Teenage Mutant Leela's Hurdles

Teenage Mutant Leela's Hurdles

Infobox Futurama episode
episode_name = Teenage Mutant Leela's Hurdles
episode_no = 63
prod_code = 4ACV09
airdate = March 30,2003
country = USA
writer = Jeff Westbrook
director = Bret Haaland
opening_subtitle = Now Interactive! Joystick controls Fry's left ear
opening_cartoon = Unknown
guest_star =


caption = The crew reverted back to younger ages.
season = four

"Teenage Mutant Leela's Hurdles" is the ninth episode of the fourth production season of "Futurama". It first aired on March 30, 2003 as the seventh episode of the fifth broadcast season. The episode was directed by Bret Haaland and written by Jeff Westbrook.

Plot

Professor Farnsworth is chasing his escaped gargoyle, Pazuzu. After a short time he forgets the search and goes to Florida to have a discounted dinner. Annoyed with the Professor's crankiness, the Planet Express employees take the 161-year-old to an age-reducing spa, where he is given a massage, then bathed in blistering hot tar. An accident causes the entire crew to fall into the tar pit, reverting them to a younger age (53 years old for Prof. Farnsworth, and roughly 14 for the rest of the crew). Leela decides to live with her parents so that she can have a the normal teenage life which she never had originally. A teenage Fry and Leela begin dating while Amy is the subject of jokes back on Mars due to her childhood obesity. The Professor searches for a way to undo the de-aging effects. It seems that time-altering chronitons have become stuck to their DNA and Bender's "RNA" (the R standing for robo).

Unfortunately his plan backfires, and the crew (except Leela, who wants to remain a teenager and does not participate) begin to grow progressively younger. In order to stop this process, they search out the mythical Fountain of Aging. When the crew get caught in the current, Leela jumps in to save them, which ends her chance at being a teenager again. The Professor remains stuck in the fountain but is saved by his lost gargoyle, Pazuzu. The Professor is delighted to find that he's become even older than he was before while Amy and Leela claim to be a little younger. In gratitude the Professor frees Pazuzu, and the episode ends revealing it has all been a story the gargoyle has been telling his son about how he gained his freedom.

Continuity

* Chronitons were the particles that caused the time skips in "Time Keeps on Slippin'".
* Bender was shown to have been assembled as an adult in a Mexican factory on the episode "Bendless Love" and so should not have any younger forms. The DVD commentary tries to handwave this by implying that Bender had younger forms while going through the assembly machine. However, this may be explained by the fact that robots do have prototype versions, as prototype robots were shown in "Crimes of the Hot".
* Pazuzu speaks French, even though in the episodes "A Clone of My Own" and "The Route of All Evil", French has been declared a dead language. He is a gargoyle, so it could be assumed he speaks it so as to keep his conversations secret.
* When the Professor shows the cafeteria clerk a discount coupon that is good for a lifetime, he is informed that his lifetime, and thus his coupon, is expired. This is due to him having escaped the Near Death Star in "A Clone of My Own," where people are taken when they reach 160, the age that is considered to be when they are too old to live.
* When Amy goes back to her parents' place as a child, her mother complains that now she'll never have any grandchildren. However, in "Kif Gets Knocked Up a Notch", Amy does, in a way, have kids, even though it was actually Leela's genetic material.
* The Eiffel Tower is still floating, as seen in the episode "Space Pilot 3000".
* El Chupanibre is sitting beside the movie theatre in the sewer race scene, without any obstruction. It is said in "I Second That Emotion" that El Chupanibre is a sworn enemy of the mutants. Seeing as time has passed approximately four years by now (confirmed in Bend Her, so it may be less), it is possible that the two have overcome their differences in this time.
* Bender had declared in the episode "Roswell That Ends Well" that seat belts "cost more lives than they save," and ends up flying through the ship window when they crash. This episode reflects that he has in part learned his lesson; while Fry and Leela cover themselves in seat belts when the Professor drives, Bender nails himself to one of the walls for protection, though he doesn't use seatbelts.
* Pazuzu makes a cameo appearance in the Futurama movie where he grants the Professor's wish that he and Wernstrom were free from the Fulcrom County Prism. As he helps them escape, Pazuzu says "You have one wish left, Professor".

Reception

This episode, along with "Where No Fan Has Gone Before" has been called one of the great moments of the fourth season.cite book|title=5000 Episodes and No Commercials: The Ultimate Guide to TV Shows on DVD| author=Hofstede, David| pages=120| publisher= Back Stage Books]

Cultural references

* The title is a reference to "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles".
* Farnsworth's gargoyle, Pazuzu, is the name of a demon in Sumerian mythology. It is also the name of the demon possessing Regan MacNeil in "The Exorcist". Farnsworth's gargoyle also bears a striking resemblance to Mr. Burns, from Groening's other animated sitcom, "The Simpsons".
* Leela exclaims to Professor Farnsworth, "For Heaven's Gate, Professor!". This is a reference to the Heaven's Gate suicide cult that believed they would ride in a space ship hiding behind the Comet Hale-Bopp, or to the 1980 film of the same name.
* The chroniton-eating bacteria are visually similar to Pac-Man.
* The space station the Professor inadvertently destroys is a parody of ""'s namesake station. The producers explained on the DVD commentary this did not mean they disliked "Deep Space Nine"; they thought it was one of the best "Star Trek" series, especially when "Worf got there".
* The essential plot of the main characters growing younger and being saved by the oldest among them is from "The Counter-Clock Incident", the final episode from "".
*The "Fountain of Aging" is a reverse of the real-life fabled mythical "Fountain of Youth".
* The larval stages Zoidberg goes through (from birth) are coral, crinoid, starfish, sea urchin, anglerfish, sea lamprey, clam, trilobite and a cuttlefish.
* The film playing at the underground mutant movie theater is "The Fiddler Way Below the Roof", a parody of "The Fiddler on the Roof".
* In Hermes' childhood form, he has the same high top fade hairstyle as Kid of Kid 'n Play.
* The lizard-like creature on the cover of "A Child's Garden of Space Legends" is a Gorn, from the "" episode "Arena". Also, one of the stories in the book is "Charlotte's Tholian Web", a reference to both "Charlotte's Web" and the "Star Trek" episode "The Tholian Web".
* The brand of tequila Leela's dad drinks is "Sewervo Gold" a parody of Cuervo Gold. He had earlier indicated in "Less Than Hero" that he was a heavy drinker.
* The front end of Moose's airboat is from a second generation Pontiac Trans Am.
* To the left of the underground mutant movie theatre is El Chupanibre, from "I Second That Emotion".
* Moose is a parody of Moose Mason from "Archie Comics", shown in his manner of speech, dress and hairstyle.
* There was a "Futurama Comic", which, when there was a rip in space and time, showed the same child versions of Planet Express, but some younger professors as well.
* The DVD commentary for the episode features voice actor Maurice LaMarche making a reference to "Toben's Spirit Guid"e" whilst reprising his portrayal of Egon Spengler from the animated series "The Real Ghostbusters" for a joke during the closing minutes.
* When Leela was looking through the space fairy tale book, some were mentioned in a space version like Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Charlotte's Web. However the Fountain of Youth is not considered as a fairy tale.
* Professor Farnsworth mentions the tooth fairy in this episode, commenting on how he's the head of the FBI in the 30th century.

References


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