Time Keeps on Slippin'
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| Futurama episode | |
| "Time Keeps on Slippin'" | |
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| Episode no. | 46 |
| Prod. code | 3ACV14 |
| Airdate | May 6, 2001 |
| Writer(s) | Ken Keeler |
| Director | Chris Louden |
| Opening subtitle | FOR PROPER VIEWING, TAKE RED PILL NOW |
| Opening cartoon | Unknown |
| Season 3 January 2001 – December 2002 |
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| List of all Futurama episodes... | |
"Time Keeps on Slippin" is the 14th episode in season 3 of Futurama. It originally aired May 6, 2001. The title is from a lyric in Fly Like an Eagle by the Steve Miller Band.
Contents |
[edit] Plot
Representatives from the Globetrotter homeworld land in Central Park, and challenge Earth's honor on the basketball court. Professor Farnsworth accepts the Globetrotters' challenge, resolving to create a team of mutant atomic supermen to take them on. Unfortunately, when he completes his work, he is left with a team of mutant infants. Needing to accelerate their growth, the Professor sends the crew to gather chronitons over Bender's objection that the particles in question were responsible for the destruction of an entire civilization. All the while, Fry is trying to woo an unreceptive Leela.
The crew returns with the chronitons, and the mutants' growth is successfully accelerated. The game proceeds, with Farnsworth's team of mutants maintaining a massive lead over the Globetrotters. But at the start of the second half, time begins inexplicably jumping forward. One of the atomic supermen, Arachneon, is killed and Fry joins the team in the last minutes. Although the Earth team had a seemingly insurmountable lead the Globetrotters win by unknown means during a time skip. The Professor formulates a theory that the crew's collection of chronitons has destabilized space-time, and will lead to the destruction of the universe.
With the assistance of the Globetrotters' leader, "Bubblegum" Tate, Farnsworth builds a gravity pump. With the pump, they intend to reposition stars around the source of the problem, thus diverting the time skips to the empty side of the universe. Once they finish, Fry begins buttering Leela up again, but just as she's refusing him, time skips yet again—to their wedding. Leela immediately files for divorce, and Fry is left wondering what he did to win her over. Meanwhile, the time skips are only getting worse.
With the assistance of the other Globetrotters, a new plan is devised. The Planet Express crew will use one of Professor Farnsworth's doomsday devices to implode the nebula, creating a black hole which will prevent further release of chronitons. As the crew gets into position, Fry notices a set of stars that spell out a love letter to Leela; apparently he used the gravity pump to create the letter during a time skip, and that apparently was what won Leela's heart. However, these stars are too close to the nebula and are imploded along with it before anyone else can see them. Fry's feelings for Leela remain unresolved, but the time skips have been stopped for good.
[edit] Team members
[edit] Harlem Globetrotters
- Ethan "Bubblegum" Tate
- "Sweet" Clyde Dixon
- "Curly" Joe
- six others
[edit] Earth's team of Atomic Supermen
- Armo (five arms)
- Lazar (laser eyes)
- Thorias (cannon in chest)
- Grotrian (very tall with super-long arms)
- Arachneon (half-spider; accidentally blown apart by Thorias)
- Philip J. Fry (as a substitute two minutes from the end)
[edit] Cultural references
- The title is taken from the song "Fly Like an Eagle" by the Steve Miller Band.
- The Professor throws (or, at least, attempts to throw) a folding chair onto the court. This is a reference to former Indiana basketball coach Bobby Knight who once threw a chair in a fit of rage during a 1985 game against Purdue.
- The statement about a civilization destroyed by chronitons may be a reference to the Star Trek: Voyager two-part episode “Year of Hell”.
- The concept of a peculiar time distortion affecting widely separated regions of space is the main plot of the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode “We’ll Always Have Paris”, wherein it is referred to as the “Manheim Effect”.
- The Globetrotters' saucer looks identical to the one Klaatu lands on Earth in the classic 1950s sci-fi movie The Day the Earth Stood Still.
- The game takes place at Madison Cube Garden, a play on Madison Square Garden.
- Various elements of the story (growth of mutant basketball players, a challenge from outer space) may have been taken from Space Jam, in which Billy West voiced Bugs Bunny, and in which Fly Like an Eagle was featured on the soundtrack.
- "Atomic Supermen" may be a reference to the film Bride of the Monster, in which the mad scientist character speaks of "a race of atomic supermen which will conquer the world".
- In "A Fishful of Dollars", Professor Farnsworth says he was called mad because he "dared to dream of my own race of atomic monsters, atomic supermen with octagonal shaped bodies that suck blood...".
- Professor Farnsworth references the song "Skills To Pay The Bills" off of The Beastie Boys 1999 album The Sounds of Science. When Fry asks if he can show Leela his skills, Farnsworth replies; "Hmm. Will said skills pay the bills?". The Beastie Boys had previously made an appearance in "Hell is Other Robots".
- The teen singer "Wendy" referenced in the newscast bears a resemblance to the cover art from Britney Spears' album ...Baby One More Time.
- The Globetrotter named "'Curly' Joe" is a dual reference to real Harlem Globetrotter Fred "Curly" Neal and to Joe DeRita, who was one of The Three Stooges from the late 1950s into the 1970s, and was called "Curly-Joe" to distinguish him from the original "Curly," Jerome Howard.
- The episode finishes with Fry looking back through the window at the black hole, while Bender whistles Sweet Georgia Brown - the theme song of the Harlem Globetrotters Basketball team.
- The music that plays as the Globetrotters land is very similar to music heard in "A Clockwork Orange"
[edit] Production notes
- Ken Keeler used the story "Strange Romance" from the book Y. Cheung, Business Detective by Harry Stephen Keeler (no relation) as the basis for this episode.
