The Luck of the Fryrish
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| Futurama episode | |
| "The Luck of the Fryrish" | |
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| Episode no. | 36 |
| Prod. code | 3ACV04 |
| Airdate | March 11, 2001 |
| Where |  United States |
| Writer(s) | Ron Weiner |
| Director | Chris Loudon |
| Opening subtitle | Broadcast Simultaneously One Year In The Future |
| Opening cartoon | Unknown |
| Guest star(s) | None |
| Season 3 January 2001 – December 2002 |
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| List of all Futurama episodes... | |
"The Luck of the Fryrish" is the 4th episode in season 3 of Futurama. It originally aired in North America on March 11, 2001. Along with "Jurassic Bark" and "Time Keeps on Slippin'", it is considered one of the most emotional episodes of the series.
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[edit] Plot
The episode opens in the mid-1970s, where a young Yancy Fry is jealous of his newborn brother Philip, and copies him in almost anything he can. Meanwhile, back in the year 3000, Fry is getting fed up with his bad luck. In a flashback, a 1980s Fry discovers a seven-leaf clover, which grants him extraordinary luck and allows him to beat his brother in any contest. Fry sets off, with Leela and Bender, to find his clover in the ruins of Old New York.
Fry and company make their way to Fry’s old house, which is still standing. Back in the 1980s, a teenage Fry hides the seven-leaf clover inside his Ronco record vault. After opening the vault, Fry discovers that the clover is missing, and concludes that Yancy must have stolen it. While walking back to the surface access ladder, they happen across a statue that appears to be of Yancy, with the seven-leaf clover in his lapel. Even more disturbing to Fry is the inscription: “Philip J. Fry—First person on Mars”, indicating that Yancy not only stole Fry’s dream, but also his name.
Professor Farnsworth pulls up a biographical movie about “Philip J. Fry,” where the crew learns that after “Yancy” took the clover, he went on to be a millionaire rock star astronaut, and is now buried in Orbiting Meadows National Cemetery with the seven-leaf clover. A furious Fry sets off to rob his brother’s grave and recover the clover. The story jumps back to the early 21st century, where an adult Yancy is rummaging through his missing brother’s music to find something to play at his wedding. Yancy discovers the seven-leaf clover, and takes it.
Fry, Leela and Bender reach the grave site, and start digging. But Fry knocks loose some ivy that is covering part of the inscription, and begins to read while Bender and Leela continue digging. The story jumps back to Yancy, who is discussing naming his newborn son with his wife. Yancy gives his son the seven-leaf clover, and names him Philip J. Fry after his brother. The inscription on the tomb reveals the same (“Here Lies Philip J. Fry, Named for his uncle, To carry on his spirit”), and Fry returns the clover to his nephew’s grave.
[edit] Characters
Characters making their first appearance in this episode:
[edit] Awards
- Ron Weiner won an Annie Award (Animation Award) for Best Writing In a Prime-Time Animated Show.
[edit] Cultural references
- The title of this episode is a riff on the novel/film The Luck of the Irish.
- The song playing in the end credits is “Don’t You (Forget About Me)” by Simple Minds, which is also the theme song of the 1985 film The Breakfast Club. Also one of the kids in this film was named Bender. Additionally, the film soundtrack itself is featured in the episode, as the clover is hidden in the sleeve of this particular record inside the vault.
- The manhole cover has The PJs Thurgood carved into it. The writers of Futurama are fans of the show and felt they should feature it. As a way of paying them back, The PJs featured Fry as a missing person on a milk carton. The same manhole is seen in I Second That Emotion.
- The quantum finish at the race track is a reference to the observer effect and perhaps the Heisenberg uncertainty principle.
- When Fry, Leela, and Bender are in Old New York, Fry screams in the streets, "Howard Stern is overrated!" Billy West (who voices Fry and other characters) appeared on "The Howard Stern Show" in the early 1990s.
- A horse appears at the race track covered with company advertisements, a reference to NASCAR.
- Fry’s childhood friend “Noticeably F.A.T.” is a reference to the rapper The Notorious B.I.G..
- In the graveyard Fry, Leela and Bender pass the “grave of The Unknown Comic,” a reference to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and the Unknown Comic himself. They also pass a grave for Shaq’s Leg.
- Yancy breaks into Fry’s record vault using Doh-Doh, a reference to Play-Doh, and possibly Homer Simpson's catchphrase "D'oh!". (Yancy used it as if it was Plastic explosive)
- When Bender is shaking the vault, you can see what looks like a Bart Simpson head on the shelf. Matt Groening, creator of Futurama, was also the creator of The Simpsons.
- When Fry is putting the clover on his shoe, the KangaROOS shoes logo can be seen on his shoes. KangaROOS were athletic shoes with small storage pockets on the sides, which were popular during the mid-1980s.
- During the short documentary of Fry's nephew, one of the clips that features him belonging to a rock band parodies the style and cliche of a typical rockumentary.
- Before they begin digging up Yancy's grave, Fry says, "It's clovering time." This is a refernce to The Fantastic Four character The Thing's catchphrase, "It's clobbering time!"
- At the moment of Fry's birth, his mother is listening to a New York Mets baseball game, in which Jerry Grote strikes out, and then Ed Kranepool leans into a pitch and is hit by the pitch, winning the game in the ninth inning. Grote and Kranepool were both Mets players from 1966 to 1976.
- Fry's mother mentions that, on the day Fry disappeared, Wisconsin won the Rose Bowl football game 17-9. This was the score by which Wisconsin beat Stanford on January 1, 2000.
- At the cemetery, Bender is seen stealing actor John Laroquette's spine from his grave, and later declares that he's "one skull short of a Mousketeer reunion".
[edit] Trivia
- This episode reveals that Fry was named after the Phillips head screwdrivers.
- Bender reveals his full name is Bender Bending Rodríguez in this episode.
- According to executive producer David X. Cohen, the storyboards for this particular episode were colored differently to represent the scenes which were based in the 31st century and the 20th Century.
- A person who looks to be Fry's girlfriend from 1999, Michelle, can be seen waving behind him at the race track when he stands up holding his last dollar.
[edit] External links
| Preceded by: " A Tale of Two Santas " |
Futurama episodes | Followed by: " The Birdbot of Ice-Catraz " |
