The Future Is Here With Futurama: The Complete Collection

You can’t stop Matt Groening. Not only is The Simpsons a never-ending series, but now it seems as though Futurama is following in its footsteps. The show, which premiered on Fox in March of 1999, ran for four seasons before being dropped from the lineup in 2003. Comedy Central acquired exclusive cable syndication rights in 2002 and in 2005 committed to airing all 72 episodes after the original contract was set to expire. Most recently, and most significantly, Comedy Central announced they picked up the show for 26 brand-new episodes. Boasting over 1,900 minutes of material, Futurama: The Complete Collection will hold you over until the new episodes begin airing in mid 2010.

The sci-fi sitcom focuses on the adventures of Philip J. Fry (Billy West), a New York City pizza delivery boy who is cryogenically frozen and thawed thousands of years later. In the 31st century, he meets a one-eyed career counselor named Leela (Katey Segal), an alcohol-and-cigar-obsessed robot named Bender, and his future nephew, Professor Farnsworth (also Billy West). The four wind up working together at the Planet Express delivery service, bringing packages all across the universe.

This set is certainly for the die-hard fan. For $199.98, you get all 72 episodes, four feature-length films, and a significant amount of bonus material, including commentary, deleted scenes, and a number of featurettes. If you’re just looking to give the show a test run to decide whether or not to tune in for the new season, I suggest just picking up a single-season DVD. On the other hand, if you’re a long-time fan, this 19-disc set is a must-have. Hopefully you’ll have the cash handy when it’s released on October 13th, because Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment is only producing 25,000 copies. For those of you who have already bought the entire Futurama series on DVD, you can opt to buy just the collectable Bender head The Complete Selection will come in.

If I mentioned every bit of material this set includes, you’d be reading until the year 2999. For a look at all of the DVD specs, check out the list below.

Disc One

• "Space Pilot 3000"
• "The Series Has Landed"
• "I, Roommate"
• "Love's Labours Lost In Space"
• Commentary
• Animatics for "Space Pilot 3000"
• Deleted Scenes
• Script/Storyboard for "Space Pilot 3000"

Disc Two

• "Fear Of A Bot Planet"
• "A Fishful Of Dollars"
• "My Three Suns"
• "A Big Piece of Garbage"
• "Hell Is Other Robots"
• Commentary
• Deleted Scenes

Disc Three

• "A Flight to Remember"
• "Mars University"
• "When Aliens Attack"
• "Fry and the Slurm Factory"
• Commentary
• Featurette
• Deleted Scenes
• Interactive Still Gallery

Disc Four

• "I Second That Emotion"
• "Brannigan, Begin Again"
• "A Head In The Polls"
• "Xmas Story"
• "Why Must I Be a Crustacean In Love?"
• Commentary
• Animatics
• Deleted Scenes
• Easter Egg

Disc Five

• "The Lesser of Two Evils"
• "Put Your Head on My Shoulders"
• "Raging Bender"
• "A Bicyclops Built for Two"
• "A Clone of My Own"
• Commentary
• Deleted Scenes
• 2 Easter Eggs

Disc Six

• "How Hermes Requisitioned His Groove Back"
• "The Deep South"
• "Bender Gets Made"
• "Mother's Day"
• "The Problem With Popplers"
• Deleted Scenes
• 2 Easter Eggs
• Futurama Video Game Trailer

Disc Seven

• "Anthology of Interest I"
• "War Is the H-Word"
• "The Honking"
• "The Cryonic Woman"
• Commentary
• Still Gallery/Concept Art
• Alien Alphabet
• Deleted Scenes
• 2 Easter Eggs

Disc Eight

• "Amazon Women in the Mood"
• "Parasites Lost"
• "A Tale of Two Santas"
• "The Luck of the Fryrish"
• "The Birdbot of Ice-Catraz"
• "Bendless Love"
• Commentary
• Gallery of Storyboard Images for "Parasites Lost"
• Deleted Scenes
• 3 Easter Eggs
• David X. Cohen Introduction
• "A Table of Two Santas" Table Read
• Alternate Show Opening Quotes

Disc Nine

• "The Day the Earth Stood Stupid"
• "That's Lobstertainment!"
• "The Cyber House Rules"
• "Where the Buggalo Roam"
• "Insane in the Mainframe"
• "The Route of All Evil"
• Commentary
• Deleted Scenes

Disc 10

• "Bendin' in the Wind"
• "Time Keeps on Slipping"
• "I Dated a Robot"
• "A Leela of Her Own"
• "A Pharaoh to Remember"
• Commentary
• Deleted Scenes

Disc 11

• "Anthology of Interest II"
• "Roswell That Ends Well"
• "Godfellas"
• "Future Stock"
• "The 30% Iron Chef"
• Commentary
• Still Gallery/Character Art
• "How to Draw Characters" Galleries
• 80 Static Images
• "Anthology of Interest, Part II" Animatic
• "Roswell That Ends Well" International Clip With Alternate Animation Commentary
• 9 "3D Models From Rough Draft" Sequences
• Deleted Scenes

Disc 12

• "Kif Gets Knocked Up a Notch"
• "Leela's Homeworld"
• "Love and Rocket"
• "Less Than Hero"
• "A Taste of Freedom"
• Commentary
• Deleted Scenes
• Storyboard Images
• "Love and Rocket" International Video Clip
• "Bender Should Not Be Allowed on TV"
• "Jurassic Bark"
• "Crimes of the Hot"
• "Teenage Mutant Leela's Hurdles"
• "The Why of Fry"
• Commentary
• Deleted Scenes
• "Where No Fan Has Gone Before"
• "The Sting"
• "Bend Her"
• "Obsoletely Fabulous"
• Commentary
• Deleted Scenes
• Animatic With Subtitles
• Easter Egg: Writer Goodman on Guest Voice Actors and Script Changes and Actor DiMaggio on Bender
• "The Farnswoth Parabox"
• "Three Hundred Big Boys"
• "Spanish Fry"
• "The Devil's Hands Are Idle Playthings"
• Commentary
• Deleted Scenes
• Easter Egg: Table Read
• 11 Segments of 3D Models From Rough Drafts With Narration
• 2 "How To Draw Characters" Galleries of Fender and Professor
• Still Gallery and Nine Pencil Test Segments
• Futurama: Bender's Big Score
• Audio Commentary by Matt Groening, David X. Cohen and Cast Members
• All New, Full-Length Episode of "Everybody Loves Hypnotoad," Including TV Commercials of The Future
• Mind-Bending Futurama Math Lecture by Professor Sarah Greenwald
• Promo for "An Inconvenient Truth" Starring Bender and Al Gore, Including Commentary by the Former Vice President
• Futurama: The Beast With a Billion Backs
• Audio Commentary by Matt Groening, David X. Cohen, and Cast Members
• Extra Episode From XBOX Game With Commentary
• Animatic – Feature
• Deleted Scenes/Storyboards
• Blooper Reel/Record Sessions
• 3D Models/3D Turnarounds – With Audio Description
• Celebrity Featurette – David Cross
• Bender Reads the Credits
• Bender Sings His Version of the Futurama Song
• New Character/Design Sketches
• Futurama: Bender's Game
• Audio Commentary by Matt Groening, David X. Cohen, Billy West, John DiMaggio, Tress MacNeille, Michael Rowe, Claudia Katz, and Dwayne Carey-Hill
• Storyboard Animatic: Bender's Game, Part One
• Futurama Genetics Lab – Cross-Breed Your Favorite Characters!
• Dungeons & Dragons & Futurama
• Featurette: Futurama's Band of Warrior-Writers Discuss the Influence of Dungeons & Dragons on Futurama (Everything Else That Matters)
• How to Draw Futurama in 83 Easy Steps
• A Step-By-Step Guide With the Rough Draft Crew
• 3D Models With Animator Discussion
• Deleted Scene
• Blooperama 2: Outtakes From Bender's Game
• Bender's Anti-Piracy Warning
• A Sneak Peak at the Next Futurama Epic – Into the Wild Green Yonder
• Futurama Into the Wild Green Yonder
• Audio Commentary By Matt Groening, David X. Cohen, John DiMaggio, Maurice LaMarche, Patric M. Verrone, Michael Rowe, Lee Supercinski, and Peter Avanzino
• Storyboard Animatic: Into the Wild Green Yonder, Part 1
• Docudramarama: How We Make Futurama So Good
• "Louder, Louder!": The Acting Technique of Penn Jillette
• Golden Stinkers: A Treasury of Deleted Scenes
• Blooperama 3: Electric Blooperoo
• How to Draw Futurama in 10 Very Difficult Steps
• 3D Models With Animator Discussion
• Bender's Movie-Theater Etiquette
• Zapp Brannigan's Guide to Making Love at a Woman
• Easter Egg – Bender Toilet Paper Joke
• Easter Egg – Zero-G, Matt and David in Space
• Easter Egg – Season 5 First Day – Gootage of David X. Cohen, Matt Groening, and Ken Keeler Hard at Work on Futurama