User Reviews

While the Planet Express crew along with Cubert and Dwight are watching Calculons's melodramatic soap opera 'All My Circuits' one of the actors malfunctions and the channel announces that they are holding auditions for child-robots to replace him... so Bender tries out. Despite being terrible he gets the job and is told that he will be playing a character in an incurable coma. He can't even do this as he gets up and starts drinking, smoking and being generally offensive. Since Calculon never does two takes they broadcast the episode and are shocked to find that the viewers like Benders 'In ya face attitude'. As his popularity rises youngsters including Cubert, Dwight and Tinny Tim start to emulate him. This leads to a protest group led by the Professor and Hermes, 'Fathers Against Rude Television' being formed to get Bender taken off the air. Bender is not impressed until the boys emulate his coolness by stealing his property! Horrified that his property has been stolen he joins the protest and marches on the studio.

I thought the story here was a little bit weak overall even though there were plenty of individual laughs to be had; Dwight smoking his father's 'cigar' was particularly funny as was Conrad's reaction. It probably didn't help that I never found the deliberately exaggerated melodrama of 'All My Circuits' all that funny nor are Cubert and Dwight among my favourite characters... they are okay in small doses but aren't so good when taking a major part. I know that all sounds fairly negative but even a weak episode of Futurama is worth watching.

The Futurama episodes weren't aired in order, and in fact, the show was aired as five seasons when actually just four were made. Considering the episodes in the order they aired, I can't say I'm big on the last four- Bend Her, Obsoletely Fabulous, Bender Should Not Be Allowed on TV, and The Devil's Hands Are Idle Playthings (which really was the last episode, at least until the movies came out). I'd say Futurama had lost its magic, but in fact, considering the episodes in the order they were made, the makers of the show still had some magic- after all, Bender Should Not Be Allowed on TV came before The Sting, Jurassic Bark and The Farnsworth Parabox.

In this episode, a robot child actor on TV malfunctions and Bender inexplicably auditions for the part and gets it. He soon breaks character and plays himself on TV, and becomes a sensation. (In depicting Bender as being popular, the makers of the show are complimenting their own efforts to make Bender cool.) But the Professor and Hermes begin to worry he's become a bad influence to their kids.

Setting aside the issue of whether the plot works- Bender's too old for his part- we can note the basic idea has been done before any way. Fear that television or movies are a bad influence on kids has been covered by other shows. The Simpsons did it with Itchy and Scratchy and Marge (season 2) and South Park did it with South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut. This might not be a problem, except Futurama doesn't really have much new to say on the matter. This episode also brings Hypnotoad back but he's not as funny as he was in the pet show, maybe because now he doesn't seem to work- Fry apparently doesn't like him any more. On the other hand, the cancer joke works because it's insensitive. This isn't a bad episode, but I wouldn't have cared if it were never made.