The Series Has Landed

"The Series Has Landed" or "Episode Two: The Series Has Landed" is the second episode of Futurama and of the first season. It aired 4 April, 1999 on FOX. Planet Express gets an order to ship to the moon, the new crew's first mission. This episode also serves as a presentation for the remainder of the primary characters, Dr. Zoidberg, Amy Wong and Hermes Conrad.

Act I: "Here's your package, Mr. Horrible Gelatinous Blob."
Professor Farnsworth shows the new crew his new commercial, which he's paid to have aired during the Superbowl ("Not on the same channel, of course.") The Professor then attempts to make breakfast, but is attacked by a giant bird that hatches from one of the eggs he was going to use.

Act II: "Is there a human doctor around?"
Hermes opens Planet Express for the day, and brings in a package to be delivered to Luna Park. Professor Farnsworth chooses Leela to be the new captain, and Hermes has her sign a "standard" legal release - which includes death by airlock failure, death by brain parasites, and death by sonic diarrhoea. Fry goes to Dr. Zoidberg for a physical, and Bender gets cleaned. Amy Wong is introduced as the engineering intern, and Leela asks if she's of the Mars Wongs. Leela forces her to reveal that she is a member of the sorority Kappa Kappa Wong. Fry asks to do the countdown, but is barely at nine - when Leela says that they've arrived. Fry asks for cuts in the line, but is denied.

Act III: "They landed an amusement park on the moon!"
Everyone but Fry is bored in Luna Park. But, eventually, even he becomes frustrated with the fakeness of everything - so he derails their car from the "Lunar Lander" ride, and drives out into undeveloped moon. When there is an accident, Leela and Fry end up trapped on the moon and short of oxygen. Meanwhile, back inside the park, Bender and Amy are trying to recover the keys to the ship - which Amy accidentally dropped into the crate of claw-machine prizes they were delivering. Bender is caught trying to get the keys, and they assume he's cheating and eject him from the park.

Act IV: "Don't be a-touchin' my 3 beautiful robot daughters!"
Fry and Leela take refuge in the dome of a lunar redneck farmer. They're forced to do chores in exchange for oxygen and shelter. Fry and Leela are busy milking two Buggalos, when Bender is caught sleeping with the farmer's robot daughters. Fry, Leela, and Bender drive away in the farmer's moon-buggy - and the farmer and two of his daughters chase after them in the third robot daughter, The Crushinator. They are foiled when The Crushinator refuses to jump a chasm, filled with Space Alligators, to continue the chase. Just when they think they're free, the lunar night comes. They run away from the lethal cold, and take shelter in the lunar lander from the original moon landing. They close the door before Bender can enter, and he leaves - only to make a pass at The Crushinator, whom he said needed to be romanced first. Bender is once again chased off by the lunar farmer. They are all saved by Amy, who has learned to control the winch by practising the claw-machine when she was trying to get the ship's keys.

Production
The script for "The Series Has Landed" was written by Ken Keeler, for which this episode was seen as a test of whether the format would stand. The episode introduces the last three primary characters, Hermes Conrad, Dr. John A. Zoidberg and Amy Wong. Which was somewhat not entirely simple for the writers, as introducing three lesser primary characters in a single scene was not easy.

The advertisement during the cold opening was originally supposed to be a lot more dark, where the man inside the blob would slowly decay into a skeleton. In an early version of the cold opening, the crew would actually meet the crew's former captain, whom would very quickly get very angry with the new crew and then immediately died. And instead of the giant eggs at the end, the Professor were originally to put on a giant chicken costume instead.

Originally, David X. Cohen and Matt Groening was actually considering Fry to be the captain, but they decided on Leela as it seem more funny to have him as the underdog. This was also to match the more "sexy babe" science-fiction style heroine, that Matt Groening had in mind for Leela.

Hermes was not written as Jamaican in the first versions, and he was even recorded without an accent for several episodes, which then had to be re-recorded. In addition, his name was "Dexter" and not Hermes, but was changed by Matt Groening to fit the style of the character.

The name for Dr Zoidberg came from a video game David X. Cohen had been working on for 3 years during college for the, but the video game never actually went through, and his naming was a homage to that wasted effort. The idea from the character was based on Star Trek's, whom would often perform surgery on many non-human species. And Cohen felt that someone like Mr Spock would feel rather uncomfortable having someone of a different species operate on him, so Cohen's idea was to have someone who had no understanding of human anatomy operate on them anyway.

By this point in the show, Sal had not gotten to point where he would add s'es to random words. That would be before much later, where he would also change jobs on each time we met him.

During the folksinging scene, it was easy to obtain the rights for "", but not "", which they wanted later instead. The gopher scene originally had material for 20 minutes, which considered of almost nothing but puns and other gopher jokes.

The lunar lander scene was originally going to have 's head helping the crew escape, but apparently cooler heads prevailed. Late in the script did the writers notice the issue with the lander, as it would have been blasted off when the astronauts left the moon originally. The solution was to insert a sticker inside the lander to specify that it was actually a replica of the lander, placed by the "Historical Sticklers Society".

Reception
"The Series Has Landed" aired 4 April, 1999, and the last episode to air on Fox's Sunday line up, after which it was move to its Tuesday line up, where expectations were for it to loose ratings as a consequence. It gained a of 8.1/14 in homes.

Ken Keeler was nominated for an Annie Award for his "Outstanding Individual Achievement for Writing in an Animated Television Production" for this episode.

In 2006, IGN ranked it as the 19th best episode on its 25 best Futurama episode list.

Trivia

 * The 20th-century car on display at Luna Park is very similar to an AMC Pacer.
 * Originally, the person who H. G. Blob ate was to disintegrate into a skeleton, but it was deemed too gruesome, and the milder version that we now know was made.
 * The hydroponic farmer's moon car is modelled after the moon car used by the Apollo missions.
 * Inside the Lunar lander there is a plaque that says "This lander returned to this site by the historical stickler's society"
 * This is because, the writers realised that when the original Apollo crew took off, only the descent module of the lander would remain.
 * Fry almost suffocates again in Love and Rocket.
 * The games at Luna Park include:
 * Skeeball
 * Virtual Skeeball
 * Virtual Virtual Skeeball
 * Mortal Kooperation
 * Gender-neutral Pac-Person
 * Dodecapede

Continuity

 * A magnet affects Bender's inhibition unit again.
 * Bender plays folk music on a banjo.
 * The Hydroponic Farmer shows he is still mad at the crew.
 * It is revealed The Crushinator has given birth to a child.
 * The Hydroponic Farmer shows he is still mad at the crew.
 * It is revealed The Crushinator has given birth to a child.
 * It is revealed The Crushinator has given birth to a child.
 * It is revealed The Crushinator has given birth to a child.

Allusions

 * "The happiest place orbiting Earth" is a reference to Disneyland, whose slogan is "The happiest place on Earth"
 * The lunar farmer's hat, which reads "THE MOON SHALL RISE AGAIN" is a reference to similar sayings of the confederate south ("The South shall rise again").
 * Crater Face, the moon mascot, after bender sticks his beer bottle into his eye, looks like a famous scene from Melies's movie "A trip to the moon" Picture
 * The Moon Patrol is a reference to the arcade game Moon Patrol

Alien Language Sightings
Time:09:00

Location: Awning in Luna Park

Language: AL1

Translation: TASTY HUMAN BURGERS

Characters

 * Debut: Amy
 * Bender
 * Debut: Buggalo
 * Debut: Craterface
 * Debut: The Crushinator
 * Debut: Daisy Mae 128k
 * Debut: Dr. Zoidberg
 * Fry
 * Debut: Goofy Gophers
 * Debut: Hydroponic Farmer
 * Debut: H.G. Blob
 * Debut: Hermes
 * Leela
 * Debut: Lulubelle 7
 * Debut: Moon Patrol
 * Prof. Farnsworth
 * Debut: Sal
 * Debut: Whalers on The Moon

Episode Credits

 * Writer
 * Ken Keeler
 * Director
 * Peter Avanzino
 * Voices
 * Billy West
 * Katey Sagal
 * John DiMaggio
 * Tress MacNeille
 * Lauren Tom
 * Phil LaMarr
 * Maurice LaMarche
 * DVD Commentary
 * David X. Cohen
 * John DiMaggio
 * Ken Keeler
 * Matt Groening
 * Peter Avanzino
 * Rich Moore