The Cyber House Rules

"The Cyber House Rules" is the ninth episode in season three of Futurama. It originally aired April 1, 2001. The title comes from the John Irving novel The Cider House Rules.

Plot

Leela is invited to a reunion at her old orphanarium. She initially dreads seeing the people who made fun of her eye as a kid, but she decides rubbing her success in their faces would be very satisfying. Leela attempts to wave her impressive lifestyle in the other orphans' faces, but they quickly resume making fun of her eye. But Adlai Atkins (voiced by guest star Tom Kenny), the only other success story from the orphanarium, shoos them away. Adlai, now a phaser eye surgeon, offers to rework Leela's face to make her look normal, and she jumps at the chance, in spite of Fry's objections. Meanwhile, Bender adopts twelve orphans for the $100-a-week-per-child government stipend.

The operation is a success, and Leela adapts to her new, normal-looking life. Adlai asks the two-eyed Leela out, which causes Fry to exhibit signs of jealousy. In short order, Adlai tells Leela that he is ready to settle down and have kids. A receptive Leela suggests that they should adopt, and Adlai agrees. They go to Bender, who is finding that government stipends are not a good get-rich-quick scheme (as it costs him more to look after the children every week than the $1200 the government pays every week and the stipend was merely to help raise the children) and is now selling the twelve children. Leela wants to adopt Sally, (voiced by guest star Nicole St. John), a girl with an ear on her forehead. Adlai objects, and then suggests that the child have an operation to remove the ear and make her "acceptable". Leela, horribly offended, finally realizes that she was better off abnormal and physically threatens Adlai into removing her prosthetic eye.

Bender, having been arrested by child services for "child cruelty, child endangerment, depriving children of food, selling children as food and misrepresenting the weight of livestock", returns the orphans to the orphanarium (which is subsequently named after him, though later episodes do not reflect this).

Broadcast and reception

In its initial airing, the episode received a Nielsen rating of 3.9/7, placing it 79th among primetime shows for the week of March 26 - April 1, 2001.^[1]

Cultural references

• The bandages wrapped fully around Leela's head, and the gradual removal of them as seen through her perspective is a reference to The Twilight Zone episode "The Eye of the Beholder".
• The title of the episode comes from the John Irving novel The Cider House Rules.
• Bender also quotes from Irving's novel when he says to the children: "Goodnight, you princes of Maine, you kings of New New England."

References

External links

Wikiquote has quotations related to: The Cyber House Rules

• The Cyber House Rules at The Infosphere.