10 Futurama Secrets You Never Knew

2. Where The Celebrity 'Heads In Jars' Came From

Simsons Bart Gets Famous
20th Century

It's easy to think that Futurama's 'heads in jars' motif was developed specifically for the show, or even that it was a generic sci-fi trope before it arrived at the turn of the millennium. However, the actual inspiration behind Futurama's celebrity jar heads came in its sister series, The Simpsons, in two episodes from the show's fifth season.

In both "Rosebud" and "Bart Gets Famous", viewers are treated to two different versions of the future - one dystopian, the other almost Futurama-esque.

At the end of Rosebud, where Mister Burns pursues his pet teddy Bobo until the end of time, the cantankerous old owner of the Springfield Nuclear Plant can be seen operating a robotic body, with his head being kept alive in a liquid-filled jar. Meanwhile, in Bart Gets Famous (the "I didn't do it" episode), we're treated to a nightmare Bart has where he's in the future appearing on a future episode of Match Game, joined by the floating head of one Kitty Carlisle.

It's not full Futurama, but you can see Groening had the aesthetic for the series in mind even in 1994.

Advertisement
In this post: 
Futurama
 
First Posted On: 
Content Producer/Presenter

WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well. In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.