Futurama: Every Planet Express Crew Member Ranked
8. Zapp Brannigan
From his very first appearance in the show’s fourth episode, Love’s Labours Lost In Space, Zapp Brannigan was unchallenged as Futurama’s best supporting character. Though his time with Planet Express was brief, it’s still enough to cement him as easily their best part-timer.
It comes in the same episode as Kif’s solitary appearance on Planet Express’ books, in Brannigan, Begin Again. However, while Kif is relegated to a supporting role (one built around complaining about Zapp to boot), Brannigan is front and centre of the episode.
It does come before all the various hilarious parts of Zapp’s character had been developed, but he’s at his best when he’s either pompous or chasing Leela. Since this episode sees him pompously chasing Leela, it’s a match made in heaven.
There’s definitely better Zapp episodes out there, with him getting a massive amount of screen time in the four films too. Relative to other ‘one and done’ Planet Express workers though, he wipes the floor with LaBarbara, That Guy or Morgan.
It’s tempting to say it’s a pity we didn’t see more of him working with the crew, but he’s probably their best adversary too.