io9
Must-see TV shows are futuristic classics that shouldn't be missed. Of course, not every must-see is perfect. That's why we've rated them 1-5 on the patented "crunchy goodness" scale. Must see by Sherilyn Connelly.
Title: Futurama
Date: 1999-2003
Vitals: A dimwitted pizza delivery boy is accidentally frozen in 1999 and reawakens in 2999, where he finds work as an intergalactic delivery boy.
Famous names: Matt Groening's followup to The Simpsons.
Crunchy goodness: 5
Spinoffs/Sequels/Copycats: Five years after the show kinda petered out on FOX ("cancelled" is almost too strong a word; it's more like the show died of neglect), Futurama is being revived in 2007 as a series of straight-to-DVD movies.
Stunt casting: Though celebrities frequently made cameos as heads in jars, in the single greatest casting coup of all time, the original Star Trek cast (minus James Doohan) play themselves in the episode "Where No Fan Has Gone Before."
Most painfully dated moment: Every work of art is a reflection of the time it was made, but for a show set a thousand years in the future, Futurama is way too obsessed with late-nineties alt-rock.
Comments
Don't you mean mean 80's and early 90's? Which makes sense, given how the main character (Fry) came of age in that era?
I mean late-nineties alt-rock. Yes, there are plenty of references to the eighties and early nineties (which I'd always figured was because that was when *I* came of age--thanks for the shout-out, Matt!), but what I was thinking of the Monsters of Vaguely Folk-ish Alterna-Rock Tour from the Beck-heavy episode "Bendin' in the Wind." For that matter, I can imagine many of the internet references in "I Dated a Robot" being lost on a pre-teen now. Daddy, what's Napster? It all adds to the show's charm, of course.
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