The Simpsons Meet Futurama

Are you old enough to remember watching either The Jetsons or The Flinstones, or both? I know I am. Even if the episodes I have seen were re-runs, I still remember enjoying those shows when I was younger. In fact, I enjoyed them enough that I can remember getting excited when it was announced that there would be a made-for-TV movie that featured the Jetson family meeting and interacting with the Flinstone family. By the time this colliding of worlds occurred, it was something that even adults could get excited about because these were shows that they remembered watching when they were younger as well. What made such a union even possible was largely thanks to the fact that both of those shows were a product of Hanna-Barbera productions, which is why I am now officially lobbying for a new combination of separate cartoon worlds; The Simpsons cast meets the cast of Futurama.

It's not that far-fetched to think that this could eventually happen, seeing as how not only are they both created by Matt Groening, but they have already flirted with the mixture of these two casts in a couple of brief cameo appearances on both shows. Context aside, there was an episode of The Simpsons where Bender, the robot with an attitude from Futurama, randomly appeared in Homer's car after he and Bart drive under a strange bridge during a 'flash forward' to the future. Homer quickly told Bender to 'get lost' and literally kicked him out of the car.

Bender also appeared in Bart's classroom in what I believe was a 'Treehouse of Horror' episode in which Bart obtains a mysterious remote control with extraordinary powers that ultimately led to Bender's appearance, even though it was a very brief non-speaking role.

And who could forget about the time that Bender appeared as a telephone operator in the background of that episode of The Simpsons where Betty White was hocking PBS promotional umbrellas and PBS customized tote bags to encourage viewers to donate to the public television network.

Then there was the appearance of Philip J. Fry, the simple minded American male whom was in his mid 20's in the year 2000 and was accidentally cryogenically frozen until the year 3000. He appeared for only seconds in an episode of The Simpsons when he was dropped from a futuristic travel tube on to the Simpsons' couch in one of their famous opening title sequences.

Other than the big shout out to The Simpsons in Futurama's pilot episode when Bender literally ate Bart's shorts off of a talking doll that prompted him to do so, a new episode recently aired in which some of the main characters came down with progressive futuristic illnesses. One of the stages of Fry's ailment had his skin tone looking much yellower than his usual Caucasian complexion, which was diagnosed as 'Simpsons syndrome'.

Aside from the groundwork for a crossover having already being somewhat laid, the premise of Futurama, which is our world one thousand years in the future, can easily incorporate the fictional environment that is Springfield, Anywhere, USA from The Simpsons. That world has forever concealed its actual location as far as what we as the audience assume to be 'somewhere' in the United States, and coupled with the fact that the population has an inhuman yellow skin tone would make it so easy to explain the location of this community of characters as a random planet that was only able to be discovered with the space travel capabilities and technology that exist in the next millennium.

With that basis, I'll leave the plot up to the writers that have succeeded in creating two of my favorite animated shows. I just know that I can say with certainty, that it would be a great event for anyone that is a fan of either show and especially both.