Saturday Morning Fun Pit

"Saturday Morning Fun Pit" is the one hundred and thirty-third episode of Futurama, the nineteenth of the seventh production season, the sixth of the tenth broadcast season, and the sixth segmented episode. It aired on 17 July, 2013, on Comedy Central. The Futurama gang stars in a trio of craptastic morning cartoons.

Plot
Amid protests from angry viewers on the White House lawn, the head of Richard Nixon and the headless body of Spiro Agnew host a three-part episode featuring the Futurama gang in parodies of popular Saturday morning cartoons: Bendee Boo and the Mystery Crew (a Scooby-Doo parody featuring appearances by George Takei, Larry Bird, and the Harlem Globetrotters), Purpleberry Pond (a Strawberry Shortcake-meets-The Smurfs mash-up that was only created to plug its super-sugary cereal), and G.I. Zapp (a G.I. Joe parody that Nixon tries to edit for violence himself).

Production
On 2 September, 2012, it was revealed that the Scooby-Doo-esque segment of the episode would guest-star George Takei and Larry Bird.

On 11 December, with the release of Volume 7 and its commentary for "Naturama", it was revealed that the episode would be directed by Crystal Chesney-Thompson.

The Countdown to Futurama posts from 19 May and 20 May, 2013, revealed the title of the Strawberry Shortcake-esque segment to be "Purpleberry Pond" and the title of the Scooby-Doo-esque segment to be "Bendy Boo", respectively. However, the Scooby-Doo-esque segment is actually called "Bendee Boo and the Mystery Crew".

By 9 July, the animatic for the Strawberry Shortcake segment had been released online.

Trivia

 * At one point, the episode's production number was planned to be 7ACV25.
 * This is the first segmented episode of the second run to not be a broadcast-season finale.
 * Fry plays the Shaggy role. This is interesting because Billy West, who voices Fry, provided the voice of Shaggy in Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island.
 * Farnsworth appears in the Purpleberry Pond sketch parodying the Purple Pieman from Strawberry Shortcake.

Allusions

 * In the Bendee Boo segment, the crew members are re-imagined as  characters. Fry plays the role of, Leela plays the role of , Bender plays the role of , Hermes plays the role of and Amy plays the role of.
 * In the first Purpleberry Puffs commercial, there seem to be two chocolate bars next to the bacon and the fried eggs.
 * Nixon renames the Leela character in G.I. Zapp as Pat. This is a reference to Nixon's wife &mdash;.
 * Fry's name in the G.I. Zapp segment is Freezer Burn, a reference to the fact that he was frozen at the beginning of the show and has been frozen multiple times since.
 * One of the protesters outside of the White House holds a sign which reads "Bring Back Sea Hunt!".  was an American adventure TV show that began in 1958 and was cancelled in 1961.
 * At the end of the episode, the announcer says "Now stay tuned for six hours of golf," angering Headless Spiro Agnew. This is a reference to the real Agnew's bad golf playing where he would sometimes accidentally hit spectators with his golf ball.

Continuity

 * The professor also kept lengths of wire in "Space Pilot 3000".

Characters

 * Amy
 * Bender
 * Bubblegum
 * Cubert
 * Curly Joe
 * Dwight
 * Farnsworth
 * Fry
 * George Takei's head
 * Globetrotters
 * H.G. Blob
 * Hermes
 * Headless clone of Agnew
 * Huge-assed woman
 * Kif
 * Larry Bird
 * Leela
 * Debut: Micky
 * Randy Munchnik
 * Richard Nixon's head
 * Rose Mary
 * Scruffy
 * Debut: Sergeant
 * Sweet Clyde
 * Zapp
 * Zoidberg

Places

 * Japan
 * Oval Office
 * Planet Express headquarters
 * Washington, D.C.
 * White House