A Head in the Polls

"A Head in the Polls" is the sixteenth episode of Futurama, the third of the second production season and the seventh of the second broadcast season. It aired 12 December, 1999 on FOX. It guest stars Claudia Schiffer as herself in a jar. Richard Nixon announces his entry into the 3000 presidential election after obtaining Bender's body. Despite the attempt to get Nixon out of the race, Nixon wins the election.

Act I: "How are you going to live without a body?"
Bender and Fry are on the couch at Planet Express watching "The Scary Door" when Leela runs in and changes the TV to the Presidential Debates of the year 3000. The candidates, Jack Johnson and John Jackson, are clones, with identical views on nearly every subject. Fry says he's not even registered to vote, so Leela makes him go register immediately. Fry meets representatives from all the political parties, and begins to become interested in politics. Back at Planet Express, they see a news report about a mining accident on Titan traps over 1000 robots and sends Titanium prices through the roof. Bender, whose body is 40% titanium, sells his body to a pawn shop.

Act II: "I spent most of my teen years loving my body."
Bender begins living it up with his new wealth. After speaking with the presidents' heads at the Head Museum, Bender realises he has made a mistake and tries to buy back his body. But when he gets to the pawn shop, his body has already been sold - to Richard Nixon's head. It unfolds that Nixon is using Bender's body to run for President of Earth on a technicality ("nobody can be elected more than twice").

Act III: "You've got real charisma from the neck down."
Nixon&#8217;s Head, thanks to his shiny new robot body, sweeps the robot voters in early polls in spite of his miserable performance in the debates. Bender and friends try to get Bender's body back from Nixon. When Nixon refuses to return it, they break into his hotel room at the Watergate Hotel to steal it back. They are successful, but Nixon just buys a new body, a bigger one, with heavy weapons, and slides into office on the robot vote anyway. The regular characters all lament that Nixon won by just one vote, and that they all forgot to cast their own votes (apart from Bender, who wasn't allowed to vote anyway due to his criminal record). The episode ends with Nixon rampaging through the streets of D.C. and making a himself a new entrance to the White House.

Trivia

 * Among those on the shelf of the TV Stars section of the Head Museum is Katey Sagal, the voice of Leela.
 * Books in the library in The Scary Door episode include:
 * Antigravity's Rainbow (referencing Gravity's Rainbow)
 * Quantum Relativity for Dummies (For Dummies)
 * The Preppy Handbook
 * The Newer Testament (The New Testament)
 * The Red Dwarf of Courage (The Red Badge of Courage)
 * Robot Run (Rabbit, Run)
 * 2984 (Nineteen Eighty-Four)
 * President Nixon sings a line of White Rabbit with his pawned electric guitar while on TV.

Quotes

 * Bender: Bodies are for hookers and fat people.
 * Nixon's head: Listen here, missy. Computers may be twice as fast as they were in 1973, but your average voter is as drunk and stupid as ever. The only thing that's different is me; I've become bitter, and let's face it, crazy over the years. And once I'm swept into office, I'll sell our children's organs to zoos for meat, and I'll go into people's houses at night and wreck up the place. Muahahaha!
 * Nixon's head: Hello Morbo, how's the family? Morbo: Belligerent and numerous.
 * Morbo: All hail our gargantuan, cyborg president. May death come swiftly to his enemies.
 * Nixon's head: (Playing Jefferson Airplane's "White Rabbit") I'm meeting you half way, you stupid hippies!

Goofs

 * Leela and Bender's Arms are overlapped incorrectly in one scene
 * The White House is in Washington DC now but in When Aliens Attack it was destroyed on Monument Beach. However they could have built a new one.
 * When Bender is on the roulette wheel the only numbers to remain in the same positions between the horizontal and birds eye shots are the 21 red and 33 black.
 * Bender states he has a self destruct button yet in Space Pilot 3000 he requires a suicide booth to kill himself.
 * However he may simply prefer the booth.

Alien Language Sightings
Time:08:36

Location: Sign next to Planet Express

Language: AL1

Translation: drink

Characters

 * Amy
 * Bender
 * Debut: Brain Slugs
 * Debut: Claudia Schiffer's head
 * Fry
 * George H. W. Bush's head
 * Gerald R. Ford's head
 * Hermes
 * Debut: Jack Johnson
 * Debut: John Jackson
 * Jimmy Carter's head
 * Leela
 * Linda
 * Morbo
 * Debut: Pawnshop Worker
 * Poster Guy
 * Farnsworth
 * Debut: Scoop Chang
 * Zoidberg
 * Richard Nixon's head
 * George Washington's head

Episode Credits

 * Writer
 * J. Stewart Burns
 * Director
 * Bret Haaland
 * Voice Actors
 * Billy West
 * Katey Sagal
 * John DiMaggio
 * Tress MacNeille
 * Maurice LaMarche
 * Phil LaMarr
 * David Herman
 * Lauren Tom
 * Special Guests
 * Claudia Schiffer
 * DVD Commentary
 * Matt Groening
 * J. Stewart Burns
 * John DiMaggio
 * Billy West
 * Scott Vanzo
 * David X. Cohen
 * Bret Haaland
 * Rich Moore