff Girls.


Episodes

Six seasons (78 episodes) have been made, there are no plans for any future episodes.


See Also

* The Powerpuff Girls Movie
* Demashita! Powerpuff Girls Z



External links

* Cartoon Network's Powerpuff Girls page
* The Powerpuff Girls at the Internet Movie Database
* The Powerpuff Girls at the Big Cartoon DataBase



The Powerpuff Girls in other languages

* Finnish: Tehotyt旦t
* Portuguese:
o As Meninas Super-Poderosas (in Brazil)
o As Powerpuff Girls (in Portugal)
* Spanish:
o Las Chicas Superpoderosas (in Latin America)
+ NOTE: Originally (in the "World Premiere Toon" times), they were called "Las Chicas Coquetas" which roughly translates to "The Fashionable Girls" or "The Flirty Girls." This was changed before the series started.
o Las Super Nenas (in Spain)
* French: Les Super Nanas
* Italian: Le Superchicche
* Chinese: Literally: "Little Flying Cop Girls"
o 蕋�ぉ絨鎁活�; f�i ti�n xi�o n� j�ng (Traditional Chinese)
o 蕋�ぉ絨鎁活�; f�i ti�n xi�o n� j�ng (Simplified Chinese)
* Japanese: ����若�����若���(Pawa- pafu ga-ruzu)
* Hungarian: Pind炭r Pand炭rok (Literally "Tiny cops")
* Hebrew: ���廬 �廚���廨廚�廝 (B'not Ha-Powerpuff - "The Powerpuff Daughters")
* Polish: Atom坦wki (Literally "Little atomic girls")
* Swedish: Powerpuffpinglorna
* Icelandic: Stu丹boltastelpurnar ("the energetic girls", literally "the energy-ball girls")
* Russian: �����亠 亟亠于�仂仆从亳 (Krutie Devchonki, literally "Kick-ass Girls")

South Park


Format Sitcom
Run time approx. 0:23 (per episode)
Creator Trey Parker & Matt Stone
Starring Trey Parker
Matt Stone
Isaac Hayes
Mary Kay Bergman (1997-1999)
Eliza Schneider (2000-2003)
Mona Marshall
John Hansen
Jennifer Howell
and Adrien Beard
Country USA
Network Comedy Central
Original run August 13, 1997��resent
No. of episodes 141 (Season 9: 1/2 begins on October 19, 2005)

For other uses, see South Park (disambiguation).

South Park is a comedy animated series created by Matt Stone and Trey Parker. Distributed by and airing on Comedy Central since 1997, it follows the surreal adventures of four young boys who live in the small town of South Park, Colorado. South Park satirizes many aspects of American culture and current events, and challenges deepset convictions and taboos, usually using parody and black humor.

New episodes in the show's ninth season began airing March 9, 2005. Recent seasons have aired in two parts; for example, half of the episodes from the eighth season were put on hiatus for Team America: World Police, another Stone and Parker production.

The show is noted for its characteristically blunt handling of current events while they are still current. For example, an episode involving the repatriation of Romanian quintuplets aired during the Eli叩n Gonz叩lez issue, and depicted Janet Reno, then U.S. Attorney General, as a murderous Easter Bunny. An episode that aired after the September 11, 2001 attacks had the boys stow away on a military transport to Afghanistan, where they encounter Osama bin Laden. More recently, the 2005 Terri Schiavo case was parodied in an episode in which the town is at odds over the removal of a feeding tube from Kenny McCormick. The episode, "Best Friends Forever," originally aired the night of March 30, less than 12 hours before Schiavo died.
Contents
[hide]

* 1 Series history
* 2 Characters
o 2.1 Major characters
o 2.2 Recurring characters
o 2.3 Minor characters and 'celebrities'
o 2.4 Running gags
o 2.5 Religious affiliation of characters in South Park
* 3 Music
* 4 Video Games
* 5 South Park and politics
* 6 Trivia
* 7 Evolution of the series
* 8 See also
* 9 External links



Series history

South Park got its start in 1991 when Parker and Stone, then film students at the University of Colorado, created an animated short called Jesus vs Frosty. The crudely made film featured prototypical versions of the kids of South Park, including a character resembling Cartman but called "Kenny", bringing a murderous snowman to life with a magic hat. The baby Jesus then saves the day by decapitating the monster with a halo.

Executives at the Fox network saw the film, and in 1995 executive Brian Graden commissioned Parker and Stone to create a second short film to send to friends as a video Christmas card. Entitled The Spirit of Christmas, it closely resembled the style of the later series, and featured a martial arts duel (and subsequent truce) between Jesus and Santa Claus over the true meaning of Christmas. This video was later featured in an episode of South Park in which Stan, Kyle, Cartman, Kenny, Mr Hanky and his family "save" Christmas. The video was a hit and was quickly shared, both by underground duplication and over the then-burgeoning Internet. This led to talks to create a series, first with Fox, then with Comedy Central, where the series premiered on August 13, 1997.
One of the many deaths of Kenny
One of the many deaths of Kenny

The show's provocative, frequently offensive, and unquestionably adult-oriented material quickly drew howls of protest from various conservative spokespersons, and South Park merchandise (especially T-shirts) were banned from a number of public schools, day care centers, and other public places in a manner similar to the prohibition of Bart Simpson T-shirts in the early 1990s after The Simpsons was accused of contributing to juvenile delinquency. Comedy Central defended South Park by noting that the show is given a "Mature Audiences" TV rating (TV-MA) and that it only airs the show during nighttime hours and never during the day when children may be more likely to see the show.

In February 1998, one episode of South Park posed the question of who Eric Cartman's father was. The episode ended with the announcement that it would be revealed in four weeks' time. Four weeks later, the airing of an episode about Terrance and Phillip (two Canadian comedians the main characters idolize) prompted outrage, and also prompted Comedy Central to push the true season premiere up earlier than expected. It was apparently a well-planted April Fools Day gag, meant to poke fun at season-ending cliffhangers.

The following year, the full-length animated feature film South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut was released to generally enthusiastic reviews. The film managed to satirize both itself and the anticipated reaction that it engendered from moral conservatives. It also presented a twisted but seemingly sincere tribute to the film musical with a number of songs, including "Uncle Fucka" and "Blame Canada." The latter was nominated for an Oscar and was performed by Robin Williams during the awards show. It has often been said that "Blame Canada" was chosen from other Oscar-worthy songs in the movie on the basis that it was the only one that could be performed on live TV with its lyrics relatively intact as the song contains only one swear word (while it is true that "Up There" by Satan contains no swear words at all, it would most likely have created far more controversy on religious grounds given its sympathetic portrayal of Satan and his justification of evil in the lyrics).

On November 11, 1999 shortly after the U.S. theatrical release of South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut, actress Mary Kay Bergman, who had provided all of the female voices on the South Park television series and in the full-length movie, committed suicide in her suburban Los Angeles, California home. After her death it was revealed that she suffered from a severe form of clinical depression. Her husband, Dino Andrade, founded the Mary Kay Bergman Memorial Fund at the Suicide Prevention Center of Greater Los Angeles in an effort to help and educate people with the same type of depression that his wife suffered from.

In the episode "It Hits the Fan," South Park broke the swearing record by saying the word "shit" a total of 162 times. In a 22 minute episode, this means that they averaged one "shit" every 8 seconds. There was even a counter throughout the episode showing the number of times it was said. An example of how it was used was Mr. Garrison's song that went, "Hey, there, shitty shitty fag fag, shitty shitty fag fag, how do you do?" and repeated this for four verses. This was meant as a satire on a NYPD Blue episode released shortly before this episode where one of the main characters said the word "shit" without being censored, and the American public discussed this for weeks.


Characters

The characters and backgrounds of South Park are made to appear deliberately crude, as if they are simply made of cut-out pieces of paper. Paper cutouts were indeed used in the original pilot Parker/Stone animation and in the very first Comedy Central episode, but every subsequent episode aired on TV has been produced by computer animation that provides the same crude look. To put the efficiency of this process in perspective, consider that the average episode of The Simpsons takes 8 months to create while episodes of South Park have been completed in as little as 3 days. Some episodes have sections of regular film edited in (e.g., "Tweek vs. Craig" and "Cat Orgy").


Major characters
The main characters as they appeared during eight of the nine seasons (from left to right): Kenny, Cartman, Kyle and Stan
Enlarge
The main characters as they appeared during eight of the nine seasons (from left to right): Kenny, Cartman, Kyle and Stan

The main characters of the show are four elementary school students:

* Stan Marsh: Often the "straight man" of the group. Generally easy going and clear thinking, he usually tries to come up with logical solutions to their outrageous situations.
* Kyle Broflovski: High strung, skeptical yet the most easily persuadable. Jewish.
* Eric Cartman: Aggressive, bigoted, spoiled, overweight, rude, and antagonistic. Often the catalyst for the plot, frequently insults Kyle for being Jewish and Kenny for being poor. He is hated by his 'friends', and they frequently question the reasons for their friendship with him.
* Kenny McCormick: Comes from an extremely crude, classless, poverty-stricken family. Obsessed with sex and bathroom humor, he is difficult to understand due to his hood closed around his face. The eternal victim, he often meets his fatality in many callous and over-the-top deaths, but miraculously comes back to life in time for the next episode.

In recent seasons, two other characters have gained prominence:

* Leopold "Butters" Stotch (replaced Kenny as a main character during the first part of the 6th season, though Kenny was brought back for the 7th season; has remained prominent): Nervous, naive, easily manipulated, yet sometimes insightful. He is often repressed by his overbearing parents, and used as a foil to Cartman's schemes. Adding to the tragicness of his character, his birthday is September 11.
* Tweek (replaced Kenny during the second part of the 6th season, though Kenny was brought back for the 7th season): Spastic, neurotic, wants to be left alone. His problems are often glossed over by his very docile, Hallmark commercial-esque coffee-shop-owning parents. Although initially touted as one of the leading supporting characters, he has since been upstaged by the more viewer popular Butters and has returned to playing a minor role.

The show's earliest well-known gimmick, beginning in the first episode, was that in every episode, Kenny would die in some horrible, "unexpected" way. After this Stan would shout, "Oh my God, they killed Kenny!" and Kyle would add, "You bastards!" Originally, the notorious "bastards" were the cow-aliens who shot Kenny with plasma; however, Kenny was in fact unharmed by this, and he was actually killed by Officer Barbrady's car after being trampled by Farmer Dinkins' cows. Kenny would be back in the next episode, the incident forgotten. For some time (after the 5th season episode "Kenny Dies"), Kenny had actually died "permanently." In the 6th season episode "A Ladder to Heaven," Kenny's soul became entrapped inside of Cartman's body, but an exorcism performed by Chef's mama in "The Biggest Douche in the Universe" undid this. He came back to life for an unexplained reason in "Red Sleigh Down" and is now the same regular kid he was before, except his deaths are much rarer now. Kenny was killed by Saddam Hussein in "It's Christmas in Canada," the final episode of season seven. He was also killed once during the eighth season, unmasked, by "Mr. Jefferson," an alias of Michael Jackson, in the episode "The Jeffersons", and in the ninth season, he was killed by the Chinese mafia in the episode "Wing," as well as the following episode, "Best Friends Forever" (in fact, he dies twice in the latter).


Recurring characters

Main article: Recurring South Park characters

There are many other frequently recurring characters, besides the boys and their families.

* the boys' teachers Mr. Herbert Garrison (currently Mrs. Garrison after receiving a sex change in episode 901, Mr. Garrison's Fancy New Vagina), and Ms. Choksondik (pronounced "chokes-on-dick") who dies in season 6.
* Mr. Slave, Mr. Garrison's gay live-in lover until his sex change in episode 901 (replacement for Garrison's beloved puppet companion, Mr. Hat).
* Jerome "Chef" McElroy (voiced by Isaac Hayes), the school cafeteria chef whom the boys seek out for advice.
* Satan, portrayed as the insecure and overly sensitive gay lover of Saddam Hussein.
* Jesus and Santa Claus, who are frequently depicted as gun-toting heroes.
* Mr. Mackey, the school counselor who often appends "Mmkay?" to the end of his sentences.
* Officer Barbrady, the incompetent town police officer.
* Wendy Testaburger, a schoolmate and Stan's girlfriend until Episode 714 (Raisins).
* Timmy, a schoolmate confined by handicap to a wheelchair. He has a limited vocabulary, usually only consisting of his own name, Jimmy's name, his pet turkey, Gobbles, and his usual babble that sounds like "livin' a lie", though, on occasion, has managed a few other words.
* Jimmy, a handicapped schoolmate with crutches and a speech impediment. Often performs stand-up comedy. He is afraid of getting an erection and took steroids to win the Special Olympics.
* Towelie, is a "super towel" created to dry a person, but while being studied he smoked marijuana and wandered off. Towlie is frequently getting "high" in the episodes he's been in.
* Token Black, a schoolmate of black descent who often accompanies the boys on their adventures. Token is also a frequent target of Cartman's racism.
* The goth kids, originally featured in episode 714 (Raisins).
* Scott Tenorman, a much older schoolmate, originally introduced when he cons Cartman out of his allowance money in the episode Scott Tenorman Must Die. Cartman later takes revenge on Scott by feeding him Scott's own parents at Cartman's chili con carnival. Scott has appeared in minor roles in at least two subsequent episodes.



Minor characters and 'celebrities'
The satirical disclaimer that begins every episode
The satirical disclaimer that begins every episode

Part of the show's surrealist nature derives from the minor characters who appear in the series. Notable appearances include God, who appears as a small creature resembling a hippo-rodent hybrid; Jesus, a recurring character, who owns a home and hosts a public-access television show in South Park (Jesus and Pals); Satan and his lover Saddam Hussein; Moses, who appears exactly as the Master Control Program (MCP) does in the Disney film Tron and demands macaroni pictures; the alien Marklar race; the jakovasaur; Death; and Mr. Hankey "the Christmas poo", who adds to the holiday festivities in much the same spirit as the 1960s Rankin-Bass cartoons. And also Towelie the towel who always gets, or wants to get high (off cannabis).

Celebrities often appear (usually "impersonated.....poorly"). Examples include:

* Barbra Streisand, who was transformed after a mystical artifact Kyle found while digging and became Mecha-Streisand, a Mechagodzilla-like creature.
* Robert Smith of the '80s band The Cure, who transformed into a moth-like creature (a parody of Mothra) to battle Mecha-Streisand; Smith provided his own voice.
* Kathie Lee Gifford, whom Mr. Garrison tried to assassinate.
* Bill Clinton, who slept with Cartman's mom.
* O. J. Simpson, part of a support group for relatives of murder victims.
* the band Ko亊n, who played themselves and solved a Scooby Doo-type mystery.
* the band Toto (an 80s band).
* Brian Boitano, who is a superhero.
* Russell Crowe, star of the TV show "Russell Crowe: Fightin' Around the World," in which he travels the world in a cartoon tugboat and picks fights with random strangers based on perceived insults.
* Madonna, who is ridiculed.
* David Blaine, founder of the fictional "Blainetology" religion.
* Sally Struthers, portrayed as a Hutt (as in "Jabba the Hutt" from Star Wars) saving "Starvin' Marvin" and his people in Africa.
* Radiohead, playing themselves, with the band telling lead singer Thom Yorke to stop reading fan mail and mocking Scott Tenorman for crying.
* Fleetwood Mac's Stevie Nicks as a goat in the Afghanistan episode.
* Michael Jackson as a new neighbor named "Mr. Jefferson" who moves to South Park with his young son, Blanket. Mr. Jefferson comes to South Park to hide out because he is being accused of child molestation; such accusations were made against Jackson in late 2003.
* Paris Hilton as spokeswoman for the "Stupid Spoiled Whore" clothing store chain.
* Christina Aguilera, who is portrayed as a hideous creature; a hallucination of Cartman's when he starts ingesting Ritalin.
* Patrick Duffy, who appears upside-down as one of the legs of a mountain creature called Scuzzlebutt.
* George Clooney, who appears in "Bigger, Longer, and Uncut", portraying an emergency room doctor similar to his character Doug Ross in the TV series ER. Clooney also appeared as a voice actor for Sparky, Stan's homosexual dog, in the episode "Big Gay Al's Big Gay Boat Ride", his only line being "woof".

See list of celebrities on South Park for more persons who have appeared on the show in one way or another.


Running gags

These are events that have recurred in almost every episode of South park.

* Kenny has died in almost every episode. Mostly he dies at the end, though it is used as a plot device in a few episodes.
* After most of Kenny's deaths Stan says "Oh my god, ',they, it, he, she' killed Kenny. Kyle will then say "You bastard(s)!" In earlier episodes Kyle did the entire line, this the most popular one.
* Eric says "Screw you guys, I'm going home." Usually after he and Kyle get into an argument (mainly the ones that involve Eric being selfish).
* Eric's mom gets it every once in a while for being a slut. Sometimes they find a magazine or website though it's usually Ms. Cartman taking men into her room.
* Whenever Wendy says something about love to Stan or kisses him on the cheek, he will throw-up shortly after. (this has ended as of Season 7 when the two had to break up because the actor who provided Wendy's voice had passed on.)
* If Chef is asked about sex or love, he will answer by singing a song then pretend he didn't say anything.
* Kyle is ripped on a lot for being Jewish. In the episode Rainforest Schmainforest, Cartman said "Kyle, you don't have rhythm because you're Jewish."
* When the boys are looking for a guinea pig, or someone to sacrifice, they always choose Butters. (e.g they decided to send Butters to have sex with a bunch of phaedophiles in Cartman Joins Nambla, and he was the first choice to be sacrificed to a statue of the provider: John Elway.
* Eric will threaten to make some "eat their parents" when they don't agree with him. Which is a reference to when he made his nemesis; Scott Tenorman, actually eat his own parents in Scott Tenorman Must Die.



Religious affiliation of characters in South Park

According to the episode "Red Hot Catholic Love", virtually all the major and recurring characters in South Park are Roman Catholic, except:

* The Broflovskis (Kyle's family), who are Jewish
* The Harrisons, who are Mormon
* Chef switched to Islam in Chef Goes Nanners but apparently switched back
* God, who is shown as a rodent like creature, is a Buddhist
* Chef's Parents, who practice Voodoo and Wiccan rituals.



Music
Cover from South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut - Music From And Inspired By The Motion Picture
Enlarge
Cover from South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut - Music From And Inspired By The Motion Picture

Although South Park is well known for its humor and controversial plots, viewers are also treated to an original musical score. The show's opening theme song is performed by alternative rockers Primus.

It should be noted that Kenny's lines in the song, as well as all but one of his lines throughout the show (episode 807, "The Jeffersons") and one in the movie, are muffled. Kenny always wears a parka over his head and most of his face. The fact that the lines are unintelligible helped them slip past network censors. It is often easy to comprehend the lines, given the context in which they are delivered.

One of the rumors is that Kenny's original line says "I like women with fat titties, I like women with big titties." Another interpretation that is common is, "I like girls with big fat titties, I like girls with big fat titties." Another variation states that he sings "I like girls with big fat titties, I like girls with big vaginas."

Kenny's line in the theme tune changed at the start of the 7th season. It was promised that the line would be revealed a year after the change. When the time had passed, the creators had forgotten exactly what the line was, but were '95% sure' that it was as follows: 'Someday I'll be old enough, to stick my dick in Britney's Butt'.

Popular songs such as "Kyle's Mom is a Bitch" originated on the show, but the creators' musical abilities were not frequently used until the release of South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut. The film's soundtrack featured songs like "Mountain Town", "Uncle Fucka", "What Would Brian Boitano Do?" (a song to which Brian Boitano has been known to figure skate), "I'm Super", and "Blame Canada" (nominated for an Oscar, see below). Several of the songs from the movie were satires of tunes from Disney cartoons--Mountain Town is highly similar to Bonjour from Beauty and the Beast, and Up There is a takeoff on Out There, from the Disney version of The Hunchback of Notre Dame.

Trey Parker and Matt Stone have, on occasion, performed these and other songs (some unrelated to the show, such as "Dead Dead Dead"), under the band name DVDA.

The character of Eric Cartman will often burst into song to convey a false altruism or optimism that belies his baser motivations. In Red Sleigh Down, he sings "Poo-Choo Train", an unnervingly cheery Christmas carol, in an obvious attempt to convince Mr. Hankey and Santa Claus that he is worthy of Christmas presents. In The Death of Eric Cartman he sings "Make it Right" with Butters in a weak attempt to reconcile his sins. He also used the song Heat of the moment to convince the USA Senate to approve Stem Cell research.

Additional musical contributions to the show come from themselves and from Isaac Hayes, who voices the character Chef, and from the band Primus, which performed the original opening and ending themes for the show. But another high point of the series is its dramatic score, for it dramatizes common and deep parts with a very heartwarming, melancholic or mysterious soundtrack.


Video Games

* "South Park" for N64, Playstation and PC
* "Chef's Luv Shack for N64, Playstation, Dreamcast, and PC
* "South Park Rally" for N64, Playstation, Dreamcast, and PC
* "Save Kenny" for Mobile Phone



South Park and politics

The political leaning of South Park has been open to some debate. The show has drawn widespread criticism from both conservatives and liberals for its themes and its offensive language. However, unlike many other satirical shows, South Park's political humor is often seen as mocking liberal celebrities and pet causes. This has in turn prompted the use of the phrase South Park Republican to describe the attitudes of some of the show's viewers. Trey Parker stated in an interview that he was a "registered Libertarian". In other interviews Trey Parker and Matt Stone described themselves as being (small 'l') libertarian-Republicans. In the Spring of 2005 Brian C. Anderson, editor at the Manhattan Institute's City Journal released a book titled "South Park Conservatives: The Revolt Against Liberal Media Bias." At any rate, the show has consistently made fun of all sides of the political spectrum. In fact, a recent ad ran on Comedy Central listing many categories of people South Park has made fun of (including rednecks, blacks, gays, politicians, transsexuals, Jews and the disabled) and stated afterward "We apologize if South Park has left you out."


Trivia

* The film Bowling for Columbine includes a brief interview with Matt Stone that suggests South Park was largely inspired by Stone's childhood experiences in Littleton, Colorado. Stone presents a vision of Littleton as painfully normal, and highly intolerant of non-conformist behavior. Stone's appearance was followed by an uncredited cartoon in a style strongly reminiscent of South Park that was not the work of either Stone or Parker. It became a point of contention between them and the filmmaker, Michael Moore, as they believed Moore meant to imply they had contributed to his film. They have said the appearance of Moore as a suicide bomber in their 2004 film Team America: World Police is their sardonic response to this incident.
* Les Mis辿rables has had several cameo roles throughout the series, including Cosette's appearance, Cartman's prison number, 24601 (Jean Valjean's number), and an entire song in South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut that is based on a song from the musical named "One Day More." Also, in episode 414 "Helen Keller! The Musical," the "musical theater expert" sounds similar to Colm Wilkinson, who played the original Jean Valjean on Broadway. In fact, Cartman says the expert (introduced as "Geoffrey Mainard") played the lead in a production of Les Mis辿rables. Characters on The Simpsons, perhaps not coincidentally, often have the number 24601 as well.
* A short tribute sketch was shown for the 30th anniversary of Monty Python which parodied the "Dead Parrot sketch." The parody takes part in a friends store, where Eric Cartman walks in and complains that this friend (Kenny) that he bought is dead. Eventually an ending showing crude cut outs of Terry Gilliam, Venus de Milo, and the Monty Python foot appear.
* Parker animated a South Park version of a joke called The Aristocrats for the documentary of that name.
* The Parker-Stone production company is named Braniff Productions, named after a defunct airline. The logo (which featured a computer-generated shot of the Braniff airline with the subtitle "...believe it") originally appeared in Episode One as a joke, but decided since Parker and Stone had already established Braniff as their company anyway, the logo would close every episode.
* Many celebrities say this is their favorite cartoon.
* There are 3 references to OJ Simpson: 1. When Cartman tries to drive away from the cops on a powerwheels truck shaped like the white bronco going 50 MPH. 2. OJ was in the episode where Butters went missing on account of his mom trying to kill him. 3. In "Chef Aid" when Chef asks who Johnny Cochran is, Gerald Brovlovski says "He's the guy who got O.J. off."



Evolution of the series

South Park's early episodes tended to be shock value-oriented, but the more recent episodes are often oriented more toward poking fun at current events. This was very evident in the first half of season 8: events in its episodes include Michael Jackson visiting South Park, the boys seeing The Passion of the Christ, blue-collar workers in South Park losing their jobs to immigrants from the future, and an episode featuring a "Paris Hilton" toy video camera. Season 9 premiered with the episode "Mr. Garrison's Fancy New Vagina," which incorporated uncensored footage of a farm animal being neutered. In a previous episode, similar footage had been used, namely that of an animal delivering its afterbirth.

The pilot episode was produced using construction paper and traditional stop-motion animation techniques, but current episodes duplicate the original, amateurish look using modern computer animation tools (first PowerAnimator, then Maya, which South Park creators have described as "building a sandcastle with a bulldozer"). This allows for a short production schedule which enables the creators to respond quickly to current events. For instance, the December 17, 2003 episode depicted the capture of Saddam Hussein a mere three days after his capture by U.S. forces, even referring to the "spider hole" where he was found. In the case of this and the Eli叩n Gonz叩lez episode, they stopped and changed production of an episode to focus on these events. Another example is the Trapper Keeper episode which originally aired just 8 days after the 2000 Election and featured a kindergarten class election being delayed by, among other things, an undecided girl named "Flora."

In the audio commentary on the season 4 DVD set, Parker and Stone remarked that beginning with episode 408, "Chef Goes Nanners," they began to consistently make episodes centering on a single issue, rather than having different sub-plots going on.

In 2002 the episode "Free Hat" was aired. In this episode, prompted by Kyle's comment on Ted Koppel's Nightline that changing E.T. would be like changing Raiders of the Lost Ark, the South Park depictions of George Lucas and Steven Spielberg decide to alter the first Indiana Jones film. Soon after "Free Hat" aired, the real Lucas and Spielberg announced that they would not be altering Raiders of the Lost Ark for DVD release (contrary to rumors surrounding it). Stone and Parker later claimed that their episode prevented any alterations from happening when they appeared on a VH1 special, Inside South Park.

While in college, Stone and Parker collaborated on the movie Cannibal! The Musical, a Western satire with humorous musical numbers (the "Braniff" tune that plays at the end of many South Park episodes is an excerpt from the Cannibal! song, "Shpadoinkle"). Later they created Orgazmo, a comedy about a Mormon starring in a pornographic movie, which found distribution thanks to the success of South Park later that same year. The pair starred in the 1998 film BASEketball directed by David Zucker (in a recent episode in which the boys see the Passion of the Christ and subsequently decide to get their money back for watching a lousy film, Stan comments to Kenny, "This is just like that time we got our money back from BASEketball," commenting on the film's box office failure). Their latest collaboration is the marionette action/comedy, Team America: World Police.


See also

* List of South Park episodes
* Cheesy Poofs
* Chewbacca Defense
* Chocolate Salty Balls
* Hell in Mexico
* Father of the Pride ��even though Matt Stone and Trey Parker had nothing to do with it, South Park was considered to be an inspiration behind its creation.
* It Hits the Fan one of the most notorious episodes of South Park
* List of celebrities on South Park
* List of fictional brands in South Park
* List of movies, television shows and books parodied on South Park
* List of songs featured on South Park
* MK 22 ��Israeli cartoon with similar graphics and vulgarity, situated in a secret nuclear missiles storage base in the south of Israel.
* Park County, Colorado
* References to Star Trek in South Park
* South Park Republican



External links
Wikiquote has a collection of quotations by or about:
South Park

* South Park Studios (official website)
* South Park television series at Comedy Central's website
* South Park television series (Home Box Office Hungary)
* Memorial website and official website of Mary Kay Bergman
* Make your own South Park characters
* Tons of transcripts and other information on South Park
* South Park 24/7
* [1] Short from The Aristocrats (2005)

Digimon

Digimon (short for Digital Monsters) (Japanese: ����≪�, Romaji dejimon) is a Japanese series of children's merchandise, including toys, manga and anime, featuring monsters of various form living in a "Digital World". Digimon contains many of the typical themes associated with mon (monster).

It started out as a dueling digital pet or tamagotchi called "Digital Monster" that was released by Bandai on June 26, 1997. The Digital Monster toy was enormously successful, and four different colors of the toy were released in November of the same year. In December of the same year, the "Digital Monster Version 2" was released.

Digimon first appeared in illustrated form with the advent of the one-chapter manga, C'mon Digimon, which was released in summer 1997. C'mon Digimon then spawned the popular Digimon Adventure V-Tamer 01 manga, which began on November 21st, 1998. Digimon first appeared in game form on January 28th, 1999, with the release of the popular Digimon World game for Playstation, and made its first foray into animation a few months later.



TV series

Following the release of the first three theatrical Digimon releases in Japan, in 1999, the first Digimon television series, Digimon Adventure first aired; three other series followed, Digimon Zero Two, Digimon Tamers and Digimon Frontier. Zero Two is a spin-off continuation of Adventure, while Tamers and Frontier have unrelated plots to one another.

There have also been rumours of a supposed 'Fifth Season', but nothing is confirmed...yet.

Main article: Digimon: Digital Monsters (anime)



The movies

There have been eight individual Digimon films released in Japan, with all but the eighth spinning out of the assorted TV series.


Digimon Adventure

At a length of thirty minutes, the original movie, the first Digimon animated product, occurs before the events of the first TV series. It focuses on Taichi Yagami (Taichi "Tai" Kamiya) and Hikari Yagami (Hikari "Kari" Kamiya) four years before their adventure in the Digital World, and shows their first encounter with Digimon. A Digi-Egg emerges through the children's father's computer, and promptly hatches into a Botamon, which causes trouble as it evolves, eventually becoming a Greymon and battling a Parrotmon. When the events of this movie were covered in the TV series, it was revealed that the events of this battle caused the eight children to be selected to become the new generation of Chosen Children.


Our War Game

This second movie, which runs to forty minutes, takes place after the end of the first TV series, and features its cast. When the computer virus Digimon, Diablomon (Diaboromon) raises havoc all over the world through the Internet during Spring Break, four of the DigiDestined, Tai, Matt, Izzy and T.K., must put a stop to it before it provokes the launching of nuclear warheads. Taichi and Yamato Ishida's (Yamato "Matt" Ishida) Digimon pursue the villain through the Internet, and in the final battle, merge into Omegamon (Omnimon) to destroy him.


Digimon Hurricane Touchdown/Supreme Evolution! The Golden Digimentals

The third Digimon movie is the first to take place in the time of the second TV series. The short length of most of the movies means that they are commonly screened as a double-bill with another short feature, but at a length of sixty minutes, this movie's length meant that it screened alone, split into two acts.

This movie features the new generation of Chosen Children as they travel from Japan to the U.S.A. and meet up with American Chosen Child Wallace (Willis), helping him to stop the enigmatic threat of Chocomon (Kokomon), who, it is eventually revealed, is actually one of Wallace's own twin Digimon. Chocomon seeks to be reunited with Wallace, and captures the original Chosen Children in this bid. The new Chosen Children go up against Chocomon in an epic clash, as their foe evolves into his Mega form, prompting a series of new evolutions from Angemon, Angewomon, V-mon (Veemon) and Terriermon which win the day.

It is generally accepted that this movie is out of continuity with the events of the TV series, due to the appearance of Angewomon (at a time when the Digimon have lost the ability to assume this level of form), and her and Angemon's transformations into their Mega forms, an ability never displayed in the show. Likewise, the sudden, unexplained appearance of the titular Golden Digimentals does not fit with the series.


Digimon: The Movie

As the only theatrical release of a Digimon animated feature in the west, Digimon: The Movie combined Digimon Adventure, Our Wargame and Digimon Hurricane Touchdown/Supreme Evolution! The Golden Digimentals into one singular movie. However, as there was no specific connection between the storylines of these movies in their original Japanese form, some substantial rewriting and re-editing of the movies occurred - most notably, Wallace was written into the second feature and credited with the creation of Diaboromon, while the third movie received some particularly large cuts, reducing it's length to thirty minutes and, most specifically, removing the subplot about Chocomon's capture of the original Chosen Children (although bizarrely, this was still mentioned on promotional material and VHS and DVD packaging. The Digimon Movie soundtrack is currently avaliable at Amazon.com.

This is the only Digimon movie to be created in a western country.


Diablomon's Counterattack

English Title: Revenge of Diaboromon

Thirty minutes in length, the fourth Digimon feature again returns to the era of the second TV series, taking place three months after after the climactic events of the series, and sees the Chosen Children go up against Diablomon again. As the younger kids attempt to handle the flood of Kuramon into the real world, Taichi and Yamato head back to the Internet with Omegamon to deal with him with Omegamon, who successfully destroys him. However, this proves to be a trap, as his destruction allows many more Kuramon to go to the real world, where they merge to create Armagemon (Armageddemon), powerful enough to defeat both Omegamon and Imperialdramon. In the end, Omegamon gives his energy to Imperialdramon Fighter Mode, powering him up to Paladin Mode and giving him the strength to destroy Armagemon.

When the movie was originally screened in 2001, it is apparent that there was some degree of interest in dubbed it for release in some form in the west, as the script was translated into English by the series translator. However, for whatever reason - possibly due to the Disney takeover - this production never came to light. The movie was at last dubbed and aired on ABC Family on August 6th, 2005 at 9:00 A.M.


The Adventurers' Battle

Battle of the Adventurers

The fifth Digimon movie is the first to feature the new universe of the third TV series, Digimon Tamers, and sends Takato on vacation to Okinawa to visit his cousin, Kai. Encountering Minami Uehara, Takato learns of an evil plan formulated by Mephismon (Mephistomon) to use V-Pets to disrupt Earth's electronics network and spell the end of the human race. Together with Kai, his fellow Tamers and the mysterious Shisamon, Takato goes up against Mephismon to save the world.

Early mistranslated promo information cemented the idea that this fifty-minute movie was out of continuity with the series, but in the finished movie, there is very little to suggest that this could be true. The fact that Kai goes on to appear later in the series itself suggests that the movie is in continuity. Like Revenge of Diaboromon, this movie was translated into English around the time of it's original screening, but was not dubbed until 2005.


Runaway Digimon Express

Runaway Locomon

This thirty-minute movie takes place after the Digimon Tamers series finale, and features the Tamers trying to stop a train Digimon named Locomon, who is being controlled by Parasimon. The movie also serves to turn the spotlight on Ruki Makino (Rika Nonaka), who also falls under Parasimon's control, as we see her memories of her estranged father, who recieves no attention in the ongoing series.

It is supposed to be aired in early October 2005.

P.S. Ruki and Takato has a big relationship in the movie.


Revival of the Ancient Digimon

Island of Lost Digimon

The last of the Digimon movies to spin out of one of the TV series, this forty-minute Digimon Frontier movie sends Takuya and company to the legendary "Wandering Island," where they find themselves caught in the middle of a civil war between human and beast Digimon, instingated by an evil Digimon named Murmuxmon. Murmuxmon, posing as the leader of each side in the war, plan to free an anicent evil that the Ancient Warriors, Ancient Greymon and Ancient Garurumon had defeated in the distant past.

This movie is also out of continuity with the series, and it is easy to explain why through the observation of three facts. Takuya and Koji are shown to be in possession of their Beast Spirits. Zoe has her Human Spirit. Bokomon is not carrying Seraphimon's egg. These three events are not reconcilable with the TV series - Bokomon was always carrying the egg once Zoe reclaimed her spirit, but Takuya and Koji obtained their Beast Spirits after she lost it.


Digital Monster X-Evolution: The Thirteenth Royal Knight

A longest-running Digimon TV Special, clocking in at seventy-five minutes, is entirely rendered with Computer-generated imagery and is the first to exist in a universe of its own, not spinning out of any of the TV series. The story is, however, loosely based on Digimon Chronicle (the accompanying fiction of the product line at the time). The main character is Dorumon, a mysterious little Digimon who travels around the Digital World attempting to discover the reason for his existence. But with his past surrounded in mystery, Dorumon's future also soon becomes uncertain as he finds himself caught between the warring forces of the X-Antibody Digimon, and the Royal Knights, the servants of the Digital World's host computer, Yggdrasil.


Comics


C'mon Digimon

In summer 1997, a one-chapter manga involving battles between more-or-less holographic Digimon was planned, but apparently never got off the ground. However, this manga was published as a special in volume two of V-Tamer, and there it was revealed the hero of this manga, Kentarou, was the source and inspiration for the design and character of Taichi Yagami, the hero of V-Tamer and the leader of the Chosen Children in the television series Digimon Adventure.


Digimon Adventure V-Tamer 01

V-Tamer was the first and longest running published Digimon manga, printed in the pages of V-Jump magazine. Starting on November 21st, 1998 it ran to fifty-eight chapters and ended August 21st, 2003. This manga introduce the character of Taichi Yagami, although it must be noted that he is not the same Taichi that features in the Digimon Adventure TV series - V-Tamer takes place in an alternate universe.

In this universe, Taichi is involved in a V-Pet tournament, where he is told he cannot play because the Digimon in his V-Pet isn't recognized as being a real Digimon. However, after the tournament is over, Taichi plays the winner of the tournament, a boy named Neo Saiba, and their battle ends in a die - something that is supposed to be impossible. Later, Taichi is summoned to the Digital World by a Holy Angemon (known in North America as Magna Angemon) called Lord Holy Angemon, and there he meets the mysterious Digimon in his V-Pet, Zeromaru the V-Dramon. Taichi and Zeromaru travel to Lord Holy Angemon's castle with the aid of Gabo the Gabumon, and there Lord Holy Angemon begs Taichi to find the five Tamer Tags and defeat the evil Demon, who has disrupted the peace of the Digital World.

Along the way, more humans are brought to the Digital World, including Neo Saiba, Rei Saiba, Sigma, Mari, and Hideto. All brought their by Demon, Neo is chosen to raise the Digimon that will hatch from the Super Ultimate egg Demon is raising, Rei Saiba, Neo's sister, who has a digimental that will allow the Demon's experimental digimon to digivolve to a level beyond Mega, and the others, called the Alias III, are to help Neo and Demon with their Digimon. Hideto's partner is an Omegamon/Omnimon, formed by the jogress of "Org" and "Meluuga", a War Greymon and Metal Garurumon; Mari's is a Rosemon, and Sigma's is a Piemon. They are all villains that eventually reform except Rei, who has no digimon partners or evil intentions.


Dark Horse

Dark Horse Comics published American-style Digimon comic books, adapting the first dubbed 13 episodes of the first animated season.


Panini

The European publishing company, Panini, approached Digimon in different ways in different countries. While Germany created their own adaptations of episodes, the United Kingdom reprinted the Dark Horse titles, then translated some of the German adaptations of second-season episodes, and finally began to print their own original stories, which appeared in both the UK's Official Digimon Magazine, and the official Fox Kids companion magazine, Wickid. These original tales danced in and around the continuity of the second animated season, before shifting to the third season, where the stories were more carefully thought out to fit between the tight storytelling of the animated series and would sometimes focusing on subject matter not covered by the show (Yamaki's past), or in the west (Ryo's story, the undubbed movies). Eventually, in a money saving venture, the original stories were removed from Digimon Magazine, which returned to printing translated German adaptations, this time of Tamers episodes. Eventaully, both magazines were cancelled.


TOKYOPOP manga

The TOKYOPOP Digimon manga is a Chinese manhua written and drawn by Yuen Wong Yu, based on the television series and brought to North America, translated by Lianne Sentar. Covering Digimon Adventure in five volumes, Digimon Adventure 02 in two and Digimon Tamers in four, it is heavily abridged, though in rare occasions plays through events differently to the anime. This is the main attraction of the series. Three additional volumes exist, covering Digimon Frontier, but these have not been released in English by TOKYOPOP.


Digimon Chronicle

Digimon Chronicle was the storyline accompanying the 2004 Digimon product line. Originally rumoured to be a new, full-blown manga to replace V-Tamer 01, it eventually transpired to be mostly prose text, printed in the booklets which accompanied the "Pendulum" digital pets. These booklets also contained short, non-sequiter six-page mangas. There are four "chapters", one sold with the Pendulum X 1.0, another with the Pendulum X 1.5, another with the Pendulum X 2.0, and the final chapter with the Pendulum X 3.0.

This fiction tells the story of a Digital World controlled by a sentient computer named Yggdrasil. Because Digimon had multiplied so much in the past, Yggdrasil, the host computer, was unable to handle the load and the Digital Hazard occurred. Yggdrasil then created the "New Digital World", consisting of three layers for the past, present, and future - Urd, Versandi, and Skuld, respectively, and then let loose with Project Ark and the X Program to eliminate any Digimon Yggdrasil no longer wanted. However, the Digimon adapted by obtaining a program called the X Antibody, which strengthened them, changed their form, and made them immune to the X-Antibody. Yggdrasil sent in the Royal Knights, thirteen Digimon devoted to keeping order in the Digital World, and at this point Kouta, Yuuji, and Shinji, three humans, somehow found their way into the Digital World and met their partner Digimon, DORUmon for Kouta and Ryuudamon for Yuuji. Kouta and Yuuji resisted Yggdrasil and the Royal Knights, but Shinji apparently sided with Yggdrasil.


D-Cyber

The D-Cyber manga is another Chinese Digimon manhua based on the adventures of Hikaru, Masuken, and Teru. It introduces the concept of X Digimon, but their origin is different from that in the Japanese Digimon Chronicle. In short, an evil MetalPhantomon seeks to steal the Dragon Spirit from Hikaru's Digimon and use it to revive a powerful evil Digimon. In the end, it takes the power of the three Holy Knights (Omegamon, Dukemon, and Magnamon) and the power of the three Tamers to put a stop to Metal Phantomon and what he's done.


Fan Influence

As Digimon continues to grow in popularity internationally, the fanbase around the show and manga continues to grow with it in a manner akin to other fandoms. As with most anime, this includes extensive shipping. Digmon fanshippers popularized the jargon of their specific brand of shipping by combining the first and last syllables of the relevant characters names, rather than the standard American "/" or Japanese "X".

Due to the relative quickness of the dubbing of the third season, American and Japanese fandoms were somewhat aware of each other and contributed to each others fandoms.


Notable people

* Akiyoshi Hongo - Creator of the original Digimon concept
* Hiroyuki Kakudo - Director of Digimon Adventure and Digimon Adventure 02
* Yukio Kaizawa - Director of Digimon Tamers and Digimon Frontier
* Chiaki J. Konaka - Head writer of Digimon Tamers
* Takatori Arisawa - Composer of the Japanese versions of Digimon Adventure, Digimon Adventure 02, Digimon Tamers and Digimon Frontier



See also

* List of Digimon
* Tamagotchi
* List of Human characters in Digimon series
* List of Chosen Digimon
* Digimon: Digital Monsters (anime)



External links


English

* Bandai of America's Digimon Site
* JETIX U.S. Digimon Tamers website
* Megchan's Digimon Encyclopedia
* Digimon Encyclopedia
* The Digi-Zone.com



Japanese

* Toei Animation's Digimon Adventure website
* Toei Animation's Digimon Digimon Adventure 02 website
* Toei Animation's Digimon Tamers website
* Toei Animation's Digimon Frontier website
* Toei Animation's Digital Monster X-Evolution website

* Bandai of Japan's Digimon website

Futurama

Format Sitcom / Animated series
Run time approx. 0:21 (per episode)
Creator Matt Groening
Starring Billy West
Katey Sagal
John DiMaggio
Lauren Tom
Phil LaMarr
Tress MacNeille and
David Herman
Country USA
Network Fox Broadcasting Company
Original run March 28, 1999��ugust 9, 2003
No. of episodes 72

Futurama is an animated American cartoon series created by Matt Groening (creator of The Simpsons) and David X. Cohen (also a writer for The Simpsons). Set in "New New York City" in the year 3000, it was introduced on the Fox Network and received airplay between March 28, 1999 and August 10, 2003. Futurama now appears in syndication on the Cartoon Network and the TBS Superstation in the US, Sky One and Channel 4 in the United Kingdom, Teletoon/T辿l辿toon in Canada, Fox 8 in Australia, C4 in New Zealand, Pro7 in Germany, Italia 1 in Italy, Canal Fox in Latin America, One TV in the Middle East and SF2 in Switzerland.

The series begins with Philip J. Fry, a New York City slacker who is cryogenically frozen by accident on New Year's Eve, 1999. He is defrosted one thousand years later on December 31, 2999 and finds himself in New New York City. Fry's attempt to escape from his now-mandatory job assignment as a delivery boy ends when he is hired on at Planet Express, a small intergalactic package delivery company run by his distantly descended nephew. The series covers the adventures of Fry and his colleagues as they travel around the universe making deliveries on behalf of Planet Express.

The futuristic time frame allowed the show's writers to be creative with their humour by introducing ideas and events from pulp science fiction of the mid 20th century into the series. As such, the show is as much a testament to the creativity of the writers as it is a story of Fry and his colleagues.

Characters and plot

Futurama centers around seven main characters who work for Planet Express, as well as several secondary characters.
Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.
From left to right: Leela, Amy, Professor Farnsworth, Fry, Dr. Zoidberg, Bender, and Hermes.
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From left to right: Leela, Amy, Professor Farnsworth, Fry, Dr. Zoidberg, Bender, and Hermes.


Characters

* Philip J. Fry ("Fry") (Voiced by Billy West) - was "accidentally" cryogenically frozen just after New Year, 2000, and thawed out in time to usher in the year 3000. Something of a misfit in the 20th century, he adapted to 31st century life with ease after finding employment outside the field of pizza delivery and taking up residence in Bender's closet at the Robot Arms apartment building. He generally has a lower intelligence than the rest but occasionally has moments of genius. Through a time travel accident, he is his own grandfather.
* Turanga Leela ("Leela") (Katey Sagal) - The ship's captain, and usually the most disciplined member of the Planet Express crew. For most of the series she believed she was an orphaned alien, and desired to learn of her origins. It was later revealed - in Season 4 - that she is a sewer mutant instead of an alien as previously believed.
* Professor Hubert Farnsworth (Billy West) - Fry's great-great-...-great grand-nephew who runs Planet Express. In his 160s, he peers through cokebottle glasses, has bad posture and frequently forgets who or what he was talking about. Farnsworth is a mad scientist whose inventions are of variable usefulness. Has a long-standing rivalry with former student Professor Wernstrom.
* Bender Bending Rodriguez ("Bender") (John DiMaggio) - a foul-mouthed, hard drinking, misanthropic robot (catchphrase: "Bite my shiny metal ass!") built in America's heartland of Mexico. He frequently violates the Three Laws of Robotics. The only thing he fears is an industrial-size electric can opener. He also is known to uncontrollably sing folk music when exposed to a magnetic field.
* Hermes Conrad (Phil LaMarr) - a Jamaican Bureaucrat with a flair for filing. He is also an Olympic Limbo-er. He manages Planet Express delivery business, and his responsibilities include paying bills, giving out legal waivers, and notifying next of kin. In direct contrast to most stereotypes of Jamaicans, he is an uptight workaholic, a stickler for doing everything according to regulations, and frequently admonishes the staff for not working hard enough. The character was originally named "Dexter" who did not sport a Jamaican accent; this was changed after the first few episodes were recorded.
* Dr. John Zoidberg (Billy West) - a lobster-like alien from planet Decapod 10 who (as a self-proclaimed expert on humans) provides incompetent medical care for the crew. He is strongly disliked by Hermes Conrad and lives below the poverty line. Zoidberg combines features of several sea creatures, scuttling sideways like a crab, producing ink like an octopus or squid, and creating pearls in his digestive tract like oysters. He is often treated as the outcast in the group. Zoidberg is curiously a joke on a few levels. A famous New England sauce is named Lobster Newberg, while Zoidberg himself also exhibits many of the stereotypes of Jewish doctors, including his grammar, his accent, and his sandals.
* Amy Wong (Lauren Tom) - an intern at Planet Express (supposedly kept around because she shares the professor's blood type) and heir to half of Mars. Her parents, who constantly pester her about the lack of grandchildren, came to own half the planet through a legitimate deal that parodied colonial exploitation of gullible natives. On the show, Amy is known for being somewhat shallow and ditzy, and for her overuse of futuristic 31st century slang. She also tends to dress provocatively, frequently being the person on screen wearing the least clothing. When aggravated, she occasionally starts cursing in Cantonese.

See also: Futurama's recurring characters.


Planet Express

Planet Express is a delivery company held by Professor Farnsworth to fund his "research" and "inventions". It is revealed later in the series that Farnsworth thought of the company as a form of cheap labour.

The Professor often makes passing references to the fact that many of his past crews have been brutally killed. The crew prior to Fry's arrival was said to have been devoured by a space wasp, although in the episode "The Sting", the crew is sent on the same mission that killed the last crew and finds the old Planet Express ship whose crew was killed by giant space bees while attempting to gather space honey.
Planet Express Ship
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Planet Express Ship

The Planet Express ship is helmed by Leela as captain and pilot, Bender as cook, and Fry as delivery boy. Amy and Dr. Zoidberg join the crew as needed. Hermes oversees operations and human resources in the company. The ship has an autopilot and a shipboard AI, which may be separate entities. Nearly every mission that the Professor gives to his crew is dangerous or quickly degenerates to a suicide mission.


Setting
Fry's first glimpse of New New York City after being defrosted.
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Fry's first glimpse of New New York City after being defrosted.

The world of Futurama is not a utopia but neither is it a dystopia. Unlike past cartoons like The Jetsons, which showed an efficient, clean, happy future, Futurama portrays a less idealistic view, with humans still dealing with many of the same basic problems of the 20th century. The show's vision of the future is very similar to the present in many ways: the same political figures and celebrities that we know today survive as heads in jars, a method invented by Ron Popeil; television remains the primary means of entertainment; the Internet is still slow and filled with pornography, and problems such as global warming, inflexible bureaucracy, and substance abuse are still pressing issues.

Race issues in 3000 are now centered around relations among humans, aliens, and robots. A common clash between the former two is alien immigration plaguing Earth. A specific issue on Earth is the large population of super-intelligent/super-incompetent robots (such as homeless robots and orphan children robots, like Tinny Tim); they are generally lazy and surly, and often unwilling to assist their human creators.

Despite this, Futurama's world also showcases numerous technological advantages that have been developed by the year 3000. Wheels used in transportation have been made obsolete by hover technology, to the point that 31st century characters do not know what a wheel is. Among the robots, spaceships, and floating buildings, Professor Farnsworth introduced many memorable new inventions such as the Smell-o-scope, the What-if Machine, and the Parabox. Less inspiring 31st century innovations include coin-operated Suicide Booths and Soylent Cola (The taste "varies from person to person").

Some of the show's humor comes from passing references to historical events of the past thousand years. For example, in the time that has passed owls have emerged as the primary urban pest, at the expense of rats and pigeons.

See also: Timeline of Futurama


Linguistics
Fry and Bender having a drink. The Slurm poster in the background features "Alien Language 1", which reads "drink" when translated.
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Fry and Bender having a drink. The Slurm poster in the background features "Alien Language 1", which reads "drink" when translated.

Futurama's universe also makes several bold predictions about the future of linguistics. In "A Clone of My Own" (and "Space Pilot 3000"), it is implied that French is now a dead language, and that the official language spoken by the French will then be English (interestingly, in the French version of the show, German is substituted as the 'dead language' rather than French).

English itself has also evolved from today; however, it still remains comprehensible. These changes include the disuse of the word Christmas in favor of Xmas (with the X pronounced) and the pronunciation of ask changing to aks, an indication that ebonics had long-lasting effect on the English language.

The show also often makes use of a pair of alien alphabets in background signage. The first is a simple one-to-one substitution cipher from the Latin alphabet, while the second uses a more complex modular addition code (officially an ancient alien language predating the universe). They often provide additional jokes for fans dedicated enough to decode the messages.


Galactic politics
Earth's flag, "Old Freebie", being presented on Freedom Day. Richard Nixon's head is just visible on the podium in front of the flag.
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Earth's flag, "Old Freebie", being presented on Freedom Day. Richard Nixon's head is just visible on the podium in front of the flag.

Numerous other galaxies have been colonized or have made contact by the year 3000. Much of the Milky Way galaxy now operates under the Earth government's sphere of influence, similar to America's influence on world politics today. Apparently, Earth is in the process of embarking on a long-term campaign to conquer and/or eliminate all other worlds/races not allied with it. This campaign is spearheaded by 25-star general Zapp Brannigan, a conceited, self-absorbed individual who makes regular appearances throughout the series.

Earth has a unified government under a single President of Earth. It seems that various sub-states may have prime ministers and similar leaders, much like the current American system of governors. This world government seems to be quite US-centric as Earth's capital is Washington, DC and the flag of Earth looks like the Flag of the United States, but with an image of the Earth (with the US visible) where the stars are today. Citizens of Earth are called Earthicans.

The organization of political parties in Futurama is similar to the American two-party system with a number of third parties. The two main parties are the Tastycrats and the Fingerlicans, whose names sound similar to the current American parties, the Democrats and Republicans.

Despite having been elected President of the United States of America twice, the head of Richard Nixon is elected President of Earth by exploiting the fact that his old body is not being elected, and Earthican law only stipulates that no body can be elected more than twice. Nixon buys Bender's robotic body from a pawnshop to serve as his new body. After the Planet Express crew manages to retrieve it, Nixon's head is mounted on a gargantuan, weaponized cyborg body, helping to sway the robot vote. At times, Nixon's head is carried by the Secretary of Transportation or the headless body of Spiro T. Agnew. At the end of Futurama's last episode, however, the Robot Devil drags Nixon's head back to Hell, so the status of his presidency is now in question.

Earth's national holiday appears to be "Freedom Day", which is traditionally celebrated by doing whatever one wants without regard to the consequences, as well as by dancing and chanting, "Freedom, freedom, freedom, oy!"

Mars has been terraformed to a great degree (it is now the home of many wealthy socialites), and is home to Mars University. The Western Hemisphere of the planet is currently owned by the Wongs, parents of Planet Express intern Amy Wong.

Earth's moon is still mostly unsettled, but houses an amusement park (heavily parodying Disney theme parks even to the motto: "The Happiest Place Orbiting Earth"), and is the sole tourist attraction. The rest of the moon is mostly uninhabited, with the exception of some farms. Citizens of the 31st century have lost all knowledge of the lunar landing, mistaking Ralph Kramden of The Honeymooners for a typical 20th century astronaut due to his common phrase, "One of these days, Alice. Bang! Zoom! Straight to the moon!".

See also List of planets in Futurama



DOOP and intergalactic relations

The Democratic Order of Planets (DOOP) was founded in 2945 after the Second Galactic War. This organization, described by Hermes as being "similar to the United Nations... or like the 'Federation' from your Star Trek program", includes Earth and many other worlds. Earth sometimes acts unilaterally without the aid of other DOOP members. The inhabitants of Omicron Persei 8 are frequently engaged in conflicts with DOOP.

Despite the existence of DOOP, interplanetary relations are poor, with constant wars and invasions, often poorly planned and fought for foolish and unnecessary reasons.

The series featured a bitter conflict between Earth and Spheron 1, a planet inhabited by giant, bouncing balls. A victorious war with the Arachnid homeworld of Tarantulon VI resulted in a silk surplus, which in turn led to a $300 tax refund from the head of Richard Nixon, the ruling President of Earth.

There is also at least one rogue colony of robots that kills humans on sight (this being Chapek 9, a reference to Karel �apek who coined the term robot). A planet named Arrakis exists, a tip-of-the-hat to Frank Herbert's Dune novels.

Since a matter of years after the Big Bang, an eternal war has been waged across space between the Nibblonians (Nibbler's race) and the Brainspawn (evil floating giant brains with telekinetic and telepathic powers). The war recently made its final end when the Nibblonians used Fry to sneak a bomb into the Brainspawn's main base that would seal them into a pocket dimension prison.


Religion
The logo of the First Amalgamated Church, featuring symbols of several present-day religions.
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The logo of the First Amalgamated Church, featuring symbols of several present-day religions.

Religion has changed quite a bit since the year 2000. Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism have all merged into one Amalgamated Church. There is some form of Space Catholicism, led by the reptilian Space Pope (Crocodylus pontifex) and based upon a platform of discouraging love between robots and humans. Oprahism and Voodoo are now mainstream religions. Waltermercadismo is also mentioned in the Latin American version.

Some of today's holidays still exist, but with slightly different mascots. Christmas, now X-mas, is no longer celebrated, but feared due to a giant robotic Santa Claus, who is located on Neptune. He was originally created and programmed by Mom's Friendly Robot Co. to judge people naughty or nice and distribute presents accordingly, but his standards were set so high that he invariably deems everybody naughty (except for Dr. Zoidberg), and attempts to punish them on Christmas Eve. Hanukkah is now represented by the Hanukkah Zombie and Kwanzaa by Kwanzaa-bot.

Robot religions exist as well, with the most popular being the quasi-Christian religion of Robotology, which has its Hell located in an abandoned New Jersey amusement park, presided over by the crafty Robot Devil. Robot Jews exist as well, although all we know about them is that they hold functions to celebrate a robot becoming a "Bot Mitzvah" and do not believe that Robot Jesus was their messiah.

Over the years, as life began to imitate Star Trek more and more, the sci-fi series evolved into an enormous mainstream religious cult that swept the world. This caused the "Star Trek Wars" (not to be confused with the "Star Wars Trek", the mass migration of Star Wars fans). The destruction because of the "Wars" ultimately led to its banning by the Earth Government and the execution of its followers "in the manner most befitting virgins", i.e., by being thrown into a volcano. By the year 3000 even discussing the show is a serious legal offense. (It is mentioned with no penalties, however, once by Hermes Conrad while describing the Democratic Order Of Planets, and again in the episode where the Planet Express crew uses the Internet.) There is little mention of what happened to The Next Generation and the other spinoffs, but the heads of Jonathan Frakes and Leonard Nimoy live on in glass jars. "Star Trek: The Pepsi Generation" does, however, get an Oscar nomination for best soft-drink product placement.


Production

Futurama takes its name from a General Motors exhibit at the 1939 New York World's Fair which depicted future technologies. Also demonstrated at that World's Fair was Philo Farnsworth's vacuum tube television; Professor Farnsworth is named after him.

Actors lending their voices to the series include Billy West, Katey Sagal, John DiMaggio, Maurice LaMarche, Lauren Tom, Phil LaMarr, and Tress MacNeille. Phil Hartman was cast as a voice actor on the series, but died before production began. Some believe Billy West performs the character of Zapp Brannigan in a Hartman-ish voice as a tribute to him (hence why Zapp looks so much like Hartman's Simpsons character, Troy McClure), but the DVD commentary reveals that West's version of Zapp's voice is actually unchanged from the way he did it originally in auditions. The character Philip J. Fry's first name was originally going to be Curtis. It was changed to Philip as a way to remember Hartman.

Celebrities who have lent their voices to the show include Dick Clark, Beck, Donovan, Al Gore, Stephen Hawking, Sigourney Weaver, Lucy Liu, Pamela Anderson, and the cast of Star Trek. (The episode featuring the Star Trek cast, "Where No Fan Has Gone Before", does not include DeForest Kelley, by that time deceased, or James Doohan, whose character was replaced by 'Welshy' in a parody of the Brady Bunch Variety Hour, where Jan was played by a different actress.)

The theme and incidental music for the show were composed by Christopher Tyng. The original theme song for the show was to be the 1960s electronic music recording "Psyche Rock" by Pierre Henry, but the inability to license the track for the show led Tyng to compose a theme strongly reminiscent of it. Three remixes of the theme song were produced and used as the main theme in three different episodes. This show is also one of the few animated series to use fully orchestrated original music in almost every episode.

Many of the spacecraft and backgrounds appearing in Futurama were made using 3D computer graphics. The scenes were first painted by hand and then implemented in 3D. This way, camera movements provided a perfect geometry of the environment and characters (for example, at the beginning of the series when the camera flies around the Planet Express building).

In response to the events of the September 11, 2001 attacks against the United States, the Fox Television Network and Futurama creator Matt Groening for a short time removed the scene in the show's opening in which the Planet Express ship crashes into a giant television screen. It was felt that this scene would be upsetting and disturbing to many viewers who had witnessed the head-on collision of an airplane into the World Trade Center in New York on live television. Within a month or so after the attacks, the scene was reinserted back into the opening.

In 2001, during the show's third season, it was quietly announced that Fox Television was cancelling production of the series. Writing for The Onion A.V. Club, Keith Phipps observes that

Futurama premiered in 1999 to hype and anticipation that seemed fitting for the first new series created by Matt Groening since The Simpsons. But even before the show reached the air, Groening was describing his Futurama-related dealings with the Fox network as the worst experience of his adult life. What happened next couldn't have made him feel much better. While Futurama struggled to connect to its audience, Fox first moved it to a new time slot, then constantly preempted it for sports broadcasts [...] In other words, Futurama contains something for everyone��xcept, it seems, grumpy Fox executives. [1]

While Futurama ended after its fifth broadcast season, there were actually only four production seasons. Due to numerous preemptions and other schedule shuffles, Fox had enough new episodes backlogged for another full year of shows. These delays account for the difference in Fox's broadcast season number and production season number. (Note: the production season forms the basis for the DVD and video sets.) The 72nd and final episode, called "The Devil's Hands Are Idle Playthings", aired in the USA on August 10, 2003. With this episode, the fifth television season (fourth production season) and the whole series ended. The episode was not a true series finale however, and though many plot issues were resolved in the last season, the final episode was in no way a clear "conclusion" to the series��he last line of dialogue, aptly enough, was "Don't stop playing, Fry... I want to see how it ends". At the title screen of this episode, though, the words "See You On Some Other Channel" were shown.

Several television stations are currently airing the series in syndication. In the United States, Futurama can be seen on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim, usually playing adjacent to another (once) cancelled series, Family Guy. In Britain, the series was picked up by Sky One shortly after its US premiere, and Channel 4 later acquired terrestrial broadcast rights.

Also, since Futurama's cancellation, Matt Groening's The Simpsons series has been making an increasing number of references to it. In the show, Matt Groening appears as himself (animated) and was introduced at a convention as the creator of the hit show Futurama. He then signs Bender dolls and draws a sketch of Fry for Milhouse. Also, in another episode of The Simpsons, a person jumps off a cliff, screaming "Why did they cancel Futurama?". In the episode "Bart vs. Lisa vs. the Third Grade", Bender appears in a dream of Bart's. And, in the episode "Future-Drama", Bart and Lisa explore their teenage years with the help of Professor Frink. During this sequence, Homer and Bart drive through a "tunnel" where they shift dimensions temporarily. When they exit, Bender is in the car with them, and he says, "All right! You guys are my new best friends!" Homer then says, "You wish, loser!" and throws him out of the back of the hover-car, breaking him. Also, in a different episode, Bender can be seen as a person answering telethon calls on PBS (About the fake cancellation of The Simpsons).

Similarly, Futurama references The Simpsons. In an early episode of Futurama, the crew are sent to destroy a huge ball of garbage in space by placing a bomb on it. Bender finds a Bart Simpson doll which says "Eat my shorts" when its string is pulled. Bender eats the shorts, then says "mmmm... shorts".

Even though there were no official words on the revival of the show, there have been rumors of it since the news broke that Family Guy was being revived. On May 22 2005, the Can't Get Enough Futurama web site carried the following unofficial post, attributed to Billy West's discussion board:

Well, I spoke to David X. Cohen [...] and he said that they did have talks with the top guys at FOX and they were extremely impressed with the sales of the Futurama DVDs. The idea was to make a Futurama movie right to DVD and then a 2nd and a 3rd [...]

As of July 18, 2005, Billy West seems to have confirmed a 'straight to DVD' Futurama movie on a video blog, however this is yet to be officially confirmed by either Matt Groening or Fox.


Non-broadcast production
Issue 1 of the US Comics, "Monkey See, Monkey Doom!". The comic is A5 size.
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Issue 1 of the US Comics, "Monkey See, Monkey Doom!". The comic is A5 size.

In the USA (DVD Region 1), the first season of Futurama was released on DVD on March 25, 2003; the second season on August 12, 2003; the third season on March 9, 2004; and the fourth (and final) on August 24, 2004.

In Europe (DVD Region 2), the first and second seasons were both released in 2002; the third season was released on June 2, 2003; and the fourth on November 24th, 2003. The DVDs were released in Europe first as a test to see if they would sell, and sales were very good on both sides of the Atlantic. Despite the different release dates, the content of the DVDs are identical for both Regions.

Unique Development Studios released a video game titled Futurama for the Xbox and PlayStation 2 consoles in August 2003. Critical reviews indicate poor play control and graphic quality, but an excellent story and voice acting. Due to an extremely low run, the video game is scarce and generally sells for more than most games that are just being released.

Matt Groening's Bongo Comics group is still producing a spin-off series of Futurama Comics. These are now the only new stories featuring the Futurama characters. There are two sets of comics available, the US series and UK series.

The US series was first published in 2000 and so far consists of 20 issues plus 2 2-parter crossovers with The Simpsons. The comics are A5-size and now published 4 times a year. The next issue is due in September 2005.

The UK series was first published in 2002 and so far consists of 17 issues, incorporating the Simpsons crossovers. The comics are of a larger size in the UK and although the stories are exactly the same as the US comics, they are published in a different order. See Futurama Comics for more details.


Season details and references

* Futurama season 1 details
* Futurama season 2 details
* Futurama season 3 details
* Futurama season 4 details
* Futurama season 5 details

Note: Originally, there were four production seasons (the DVD releases are based on this original sequence of episodes), but the FOX network broadcast most episodes out of order, and split them into five seasons.


Credits gags


Opening credits

At the start of each episode, just as the "Futurama" logo appears on the screen, a caption appears on the bottom of the screen, different in every episode. Some captions include "Coming Soon to an Illegal DVD", "Dancing Space Potatoes? You Bet!", and "Crafted With Wuv (By Monsters)". Occasionally, an advert is displayed instead.

A Planet Express Ship then flies through the text, and around a futuristic city. During the final shot of the opening credits, a billboard screen appears in view, upon which the executive producer credits appear. Just before they do, a clip from a classic public domain cartoon is shown on the screen. A number of classic cartoon stars have been featured on the billboard, including Koko the Clown, Betty Boop, Bugs Bunny, Porky Pig, Daffy Duck, Little Lulu, Felix the Cat, and Bosko [2]. During the last episode, "The Devil's Hands Are Idle Playthings", the billboard shows the Futurama opening credits, implying a visual infinite regression.


Closing credits: "30th Century Fox"
30th Century Fox logo
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30th Century Fox logo

"30th Century Fox" is a variation of the "20th Century Fox" closing logo listed in the end credits. Fox initially rejected the idea of show creator Matt Groening, who sponsored the design of the logo by himself. Later, it became popular, with Fox embracing and taking some credit for it.

The episode "That's Lobstertainment!" reveals that 30th Century Fox is a television and film studio within the Futurama universe. The studio building is shaped like the logo. The floodlights surrounding it are used to blind pilots so they crash, producing exciting documentary footage.


See also

* References to Star Trek in Futurama
* Futurama Comics
* Blernsball



External links
Wikiquote has a collection of quotations by or about:
Futurama

* Futurama at the Internet Movie Database
* IGN DVD Exclusive - Futurama Direct-to-Video Greenlit
* TV.com's Futurama page.
* Review of the first DVD release from The Onion A.V. Club.
* Futurama at the Big Cartoon DataBase.
* Scripts of Episodes for Futurama



Fan sites

* Can't get enough Futurama fansite. Probably the most extensive coverage of any new Futurama information, as well as the home of fan-contributed semi-open source episode capsules and guides.
* Soylent Forums, messageboard which also provides Mystery Science Theater 3000 and Sealab 2021 discussion.
* PEEL - The Planet Express Employee Lounge. A popular Futurama messageboard.
* Simpsons Cards - Futurama greeting cards.
* Episode List, sortable and with episode rankings.
* Futurama Madhouse, oldest active fansite (formerly The Leela Zone).
* The Futurama Point, the second-oldest Futurama fansite.
* The Fry Hole, A Fry fansite, with a large amount of Futurama content as well.
* The Neutral Planet: Futurama In Words, with transcripts for most episodes.
* Demonstration of the Hypnotoad's powers.
* Futurama �k ��Mathematics in the Year 3000.
* Futurama title cards: Every Futurama title card ever to be shown.
* Bring Back Futurama Website with a petition to bring Futurama back.
* Anime style Futurama picture at deviantART