Futurama: 10 Worst Episodes

9. Jurassic Bark

The Episode: When Fry takes Bender to a museum exhibit, he is shocked to find a fossilised dog on display, which he recognises as his pet from the 20th century, Seymour. Fry manages to rescue the fossil from the museum and sets about resurrecting his dead pet. Bender, meanwhile, becomes increasingly jealous of the attention that Fry is giving to his dead dog.

Why It Sucks: Despite receiving an Emmy nomination, this episode proved to be deeply divisive among fans. The main point of contention is the closing scene, in which Seymour spends 12 years waiting for Fry's return before finally dying, alone and unloved. On the one hand, there were those who saw the scene as a powerful commentary on the loyalty of man's best friend. However, more cynical viewers saw the same scene as a cruel manipulation of the audience's emotions. Either way, the massive downer ending cancelled out the episode's more humorous moments, and left most fans disturbed rather than entertained.

Other issues with Jurassic Bark included the sheer number of elements that felt like they'd been lifted from earlier episodes; by the Fourth Season episodes revisiting the day that Fry was frozen had become needlessly repetitive; Bender and Fry falling out as a central plot point had also been done to death at this stage. Not to mention that ending an episode with a sad musical montage is nearly as old as TV itself.