A Real-Life Tragedy Had Futurama Showrunners Rewriting One Specific Line
In the very first "Futurama" episode, "Space Pilot 3000" (which is full of hidden clues), the dim-witted Fry (Billy West) awakens in the year 2999 after being cryogenically frozen for a millennium. Fry immediately encounters a bizarre future world he doesn't understand. He is informed that, in the 30th century, human beings are implanted with career chips that will determine their professional fate for the rest of their lives. Fry is told that he has been selected by the computer to be a delivery boy — the same profession he held back in 1999. Fry, terrified by the prospect, flees into the streets of New New York, the city built on the ruins of Old New York.
Fry is disoriented by what he sees. Aliens and robots stroll the sidewalks, and spacecraft whiz past overhead. He spots a few suicide booths on street corners. Most impressively, he sees a vast, tall network of transparent pneumatic tubes that shunt people across the city. He spies a pedestrian entering one such tube, speaking the name of his intended destination, and quickly being sucked off the ground.
In the original broadcast of "Space Pilot 3000," the pedestrian asked to be taken to "JFK Jr. Airport," a cute joke implying that New York's current JFK Airport would, by 2999, grow up to be replaced by JFK Jr., "its" son.
In March 1999, this wasn't a tasteless joke. On July 16, 1999, however, it would be. On that date, John F. Kennedy, Jr. died in a plane crash off the coast of Martha's Vineyard. He was 38 years old. On the DVD commentary track for "Space Pilot 3000," "Futurama" co-creator David X. Cohen noted that he and the other showrunners had the line changed in subsequent airings to avoid making light of Kennedy's death.
JFK Jr. Airport
Both Cohen and actor John DiMaggio — who plays the drunken robot Bender and multiple other characters — noted that the original line was indeed "JFK Jr. Airport," and Cohen clarified that the episode aired once with the original line. In all subsequent airings, and on the DVD version, the line was changed to "Radio City Mutant Hall." In both instances, the line was performed by DiMaggio — the latter joke being, of course, a reference to Radio City Music Hall.
The details of Kennedy's death were startling in 1999. Piloting a small plane himself, and carrying his wife Carolyn and sister-in-law Lauren Bessette, Kennedy took off at night, but his plane vanished over the ocean. After two days of searching, the Coast Guard declared the search to be a lost cause and that all three passengers were dead. Debris from the plane was found the following day. The bodies were later discovered on the ocean floor.
In 2024, it might not be gross to refer to a futuristic airport as JFK Jr., but in 1999, it was wise to avoid cheapening the real-life death of a celebrity. Cohen was right to alter the line to "Radio City Mutant Hall."
"Futurama" slightly altered other lines throughout its run as well, likely to remain topical, sometimes to tone down a crude joke, and often merely to shorten an episode's runtime for re-broadcast on a different channel. In "The Day the Earth Stood Stupid" (the episode that featured the Hypnotoad), Bender, having been made less intelligent by an itinerant race of disembodied, intelligence-hating brains, yelled, "Hey, let's go join the Reform Party!" In Comedy Central reruns, "Reform Party" was changed to "Tea Party."
This was less about politics or tastefulness, however, as "Futurama" merely needed to cram into a shorter scheduling block.
For more on this beloved animated series, check out our ranking of the 27 best "Futurama" episodes.