"Roswell That Ends Well" is the 19th episode in the third season of the American animated television series ''

Futurama ''Futurama'' is an American animated science fiction sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series follows the adventures of the professional slacker Philip J. Fry, who is cryogenically preserved for 1000 years ...

''. It originally aired on the

Fox network The Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly known simply as Fox and stylized in all caps as FOX, is an American commercial broadcast television network owned by Fox Corporation and headquartered in New York City, with master control operations ...

in the United States on December 9, 2001. The plot centers on an accidental time travel event that results in the main characters participating in the

Roswell Incident The Roswell incident was an event that occurred in 1947, pertaining to the recovery of mundane metallic and rubber debris from a military balloon that crashed near Corona, New Mexico by United States Army Air Forces officers from Roswell Army ...

in 1947. The episode was written by J. Stewart Burns and directed by

Rich Moore Rich Moore is an American film and television animation director, screenwriter and voice actor. He has directed the films ''Wreck-It Ralph'' (2012) and co-directed ''Zootopia'' (2016) and ''Ralph Breaks the Internet'' (2018) for Walt Disney A ...

. "Roswell That Ends Well" scored a

Nielsen rating Nielsen Media Research (NMR) is an American firm that measures media audiences, including television, radio, theatre, films (via the AMC Theatres MAP program), and newspapers. Headquartered in New York City, it is best known for the Nielsen rati ...

of 3.1 during its original broadcast, and it received acclaim from television critics, with many hailing it as one of the best episodes of ''Futurama''. It won an

Emmy Award The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...

for Outstanding Animated Program (Programming Less Than One Hour) in 2002.

Plot

As the crew watch a

supernova A supernova is a powerful and luminous explosion of a star. It has the plural form supernovae or supernovas, and is abbreviated SN or SNe. This transient astronomical event occurs during the last evolutionary stages of a massive star or whe ...

, Fry puts a metal pan of popcorn into the ship's

microwave oven A microwave oven (commonly referred to as a microwave) is an electric oven that heats and cooks food by exposing it to electromagnetic radiation in the microwave frequency range. This induces polar molecules in the food to rotate and produce ...

. The radiation causes the pan to emit sparks, which interact with the particles thrown off by the supernova and send the ship back to 1947. Since GPS technology does not yet exist in this time period, the crew have no way to navigate the ship accurately and crash-land in

Roswell, New Mexico Roswell () is a city in, and the seat of, Chaves County in the U.S. state of New Mexico. Chaves County forms the entirety of the Roswell micropolitan area. As of the 2020 census it had a population of 48,422, making it the fifth-largest city ...

. Refusing to wear a seat belt like the rest of the crew, Bender is flung through the windshield on impact and smashed to pieces. The crew and Bender's disembodied head seek out a way to return to the 31st century, leaving

Zoidberg Dr. John A. Zoidberg, often referred to only by his last name, is a fictional character from the animated series ''Futurama''. He is a Decapodian, a crustacean-like species of alien, who works as the staff doctor for ''Planet Express'', despite hi ...

behind to pick up the pieces. Zoidberg is captured by the U.S. military and taken to Roswell Air Base for experimentation. Assuming the pieces are the remnants of a flying saucer, the military "reconstructs" Bender's body as such. Meanwhile, the microwave oven needed to return to the future has been destroyed and a replacement is not yet commercially available. A

microwave Microwave is a form of electromagnetic radiation with wavelengths ranging from about one meter to one millimeter corresponding to frequencies between 300 MHz and 300 GHz respectively. Different sources define different frequency ra ...

antenna from the army base would work as a viable alternative, but

Professor Farnsworth Professor Hubert J. Farnsworth, commonly referred to in-show as either Professor Farnsworth or simply Professor, is a fictional character in the American animated television series ''Futurama''. The mad scientist proprietor of the Planet Express ...

warns that stealing it could change history. He likewise warns Fry against visiting his grandfather, Enos, who is stationed at the base, as he might kill Enos and erase his own existence. However, Farnsworth's advice has the opposite effect; Fry becomes determined to seek out Enos and encourage him to pursue a sexual relationship with his fiancée Mildred. After several bumbling attempts to keep Enos safe (as well as discovering that Enos is a latent homosexual), Fry resorts to locking him in an abandoned house. The house turns out to be located in the middle of a

nuclear weapon A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission (fission bomb) or a combination of fission and fusion reactions ( thermonuclear bomb), producing a nuclear explosion. Both bomb ...

testing range, and Enos is killed in a bomb test. When Fry visits Mildred to console her on Enos' death, she begins to seduce him. Realizing that his existence has not been erased, he concludes that she cannot be his grandmother. The two have sex that night and are found by the rest of the crew the following morning. Seeing that Mildred has begun to act like his grandmother, Fry panics after Farnsworth tells him that he has become his own grandfather. With time running out, Farnsworth decides that secrecy is no longer important and the crew storm Roswell Air Base by force to get the microwave dish, throwing the entire complex into disarray. Fry and Leela rescue Zoidberg from an

alien autopsy The alien autopsy is a 17-minute black-and-white film supposedly depicting a secret medical examination or autopsy of an alien by the United States military.Barton, Steve (September 30, 2010)"Ray Santilli, Gary Shoefield Talk the Real Alien Aut ...

while Farnsworth grabs Bender's body. As the ship leaves Earth's atmosphere and triggers the microwave dish for the time jump, Bender's head falls out and has to be left behind in 1947. Back in the 31st century, Fry laments the loss of Bender, until he realizes that his head must still be where it landed in New Mexico. The crew return to Roswell's ruins with a

metal detector A metal detector is an instrument that detects the nearby presence of metal. Metal detectors are useful for finding metal objects on the surface, underground, and under water. The unit itself, consist of a control box, and an adjustable shaft, ...

and dig up the head, still intact and functioning. They attach it to Bender's still-mangled, hovering, "

UFO An unidentified flying object (UFO), more recently renamed by US officials as a UAP (unidentified aerial phenomenon), is any perceived aerial phenomenon that cannot be immediately identified or explained. On investigation, most UFOs are ide ...

" body and return to New New York, content that their misadventures in 1947 have not changed history in any way.

Production

The writing team came up with the idea for this episode when they were planning the three plot lines for "

Anthology of Interest II "Anthology of Interest II" is the 18th episode of ''Futurama''s third season . It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on January 6, 2002. This episode, as well as the earlier " Anthology of Interest I", serves to showcase thr ...

". As the idea developed they eventually had so much material for it that they broke it out as a separate episode. The reason the concept was originally under consideration for the "What if..." scenario was that when Groening and Cohen originally created ''Futurama'' they decided there would not be any time travel; however they changed their mind and decided to go forward with the idea. The writers did not want to create a situation that would leave fans wondering why the Planet Express crew could not simply travel through time on a regular basis. For this purpose they chose to have it occur unintentionally during a

as that was deemed to be a suitably rare occurrence. ''Futurama'' has returned to the theme of time travel twice since; in '' Futurama: Bender's Big Score'', although the cause of time travel is different, and in "

The Late Philip J. Fry "The Late Philip J. Fry" is the seventh episode in the sixth season of the American animated television series '' Futurama'', and the 95th episode of the series overall. It originally aired on Comedy Central on July 29, 2010. In the episode, F ...

", which involves a time machine that can only travel forwards in time – to specifically avoid creating a paradox. In this episode, director Rich Moore used screen position and character movement to mimic the time travel aspects of the plot. In the planning stages it was decided that actions that played to screen left would represent events from the past or a setback to the plot. Likewise, screen right indicated progress or moving past their problems.

Cultural references

TV critic Rob Owen perceived the episode to have touched upon many of the plot devices and themes commonly seen in

time travel Time travel is the concept of movement between certain points in time, analogous to movement between different points in space by an object or a person, typically with the use of a hypothetical device known as a time machine. Time travel is a ...

stories, most notably the ''

Back to the Future ''Back to the Future'' is a 1985 American science fiction film directed by Robert Zemeckis, and written by Zemeckis and Bob Gale. It stars Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Lea Thompson, Crispin Glover, and Thomas F. Wilson. Set in 1985, ...

'' and '' Terminator'' movies. The episode also shares much in common with the ''

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine ''Star Trek: Deep Space Nine'' (abbreviated as ''DS9'') is an American science fiction television series created by Rick Berman and Michael Piller. The fourth series in the ''Star Trek'' media franchise, it originally aired in syndication from ...

'' episode "

Little Green Men Little green men is the stereotypical portrayal of extraterrestrials as little humanoid creatures with green skin and sometimes with antennae on their heads. The term is also sometimes used to describe gremlins, mythical creatures known for cau ...

". Bender's head lying buried in the sand for centuries recalls the same thing happening to the android

Data In the pursuit of knowledge, data (; ) is a collection of discrete values that convey information, describing quantity, quality, fact, statistics, other basic units of meaning, or simply sequences of symbols that may be further interpret ...

's head in the '' Star Trek: The Next Generation'' episode " Time's Arrow". Much of Enos' character is taken from

Gomer Pyle Gomer Pyle is a fictional character played by Jim Nabors and introduced in the middle of the third season of ''The Andy Griffith Show''. A naïve and gentle auto mechanic, he became a character in the January 1963 episode, ''Man in a Hurry''. ...

, such as his accent and use of Pyle's trademark "Go-oooly!", which was parodied as "Gadzooks!".

Broadcast and reception

The episode won an

in the Outstanding Animated Program (Programming Less Than One Hour) category in 2002, marking ''Futurama''s first win in this category. Rich Moore also won an

Annie Award The Annie Awards are accolades which the Los Angeles branch of the International Animated Film Association, ASIFA-Hollywood, has presented each year since 1972 to recognize excellence in animation shown in cinema and television. Originally de ...

for "Directing in an Animated Television Production" in 2002 and in 2006, IGN ranked the episode as the sixth best ''Futurama'' episode. In 2013, they reassessed the list and upgraded it to third best. In 2001, executive producer David X. Cohen noted that this was one of his favorite episodes of the series. ''Sci Fi Weekly'' gave the episode an "A" grade and noted that it was "a half hour of pure entertainment". Zack Handlen of '' The A.V. Club'' gave the episode an A. This episode is one of four featured in the ''Monster Robot Maniac Fun Collection'', marking it as one of

Matt Groening Matthew Abram Groening ( ; born February 15, 1954) is an American cartoonist, writer, producer, and animator. He is the creator of the comic strip ''Life in Hell'' (1977–2012) and the television series ''The Simpsons'' (1989–present), ''Fut ...

's favorite episodes from the series.

Claudia Katz Claudia Katz is an American animation producer. Katz is a partner and Executive Vice President of Rough Draft Studios. Life Katz is a graduate of Franklin & Marshall College Class of 1988. Katz is Jewish. In 1994, Katz joined Rough Draft Studi ...

, producer of ''Futurama'', has also stated that this is one of her three favorite episodes of the series. In 2013, it was ranked number 5 "as voted on by fans" for Comedy Central's ''Futurama'' Fanarama marathon. Although the episode was well received by critics, it continued to do poorly in its time slot. The original airing was in 83rd place for the week with a 3.1 rating/5 share.

References

External links

*
Episode capsule at GotFuturama.com
* Roswell That Ends Well at

The Infosphere ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...