Bendin' in the Wind

Production number: 3ACV13 Title Caption: FEDERAL LAW PROHIBITS CHANGING THE CHANNEL First aired: April 22, 2001

Act I: "This thing can't go faster than 80,000 miles per hour?"
While walking, Fry and Bender come across the NNY Hole Project and Fy gets a free Volkswagon microbus (VW) and pushes it back to the Planet Express. Though gas (assumed) doesn't exist anymore, a can of whale oil is supplied and Bender starts to open it via the can opener, but he is caught by the magnetic forces and is horribly damaged.

Act II: "We can't just dump him in the gutter like Grandma's ashes!"
Bender is now unable to move and while at the hospital, he notices Beck's Head, his favorite folksinger, and Beck invites Bender to be a player for him, and gives him robotic mini-arms, and plays by scraping them across his broken chest.

Act III: "My shell ran."
Bender and Beck go on tour, while Fry, Leela, Amy and Zoidberg cram into the VW and follow them. While at a wash, their money is ruined, leaving Fry and the rest without any money, food, or clean clothes. Bender is the featured attraction helping the broken robots, who are afterwards turned into tools, and Bender starts writing his own song. After he finishes writing his song, he is visited by Fry and the rest and they are shocked by the way he is moving again. Bender is wondering how he can play at his upcoming concert, Bendaid and thinks of something... by faking it.

Act IV: "I didn't get my beads!"
Bender is now at his concert singing with Beck and singing the song he wrote, "My Broken Friend", and the others find money by selling "love beads", a bead made by Zoidberg by coughing them up. Bender then gets a giant check before singing his song, and right before he finishes his song, his secret is exposed by jumping and moving. He then lands in the VW, and is off.

Act V: "Put the metal to the pedal to the other metal!"
Bender and the rest start driving through town, trying to outrun Beck and his minion, and the VW falls off the Golden Gate Bridge, because it is a hover bridge. Beck recovers the huge check and Bender is off with the crew paddling home with a magnet on his head singing "Bender is Great".

Trivia

 * Cedars-Sinewave Hospital is a play off of Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.

Characters

 * Debut: Beck's Head
 * Bender
 * Horrible Gelatinous Blob
 * Debut: Candy Seller
 * Fry
 * Leela
 * Hermes
 * Prof. Farnsworth
 * Doctor Zoidberg
 * Beck's Minion
 * Amy
 * Unnamed Fat Boy

Episode Credits

 * Writer
 * Eric Horsted
 * Director
 * Ron Hughart
 * Voice Actors
 * Billy West
 * Katey Sagal
 * John DiMaggio
 * DVD Commentary
 * Bendin' in the Wind (commentary)