Season 2’s “Anthology of Interest I” was an early non-canon episode of Futurama. This anthology episode got the chance to throw the cast into some unlikely (and sometimes lethal) situations, and the series would go back to the concept for frequent throwaway installments in later seasons — making great use of the anthology format before it became popular on TV with shows like American Horror Story and the upcoming Tales of the Walking Dead.
The final segment of the first “Anthology of Interest” wasn’t a flight of fancy, though; it actually carried a lot of hints about aspects of the show that, as later seasons would reveal, were major elements of Futurama’s overall lore. In fact, many of the show’s most explosive twists and turns were quietly revealed in the background.
“Anthology of Interest I” introduced the Planet Express crew to a new invention by Professor Farnsworth known as the “What If Machine.” By asking the device a quandary, it could create a facsimile estimation of how that given situation would play out. The first two segments “Terror at 500 Feet” and “Dial L for Leela” were dark but largely comedic, largely focusing on Bender and Leela becoming more dangerous respectively. But the third segment, “The Un-Freeze of a Lifetime,” was far more important. The scenario imagined what would have happened if Fry hadn’t fallen back into the cryogenic pod that brought him to the 31st century. Fry missing the pod and merely hurting himself resulted in a tear in the very fabric of space and time.
Seeing Bender, Leela, Farnsworth, and Zoidberg across the crack, a terrified Fry fled the cryogenic lab and went back to his dead-end life. A group of experts led by Al Gore and Stephen Hawking eventually learned about the incident and realized that the tear was due to a paradox — something fundamental to the structure of the universe had been changed, and that change would result in the end of all things. The group tried to force Fry into the pod and a desperate Fry broke it instead — tearing a hole in the universe and wiping out all of time and space. Left in the void of his mistake, everyone realized they were now trapped outside of existence for all eternity.
Fry not coming to the future might seem like a strange breaking point for reality, especially at that point in Futurama, when Fry appears to be a regular man trapped in a weird world. But Season 3 and Season 4 would reveal the importance of Fry’s journey to the future. Fry himself is the result of a paradox, having accidentally become his own grandfather in the time-traveling Season 3 episode “Roswell That Ends Well.” By not traveling to the future, Fry prevented his own birth and fractured reality. Meanwhile, the time code seen attached to his body in Season 5’s “Bender’s Big Score” would allow Bender to time-travel throughout history, affecting the timeline in untold ways over the years (but definitely being the result of one collapse of society, proving that the Planet Express crew is only mostly competent).
Perhaps most telling is the lack of Nibbler in the anthology short. In the series premiere “Space Pilot 3000,” Nibbler’s tiny alien shadow was seen near Fry’s chair — implying he was the one to push Fry into the freezer. Season 3’s “The Day The Earth Stood Stupid” and Season 4’s “The Why of Fry” revealed Nibbler’s race had predicted that Fry’s unique origins made him the perfect weapon to stop their enemies, the Brainspawn. By freezing Fry, Nibbler ensured he survived long enough into the future to come to their aid and save the universe. Nibbler’s absence in “Anthology of Interest I” is a clear clue to eagle-eyed viewers that major revelations about Nibbler might be ahead — with his eventual intellect becoming a major revelation to the crew down the line. By including this small detail, a random episode of Futurama teased several of the show’s most important developments.
Fans can see “Anthology of Interest I” in the show’s Adult Swim reruns, and perhaps an “Anthology of Interest III” will be part of the upcoming Hulu revival.
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