Opening Sequence

The Opening Sequence always appears at the beginning of a Futurama episode.

Synopsis[]

The opening credits begin with the Futurama logo as one letter by one appears when the Planet Express Ship flies past the screen, and a caption appears after the letters flip, which changes each episode (much like the title screen, billboard & chalkboard gags from The Simpsons). After a flash, the Planet Express Ship flies through the logo into New New York. There, the camera goes past Transport tubes, billboards, and other parts of the city showing Hover Cars and buildings. The camera then stops at a big screen showing a classic cartoon (sort of like the show's equivalent of the "couch gags" from The Simpsons). However, in the later seasons the classic cartoon gag being seen in the giant screen was done less frequently, and a lot of episodes from the show's last two seasons don't have it included, instead using an abridged opening with only the opening caption. It then shows the producers' names, Matt Groening and David X. Cohen. The Planet Express Ship crashes into it. The music is inspired by "Psyche Rock" from French composer Pierre Henry, and composed by Christopher Tyng.

This procedure is almost identical to The Simpsons openings, as both of the series were created by Matt Groening.

Usage[]

Some episodes (especially in the first two and sixth seasons) have short chapters called the cold opening before the opening sequence. This could for example be a sponsor, a recap (in Season 5 and the Season 6 premiere) or a shorter joke. In Season 6, most of the episodes so far have had the opening sequence abbreviated, eliminating some of the parts showing the flight of the Planet Express ship as well as the opening cartoon. The last episode to include a cold opening is "The Impossible Stream".

Alienese[]

• The three Alienese signs read "Rent a human", "3D Rulez!" and "Tasty human burgers".

Billboards[]

There are many billboards throughout the sequence. Some are:

• Bachelor Chow
• Mom's Old Fashioned Robot Oil
• Liquid Wisdom (on a yellow taxi rooftop)
• DEF-CON Owl Traps
• Slurm
• Mass Hypnosis Hour
• Flesh-o-poid Dating Service
• Girls, Girls, Aliens
• Robot Wash
• Sexatorium
• All-Tentacle Massage
• Smart Sausages
• Got Protoplasm?

Locations[]

• Public Library
• Girls, Girls, Aliens
• All-Tentacle Massage
• Big Apple Bank
• Sexatorium
• Park 42
• Robot Arms Apts (Season 8 on)

Pipe-line Sightings[]

• Amy, Dr. Zoidberg, Hermes, Kif, Zapp Brannigan, Scruffy, Smitty
• Man with hook for hand with headphones on
• Man reading paper headlined "MOON PIE FIGHT IN MARS BAR"
• Lady with pink hair

Variations[]

There have been some variations. These are:

• In "Mars University", the opening is remixed. Initially, the idea was to have the opening theme remixed for every episode, but this idea was abandoned.
• In "Bender Should Not Be Allowed on Television", John DiMaggio and Billy West (as Fry, Professor Farnsworth and Zoidberg) beat box throughout, with Zoidberg saying his name and the Professor saying Fry's name.
• In "Spanish Fry" beat boxing with singing by Bender.
• In "The Devil's Hands Are Idle Playthings", the opening cartoon is an infinite regress of the screen. The rest of the opening is the same.
• In "Bender's Big Score", there were Planet Express Crew introductions and title cards. TV airings and Hulu prints however shorten the intro by cutting out all of the character introductions (minus Zoidbergs, which is shortened and edited) since it's split into four parts.
• In "The Beast With A Billion Backs", instead of crashing into the screen, the ship turns into a Steamboat Willie parody.
• In "Bender's Game", instead of crashing into the screen, the ship turns into a Yellow Submarine parody.
• In "Into the Wild Green Yonder", the opening credits take place in Mars Vegas to a tune sung by Seth MacFarlane.
• In "Decision 3012", the opening is altered at the end when instead of crashing into the screen, the screen changes into an ad which says "Free Beer" to which the ship turns left and proceeds to fly normally. Bender then takes the steering wheel from Leela and crashes the ship into the screen. This is the first episode in which the opening sequence continues directly into the episode itself.
• In "Viva Mars Vegas", the entire intro is a real-life diorama-like recreation using cardboard and wires (given its caption being "Made by Hand (And Tentacle)"). The screen at the end of the intro featured paper cutouts of the "Colorama: In Glorious Black and White" portion from the episode "Reincarnation".
• In "Naturama", when the ship flies through the logo: Instead of the normal opening sequence, an opening solely used for the episode is feautred, to which then the screen zooms out as if it was an opening cartoon, showing the normal screen credits and the Planet Express Ship crashing into it normally. This is the third episode to feature an alternate opening sequence, after the Into the Wild Green Yonder movie and "Viva Mars Vegas". It is also the only episode to feature original animation in place of a reference or sample of other animation.

In Season 6 (on Comedy Central), most of the title credits are shortened in length removing the cartoon shown on the screen that the ship crashes into (or out of in "The Beast with a Billion Backs" and "Bender's Game"). The only episodes to have the full opening sequence are "Rebirth", "That Darn Katz!", "Benderama", "Yo Leela Leela" and "All the Presidents' Heads".

In the Season 6 episode "The Duh-Vinci Code", the crew travels to Rome through "FutuROMEa" letters, just like "Futurama" in the opening sequence.

In the Season 6 episode "Lrrreconcilable Ndndifferences", a brief opening sequence appears for "Futurella" (a parody of Futurama itself), a TV series set in the year 4000, but nothing flies through the "R" letter and it reveals to be cancelled.

In Season 7, the only episodes that use the full opening sequence are "Decision 3012", "Viva Mars Vegas", "Leela and the Genestalk" and "Stench and Stenchibility". "Forty Percent Leadbelly" and "T.: The Terrestrial" include opening cartoons, but have used shortened versions of the opening sequence without the camera zooming in to New New York.

In Season 8, a slightly different variant appears. When the text first appears, it reads "Hulurama", however the H and L however keep spinning and eventually become an F and T respectively. A rocket-pack wearing dog chasing a cat is added, seen just before the screen crash.

Trivia[]

• None of the characters seen in the tube system appear in the pilot episode, except for Smitty.
• The guy that comes before Amy used to have a hook for a hand until, during the opening of Bender's Big Score, he doesn't have a hook anymore. Instead it is replaced with a real hand.
• In Season 6, when the opening sequence is shorter, the original song is replaced with the one from the opening of Bender's Big Score, except without the character voices.
• The intro for the new episodes appears to look more cyan-like than the green-blue intro from the original series.
• In the Netflix versions, some title gags appear in the captions over a blank intro.
• Repeating joke of Leela crashing into the screen, since she only has one eye.
• In Season 8, before the opening cartoon couch gag, Bender is being carried by a magnet dangling from the bottom of the Planet Express ship, as a reference to the Season 1 episode The Series Has Landed.

Appearances[]

• The entire series.

Gallery[]