Futurama frequently takes the audience on trips through the stars, but the newest episode of the show’s Hulu revival focuses on that most Earthbound of natural phenomena — the ocean. Season 14 Episode 8, “Ocean’s Three,” features the Planet Express crew sailing the high seas and, naturally, encountering trouble along the way. The episode incorporates parodies of three infamous water-logged pop culture properties: The 1970s-1980s cruising dramedy The Love Boat, iconic 1960s disaster sitcom Gilligan’s Island, and the 1995 dystopian epic Waterworld.
According to showrunner/head writer David X. Cohen via email, the show “seized the opportunity to pay homage to some of the all-time great sea adventures of TV and film, both comedies and dramas… although we smashed them together Futurama-style, so our crew’s lighthearted, laugh track-enhanced three-hour tour ends up as a hellish, life-and-death Waterworld-style adventure. Rest assured, it all makes 93% perfect sense when you see it. It was a fun one to write, with complex, beautifully executed visuals by director Crystal Chesney-Thompson and our animators at Rough Draft Studios.”
Because both The Love Boat and Gilligan’s Island are famous for their classic theme songs, the show has remixed them in its own inimitable style, which you can watch below courtesy of Hulu. “The Laff Boat” largely skewers 20th century television’s love of the laugh track, while “Phil Again’s Island” uses the medium of song to help explain the plot to the viewers. (As Cohen says above, it does make “93% perfect sense” in context).
New episodes of Futurama Season 14 premiere Mondays on Hulu, and the show’s original run is also available on Amazon.