Space Pilot 3000

"Space Pilot 3000" is the pilot episode of the American animated television series Futurama. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on March 28, 1999. The episode focuses on the cryogenic freezing of the series protagonist, Philip J. Fry, and the events when he awakens 1,000 years in the future. Series regulars are introduced and the futuristic setting, inspired by a variety of classic science fiction series from The Jetsons to Star Trek, is revealed. It also sets the stage for many of the events to follow in the series, foreshadowing plot points from the third and fourth seasons. The episode was written by David X. Cohen and Matt Groening, and directed by Rich Moore and Gregg Vanzo. Dick Clark and Leonard Nimoy guest starred as themselves. The episode generally received good reviews with many reviewers noting that while the episode started slow, the series merited further viewing after The Simpsons and followed by Family Guy. Plot On December 31, 1999, pizza delivery man Philip J. Fry delivers a pizza to "Applied Cryogenics" in New York City, only to discover that the order was actually a prank call. Dejected and demoralized, Fry sits in the deserted lab to eat the pizza while the New Year 2000 countdown occurs outside. At midnight, Fry's chair is knocked over, and he falls into an open cryonic tube and is frozen as it immediately activates. He is defrosted on Tuesday, December 31, 2999, in what is now New New York City. He is taken to fate assignment officer Leela, a purple-haired cyclops. To his misfortune, Fry is assigned the computer-determined permanent career of delivery boy, and flees into the city when Leela tries to implant Fry's career chip designating his job. He dodges an attack from Leela, and she falls into the cryonic tube that Fry fell into one thousand years ago. The timer sets itself to one thousand years. Fry escapes from Leela, but reduces the timer to five minutes so that she is not trapped for long. While trying to track down his only living relative, Professor Hubert Farnsworth, Fry befriends Bender, a suicidal robot who has deserted his job of bending girders for use in constructing suicide booths. Together, they evade Leela and hide in the Head Museum, where they encounter the preserved heads of historical figures.