The Simpsons

Bender making a cameo on the Simpsons

Futurama was created by Matt Groening, and developed jointly with David X. Cohen. Groening had previously created the Simpsons, and Cohen was a writer for the show. Thus, it is only natural that they would include references to the Simpsons occasionally within Futurama (not to mention, owning the copyright means not having to license material).

The Simpsons, too, has referenced Futurama several times.

Following is a complete list of connections between Futurama and the Simpsons.

Voice Actors

Several actors have been on both Futurama and the Simpsons.

• Dan Castellaneta, who plays Homer Simpson (among others) on the Simpsons, played the Robot Devil on Futurama
• Nancy Cartwright was credited for a soundbyte of Bart Simpson's line "Eat my shorts, man!" which was said by a doll on the garbage meteor in A Big Piece of Garbage
• Stephen Hawking has appeared on both shows, playing himself.
• Frank Welker, who plays Nibbler and many other animals on Futurama, has also played many animals on the Simpsons, including Santa's Little Helper.
• Tress MacNeille who voices characters such as Hattie McDoogal and Ndnd also plays Agnes Skinner and Jimbo Jones on the Simpsons.
• Hank Azaria who voices characters such as Chief Wiggum and Moe Szyslak also voiced the character of Harold Zoid.

Characters

Occasionally, a character makes the jump between shows for a brief cameo:

• The Bart Simpson dolls on the garbage meteor on Futurama
• Bart and Homer dolls as prizes near Coney Island College on Futurama
• Pieces of a Bart Simpson balloon used in the construction of a hot-air balloon in the sewer on Futurama
• Bender appeared in the Simpsons episode "Future-Drama"—an obvious reference to the title of Futurama itself
• Blinky the Three-Eyed Fish from the Simpsons appears in Space Pilot 3000
• In the Simpsons episode "Fraudcast News", Squeaky-voiced Teen attempted suicide and while jumping off a cliff screamed "Why did they cancel Futurama?"
• In the Simpsons episode "Bart vs. Lisa vs. the 3rd Grade", Bart starts to hallucinate due to lack of sleep and sees Bender among other tv show characters.
• In the Simpsons episode "Missionary Impossible", Bender is seen working for PBS.
• Probably the biggest connection is the comic series Futurama/Simpsons Infinitely Secret Crossover Crisis I & II wherein characters from either series were pulled into or out of issue 87 of Simpsons Comics. Interestingly, the issue hadn't been written yet and was created based on the events of the crossover (with the Futurama characters removed).
• In the Simpsons episode "HOMR" the couch gag shows the family enter through tubes with Bart replaced by Fry only for Fry to be sucked up and replaced by Bart.
• In The Simpsons Game Zoidberg and Bender are villians towards the end and are created from drawings by Matt Groening. Billy West and John DiMaggio make guest appearances.

Concepts

• The Tube Transport System is something that Matt Groening has envisioned for the future before Futurama: In Treehouse of Horror VII (Simpsons Halloween Episode), Lisa creates a civilization in a small bowl. When the civilization advances beyond our own, a similar tube system is shown throughout the tiny city.