#11 Jurassic Bark--Episode 4ACV07 Written By: Eric Kaplan Originally Aired: November 17, 2002 Opening Caption: Not Affiliated With Futurama Brass Knuckle Co. Episodes Events Transpire In: Act I I had Seymour until he was 3....Thats when I knew him and thats when I loved him. Ill never forget him, but he forgot me a long, long time ago.... This is liable to surprise, confuse, and possibly upset a lot of my fellow Futurama fans that Ive ranked this episode outside the Top 10. Sure, this episode is almost universally recognized as one of the Top 10 episodes of the series, several have voted it #1. In fact, a worldwide fan vote the week before the most recent finale DID rank it the very best of the series. Even I had it ranked as high as #6 during the original run. It is without question the most celebrated and conversely most emotionally devastating episode of the entire 15 year on-and-off run. And while I would NEVER say its overrated, I will say it is slightly overexposed. Even Matt Groening has said that in all the years he has done the San Diego Comic Con, he still gets more questions and comments about the dog than just about anything else. They lampooned the episode in one of the final seasons opening captions and he even apologized for killing the dog more than a decade later during the live podcast following the original broadcast of the series finale. While it is a TREMENDOUS episode, certain stories just resonated with me a little more. That being said, I present to you a summary of just why this episode is one of the absolute classics. Our journey opens on Bender and Fry rehearsing Bender The Magnificents magic act for the Planet Express Talent Show. As Bender tosses their prop newspaper to the garbage, Fry catches an article about the unearthing of an intact Pizza joint in the vicinity of where he used to live. In spite of the tedium of learning how Fry lived before meeting him, Bender agrees to come along and is quickly inspired by the fine construction of the establishment. After a brief, somewhat misinformed tour, Fry discovers that theyre actually tooling around the ruins of Panuccis, his old source of income. After successfully identifying the petrified sausages and poorly preserved torso of his old barber and one millionth customer, Fry stumbles upon a relic from his past hed thought gone forever; his old friend, adopted stray and unappetizing calzone, Seymour Asses (named for yet another delivery gone awry). After sharing the pizza and voicing his admiration for Seymours ability to keep it real despite being a dumb mutt with a foul odor, non-existent love life and a pedestrian job...o_O Fry leaves the scene and Seymour follows him home. A determined Fry repays a favor to Bender, who recently threw him through a window in an abandoned house to escape a horde of marauding mutants--by slamming his foot cup into the display case and taking his fossilized dog back. Hes promptly ejected by the guards on duty, much to the mortification of the wounded Bender. Distraught but undeterred, Fry stages a protest outside the museum with only the help of Van McCoy to regain custody of his pet rock. After three days and nearly contracting Boogie Fever, Fry convinces the curators finally concede the dog following a brief explanation of his name, perpetual wet dog smell even when dry, penchant for chasing the #29 bus and his brief affair with Bleeding Gums Murphys leg (Any Simpsons fans out there catch that reference?) In the midst of Bender the Magnificents rehearsal (Zoidberg is nowhere NEAR qualified to wear Frys leotard)...The Professor and Fry emerge to reveal that because Seymour was fast fossilized, his cellular structure was restored and the scraggly mutt can actually be reanimated in the present era. Fry is beyond thrilled with this prospect, but Bender perceives it as a threat to his friendship when Fry refers to the dog as his best friend--reducing him to balloon and dove tears as well as spontaneous bouquet-ing. :-P The Professor adjourns with the rest of the crew to his Clone-O-Mat (the same device used to conceive Cubert, who has arrived on the scene just in time to witness the experiment). Unfortunately, the setting for dog mode on the apparatus is slightly off (mooing instead of barking on the See-And-Say module) and requires some last minute adjustment. We once again re-visit the fateful night of December 31, 1999 and discover that Seymours intuition wanted to prevent Fry from making his delivery that night (though Mr. Panucci misinterpreted it as Seymour being a fashion critic). Seymour makes a final plea by pausing in front of Frys bicycle, but the delivery boy insists that hell return soon...so Seymour begins to wait, and well, you know the rest. Watch closely though, you might notice a familiar eyestalk poking out of the garbage at Applied Cryogenics and a strangely familiar shadow (or two) under the desk. Stay Tuned. Back at Benders apartment, Fry is readying all of the furnishings for when Seymour is restored, which pushes Benders jealousy closer to the apex, including a laser show, theft of an Easter Island Moai and a full-fledged confession to the exhumation of Charlemagnes remains. Another flashback takes us to the Fry household on the morning of New Years Day 2000, to discover the Fry family was settling in for the Rose Bowl with the first bologna sandwiches of the new millennium. Seymour arrives--without Fry--and while Yancy Jr. wants to initiate a search for his brother, Yancy Sr. isnt convinced that he wont be ambushed by burning roads, exploding rivers and scud missiles masquerading as calculators; all brought on by The Y2K. After rudely chasing off a scantily-clad hand-to-hand combat session between Leela and Amy, Fry is visited by an increasingly envious and insecure Bender. The robot has now adopted his own mechanical puppy, which seems to fit the bill until the Professor intervenes and notifies the crew that the Clone-O-Mat has been repaired. Robo-Puppy meets an unfortunate demise after being kicked into the wall during a two-hour yipping session. Down in the sub-basement, The Professor initiates a dog brain CAT scan, and is on the verge of restoring the puppy. However, just before the DNA extraction can be activated, Bender storms into the room and demands to know why Fry wasnt at the Talent Show, even presenting cold, hard logic that without performing, theres really no sense in which they have an act. When Fry rebukes him once more, Bender finally snaps and throws the fossil into the molten lava, where it bubbles away below the surface. A horrified Fry suffers a nervous breakdown, and even threatens to jump into the lava himself to rescue the dog (thankfully, hes tackled to the ground by Leela and Amy). Another flashback reveals that Seymour actually went on an extensive independent search, including a stop at Mr. Putzz Mini Golf Course (where we find another Simpsons reference posted on the gate--Because someone inconsiderate created an unsanitary situation, the windmill green is closed until further notice). The chase concludes when Seymour finds a discarded Panuccis Pizza Box that leads him to the Cryogenics Lab. After seeing what hes done to Fry from an emotional standpoint, Bender expresses his remorse and comes to the realization as to why his friend cared so deeply for an inferior creature, recalling his own friendship with Fry. He then resolves to rescue the dog himself and submerges into the lava as well. Yet another flashback takes us to the Cryogenics Lab where Seymour has finally tracked down Frys freezer tube. The Frys arrive to claim the dog, who has been tormenting the inebriated Cryogenisist. In an agonizing and frustrating moment of obliviousness, Yancy and Mrs. Fry latch Seymour onto his leash and COMPLETELY look past the tube he was barking at, dragging him yipping and howling out of the lab. As Fry sits with the crew, inconsolable, Bender ultimately resurfaces from the lava. Incredibly, he does so with dog intact (though he might need to dig through the supply closet for a new set of eyes). The crew returns to the business of cloning, but once the DNA extraction goes through, the data output reveals that Seymour had actually lived for a full 12 years after Fry disappeared. Upon discovering this, Fry has a change of heart and destroys the cloning device. When a confused crew asks about his motivation, Fry explains that Seymour lived a full life after he was gone and likely even added new songs to his playlist. Not wanting to bring a dog into the world aside from the one he knew and loved, Fry opts to leave him a fossil, a memory from his past that he could love unconditionally. If only he could have known just how much the love was reciprocated. And thats when Connie Francis kicks in and the writers broke a million hearts around the world and continue to do so to this day. We find that Seymour continued to wait, and wait, and wait.....Somehow, the writers ALWAYS know exactly what song to use in any given situation as Connie Francis version of I Will Wait For You from The Umbrellas of Cherbourg only compounds the emotion. We discover that much like Hachiko, the Japanese Akita who waited every day for the rest of his life at the subway station, not knowing his master had died on the train (the REAL LIFE story that inspired the episode)--Seymours master was not returning any time soon. The seasons pass, the years fly, the pizzeria slowly deteriorates and then finally the day arrives where Seymour lies down out of exhaustion, closes his eyes and never wakes up. Do not, I repeat, do NOT watch this episode if a beloved family pet is sharing the room with you. You wont stand a chance. Go on, dare ya not to cry. Lol. Simpsorama airs Sunday, November 9, 2014 at 8/7c on the FOX Network. So be sure to sit down with your subscription to the Daily Growl (slightly more reputable than it used to be) and clear out room in your freezer by melting your gigantic ice swan, settle in and watch/record/DVR/TiVo/etc. Tomorrow night, we finally launch into the Top 10. Those of you who have been following along, Im sure many of you are trying to guess what fell where. Some of you might already have a pretty good idea. However, Im curious. Whos in your Top 10? Feel free to post your own personal list of favorites in the comments below and well see how similar the wavelengths on which we think match up. See Ya on the next one, Meatbags! The quest for #ActV is 10 Days Away! :-D :-D :-D :-D
Posted on: Thu, 30 Oct 2014 07:00:23 +0000
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