The Six Million Dollar Mon

"The Six Million Dollar Mon" is the one hundred and twenty-first episode of Futurama, the seventh of the seventh production season and the ninth broadcast season.

Plot
Hermes upgrades his body with robot parts. Zoidberg makes a dummy out of Hermes' old body parts and goes on the road as a ventriloquist.

Production
On 28 July 2011, it was revealed at that, in an episode of the seventh production season, "Hermes [would] realize he [was] less efficient than a machine, so he [would] chop some unnecessary parts of his body and [would] become a cyborg". On 30 August, a photograph of the cover of the episode's production script was posted on a blog - revealing the episode's title. On 29 February 2012, CGEF confirmed the episode's title and revealed its writer to be Ken Keeler and its director to be Peter Avanzino.

In June, Countdown to Futurama began releasing promotional material for the episode. It has so far released eight items: A promotional picture showing Leela, Amy, Zoidberg, Farnsworth, a  Hermes, Bender and Fry in the Planet Express employee lounge and a design of the mecha Hermes - together with the revelation that the episode was the one associated with the Hermes plot at the San Diego Comic-Con - on 6 June, a design of the cover of the magazine Astounding Tales on 7 June, part of the storyboard showing Bender suggest to Hermes getting an implant on 8 June, a design of a new character, Mark 7-G, on 9 June, a design of Hermes with an extendo arm and cycloscanner eyes and a design of four stages undergone by a ventriloquist dummy of Hermes on 10 June, a promotional picture showing Zoidberg controlling the Hermes dummy on 11 June and a video clip featuring Hermes - with the extendo arm and the cycloscanner eyes - and LaBarbara in bed on 12 June.

By 8 June, had revealed the episode's air date.

Comedy Central's website released another promotional picture, showing mecha Hermes about to drive a drill into Farnsworth's head.

On 12 June, following the broadcast of the episode "Zapp Dingbat", the public were given the opportunity to participate in a live chat with the Futurama cast and crew. Several clips of "The Six Million Dollar Mon" were shown during the live stream.

Allusions

 * The episode's title is a reference to the American television series  -  is, like Hermes here, a cyborg - and the fact that Hermes pronounces "man" as "mon".
 * Astounding Tales is a reference to the American science fiction magazine ' - which was initially published as "Astounding Stories" - and the American anthology comic book series '.
 * Hermes reads a book called "The Invisible Mon" - which is a reference to the H. G. Wells science fiction novella .
 * Lightsaber sounds are used for Hermes' infrared upgrades.

Trivia

 * This is the second episode of season 7 where a recurring character has been killed (The first being Calculon in "The Thief of Baghead").

Characters

 * Amy
 * Bender
 * Farnsworth
 * Fry
 * Hermes
 * LaBarbara
 * Leela
 * Debut: Mark 7-G
 * Roberto
 * Scruffy
 * Zoidberg