Tuesday, December 25th, 2007
11:00 Laurel And Hardy
11:30 Futurama
Laurel And Hardy. 1930, Film 1. "Night Owls" is classic Laurel And Hardy and one of my most favourite of their films. It's got a great story, and lots of great set-pieces. We start off in a police station and learn that Officer Kennedy is under severe pressure to catch some burglars who are robbing houses on his beat. Meeting Stan and Ollie in a park that night, he suggests they help him out: rob a house, so he can catch them and look good. What will happen next?, they wonder. Have no fear, he assures them, Kennedy will fix it all. What follows is masterful slapstick of the boys scaling a wall, being confused by open/closed doors/windows and - eventually - getting full run of the house to steal/destroy as much as they can. Hilarious. I love it.
Futurama. Season 2, Episode 4. One of the best-ever Futurama episodes. It's Christmas-time in the year 3000 and Fry is lonely because of all the friends/family he left behind in the year 1999. But, in the middle of wallowing in his own sorrow, he realises that Leela is even sadder since she never had any friends/family at all in her younger days. So Fry (for all his stupidity) sets out to get Leela a present and show her that she's got someone now.
Futurama is my all-time fave animated show because (in common with sit-com greats like Taxi or Cheers) it's got heart and the characters are very real. Despite all the jokes flying around the writers always write the real emotions of the characters. Bender is an amoral lying thief, but he really does like Fry and they really are best friends. Fry is an idiot, but his love for Leela is very real. The writers have fun with everything else, but they (wisely) never make fun of Fry's feelings. This episode is driven by the fact that he wants to do something sweet for his friend. And the fact that this honest effort to cheer her up inadvertantly brings him out of his own funk makes the episode genuinely sweet and heart-warming. What more could you want from a Christmas episode?
Oh yeah, there's also a Killer Santa Robot on the loose....
Futurama, Laurel And Hardy
