Jurassic Bark
Encyclopedia
"Jurassic Bark" is the seventh episode of season four
of the television series Futurama
, airing November 17, 2002. It was nominated for an Emmy Award
, but lost to The Simpsons
episode "Three Gays of the Condo
".
takes Bender to a museum exhibit, he is shocked to find a fossilized dog on display, which he recognizes as his pet from the 20th century, Seymour. For three days he protests in front of the museum by dancing to "The Hustle
" by Van McCoy
, demanding they give him Seymour's body, which proves successful. Professor Hubert J. Farnsworth
then examines Seymour's body, and concludes that, due to his unusually rapid fossilization, a DNA sample can be made to produce a clone, and it would even be possible to recreate Seymour's personality and memory.
Fry begins to prepare for the dog and Bender becomes jealous, especially when Fry refers to Seymour as "my best friend". Just when the professor is ready to clone Seymour, Bender arrives. Angry that Fry will not spend time with him, he grabs the fossil and throws it in a pit of lava, believing that destroying it will restore his friendship with Fry.
Fry is furious at Bender and extremely upset at having lost Seymour. Bender realizes how Fry could love an inferior creature and apologizes for what he did. The professor explains that the fossil may not have instantly melted, as it was made of dolomite
. With this in mind, Bender, claiming to be partly made from dolomite, dives into the lava and recovers the fossil.
The professor begins the cloning
process and his computer informs him that Seymour died at the age of 15, meaning he lived for twelve years after Fry was frozen. Fry has a change of heart, and aborts the cloning process, believing that Seymour must have moved on with his life, found a new owner, and forgotten about him, saying "I had Seymour until he was three. That's when I knew him, and that's when I loved him. I'll never forget him. But he forgot me a long time ago." A flashback
then shows that in the years that passed after Fry left, Seymour had faithfully obeyed Fry's last command, which was to wait in front of Panucci's Pizza until he returned. Seymour stays there as the years pass and he, the pizzeria, and Mr. Panucci begin to show their age. In the final shot, Seymour lies down and closes his eyes.
Gayane ballet suite, famously used in the sequence introducing the Discovery spacecraft in 2001: A Space Odyssey
, but was replaced with the song "I Will Wait For You
" from The Umbrellas of Cherbourg as sung by Connie Francis
, which writer Eric Kaplan's grandparents sang and played on the piano while he was a child. The song "Everybody's Talking" by Harry Nilsson
also featured in this episode.
According to the DVD commentary, the original idea for the episode was to have Fry's mother fossilized instead of Seymour, but this idea was scrapped after it was thought to be too upsetting to the audience.
for Outstanding Animated Program (For Programming Less than One Hour) but lost to The Simpsons
episode "Three Gays of the Condo
".
In 2006, IGN
ranked this episode #8 in their list of the top 25 Futurama episodes, with critic Dan Iverson remarking that the climax was "one of the saddest endings to a television program that I have ever seen".
states in the commentary for "The Why of Fry
" that these shots were included in order to foreshadow the events of that episode.
Seymour's fate is further elaborated in the DVD movie Bender's Big Score
. After Fry was frozen, a temporal double of Fry had returned to the past and resumed his old lifestyle living above Panucci's. It is revealed that Seymour's rapid standing fossilization — unexplained in the episode itself — is a result of an explosion overcoming him; Bender, who was sent back in time to kill Fry, blew up the apartment of Fry's temporal double above Panucci's Pizza. It took Bender 12 years to track down Fry, putting the explosion of Panucci's Pizza 12 years after Fry got frozen and correlating with Seymour's age when he died as revealed in "Jurassic Bark".
This episode is briefly referenced in the season six episode of Futurama "A Clockwork Origin
". At an archaeological dig, Hermes finds a fossilized dachshund
and mutters "Uh oh, It's another one of Fry's dogs". Fry stands up in a nearby pit and asks him if he found anything. Hermes hides the dog, responds with a nervous "Uhh... no" and quickly disposes of it.
Futurama (season 4)
Futurama fourth season began airing in 2002 and concluded after 18 episodes on August 10, 2003. The entire season is included within the Volume Four DVD box set, which was released on August 24, 2004.- Episodes :...
of the television series Futurama
Futurama
Futurama is an American animated science fiction sitcom created by Matt Groening and developed by Groening and David X. Cohen for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series follows the adventures of a late 20th-century New York City pizza delivery boy, Philip J...
, airing November 17, 2002. It was nominated for an Emmy Award
Emmy Award
An Emmy Award, often referred to simply as the Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards .A majority of Emmys are presented in various...
, but lost to The Simpsons
The Simpsons
The Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle epitomized by its family of the same name, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie...
episode "Three Gays of the Condo
Three Gays of the Condo
"Three Gays of the Condo" is the seventeenth episode in the fourteenth season of The Simpsons and aired April 13, 2003.-Plot:Marge brings an "Oprah's Puzzle Club" jigsaw puzzle to the Simpson Family Wednesdays, for everyone to work on except for Grampa and Maggie, as the box clearly reads for ages...
".
Plot
When FryPhilip J. Fry
Philip J. Fry, known simply as Fry, is a fictional character, the main protagonist of the animated science fiction sitcom Futurama. He is voiced by Billy West using a version of his own voice as he sounded when he was 25.-Character overview:...
takes Bender to a museum exhibit, he is shocked to find a fossilized dog on display, which he recognizes as his pet from the 20th century, Seymour. For three days he protests in front of the museum by dancing to "The Hustle
The Hustle (song)
"The Hustle" is a famous disco song by songwriter/arranger Van McCoy and the Soul City Symphony. It scored #1 on the "Billboard Hot 100" and the "Hot Soul Singles" charts during the summer of 1975. It also peaked at #9 on the Australian Singles Chart and #3 in the UK...
" by Van McCoy
Van McCoy
Van Allen Clinton McCoy was an accomplished musician, music producer, arranger, songwriter, and orchestra conductor. He is known best for his 1975 internationally successful song "The Hustle", which is still played in dance halls and on radio to this day more than thirty years since his death...
, demanding they give him Seymour's body, which proves successful. Professor Hubert J. Farnsworth
Hubert J. Farnsworth
Professor Hubert J. Farnsworth, or simply The Professor, is a fictional character in the American animated television series Futurama. He is voiced by Billy West using a combination of impressions of Burgess Meredith and Frank Morgan. Farnsworth is the proprietor of the Planet Express delivery...
then examines Seymour's body, and concludes that, due to his unusually rapid fossilization, a DNA sample can be made to produce a clone, and it would even be possible to recreate Seymour's personality and memory.
Fry begins to prepare for the dog and Bender becomes jealous, especially when Fry refers to Seymour as "my best friend". Just when the professor is ready to clone Seymour, Bender arrives. Angry that Fry will not spend time with him, he grabs the fossil and throws it in a pit of lava, believing that destroying it will restore his friendship with Fry.
Fry is furious at Bender and extremely upset at having lost Seymour. Bender realizes how Fry could love an inferior creature and apologizes for what he did. The professor explains that the fossil may not have instantly melted, as it was made of dolomite
Dolomite
Dolomite is a carbonate mineral composed of calcium magnesium carbonate CaMg2. The term is also used to describe the sedimentary carbonate rock dolostone....
. With this in mind, Bender, claiming to be partly made from dolomite, dives into the lava and recovers the fossil.
The professor begins the cloning
Cloning
Cloning in biology is the process of producing similar populations of genetically identical individuals that occurs in nature when organisms such as bacteria, insects or plants reproduce asexually. Cloning in biotechnology refers to processes used to create copies of DNA fragments , cells , or...
process and his computer informs him that Seymour died at the age of 15, meaning he lived for twelve years after Fry was frozen. Fry has a change of heart, and aborts the cloning process, believing that Seymour must have moved on with his life, found a new owner, and forgotten about him, saying "I had Seymour until he was three. That's when I knew him, and that's when I loved him. I'll never forget him. But he forgot me a long time ago." A flashback
Flashback (narrative)
Flashback is an interjected scene that takes the narrative back in time from the current point the story has reached. Flashbacks are often used to recount events that happened before the story’s primary sequence of events or to fill in crucial backstory...
then shows that in the years that passed after Fry left, Seymour had faithfully obeyed Fry's last command, which was to wait in front of Panucci's Pizza until he returned. Seymour stays there as the years pass and he, the pizzeria, and Mr. Panucci begin to show their age. In the final shot, Seymour lies down and closes his eyes.
Production
According to the DVD commentary, the last part of the episode where Seymour is waiting outside on the sidewalk was originally set to "Gayane's Adagio" from Aram Khachaturian'sAram Khachaturian
Aram Ilyich Khachaturian was a prominent Soviet composer. Khachaturian's works were often influenced by classical Russian music and Armenian folk music...
Gayane ballet suite, famously used in the sequence introducing the Discovery spacecraft in 2001: A Space Odyssey
2001: A Space Odyssey (film)
2001: A Space Odyssey is a 1968 epic science fiction film produced and directed by Stanley Kubrick, and co-written by Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke, partially inspired by Clarke's short story The Sentinel...
, but was replaced with the song "I Will Wait For You
I Will Wait for You
"I Will Wait For You" is a song from the French musical The Umbrellas of Cherbourg . Its music was composed by Michel Legrand and its lyrics written by Jacques Demy. It was performed in the film by Catherine Deneuve, whose voice was dubbed by Danielle Licari. The English lyrics of the song were...
" from The Umbrellas of Cherbourg as sung by Connie Francis
Connie Francis
Connie Francis is an American pop singer of Italian heritage and the top-charting female vocalist of the 1950s and 1960s. Although her chart success waned in the second half of the 1960s, Francis remained a top concert draw...
, which writer Eric Kaplan's grandparents sang and played on the piano while he was a child. The song "Everybody's Talking" by Harry Nilsson
Harry Nilsson
Harry Edward Nilsson III was an American singer-songwriter who achieved the peak of his commercial success in the early 1970s. On all but his earliest recordings he is credited as Nilsson...
also featured in this episode.
According to the DVD commentary, the original idea for the episode was to have Fry's mother fossilized instead of Seymour, but this idea was scrapped after it was thought to be too upsetting to the audience.
Broadcast and reception
In its initial airing, the episode received a Nielsen rating of 4.2/5, placing it 93rd among primetime shows for the week of November 11–17, 2002. The episode was nominated for the 2004 Emmy AwardEmmy Award
An Emmy Award, often referred to simply as the Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards .A majority of Emmys are presented in various...
for Outstanding Animated Program (For Programming Less than One Hour) but lost to The Simpsons
The Simpsons
The Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle epitomized by its family of the same name, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie...
episode "Three Gays of the Condo
Three Gays of the Condo
"Three Gays of the Condo" is the seventeenth episode in the fourteenth season of The Simpsons and aired April 13, 2003.-Plot:Marge brings an "Oprah's Puzzle Club" jigsaw puzzle to the Simpson Family Wednesdays, for everyone to work on except for Grampa and Maggie, as the box clearly reads for ages...
".
In 2006, IGN
IGN
IGN is an entertainment website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites or "channels", each occupying a subdomain and covering a specific area of entertainment...
ranked this episode #8 in their list of the top 25 Futurama episodes, with critic Dan Iverson remarking that the climax was "one of the saddest endings to a television program that I have ever seen".
Continuity
When Fry delivers the pizza to the cryogenic lab, as he puts the pizza on the desk, Nibbler's third eye and shadow are visible when the floor is shown along with Fry's shadow next to him. Executive producer David X. CohenDavid X. Cohen
David Samuel Cohen , primarily known as David X. Cohen, is an American television writer. He has written for The Simpsons and he is the head writer and executive producer of Futurama.-Early life:...
states in the commentary for "The Why of Fry
The Why of Fry
"The Why of Fry" is the tenth episode in the fourth season of the animated television series Futurama. It originally aired in North America on April 6, 2003. The episode was written by David X. Cohen and directed by Wes Archer...
" that these shots were included in order to foreshadow the events of that episode.
Seymour's fate is further elaborated in the DVD movie Bender's Big Score
Futurama: Bender's Big Score
Futurama: Bender's Big Score is an Annie Award-winning direct-to-video film based on the animated series Futurama. It was released in the United States on November 27, 2007. Bender's Big Score, along with the three follow-up films, comprise season five of Futurama, with each film being separated...
. After Fry was frozen, a temporal double of Fry had returned to the past and resumed his old lifestyle living above Panucci's. It is revealed that Seymour's rapid standing fossilization — unexplained in the episode itself — is a result of an explosion overcoming him; Bender, who was sent back in time to kill Fry, blew up the apartment of Fry's temporal double above Panucci's Pizza. It took Bender 12 years to track down Fry, putting the explosion of Panucci's Pizza 12 years after Fry got frozen and correlating with Seymour's age when he died as revealed in "Jurassic Bark".
This episode is briefly referenced in the season six episode of Futurama "A Clockwork Origin
A Clockwork Origin
"A Clockwork Origin" is the ninth episode of the sixth season of the animated sitcom, Futurama. It aired on Comedy Central on August 12, 2010. In the episode, Professor Farnsworth leaves Earth after being frustrated by anti-evolutionists' belief in "Creaturism", a form of Creationism...
". At an archaeological dig, Hermes finds a fossilized dachshund
Dachshund
The dachshund is a short-legged, long-bodied dog breed belonging to the hound family. The standard size dachshund was bred to scent, chase, and flush out badgers and other burrow-dwelling animals, while the miniature dachshund was developed to hunt smaller prey such as rabbits...
and mutters "Uh oh, It's another one of Fry's dogs". Fry stands up in a nearby pit and asks him if he found anything. Hermes hides the dog, responds with a nervous "Uhh... no" and quickly disposes of it.
See also
- Argos (dog)Argos (dog)In Homer's the Odyssey, Argos is Odysseus' faithful dog. After twenty years struggling to get home to Ithaca, Odysseus finally arrives at his homeland. In his absence, reckless suitors have taken over his house in hopes of marrying his wife Penelope...
- Odysseus' faithful dog in The Odyssey who waited over twenty years to see his master again - HachikōHachiko, known in Japanese as chūken Hachikō , was an Akita dog born on a farm near the city of Ōdate, Akita Prefecture, remembered for his remarkable loyalty to his owner, even many years after his owner's death.-Life:In 1924, Hidesaburō Ueno,...
- a real life dog who waited at a train station for his dead master for ten years - Greyfriars BobbyGreyfriars BobbyGreyfriars Bobby was a Skye Terrier who became known in 19th-century Edinburgh for spending 14 years guarding the grave of his owner, John Gray , until he died himself on 14 January 1872...
- another real life dog who stayed by his master's grave for fourteen years - Shep (American dog)Shep (American dog)Shep was the name given to a herding dog that appeared at the Great Northern Railway station one day in 1936 in Fort Benton, Montana. The dog first appeared at the station when a casket was being loaded on a train heading to the eastern USA...
- a real life dog whose master's casket was taken away by train; Shep met every train for six years until his death - The Luck of the FryrishThe Luck of the Fryrish"The Luck of the Fryrish" is the fourth episode in season three of Futurama. It originally aired in North America on March 11, 2001.-Plot:...
- an episode with similar themes
External links
- 55th Emmy Awards at emmys.com
- Yahoo.tv
- Jurassic Bark at The Infosphere.