Where the Buggalo Roam
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| Futurama episode | |
| "Where the Buggalo Roam" | |
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| Episode no. | 42 |
| Prod. code | 3ACV10 |
| Airdate | March 3, 2002 |
| Where |  United States |
| Writer(s) | J. Stewart Burns |
| Director | Pat Shinagawa |
| Opening subtitle | Krafted with luv by monsters |
| Opening cartoon | Unknown |
| Guest star(s) | unknown |
| Season 3 January 2001 – December 2002 |
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| List of all Futurama episodes... | |
"Where the Buggalo Roam" is the 10th episode in Season 3 of the animated television series Futurama. It originally aired March 3, 2002. The title is a reference to the folk song "Home on the Range".
Contents |
[edit] Plot
The Planet Express staff head to the Wong Ranch on Mars for a Mars Day barbecue. Amy Wong's parents are happy to see her, but considerably less enthusiastic about her co-workers, especially Dr. Zoidberg, who immediately begins making a nuisance of himself. Kif arrives, and is nervous about meeting his girlfriend Amy's parents for the first time.
The barbecue proceeds, with Amy's parents being thoroughly unimpressed with Kif. Everything is going well until a strange sound begins, and a dust storm rolls in. Everyone takes cover in the Wong's mansion, but the unprotected buggalo outside are rustled during the storm, ruining the Wongs.
Kif sets off with the last remaining buggalo in an effort to draw out the rustlers. Professor Farnsworth sends Fry, Leela, and Bender along with him, and Amy sneaks out to join them. Kif and the crew find the stolen buggalo hidden in the crater of Olympus Mons. They find a way to eject the buggalo from the crater, but when they are about to head back to the ranch, the same strange sound from the barbecue begins, and another sand storm whirls in.
While the crew is trapped in the center of the storm, the rustlers fly in on buggalo. The rustlers are the native Martians, who are angry over their ancestors' sale of Mars for one bead. The martians had planned to ruin the Wongs by stealing the buggalo, but with the opportunity staring them in the face, they kidnap Amy. Kif and the crew return the buggalo to the Wong Ranch, where the Wongs have just received a ransom note.
The Wongs, more unhappy with Kif than ever, call in Zapp Brannigan to resolve the situation. Brannigan, Kif, and the crew set off for the face on Mars, the entrance to the Martian reservation. Brannigan botches the negotiations, and the martians call up another sand storm, which engulfs Amy. Kif jumps on the back of a buggalo, and flies it into the whirlwind, recovering Amy. The martians, impressed by Kif's skill, call off the storm and offer peace.
Unfortunately, when smoking the martian peace pipe, Kif chokes on the smoke, angering the martians. The martians sentence him to be killed, crushed by the bead they traded the planet for. As the bead lowers from the ceiling, the crew discovers that the "bead" is a gigantic diamond. When they inform the Martian chief of the bead's value, the Martians call off the execution, and leave to find a planet they can purchase. Afterwards Amy's parents think Zapp saved Amy, but Amy still loves Kif all the more because of their disapproval.
[edit] Trivia
- Even though Leo and Inez Wong introduced Kif to Amy in "A Flight to Remember", they have no recollection of him in this episode.
- 17.9 billion acres (72,400,000 km²), the size given for the Wongs' ranch, which consists of the entire western hemisphere of Mars, is accurate.
[edit] Cultural references
- The appearance and apparent culture of the Native Martians is similar to that of Native American Indians. They even share a similar history of having their land taken from them by unfair methods, although in the Martians' case it turns out not to have been so bad.
- The theme music heard while showing Zapp and Kif's ship, the Nimbus, is reminiscent of the theme to Star Trek.
- The tornado sucking people and buggalo, as well as the use of the Face on Mars as an alien home is probably a spoof on the 2000 movie Mission to Mars.
- The name of the cigarette-smoking cowboy R.J. is a reference to the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company. He bears a resemblance to the Marlboro Man, a mascot of another tobacco company, Philip Morris Companies.
- The camel-like character Joe is an obvious spoof of the Camel cigarettes mascot Joe Camel, also of R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company.
- The Martians use the same symbol as the alien race possessing Data in Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Masks". It can be seen in the chamber where Kif is going to be killed and in one of the ships leaving Mars.
- When Zapp Brannigan throws the Slurm can to the ground one of the Martian natives cries. This is a reference to the anti-littering television advertisement featuring Iron Eyes Cody, a Native American who cries when a bag of trash is thrown from a moving car. However, in this case the Martian native cries because the Slurm can reminds him of his missing or dead wife or lover.
- A newspaper on Mars is called the Martian Chronicles, as in the Ray Bradbury stories collected under the same name.
- When Zapp Brannigan first appears in the episode he declares, "I am the man with no name." This statement is a nod to Clint Eastwood's character in A Fistfull of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.
[edit] External links
| Preceded by: " The Cyber House Rules " |
Futurama episodes | Followed by: " Insane in the Mainframe " |
