TV Review: FUTURAMA – Season 6B – “Fry Am the Egg Man”

By BILL McBRIDE / Contributing Writer

Posted: August 15th, 2011 / 07:22 AM

Stars (voices): Billy West, Katey Sagal, John Di Maggio, Tress MacNeille, Maurice LaMarche
Network: Comedy Central, airs Thursdays @ 10 PM
Original Telecast: August 11, 2011

This was inevitable – Fry and the gang finally take a page from the script of the great, Scooby-Doo. In “Fry Am the Egg Man,” the FUTURAMA crew make a mildly funny attempt at pulling on our pet heartstrings in homage to the Great Dane with a hint of Old Yeller in there.

We start off with Leela (voiced by Katey Sagal), Fry (voiced by Billy West) and Bender (voiced by John DiMaggio) taking the Planet Express out for some fast food. Afterward, Leela decides to get healthy and the gang goes to the inter-galactic farmer’s market. There is a quick reference to a previous episode with the Amazon women. In conversation with one of them, Fry blurts out one of the funniest made-up adjectives ever when he tells the Amazon that he is “scare-oused.”

After bringing back some eggs from the market, Fry decides that he is not going to eat one of them and he self-incubates and hatches a small, blue space creature he calls “Mr. Peppy.” Of course, Mr. Peppy is a menacing little thing that spits corrosive bile and, as Professor Farnsworth finds out, is the last of a species of Bonus Vampirus, or, “as you non-Catholics call it,” Bone Vampires (you have to love a little Latin humor).

With Mr. Peppy growing to monster proportions and biting off Bender’s arm, it is decided they will let him loose on his home planet. As an asexual creature, he will be free to repopulate his extinct species and well … live happily ever after. Bender of course finds the local pub (“The Drunken Sniper”) after freeing the creature. It is a great segue into the Scooby-Doo story that unfolds.

The main character at the pub is Major Angus, who has the hots for Leela. Fry of course still does as well. But Major Angus and the townspeople, who are all named Angus, wearing kilts, and are all sheepherders, want to kill Mr. Peppy to save their livestock. After just one night they find de-boned sheep and the hunt for Mr. Peppy begins. So Fry shoots Mr. Peppy – which turns out to be Major Angus – and the pulling of the headpiece off the monster costume finally happens. Nicely done.

We’ve heard “and I would’ve gotten away with it if it wasn’t for you meddling kids” a hundred times and they didn’t do it. Bravo. The Scottish accent is funny enough and frankly you can barely see the homage to Fred and Daphne coming until the end. Mr. Peppy, by the way, lives, as the townsfolk are happy to utilize him as a cost-efficient means for de-boning sheep. So, like last week’s “Mobius Dick,” they put a positive spin on the revamped tale, in this case “Old Yeller.” It’s is always nice when the pet lives on at that farm in Jersey.

It’s not a classic, as the episode is not that great, but they do tackle the Scooby-Doo plot rather nicely and that alone makes the mark. It’s really only the end of the episode, but there are also some funny references at the beginning. Overall, there is some humorous dialogue, though nothing award-worthy. The Drunken Sniper Pub was just beautiful and surely “scare-roused” will be an adjective forever ingrained in the subculture vernacular.

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Click on Link: Exclusive Interview with David X. Cohen on the future of FUTURAMA – Part 2

Click on Link: Exclusive Interview with David X. Cohen on Season 6B of FUTURAMA – Part 1

Click on link: AX’s review of FUTURAMA – Season 6B – “Mobius Dick”

Click on link: AX’s review of FUTURAMA – Season 6B – “All The Presidents’ Heads”

Click on link: AX’s review of FUTURAMA – Season 6B – “Yo Leela Leela”

Click on link: AX’s review of FUTURAMA – Season 6B – “Silence of the Clamps”

Click on link: AX’s review of FUTURAMA – Season 6B – “Law & Oracle”

Click on link: AX’s review of FUTURAMA – Season 6B – “Ghost in the Machines”

Click on link: AX’s review of FUTURAMA – Season 6B premiere – “Benderama”

Click on link: AX’s review of FUTURAMA – Season 6B premiere – “Neutopia”

Click on link: AX’s review of THE FUTURAMA HOLIDAY SPECTACULAR