Futurama has been brought back from cancellation not only once, but twice thanks to how good it all started off with right from the very beginning. Futurama‘s first season is still one of the best slates of episodes in adult animation history, and that’s still true even after all these episodes and revivals in the years since. Although this also came from the mind of The Simpsons creator Matt Groening, Futurama immediately stood out from its counterpart thanks to David X. Cohen and the rest of the team behind the scenes making sure it had its own voice at the center of it all.
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Futurama‘s first season had to do a lot of work to separate itself from The Simpsons, and immediately it carved out its own voice and humor to further distance itself from anything that had come before. It really felt like adult animation was heading into the future with this one, and Season 1 is one of the best seasons to go back and highlight some of the best gems from that era overall.
Here are five of the best episodes from Futurama’s very first season, and you should let us know which are your favorites in the comments!
Space Pilot 3000 (Season 1, Episode 1)
Futurama has one of the best pilot episodes…ever really. To introduce its wild premiere, “Space Pilot 3000” sends the hapless Phillip J. Fry 1,000 years into the future when he accidentally gets cryogenically frozen. Waking up in the year 3000, Fry (and the audience) are introduced to the world of the series as he realizes how much has changed and how much has actually stayed the same. After trying for the entire episode to keep from being labeled a delivery boy with a thankless job like he had in the past, Fry ends up becoming an entirely different kind of delivery boy that has a much better (and more fun) future.
This really got the series off to an incredible start, and showed just how much of Futurama was locked down right from the very first minute. The show would change a little after this initial pilot, but much of it was already in place for the strong run it would continue to go on across multiple years, revivals, and networks.
A Fishful of Dollars (Season 1, Episode 6)
“A Fishful of Dollars” kicked off a string of absolutely memorable episodes from the first season. This episode explored more of Fry’s life in the past and juxtaposed it with how much his life had actually improved in the future. This was also the episode that introduced fans to Mom and her “friendly robot company” as a long running antagonist for the series to come. Not only was Fry scammed out of millions of dollars, he also hilariously lost himself much more by refusing to sell his anchovies. But all this showcased that Fry’s simplicity also made him that much more compelling of a protagonist going forward. He’s selfish, but ultimately loves his friends.
My Three Suns (Season 1, Episode 7)
This all gets put to the test just one episode later in “My Three Suns.” When Fry accidentally assassinates the Emperor of an alien planet by drinking him, he becomes ruler and quickly pushes away Leela and the rest of his friends with his selfishness. This one eventually comes full circle too as when he’s afraid of getting assassinated himself, the solution ends up being that they need to make him cry. And in true Futurama fashion, it doesn’t really come about until Fry gets his true comeuppance as Leela and the others start beating on him as the episode comes to an end. It’s just a fun showcase of Fry’s connection with the others in an otherwise isolated story.
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A Big Piece of Garbage (Season 1, Episode 8)
“A Big Piece of Garbage” was the first episode of Futurama to ever get wide recognition as it was nominated for an Emmy that same year. It might have lost to King of the Hill that year, but this episode was recognized for a very good reason. This was the first example of Futurama using its futuristic setting to not only share a real scientific outlook on how humanity handles waste, but mined that for a truly hilarious mission that saw Earth threatened by the titular “big piece of garbage.”
Not only did it come to a very real, yet hilarious solution of “we’ll deal with it later,” but it was one of the first examples of why Futurama was still very grounded despite its outlandish setting. It struck that balance of being a comedy that worked in the present day, but was filled with plenty of ideas for its future world.
Hell Is Other Robots (Season 1, Episode 9)
Futurama has a ton of great characters on its roster, but Bender was the true highlight right from the jump. “Hell Is Other Robots” is not only one of the best episodes in the first season, but of the series overall. Seeing Bender dabble in religion for the first time only to end up going to a very real Robot Hell and meeting a very real Robot Devil, this was also one of the first demonstrations of just how wild Futurama was going to get. With a musical number performed by Dan Castellaneta (who returns in future seasons for some of the best episodes in the series), there really is no other better episode to go back and revisit from the first season. It really is a good one.
