"I, Roommate" | |
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Futurama episode | |
Episode no. | Season 1 Episode 3 |
Directed by | Bret Haaland |
Written by | Eric Horsted |
Production code | 1ACV03 |
Original air date | April 6, 1999 |
Opening caption | "As Seen on TV" |
Opening cartoon | "Baby Bottleneck" (1946) |
"I, Roommate" is the third episode of season one of Futurama. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on April 6, 1999. The episode was written by Eric Horsted and directed by Bret Haaland. The plot focuses on Fry and Bender's search for an apartment after deciding to become roommates and the various difficulties they have in finding a place that is acceptable to both of them.
Fry has been living in the Planet Express offices, making messes, leaving food out (which attracts owls, the vermin of New New York), wasting water, and generally disrupting business. When it is discovered, however, that Fry has eaten the professor's alien mummy (mistaking it for beef jerky), the professor declares that Fry has to go.
Fry then moves in with Bender. Bender lives in a robot apartment, which is little more than a two-cubic meter stall, and it soon becomes clear that Bender's cramped apartment cannot meet Fry's needs.
The two begin a search for a living space that will satisfy them both, only to conclude that none of the properties they viewed is remotely livable. Bender and Fry then overhear that one of Professor Farnsworth's colleagues has died, and Fry and Bender are able to lease his spacious, fully furnished apartment. Bender plans to live in the apartment's tiny closet. To the theme of The Odd Couple, Fry and Bender make themselves at home.
The two hold a housewarming party, and the guests arrive with various gifts, including a miniature fruit salad tree from Leela. When the group attempts to watch All My Circuits on the apartment's gigantic television, they discover that Bender's antenna interferes with the building's satellite reception. The landlady promptly evicts Bender. Fry decides to stay, so Bender returns to his old apartment alone. He then embarks on a self-destructive sobriety binge, eventually cutting off his own antenna in the hope that he can move back in with Fry.