Movies - TV
Futurama Was Forced To Rewrite A Line By A Real-Life Tragedy
By WITNEY SEIBOLD
In the first “Futurama” episode, “Space Pilot 3000,” Fry runs through the streets of New New York and encounters the pneumatic tube system that takes users to various locations.
When it originally aired, one of the pedestrians asked to go to “JFK Jr. Airport,” a joke implying that New York’s current JFK Airport would be replaced by its son.
Unfortunately, John F. Kennedy, Jr. died in a plane crash off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard on July 16, 1999, several months after the episode initially aired.
On the episode’s DVD commentary track, “Futurama” co-creator David X. Cohen noted that the line was changed in future airings to avoid making light of Kennedy’s death.
Cohen and Bender actor John DiMaggio, who also voiced the pedestrian, confirmed the change. The pedestrian now asks to go to “Radio City Mutant Hall” instead.