2-D Blacktop

"2-D Blacktop" is the one hundred and twenty-ninth episode of Futurama, the fifteenth of the seventh production season and the first of the tenth broadcast season. It aired on 19 June 2013 on Comedy Central. Professor Farnsworth joins a gang of street-racing punks.

Production
On 14 December 2011, geek blog posted a picture of the episode's production script to their  page. The picture was accompanied by the following description.

"got to see Matt Groening, Leela AND Fry (Leela has two eyes and looks like FYI). No Bender though (I think he was scared)"

In February 2012, the episode's title was registered on the US.

On 5 February 2013, released a preview clip for the tenth broadcast season, which contained footage from the episode.

On 30 April, Comedy Central released a preview clip of the episode as the first item in the year's Countdown to Futurama, and revealed the episode's air date.

Trivia

 * The Professor names the Planet Express ship "Bessie".
 * Coincidentally, the upcoming game  will feature a Möbius-strip track.
 * The music used during the inner city chase between Professor Farnsworth and the gang of street-racing punks is the song "Highway Star" by the band Deep Purple.

Allusions

 * The episode's title is a reference to the 1971 road movie , directed by and starring, ,  and.
 * The episode itself is a reference to the 1884 book , written by.
 * A wrecked from the Star Trek franchise can be seen in the scrap when the Professor approaches Impound Lot 136.
 * The Bonneville Salt Flatlands in Flatbush are a reference to the located in Utah. There is also an area of the flats known as the, where many  have been broken.
 * At 2:50, Leela and Fry visit Elzar's fine cuisine, where the "specials" board advertises todays specials to be "Them! Any Style". This is an allusion to the 1954 Sci-Fi film "Them!", whose plot revolves around giant irradiated ants. At 2:52, Fry and Leela can be seen eating a pair of giant ants, inside Elzar's.

Continuity

 * Bender's vandalism tile-art from "Proposition Infinity" re-appears.
 * Fry previously did karate in "Attack of the Killer App" and "Forty Percent Leadbelly".

Goofs

 * Leela introduces the new ship as slower to make it safer, however later on she is able to beat the old ship in a drag race.
 * When they are in the race, the Professor is wearing his racing clothes (black leather lab coat, black hat) but when he arrives in the second dimension he is wearing his standard attire.
 * Initially the Lords of Flatbush have guns, but when chasing the crew they only have spears.
 * It's possible that spears were the closest weapons at hand for the Lords to chase the crew with.
 * The Professor makes it clear that it's impossible to go around others in the second dimension, but when they are eating at the castle, several of the creatures are sitting behind them.
 * The creatures are actually above, not behind. As the Professor says, the laws of physics in Flatbush are different.
 * Hermes claims the crew has only been gone for five minutes, however it was afternoon when they left, and it's clearly dusk when they arrive back.

Characters

 * Albert (montage)
 * Amy
 * Auctioneer
 * Bender
 * Debut: Benny
 * Crack addict
 * Professor Farnsworth
 * Fry
 * Hermes
 * H.G. Blob
 * Debut: King of Flatbush
 * Leela
 * Debut: Lords of Flatbush
 * Debut: Minx
 * Nina (montage)
 * Debut: Pimparoo
 * Randy Munchnik
 * Sal
 * Sally (montage)
 * Sam (human) (montage)
 * Scruffy
 * Smitty
 * Debut: Speed Racer
 * Debut: Street-racing gang
 * URL
 * Debut: Yellow car

Places

 * Debut: Big Boy Karate
 * Debut: Bonneville Salt Flatlands
 * Debut: Flatbush
 * Debut: Glorianimous 3
 * Debut: Möbius drag strip
 * Impound Lot 136
 * Debut: New New Jack City
 * Planet Express conference room
 * Planet Express hangar
 * Planet Express headquarters
 * Planet Express lab
 * Debut: Thingly Wiggly
 * Tokyo