Movies - TV
Futurama Hid Clues In Its First Episode As A Challenge To Hardcore Fans
By DEVIN MEENAN
The creators of "Futurama" admit they've relied on fans to preserve the series' continuity, checking the show's wiki rather than rewatching episodes themselves.
In an audio commentary track for the series premiere, co-creator Matt Groening said they "tried to lay in a lot of little secrets in this episode that we would pay off later."
In the premiere's opening sequence, Fry falls into the cryogenic tube with a one-second shot of an alien shadow. This doesn't pay off for another 64 episodes in "The Why of Fry."
Slurm is a soft drink in the world of "Futurama." In the 13th episode, a poster is written in a fictional alien language promoting characters to "Drink Slurm."
Another all-English "Drink Slurm" poster was shown earlier in the episode, allowing viewers to identify five letters in the alien alphabet by comparing the two.
"Based on that, they translated all of the alien language within a couple hours of ['Space Pilot 3000'] being on the air," a bemused co-creator David X.Cohen recounted.