24 Facts You Probably Didn't Know About Futurama

1. Fry’s outfit is modeled after James Dean’s famous red jacket from Rebel Without A Cause.

2. The line “Why not Zoidberg” is never uttered in the show.

3. Leela’s full name Turanga Leela is named after Olivier Messiaen’s 1948 “Turangalîla-Symphonie.”

4. There is an episode that consists entirely of the Hypnotoad. It’s 22 minutes long and ends with a voiceover saying “the audience will wake up remembering nothing and feeling refreshed.”

5. The alien language in the background has been changed twice because fans kept figuring it out.

6. Professor Farnsworth is named for Philo Farnsworth, inventor of the first working television.

7. The planet express ship is supposedly modeled to look like its pilot, Leela.

8. The title Futurama comes from a 1939 General Motors World’s Fair exhibt about “the world of tomorrow.”

9. In one episode, the cast switched bodies and the writers had to actually invent a new mathematical theorem to get them back in their bodies again.

10. Bender is named after John Bender from The Breakfast Club

11. Fry’s voice actor Billy West is responsible for pretty much every famous character of the past 20 years.

12. The robot cop that says “aww yeah” all the time is named Officer URL.

13. Fry’s dog Seymour is based off a real dog named Hachikō who waited for his master for 10 years.

14. Leela’s armband is called a “Wristlojackimator.”

15. Shockingly, Frank Welker, the actor who voices Nibbler, used to voice Megatron in Transformers.

16. Phillip J. Fry is named for Phil Hartman, who sadly passed away before the show began.

17. Zapp Brannigan’s voice is based on Phil Hartman’s characters from The Simpsons.

18. Anywhere you see an owl is where you’d normally see a rat, implying owls in the future are the new vermin.

19. Al Gore’s a pretty huge fan of the show himself, appearing several times.

20. Stephen Hawking voices himself on both Futurama and The Simpsons, but not Family Guy.

21. Kirsten Gore, Al Gore’s daughter, has written for Futurama.

22. Bender’s first words coming out of the factory were, “Bite my shiny metal ass.” He’s also drinking a beer.

23. Matt Groening claims the idea for Futurama came to him while listening to the song “Robot Blues” by The Incredible String Band.

24. FOX hated the idea of using 30th Century FOX at the end of Futurama episodes until Matt Groening went ahead and bought the rights to it.