The Thief of Baghead

"The Thief of Baghead" is the one hundred and eighteenth episode of Futurama, the fourth of the seventh production season and the ninth broadcast season. It is scheduled to air on 4 July 2012 on Comedy Central. Bender wants to take a photo of an actor whose face has never been seen so he joins the paparazzi.

Plot
Bender takes up photography. He is the last non-digital photographer on Earth, using film due to his preference for the look of film grain. He attempts to photograph Langdon Cobb, an actor called the greatest in the world. Cobb always wears a bag over his head due to his desire to be known for his acting and not his looks. Calculon challenges him for his title, and the two partake in the World Acting Championship: an acting contest to the death.

Meanwhile, the rest of the Planet Express crew have their life forces removed.

Production
In 2012, two revelations concerning the episode were made. On 29 February, CGEF revealed the episode's title, its writer to be Dan Vebber and its director to be Edmund Fong. On 2 May, revealed the episode's plot and air date.

In May, Countdown to Futurama began releasing promotional material for the episode. It has so far released seven items: A design of a new character, the mushroom dog, and part of the storyboard showing the mushroom dog chase Bender on 18 May, a promotional picture showing Fry, Hermes and Amy husks and a character design of Fry and Amy zombies on 19 May, another design of a new character, Langdon Cobb, and part of the storyboard showing an excerpt of an All My Circuits episode on 21 May and a video clip featuring Bender making Zoidberg, Hermes, Amy, Fry, Leela and Farnsworth angry as he attempts to take a photograph of them on 22 May. At the 2011 San Diego Comic-Con, a storyline involving Calculon competing in the World Acting Championship to the death was revealed. On 22 May, the third Countdown to Futurama podcast was released, and David X. Cohen confirmed that the storyline was from "The Thief of Baghead" in the podcast.

Allusions

 * The episode's title is a reference to the film .
 * Fry and Amy's zombie appearances are a reference to the aliens in the 1988 science fiction-horror film .

Continuity

 * Bender's camera makes its first appearance since "The Mutants Are Revolting".

Characters

 * Amy
 * Bender
 * Boxy Robot (as All My Circuits counterpart)
 * Calculon
 * Farnsworth
 * Fry
 * Hermes
 * Debut: Langdon Cobb
 * Leela
 * Monique (as All My Circuits counterpart)
 * Debut: The mushroom dog
 * Debut: The Robot boy