Early Drafts Of Futurama Had A Very Different Purpose For Bender
In the seventh episode of "Futurama," called "My Three Suns" (May 4, 1999), Hermes Conrad (Phil LaMarr) finally notices that Bender (John DiMaggio) the alcoholic robot, doesn't really seem to fulfill any specific function at Planet Express. Rather than face a cut in his salary, Bender proposes to be the company chef. This is an issue for two reasons. First, Bender has no skill whatsoever in the culinary arts, and second, Bender has no sense of taste. His inaugural meal as the company chef is a salted slug served with glasses of salt water. The reaction from a disgusted Fry (Billy West) says it all, "That's the saltiest thing I've ever tasted! And I once ate a big heaping bowl of salt!" Bender defends himself by saying that the salt levels were fine, being 10% less than a lethal dose.
Bender's obsession with cooking would be explored several additional times throughout "Futurama." Bender often proclaimed his admiration for the Emeril Lagasse-like alien chef Elzar (DiMaggio), and in "The 30% Iron Chef" (April 14, 2002), Bender competed on a cooking game show against Elzar. Despite training and passion, Bender always openly sucked at being a chef.
It seems that, during the development phase of "Futurama," Bender was initially meant to be the company chef from the start. On the DVD commentary track for "My Three Suns," show co-creator David X. Cohen recalled some of the early vocations he and Matt Groening considered for Bender before realizing he was funnier as a shiftless, alcoholic slob and freelance criminal who didn't really do much of anything.
Chef, translator, or slugabed?
On the commentary track, David X. Cohen said plainly:
"In early conceptions of the series, Bender was gonna be the chef in every episode, that was gonna be his main function in the show. Then we canned that. Then he was gonna be the translator. Then it turned out it was funnier just having him be a lazy bum."
Indeed, Bender, despite his name, is rarely called upon to bend anything, and he isn't a really good delivery robot. When asked to do anything resembling work, Bender whines or finds an excuse not to do it. He makes up holidays on the spot merely to proclaim that he needs the day off for religious reasons. When visiting alien worlds, he shoplifts a lot, usually leaving the planet with more than he delivered. Having Bender be the Planet Express chef would have kept him too much in the realm of "gross food jokes." There are plenty of those on "Futurama" — Soylent Cola, Slurm, Fried Popplers, cricket-and-silt pizza, Bachelor Chow (now with flavor!) — without Bender's revolting cuisine.
When Bender's passion for cooking was mentioned on the commentary track, Cohen replied "It's more of a hobby." If cooking was merely an interest or a hobby for Bender, then "He can have, like, a hundred hobbies like folk singing and cooking and can pursue them as it suits us for stories." It also communicated to audiences that Bender is a character without direction. He has passions and longs to be regarded as a chef or a folk singer ("Froggy went a-courtin' and he did ride, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, something and Bender is great!"), but more than anything follows his pre-evolutionary animal impulses.
Or, I suppose, his pre-evolutionary Tandy 1000 impulses.