Futurama's Three Greatest Guest Stars, According To The Series' Co-Creator
Because "Futurama" is set 1,000 years in the future, show creators David X. Cohen and Matt Groening had to invent a sci-fi conceit that would provide an organic reason to include celebrity cameos. Thanks to a special fluid, human heads can be kept alive in jars more or less indefinitely. In the very first episode, the head of Dick Clark hosted a televised New Year's Eve special to ring in the year 3000. Clark played himself. Since then, multiple other celebrities have played their own severed heads, including the Beastie Boys, the cast of "Star Trek," Al Gore, Conan O'Brien, Beck, Lucy Liu, Penn Jillette, and most recently, Bill Nye.
Of course, Cohen and Groening were more creative than merely storing severed heads in jars, and multiple other notable actors have continued to appear on "Futurama" as robots, aliens, space deities, and other sci-fi creatures. John Goodman, for instance, played the homicidal robot Santa Claus in the 1999 episode "Xmas Story," while Nora Dunn played a stern, strict futuristic bureaucrat. Parker Posey played a mermaid, Pauly Shore played a full-body version of himself (he was cryogenically frozen), and Hank Aaron played one of his own distant descendants. David Cross voiced the billion-tentacled — and hopelessly lovelorn — cosmic entity Yivo. Amusingly, when the makers of "Futurama" wanted a cameo from Howard Cosell, they hired Rich Little ... to play Rich Little doing his Howard Cosell impersonation.
Back in 2011, after "Futurama" had been revived for a second time, Cohen spoke with the website Spoiler TV to discuss the present and the future of "Futurama," and looked back on the show's many, many guest stars. He even came up with a list of the three best "Futurama" guest performances.
Everyone loves the Femputer
In the 2001 episode "Amazon Women in the Mood," the Planet Express crew visited the planet of Amazonia, which was populated by nine-foot-tall, ultra-muscular Amazonian women, clearly inspired by the drawings of R. Crumb. At the center of the Amazonian village is an ultra-intelligent fem-puter voiced by special guest star Bea Arthur. While the Amazonians subject the male characters to an attempted "death by snu-snu," Bender (John DiMaggio) attempts to "hack" the fem-puter, but finds there is a fem-bot secretly hiding inside of it, pulling the strings herself. The Bea Arthur fem-bot has some truly strange lines of dialogue, and Cohen recalls being impressed by Arthur's readings. She was one of the best, he stated, saying:
"[B]efore she came in I thought, 'Well it's kind of a weird choice, and we'll score points for unexpected casting.' She played the fem-bot who was controlling the fem-puter Amazon home world, but she was so funny and gave it such a serious, straight reading to this jibberish [...] 'Have you any idea what it's like to be a fem-bot on a man-bot man-puter's world?' She gave this little speech which was nothing but jibberish in the most heartfelt reading. I thought she gave one of the great 'Futurama' guest performances."
By the end of the episode, Bender and the fem-bot have formed a hasty romance. Sadly, Arthur would not return to "Futurama."
Kristin Gore's dad
When Kristin Gore was hired as a writer on "Futurama," her experience writing for National Lampoon was of utmost importance. The fact that her father was Vice President Al Gore was something Cohen and Groening didn't learn until much later. Indeed — according to a "Futurama" DVD commentary track — Al Gore was hired to play himself on "Futurama" without knowing Kristin's connection. Gore first played himself in the 2000 episode "Anthology of Interest I," where he oversaw a cadre of super-intellectuals that included Nichelle Nichols and "Dungeons & Dragons" creator Gary Gygax, both playing themselves. Tress MacNeille played the voice of Deep Blue, the chess computer. There was a fifth member as well (see below).
Gore reappeared on "Futurama" several times thereafter, sometimes as his full-bodied self, and sometimes as a regal head-in-a-jar that served as Emperor of the Moon. Sample dialogue: "I have ridden the mighty Moon Worm!" One might note that May of 2000 was when Gore was still serving as Vice President under Bill Clinton, and Cohen recalled going to Washington to record Gore's lines:
"But Al Gore, of course, is always really exciting. He's been in four times I think now. The first time we recorded him we actually recorded him at the official vice-presidential residence in Washington, D.C., so that had to be one of the highlights of 'Futurama' guest recordings."
By 2011, Gore had indeed appeared on "Futurama" four times. In addition to "Anthology," he was also in "Crimes of the Hot," had two scenes in "Bender's Big Score," and appeared in "The Futurama Holiday Spectacular." Gore returned in the most recent reboot of "Futurama" in the episode "Related to Items You've Viewed."
Toss it in the garbage
Cohen is, if one couldn't already intuit, a science-brained nerd who loves astronomy, physics, and mathematics. Indeed, Cohen has a B.A. in physics and an M.S. in computer science. Naturally, he geeked out a little bit when Stephen Hawking, the theoretical cosmologist from Cambridge and superstar astral physicist, appeared on his show. Hawking was the aforementioned fifth member of the super-intellectual cadre in "Anthology of Interest I." Hawking would also appear in the movie "The Beast with a Billion Backs" and the episode "Reincarnation." In at least one episode, he was a head in a jar equipped with powerful eye lasers.
Cohen liked his conversation with Hawking, recalling:
"I actually got to talk to Stephen Hawking; I had a brief chat with him about superstition and unlucky numbers. He made a comment that often Physics departments are on the 13th floor of whatever building they're in because physicists never care about that kind of thing. So, just people you would never expected to find yourself in conversation with, such as Stephen Hawking or Al Gore or Bea Arthur. It's a frequent occurrence, actually you know. Almost anyone we get is very surreal. Those stand out."
And this doesn't even count the time Cohen — and the rest of the "Futurama" staff — geeked out when William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy were in the recording booth at the same time.
Personally, I would have lost my cool when Mark Mothersbaugh came in to play a mutant who was 40% potato, a literal spud boy. Or when Sergio Aragonés appeared as himself. No self-respecting MAD Magazine reader could avoid blowing their top.